Poland revokes Zelenskyy's honor amid historic dispute over WWII-era Ukrainian Insurgent Army

Poland’s president announced the removal of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the country’s top honor after Zelenskyy approved the naming of a military unit after the World War II-era Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The decision, made by President Karol Nawrocki, follows long-standing Polish claims that the UPA carried out mass killings of Polish civilians in Volhynia between 1943 and 1945.

Zelenskyy, who skipped a wartime conference in Poland, said Ukraine and Poland remain “partners and friends” because of their geographic proximity and shared security interests. He added that Ukrainian soldiers requested the unit’s name to honor what they view as resistance fighters.

Polish officials emphasized that the revocation does not signal an end to Poland’s military aid or support for Ukraine’s EU bid, but they argue that “a willingness to honestly confront the difficult chapters of its own history” is required for further integration.

Ukrainian lawmaker Mykola Kniazhytskyi warned that distancing Poland from the Ukraine-Poland peace process could create logistical problems for Kyiv, which relies on Poland as a key conduit for Western weapons.

Historian Zbigniew Wojnowski described the UPA’s actions in Volhynia as “very brutal ethnic cleansing,” noting that contemporary Ukrainian memory focuses on the group’s later anti-Soviet resistance. The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance refers to the events as a “tragic page” rather than a massacre.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for calm, while the European Commission’s spokesperson Paula Pinho warned that the dispute could benefit Russia. Russian officials, including Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, seized on the controversy to accuse Ukraine of glorifying Nazis, a narrative widely rejected by Kyiv.