Polish leaders warn Ukraine’s move to honour a controversial WWII unit accused of massacring Poles risks straining bilateral ties.
WARSAW: Polish leaders on Friday warned that the Ukrainian president’s move to honour a controversial World War II group accused of massacring Poles risked souring relations between the two neighbours.
The row was sparked after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
Polish President Karol Nawrocki told the media on Friday he was “outraged” by the move and had proposed “the withdrawal of the Order of the White Eagle from President Zelensky”.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the move “wounds our historical sensitivity” and is “worrying from the point of view of our relations”.
Poland has been Ukraine’s key ally in Europe following Russia’s invasion in February 2022, but the two countries share a tortured history during World War II.
The UPA killed some 100,000 Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine, according to Warsaw, which considers the killings a genocide.
Ukrainian nationalists, though, revere the UPA for fighting for an independent Ukrainian state against Soviet forces — despite the group’s ties with Nazi Germany.
With the war now in its fifth year, Ukraine has been seeking to unify the country in its fight against the Russian invasion around some historical figures.
Earlier this week, Kyiv repatriated the remains of a leader of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (ONU), the umbrella group that established the UPA military unit and that challenged Soviet rule including by working with the Nazis.