Zelensky to miss Poland summit as Second World War row escalates

The Ukraine Recovery Conference opens in the Polish port city of Gdansk on Thursday, bringing together officials and business leaders to discuss Ukraine's post-war reconstruction.

However, attention has shifted to a diplomatic row between two close allies after Zelensky named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a nationalist group that took part in the massacre of Poles during the Second World War. 

Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko will lead the country's delegation instead, Kyiv said on Tuesday.

The decision was aimed at avoiding "excessive politicisation" and "scandals", foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said.

"Through diplomatic channels we are in constant contact," he said of relations with Poland.

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Honours sent back

The dispute intensified after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest civilian honour.

Zelensky returned the award over the weekend. Former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko also sent theirs back, along with several senior Ukrainian officials.

The UPA fought both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in its push for a Ukrainian state, but it also killed thousands of Polish civilians between 1943 and 1945 in Volhynia, a region that was part of Poland before the Second World War and is now in Ukraine.

Poland has been one of Ukraine's chief allies since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees and serving as a logistics hub for Western support to Kyiv.

The recovery conference, previously held in Rome, Berlin and Lugano in Switzerland, was meant to reinforce Poland's position as Ukraine's neighbour and ally.

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A 'political' move

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has tried to calm tensions, but has also said the blame for the diplomatic crisis lies with Kyiv and called on Zelensky to reverse the naming decision.

"I am also counting on the fact that on both the Polish and the Ukrainian side there will be more people who will be able to stand up to these moods and emotions, and who will lead both Poland and Ukraine toward the future," Tusk said.

Anger has grown in Ukraine over Poland's demands.
"We are defending Poland, we are defending Europe right now, not the other way around. Our fighters are defending it, and Ukrainians are dying," Zelensky told Ukrainian media on Sunday.

Requests from soldiers led to the naming decision, Zelensky said, adding that he had signed similar decrees "hundreds of times during the war".

"I've never told them what I like or don't like," he said. 

Polish politicians were trying to gain support at home ahead of parliamentary elections next year, Zelensky said.

"You radicalise society and where will this social hatred lead? To ratings. This is a political struggle that can end badly."

Poland is home to more than 1.5 million Ukrainians, including refugees who arrived after 2022 and economic migrants. Recent weeks have seen a string of anti-Ukrainian incidents in the country.

(with newswires)