Why Zelensky’s celebration of WWII-era nationalist guerrillas is causing tension with Poland
Zelensky named an elite unit after the WWII-era UPA, prompting outrage in Poland over the group’s role in anti-Polish and anti-Jewish massacres.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
The decree revives a painful wartime memory: the UPA is celebrated in parts of Ukraine as a nationalist force, but in Poland it is tied to mass killings. The move has angered Polish leaders and given Russia fresh propaganda material.
A leader in Ukraine gave a medal-style honour to a group linked to old wartime fighters. In Poland, that group is remembered more like a dark scar than a hero story, because it was tied to mass killings. It is like praising a team one country cheers and another country still blames for a tragedy.
Analysis
What happened
Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on May 26 giving an honorary title linked to the UPA to an elite unit in Ukraine’s special forces. The UPA was the armed wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, a wartime movement associated with collaboration, ethnic violence, and the pursuit of an independent Ukraine.
Why Poland reacted sharply
For many Poles, the UPA is inseparable from the massacres of ethnic Poles and Jews in Volhynia and eastern Galicia during World War II. Polish historians and the Polish state treat those killings as a deliberate campaign of genocide. That is why the decree landed as a direct insult in Warsaw, even among figures who still support Ukraine against Russia.
Former president Lech Walesa said he would continue backing Ukraine’s war effort, but not its president. Former prime minister Leszek Miller compared the decision to Germany naming a unit after Nazi death squads. Conservative President Karol Nawrocki went further, calling for Zelensky to lose the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state honour.
The historical fault line
The article places the row in a longer conflict over the legacy of Polish-Ukrainian borderlands. After Poland regained independence after World War I, tensions grew around Ukrainian minorities in the east. During World War II, some Ukrainian nationalists saw Nazi Germany as a path to statehood and became involved in anti-Jewish and anti-Polish violence. The UPA later fought Soviet, Nazi, and Polish resistance forces as the war shifted.
The article also notes the symbolic awkwardness of Zelensky, a Jewish president, honouring figures tied to collaboration with Nazi Germany. That contrast intensifies the political shock in Poland and provides Russia with more material for its claim that Ukraine must be “de-Nazified.”
Key points
- Zelensky honored an elite unit with a title linked to the UPA, a WWII-era nationalist force.
- Poland sees the UPA as responsible for massacres of Poles and Jews in Volhynia and eastern Galicia.
- Polish political figures from across the spectrum condemned the move, though some said support for Ukraine should continue.
- The article frames the dispute as part of a long-running, unresolved Polish-Ukrainian historical conflict.
- Russia may use the controversy to push its own anti-Ukraine narrative.
If handled carefully, the dispute could force a more honest public conversation about wartime history and the different memories Poland and Ukraine carry. The article also suggests both countries still have reasons to keep supporting each other against Russia, which may limit the damage.
The decree could deepen distrust between Kyiv and Warsaw and make it harder to sustain political unity around Ukraine’s war effort. It also gives Russian propaganda another talking point, which may widen the information fight around Ukraine.
