Warsaw, Poland. Poland and Ukraine are in dispute over Kyiv’s decision to rename an army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a nationalist force linked to the wartime massacre of Poles during World War Two. The disagreement has strained relations despite Poland’s strong support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Presidential reaction in Poland
Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Poland’s top honour on Friday after Zelenskiy signed a decree recognising a Ukrainian combat unit’s contribution to the fight against Russia by naming it after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA.
Ukrainian view of the UPA name
During and after World War Two, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, the UPA fought against the Red Army and for a time allied itself with Nazi German forces in pursuit of Ukrainian independence. Ukraine says the naming of the unit carries no anti-Polish intent and was chosen by soldiers seeking to commemorate those who fought against Moscow.
Volhynia massacres and competing interpretations
The UPA was also involved in the Volhynia massacres carried out by Ukrainian nationalists from 1943 to 1945, in which Warsaw says about 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed. Thousands of Ukrainians also died in reprisal killings.
Polish historians describe the massacres as a genocide aimed at preventing a post-war Polish state from claiming sovereignty over Ukrainian-majority territories that had belonged to Poland between the two world wars. Kyiv rejects that term and says thousands of Ukrainians were also killed in what it describes as a complex conflict.
Long-running source of tension
The events have remained a source of dispute for decades, even as Poland has been one of Ukraine’s firmest allies since Russia’s invasion. Poland has taken in almost one million refugees from Ukraine and has supplied weapons.
1947 forced relocations
In 1947, within Poland’s new post-war borders, the Polish authorities forcibly relocated about 140,000 ethnic Ukrainians and people identifying as members of the small Lemko ethnic group from southeastern Poland to territories regained from Germany. Poland said the aim was to cut support for underground UPA groups in Poland, while the Ukrainian side regards the operation as a crime of ethnic cleansing.