N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the darling of almost all European leaders with Commission President Von der Leyen in the lead, made a horrible mistake. He gave a unit of the Ukrainian army an honorary title that refers to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) that massacred ethnic Poles during the Second World War. Zelenski reopened a historical wound, caused a diplomatic row, and played into the hands of Russian propaganda. Didn’t Putin once mention a necessary ‘denazification of Ukraine’?
The dispute between Ukraine and Poland is painful, because Warsaw is one of the besieged country’s most loyal allies. A large part of Western military and humanitarian aid flows to Ukraine via Polish roads, railways, and airports. Poland has also supplied rapidly deployable Soviet equipment, from tanks to MIG-29s, which Ukrainian soldiers could use without extensive retraining. And not insignificantly: it is hosting nearly a million refugees.
The UPA originated from a movement that had previously collaborated with Nazi Germany and whose members were involved in anti-Jewish violence. Later, the UPA fought against German units, but waged its own campaign against Polish civilians, with the intention of expelling them from areas that Ukrainian nationalists considered Ukrainian. On ‘Bloody Sunday’ of July 11, 1943, UPA troops invaded nearly a hundred Polish villages . The massacre that continued for days was the most extreme of a whole series of attacks that continued into winter. In Poland, the massacres of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia are recorded as genocide. In Ukraine they talk of the tragedy of Volhynia.
After the Second World War the UPA waged war against the renewed occupation by the Soviets. This is what lead to the UPA being placed on a pedestal now that the country is experiencing the Russian invasion. Streets and squares have been named after leader Stepan Bandera, memorials stand in Western Ukraine, commemorative days and marches are organised. And.... Zelensky granted a group within the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces the honorary title ‘named after the heroes of UPA’, to restore ‘historical traditions of the national army’.
The Poles did not take kindly to that. The President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, pushed for the revocation of the insignia of the Order of the White Eagle for Zelensky. The Ukrainian President received Poland’s highest distinction in 2023 for his ‘merits in deepening relations between Poland and Ukraine, and his unwavering defense of human rights’.
Zelensky didn’t comment and has sent back the insignia. And will not attend a summit of Eastern European leaders in Gdansk, Poland. The Ukrainian President is known as a clever, nimble leader. Can this really be a simple slip?
