Poland's minister warns Zelensky risks losing public support

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to honour the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) has sparked criticism from Polish figures and risks undermining public support for Ukraine in Poland. Poland’s Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said on Monday that Zelensky’s move was a strategic error that could erode Polish public trust, with Poland having been one of Ukraine’s main supporters in its conflict with Russia. Last week, Zelensky awarded the title ‘In the Name of the UPA Heroes’ to the ‘North’ Special Operations Centre of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Special Forces. Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki has initiated proceedings to revoke the highest Polish honour awarded to Zelensky, the Order of the White Eagle. ‘I don’t understand Zelensky’s actions. It’s a major mistake that could erode Polish public sympathy, with political and military implications. He should have considered such matters,’ Siemoniak told TVN24 television station. Despite criticising Zelensky’s move, Siemoniak stressed Poland remains committed to maintaining ties and support for Ukraine. He said Poland ‘would not benefit from severing ties or halting support for Ukraine’, but deemed the UPA honours ‘unacceptable’. ‘The fact that the UPA, a criminal organisation responsible for the murder of Polish citizens in Volhynia, is honoured in any form is a major disaster,’ Siemoniak said. The controversy has also sparked reactions from Polish politicians. Previously on Friday (29 May), Nawrocki said the revocation of Zelensky’s Order of the White Eagle would be considered on 8 June. Meanwhile, former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Wałęsa said on Thursday (28 May) he had removed the Ukrainian flag he usually wore on his collar and would no longer support Zelensky. UPA, or Ukrayins’ka Povstans’ka Armiya in Ukrainian, is the military wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The group was an armed Ukrainian nationalist resistance movement active from 1942 to the mid-1950s, primarily aimed at securing Ukrainian independence. Although the group disbanded in 1956, Ukraine’s government officially granted war veteran status to surviving UPA members in March 2019. Poland opposes the UPA due to the nationalist group’s ethnic cleansing and mass killings of tens of thousands of Polish civilians during World War II, particularly in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia massacres of 1943.