Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Boycotts Poland Conference Over WWII Historical Dispute
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not attend this year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference, hosted by Poland, as a bitter diplomatic dispute over World War II memory continues to strain relations between the two neighbouring allies.
Kyiv announced on Tuesday that Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko will lead Ukraine’s delegation at the annual conference, which opens Thursday in Gdansk. The event gathers business leaders and officials to plan Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction. However, weeks of historical wrangling have overshadowed the summit before it even begins.
How the Dispute Unfolded
The row erupted after Zelenskyy named a military unit after the wartime Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a force that Poland regards as war criminals responsible for the massacre of thousands of Poles in the Volyn region of western Ukraine during WWII. In response, Poland’s nationalist President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelenskyy of the White Eagle Order, Warsaw’s highest honour.
Zelenskyy then returned the award in protest. In a show of solidarity, former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Petro Poroshenko also sent their awards back. Many Ukrainians, by contrast, view the UPA as independence fighters who resisted Soviet, Nazi, and Polish rule alike.
Moreover, the UPA’s legacy has gained renewed resonance within the Ukrainian military as soldiers fight Russian forces.
Over the weekend, Zelenskyy accused Polish politicians of trying to score domestic political points ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. “You radicalise society and where will this social hatred lead? To ratings. This is a political struggle that can end badly,” he warned.
Tusk Seeks to Cool Tensions
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, frequently at odds with his country’s nationalist president, moved to ease the crisis on Tuesday. “I will not in any way lend a hand to stoking this tension,” he told reporters. Even so, Tusk has also called on Zelenskyy to reverse his decision on the unit’s name, a demand that has fuelled anger in Kyiv.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s most steadfast allies since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, hosting over 1.5 million Ukrainians and serving as a key logistics hub for Western military support. Warsaw had hoped the conference would cement its role as a central partner in Ukraine’s reconstruction, and secure its place at future peace talks.
A string of anti-Ukrainian incidents in Poland in recent weeks has added further urgency to the need for both sides to defuse tensions.
