Polish President Karol Nawrocki said on May 29 that he would seek to strip Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Poland’s highest state honour after Kyiv named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), reigniting one of the most sensitive disputes in Polish-Ukrainian relations.

Nawrocki, a historian by education, said the Chapter of the Order of the White Eagle would meet on June 8 and that he had proposed adding the issue of revoking Zelenskiy’s decoration to the agenda. Zelenskyy received the order in April 2023 from then-President Andrzej Duda for contributions to Polish-Ukrainian relations, democracy, peace and security in Europe.

“I proposed that one of the items on the agenda be the revocation of President Zelenskiy’s Order of the White Eagle,” Nawrocki said, according to a video released on social media by his office.

Nawrocki was responding to Zelenskiy’s May 26 decree, which granted the honorary name “Heroes of the UPA” to the Separate Special Operations Centre North of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces.

The decree said the decision was intended to restore “the historical traditions of the national army” and recognised the unit’s role in defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity and independence.

The UPA is viewed by many Ukrainians as part of the country’s anti-Soviet independence struggle and as an inspiration for Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression, which began in February 2022.

In Poland, however, the formation is viewed very differently. The massacres, in which the UPA killed tens of thousands of Polish civilians in 1943-1945, remain the most contentious chapter in relations between the two countries.

Historians estimate that as many as 100,000 Poles could have been killed, while Polish reprisals claimed 10,000 to 20,000 Ukrainian lives.

Warsaw classifies the events as genocide. Kyiv, however, regards the nationalist movement responsible for the killings as central to its own statehood narrative, making an official apology politically difficult.

Over years of talks, Poland and Ukraine have reached some incremental agreements on commemorating the victims. Last year, after a long hiatus, exhumations resumed in the Volhynia region of Ukraine, where the UPA was most active against Poles, as part of work aimed at identifying the victims and burying them properly.

The Russian wedge

Nawrocki said Zelenskiy’s decision had given Russian propaganda “ample oxygen for disinformation”. The Polish president also said Ukraine could not join the EU while continuing to glorify those responsible for murdering Polish civilians.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk also criticised Zelenskiy’s decision, saying on social media that “if we quarrel about the past, someone else will win the future,” in an apparent reference to Russia.

"The President of Ukraine should finally understand this. The Poles too. Before it's too late!” Tusk also said, in an apparent reference to Nawrocki's reaction.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov sought to drive a wedge between Warsaw and Kyiv on May 31, telling Vesti, a Russian news outlet, that it was “wonderful” Poland had noticed Zelenskiy’s decree and “took a position”.

“After all, those glorified Nazis [the UPA] killed Poles. They killed Jews, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. Thank God that at least someone in Poland is preserving this memory,” Peskov said.

Russia has long sought to exploit the history of Ukrainian nationalist groups, including the UPA, that collaborated with Nazi Germany at points during World War Two, to support its broader propaganda claim that modern Ukraine has rehabilitated Nazism.

The narrative resonates in Russia, where victory over Nazi Germany remains central to state identity and political memory.

The claim draws on real but highly selective history. Parts of the Ukrainian nationalist movement collaborated with Nazi Germany and were implicated in violence against Poles. Until the outbreak of World War Two, large parts of what is now western Ukraine belonged to Poland.

The UPA later fought both German forces and the Soviets, hoping for an independent Ukrainian state to emerge in the post-war order.

Moscow has sought to equate Ukraine's modern independence movement with the pre-World War Two nationalist movement.

Despite centuries of painful history, Poland has been one of Ukraine’s strongest and most vocal backers since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than four years ago.

Ukraine has sought to reassure Poland that no offence was intended, while also signalling that it will not back down.

"Today, Ukrainian military personnel defend not only Ukraine, but also all of Europe. By initiating the awarding of an honorary title to their unit, our soldiers certainly did not intend to offend the friendly Polish people. For them, the UPA struggle symbolizes exclusively the opposition to Moscow's imperial policy — and is in no way directed against the Poles,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said, according to the Kyiv Independent.

"Our history confirms that only Moscow benefits from disputes between Ukrainians and Poles,” Tykhyi also said, adding that Ukraine was grateful for Poland's support for its fight against Russia.