On Friday, the Polish government summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Vasil Bodnar to protest Kyiv’s decision to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), responsible for the deaths of thousands of Poles during World War II, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced.

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Speaking from the Sejm (Parliament) Tusk explained that the diplomatic reaction was in response to a presidential decree signed by Volodymyr Zelensky that named the Ukrainian Army’s “Northern” Special Operations Center “Heroes of the UPA.”

“We have some issues between us, but there can be no hostility or negative emotions, because we share a common adversary,” the prime minister stated, alluding to Russia, in a context marked by the ongoing conflict.

Previously, Polish President Karol Nawrocki requested that Zelensky be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state decoration, awarded in December 2023.

Nawrocki called the decree shameful and asserted that “Zelensky has shown that Ukraine, by glorifying the UPA bandits and murderers, is not prepared to be part of the European family.”

Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz described the Ukrainian measure as a blow to the hope that wounds will heal and that both sides will live according to historical truth, referring to bilateral tensions stemming from events of World War II.

The controversy arose after the decree signed by Zelensky on May 26, which supposedly seeks to restore the historical traditions of the national army and, as he stated at the time, recognize the unit’s actions in defending Ukrainian sovereignty.

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought in Poland against Nazi Germany and is responsible for the massacre of approximately 100,000 Polish civilians in 1943. From the Ukrainian perspective, these events are interpreted as the result of an armed conflict with shared responsibility between the parties.

Experts point out that the management of historical symbols presents a challenge to cohesion within the European bloc.

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