Key Facts

• President Zelensky gave an elite Ukrainian special forces unit the honorary title of “Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army” (UPA).
• The UPA was the armed group of the far-right Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in World War II.
• The UPA is known in Poland for carrying out massacres of ethnic Poles and Jews, considered by Poland as genocide.
• Zelensky also honored Andriy Melnyk, a former OUN leader who supported working with Nazi Germany, by reburying him with state honors.
• Polish leaders, including former President Lech Walesa, criticized Zelensky’s actions strongly, with some calling for him to lose a high Polish honor.
• Polish officials and historians see the glorification of UPA as harmful and say it helps Russian propaganda that falsely claims Ukraine is controlled by Nazis.
• The historical conflict between Poland and Ukraine over borderlands and violence during and after World War II remains a difficult issue.
• Zelensky’s praise of nationalist figures contrasts with his own family history of fighting Nazis in the Soviet Red Army.