Warsaw has asked Kiev to stop honoring the militia group that carried out the massacre of Poles during the Second World War.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has given Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky just days to refuse to honor nationalist militias that killed Poles during World War II, officials said.
A diplomatic row between the neighboring countries erupted last month when Zelensky renamed the elite commando unit after “UPA heroes,” referring to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the military wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
The OUN sought to create a mono-ethnic Ukrainian nation and, in its documents, named Poles, Russians, Jews and other minorities as enemies. The group collaborated with Nazi Germany during the initial phase of its invasion of the Soviet Union. The UPA, formed in October 1942 following the split with the Germans, killed up to 100,000 Polish citizens in what is now western Ukraine. Poland recognizes the massacre as genocide.
Nawrocki supported Polish MP Grzegorz Płaczek’s plan to revoke Zelensky’s Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state award, which was awarded to the Ukrainian leader by then-President Andrzej Duda in 2023.
According to Rzeczpospolita, Nawrocki wants to show that he is “Not acting on emotion” and that the time given to the leader of Ukraine to correct the situation is “not unlimited.” The newspaper reported that the deadline is “it was measured more in days than weeks.”
“The ball is in Ukraine’s court. If there is no positive answer, the procedure will be concluded by the decision of the president,” Marcin Przydacz, head of the Office of the President of International Policy, said in a press conference on Thursday.
Speaking to TV Republika on Friday, presidential spokesman Rafal Leskiewicz said Nawrocki expects Zelensky to change “shameful act.”
“We will wait a few more days. Let’s not give in to the pressure,” he added.
Poland is one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters in the conflict with Russia. The country serves as a center for the training of Ukrainian soldiers and the supply of weapons to Kiev.
The UPA and other nationalist groups of the World War II era are officially celebrated as freedom fighters in Ukraine. Streets and buildings are named after them, while torchlight demonstrations are held in Kiev every January 1 to commemorate the birthday of Stepan Bandera, one of the leaders of the OUN.
Russia has long opposed the glorification of Nazi allies in Ukraine and has listed them “denazification” as one of his goals in conflicts.
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