Key facts
- Polish PM Donald Tusk criticized Ukrainian President Zelensky's decision to honor nationalist figures.
- The figures are blamed for massacres of Poles and Jews during WWII.
- Zelensky decreed a commando unit would bear the honorary title 'Heroes of the UPA'.
- The UPA was the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany.
- Tusk stated that if the conflict over historical interpretations is not resolved, relations may be driven by hard business interests.
- Polish President Karol Nawrocki called for Zelensky to be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has voiced strong criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision to honor nationalist figures from World War II, who are blamed for the massacre of Poles. Tusk warned that Poland's support for Ukraine could become increasingly based on hard national interests rather than empathy if Kyiv does not resolve the conflict over historical interpretations. Zelensky had decreed that a Special Operations Center North would bear the honorary title 'Heroes of the UPA,' referring to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The OUN sought an ethnically homogeneous Ukrainian state and collaborated with Nazi Germany during the early stages of the Soviet invasion. The UPA is estimated to have killed around 100,000 Polish civilians between 1943 and 1944, a historical event that continues to strain relations between Warsaw and Kyiv. Tusk stated that "all responsibility lies with the Ukrainian side to somehow heal this completely unnecessary conflict over historical interpretations." He added that if the issue is not addressed, "not empathy, but hard business interests will determine our relations." Polish President Karol Nawrocki has called for Zelensky to be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest state distinction, arguing that a nation honoring "bandits and murderers" is not yet fit to join the European family. This controversy follows other recent actions by Ukrainian authorities, including full state honors for the remains of OUN leader Andrey Melnik and his wife, and plans to rebury Evgeny Konovalets, a founder of the OUN.