President Zelensky awarded a Ukrainian special unit with the title "Heroes of the UPA". This caused huge outrage in Poland because it awakened memories of mass crimes during World War II.
On May 26, 2026, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky awarded a special unit of the Ukrainian armed forces with the honorary title "Heroes of the UPA" (Ukrainian Insurgent Army – ed.). The arguments said that it was for merits in "restoring the historical traditions of the national army". However, this decision turned out to have serious consequences for relations with Poland - one of Ukraine's most important allies in its fight against the Russian aggressor.
Wartime crimes
After Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) began fighting for an independent Ukrainian state, and at first it was on the side of the German aggressor. In order to expel the Polish population from territories that the UPA considered Ukrainian, it committed numerous crimes against Polish civilians.
The comment of the Polish right-wing conservative head of state Karol Nawrocki was correspondingly sharp: "Unfortunately, President Zelensky has proven that when it comes to mentality, to glorifying the bandits and murderers of the UPA, Ukraine is not ready to be part of the European family", he said on Friday in Warsaw.
"The European family cannot glorify bandits and murderers who killed women and children, Poles", argues the head of state, who wants to revoke the Order of the "White Eagle" awarded to Zelensky - the highest Polish state award. On Monday (08.06.2026), the commission responsible for the orders will discuss the proposal.
"Navrokski incites anti-Ukrainian sentiment"
The Ukrainian head of state received the order two years ago at the suggestion of the then Polish President Andrzej Duda, who had made the military alliance with Ukraine a priority of Polish foreign policy. Military and political support from Warsaw contributed significantly to the successful stopping of the Russian attack in the initial phase of the war in 2022.
Unlike his predecessor, Navrokski did not hesitate to criticize Ukraine during the 2025 election campaign. He expressed skepticism about the neighboring country's chances of joining the EU and criticized the social benefits for Ukrainian refugees in Poland as too generous. A year after being elected president, Navrokski has yet to visit Kiev. Instead, in December 2025, he hosted Zelensky in Warsaw.
"Navroksky seized the opportunity and incited anti-Ukrainian sentiment. He was given a pretext and used it mercilessly", wrote the Polish newspaper „Gazeta Wyborcza“ on the current topical occasion.
Tusk tries to limit the damage
Donald Tusk, Poland's pro-European prime minister, is trying to limit the damage. He stressed that the Ukrainian president's decision had hurt “Polish historical sensitivity“. Every nation has the right to its own interpretation of the past. However, Zelensky and „our Ukrainian friends“ should be aware of what the „dark legacy of the UPA“ means for every Pole, he said.
Tusk distanced himself from Nawrocki's proposal to strip Zelenski of the order. "If we fight over the past, someone else will win the future," he warned, pointing out that Russia "will certainly be very happy."
Other representatives of the center-left coalition ruling in Warsaw also expressed their indignation at the awarding of the honorary title "Heroes of the UPA," but at the same time called for avoiding any escalation. "We should not react hostilely, but firmly," Piotr Zgorzielski, the deputy speaker of parliament from the Polish People's Party, told TVN on June 2, 2026. According to him, Zelensky wants to unite the nationalist forces in Ukraine around him, ignoring Polish feelings.
Kiev: The decision is not directed against Poland
The Foreign Ministry in Kiev assured that Zelensky's action was not directed against Poland. “For the Ukrainian army, the UPA's struggle symbolizes only resistance to Moscow's imperial policy“, said a statement, also circulated by the Polish news agency PAP.
The dispute over the past has long cast a shadow over Polish-Ukrainian relations. After the collapse of the Russian Empire at the end of World War I (1917/18), both Poland and Ukraine laid claim to territories with a predominantly Ukrainian population, which, however, belonged to Poland until the end of the 18th century.
After bloody battles in 1918, Western Ukraine became part of Poland, while the eastern part of the country fell under Soviet rule.
120,000 victims
The number of victims of the massacres committed by the UPA during World War II, considered genocide in Poland, is estimated at over 100,000. Up to 20,000 Ukrainians were killed in retaliatory actions by Polish partisans. After 1945, the UPA continued its fight against Soviet expansion in Ukraine until the 1950s, which is why its work in the fight against Russia is still revered in Ukraine today.
With the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Polish-Ukrainian disputes over the past have faded into the background. After the initial enthusiasm for the Ukrainian resistance against the aggressor and the acceptance of more than a million Ukrainian refugees in Poland, today there is a serious change in mood. Above all, right-wing Poles criticize social benefits for Ukrainians in the country and question Warsaw's military support for Kiev.
Tusk's dilemma: to sign or not
With his criticism of Zelensky, Nawrocki also wants to score points in Polish domestic politics. His initiative is also aimed at Tusk - because if the Polish president orders the Ukrainian's order to be revoked, the prime minister must sign this order. If Tusk does this, he will damage relations with the eastern neighbor, on whose military success against Russia Poland's security depends. However, if he refuses to sign, the Polish right will declare him a traitor to the homeland who disregards the feelings of the Poles.
At the end of June, the 5th conference on the restoration of Ukraine will be held in Gdansk. And it would be fatal if the conflict between Poland and Ukraine escalates on the eve of this important international conference.