Poland threatens to strip Zelensky of honor over UPA military unit naming

A naming decision made in Kyiv last month has opened a wound between two countries that, until recently, seemed bound by necessity and shared purpose. Poland's president, Karol Nawrocki, is now considering whether to strip Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky of Poland's highest state honour—the Order of the White Eagle—over Zelensky's decree to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, a World War Two-era fighting force that means something entirely different depending on which side of the border you stand.

For Ukrainians, the UPA represents resistance and the struggle for independence. The group fought against the Soviet Red Army and Nazi Germany in the 1940s and 1950s, and today its red and black flag flies on the front lines where Ukrainian troops are still fighting. When Zelensky issued the decree naming a Special Operations Forces unit after the UPA, he framed it as restoring "the historical traditions of the national army." It was meant as an honour, a way of drawing a line from past resistance to present defiance.

But Poland sees the UPA through a different historical lens entirely. Warsaw accuses the group of carrying out a genocide against ethnic Poles in the Volhynia region between 1943 and 1945, with estimates suggesting around 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed in what became known as the Volhynia massacres. For Poland, naming a military unit after the UPA is not a gesture of historical pride—it is a glorification of what Nawrocki called "bandits and killers." The anger has cut across Poland's political spectrum, from the far right to the left, and it has struck a particular nerve because it comes from a country that Poland has sheltered and supported at enormous cost.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland has opened its borders to millions of Ukrainian refugees and continues to host nearly a million. The country has been Ukraine's most steadfast ally in Europe, and many Poles feel that this support has been met with ingratitude. Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has generally positioned himself as pro-Ukrainian, put it bluntly: "If not, it will mean that not empathy but hard business will determine our relations." Even politicians regarded as friendly to Ukraine have condemned Zelensky's move. The far-right Confederation party has gone further, demanding that Poland stop funding the Starlink satellite services that Ukraine's military depends on, and blocking Ukraine's path to European Union membership until Kyiv reverses the decision.

Nawrocki has already consulted with the council of the Order of the White Eagle and says he will make a final decision "in due course." The order, which was bestowed on Zelensky in 2023 by then-President Andrzej Duda, can be revoked if the recipient is deemed to have "committed an act making them unworthy" of the honour. Zelensky's chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, travelled to Warsaw last weekend in an attempt to defuse the crisis, but the mission appears to have failed. After Budanov's visit, Nawrocki convened the council again to discuss the matter further. Even Tusk acknowledged that "diplomacy has yielded no results."

The diplomatic temperature has dropped noticeably. Zelensky, who typically departs Ukraine from the Polish airport in Rzeszów, chose this week to fly to the United Kingdom via Moldova instead—a symbolic choice that did not go unnoticed. Tusk has made clear the airport remains open to the Ukrainian president, but the gesture itself signals how strained things have become. Analysts worry that stripping Zelensky of the order could trigger a major diplomatic rupture with serious consequences for both countries. An upcoming conference on Ukraine's post-war reconstruction is scheduled for later this month in the Polish city of Gdansk, and there are already indications that Zelensky may not attend.

Tusk is now appealing to both leaders to have "a direct and honest conversation" before the situation spirals further. He has reminded them that cooperation serves the interests of both nations, while conflict serves Moscow's interests. But the damage to the relationship is already visible. The dispute threatens to overshadow crucial post-war planning, and observers worry it could strengthen right-wing parties in Poland that have been skeptical of supporting Ukraine. What began as a historical disagreement has become a test of whether two countries locked in a wartime alliance can navigate the weight of their own pasts.