The assignment of the honorary name “named after the Heroes of the UPA” to a unit of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was not intended to insult Poland, and disputes between Kiev and Warsaw on historical issues are beneficial only to the aggressor country, Russia. This was stated by the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Georgy Tikhy to journalists on May 29, he was quoted by Interfax-Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky signed Decree No. 440/2026 on assigning the honorary name “named after the Heroes of the UPA” to the Separate Center of the MTR “Pivnich” on May 26. However, this step by the head of the Ukrainian state was criticized by Polish President Karol Nawrocki.
As PAP wrote on May 29, Navrotsky considers this step “giving arguments to Russian propaganda” and emphasized that Ukraine, in his opinion, should not have made such decisions in the context of relations with Poland and European integration.
He also proposed stripping Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honor, which was awarded to him in 2023 by then-Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Tikhy called Poland’s reaction “harsh” and emphasized that the Ukrainian military, who initiated this decision, perceives the fight of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army primarily as a symbol of opposition to Moscow’s imperial policy, and not as a gesture against the Polish people.
He noted that over the past year and a half, Kyiv and Warsaw have made progress in dialogue about difficult periods of common history, which has “different pages – both glorious and tragic.” The Foreign Ministry speaker spoke, in particular, about the resumption of the exhumation process and the work of the Congress of Historians.
“In previous eras, Ukrainians and Poles together won many glorious victories over the eternal enemy in Moscow – from Orsha to Div on the Vistula. At the same time, it is impossible to deny the tragic pages, in particular crimes against the civilian population, which were committed, in particular, by the military of Ukrainian and Polish units during the Second World War,” Tikhy recalled.
The department called for preventing historical disputes from undermining cooperation between the two countries in countering Russian aggression.
