Ukraine’s backer blasts Zelensky over tribute to Nazi collaborators Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has stated that Warsaw’s support for Kiev might become based on hard national interests rather than empathy following Ukrainian President Zelensky’s decision to honor nationalist groups blamed for massacres of Poles. This action, which includes naming a commando unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and reburying leaders of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), has caused significant tension and condemnation in Poland. Polish officials have criticized these actions, with President Karol Nawrocki calling for Zelensky to be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle.

• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned that Poland’s support for Ukraine could shift to a “hard business” approach instead of empathy.
• The criticism follows Ukrainian President Zelensky’s decision to name a commando unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which is blamed for massacres of Poles.
• The UPA was the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which sought an ethnically homogeneous Ukrainian state and collaborated with Nazi Germany.
• Ukrainian nationalists are estimated to have killed 100,000 Polish civilians between 1943-44.
• Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki called for Zelensky to be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state distinction.
• Ukraine has also recently honored the remains of OUN leader Andrey Melnik and plans to rebury Evgeny Konovalets, a founder of the OUN.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova have also commented on the matter, linking it to historical context of WWII and Nazism.