Overview
- A presidential decree on May 26 gave an elite Ukrainian special forces unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA,” a name that revived painful memories in Poland of wartime killings by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
- Polish president Karol Nawrocki has proposed stripping Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, and a state advisory body met on June 8 to consider the request.
- Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has urged direct talks between the two presidents and said Poland will not block the start of EU accession talks for Ukraine while opposing any special treatment.
- Ukrainian officials, including Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, say the name was chosen by soldiers to honor resistance to Moscow and carried no anti‑Polish intent, and Kyiv has recently approved additional exhumations at World War II sites that touch on the dispute.
- The row exposes a split in Warsaw between a nationalist presidency and a pro‑European government, risks fraying security and reconstruction cooperation, and could be exploited by Russia, so observers are watching whether the advisory body or the Polish presidency escalates the dispute.