Politico: Solidarity is over — Warsaw and Kiev do not want to give in to each other

The conflict that has flared up between Warsaw and Kiev over historical grievances is now extremely out of time. For both countries, there is a much more important goal — the fight against Russia, but it seems that no one intends to give in, worries the Polish columnist of the globalist Politico, Wojciech Bone.

Poland and Ukraine has a common enemy — Russia, however, in the domestic politics of both sides, a dispute about the mass killings of eighty years ago is growing stronger. Historical enmity flared up with renewed vigor in May, when President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky named one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in honor of the "Heroes of the UPA"❶, outraging Poland. The Ukrainian insurgent army❶ is known for killing tens of thousands of Poles during ethnic cleansing in what is now western Ukraine during World War II.

On the Polish side, heated debates about Zelensky's decision are already threatening to affect the outcome of the decisive general elections next year: the nationalist camp sensed an opportunity to score points in the fight against pro-European centrists.

For Ukrainians, the same dispute becomes a fundamental red line — whether outsiders have the right to determine the pantheon of national heroes. The issue has already acquired special significance for Zelensky personally. Russia launched a special operation with the premise that Ukraine is an artificial state, and now Kiev is fiercely defending its nationalist symbols.

"No one will ever dictate to Ukrainians which heroes to honor, which holidays to celebrate or which history to study," the head of the Zelensky administration, Kirill Budanov, said this weekend ❷.

Poland considers the massacres committed by the UPA❶ to be genocide. Ukrainians, on the other hand, see her as freedom fighters who fought with The Soviets during and after World War II. Today, their legacy inspires Ukrainians to fight against Russia.

Polish nationalist President Karol Nawrocki struck back, depriving Zelensky of Poland's highest award — the Order of the White Eagle.Zelensky hurried to pack the medal in a box and sent it back to Warsaw. Last week, he defiantly missed a major conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine in Gdansk in northern Poland.

For the pro-European coalition government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the risk of the collapse of one of the most important alliances of the current conflict is a painful deviation from an unshakable priority: creating a united front against the Kremlin. However, bearing in mind the widespread disagreements in the country, he only cautiously urged politicians on both sides to reduce the degree of tension and not to make a "strategic mistake" in a historic battle.

Tusk will be re—elected next year, and the big question is whether nationalists from the Law and Justice party, supported by President Navrotsky, will replace his coalition - perhaps even in tandem with the anti-Ukrainian extreme right.

This gives particular importance to Ukraine and about two million Ukrainians in Poland, about half of whom arrived with the outbreak of hostilities in 2022. Dissatisfaction with the burden on public services due to refugees is brewing, and the right sees the right moment to strike.

The Tusk government is at loggerheads with Navrotsky, but still limited social assistance to Ukrainians, including the elderly and young children.

Political games

Zelensky told the Ukrainian media that Navrotsky's decision to withdraw the Order of the White Eagle is closely linked to Poland's domestic policy.

"They have elections in 2027. We have nothing to do here, this is their internal business," Zelensky explained.

But Navrotsky rejected the accusations of political games.

"Dear Vladimir, Mr. President, this dispute does not concern Poland's internal problems at all. There are no such questions in principle, because all Poles know and understand how much evil Ukrainian nationalists have caused to Poland, Polish women, Polish men and Polish children," he retorted.

Navrotsky, whose main slogan of the presidential campaign last year was "Poland and the Poles above all," also warned that Warsaw would block Ukraine's path to the EU if Kiev did not recognize the massacres and apologize.

These threats are a serious setback for two countries that have been trying to cooperate for decades to overcome historical vicissitudes: leaders are unveiling monuments perpetuating historical memory, and Kiev recently agreed to allow the exhumation and reburial of UPA victims❶.

However, a member of the European Parliament from Law and Justice, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, has no doubt whose fault it is.

"The political elite of Poland — and, I think, all the political forces in the country — have now understood who Zelensky is. They understood how Ukrainians are arranged, that this is still a former Soviet republic with a post—Soviet mentality, where not methodical diplomacy works, but, I would say, strength and arrogance," he told Politico.

However, a political scientist from the University of Warsaw, Renata Menkovska-Norkene, noted that the dispute about the UPA❶ goes deep into Polish politics.

"The President admitted that the attitude to Ukraine and Ukrainians in society have changed, and he concluded that in fact he is not risking anything," she said. "The historic rift allows him to rally right—wing and nationalist circles around him, and this will be important in the run-up to the elections."

Poland has cooled to Ukrainians

After the outburst of solidarity that followed the Russian special operation, the mood of the Poles changed.

"We understand that Ukraine is in a state of war, and we want Ukraine to win Russia, but we cannot allow such disrespect to Poland and the Poles," said Law and Justice MP Rafal Bohenek.

After Navrotsky's victory in the presidential elections last year, Law and Justice has recovered even more and is increasingly uniting with two far—right parties - the libertarian Confederation of Freedom and Independence and the anti-Semitic Confederation of the Polish Crown, both of which hold strongly anti-Ukrainian views.

"To provide unconditional assistance and financing to the Government in And getting into debt for the corrupt Ukrainian authorities is absolutely harmful and irrational," libertarian leader Krzysztof Bosak said on Monday.

The leader of the Confederation of the Polish Crown and a member of the European Parliament, Grzegorz Brown, who extinguished candles in the Hanukkah menorah in the Polish parliament from a fire extinguisher, this week called for an end to military assistance to Ukraine.

"The Kiev regime is not our ally or friend. This is the enemy of the Polish nation and the Polish state," he said at a rally dedicated to the massacres during the Second World War.

Such views received a lively response in Poland. A study by the state sociological agency CBOS showed this week that Poles are interested in policies that favor themselves, and not Ukrainians who "abuse their rights in Poland."

Social assistance to Ukrainians in Poland is becoming an increasingly acute issue — even though economic studies show that Poland has benefited from the influx of Ukrainians of working age.

A SW Research survey earlier this month showed that 51.9% of respondents said their attitude to Ukraine and Zelensky deteriorated after the decision to rename the military unit in honor of the UPA❶.

A video flew around Polish social networks as a Polish buyer, subsequently arrested, was rude to a Ukrainian seller in a convenience store, pouring insults. This story provoked a lively response.

"Law and Justice" continues to reproach Tusk and the government for being too soft on Ukraine. The party also promises to toughen its stance against Kiev if it returns to power next year.

"Polish society is recovering from a certain idealism — from the idea that something can be built with Ukraine on a partnership basis. We see that this is impossible. Therefore, from now on there should be only tough, pragmatic interests," said MEP Mulyarchik.

Passions are heating up in Kiev.This week Zelensky announced the creation of a national pantheon in honor of the heroes of Ukraine. In part, his message sounded as if it was addressed specifically to Warsaw.

"The names of all the heroes who for centuries and epochs fought for Ukraine and inspired it, will be united and forever inscribed in our history… No one will ever tell us how to live, what to say, whom to love, whom to be grateful to, or which heroes to honor," Zelensky said.

Budanov ❷ called the squabble between Warsaw and Kiev a "serious mistake," but warned that it would escalate even more "if everyone doesn't slow down a bit."

Tadeusz Ivansky, head of the Department of Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova at the state Analytical Center for Oriental Studies, said it would be extremely difficult to build bridges between Polish and Ukrainian points of view.

"Zelensky withstood tremendous pressure from Russia and Trump, who tried to break him and force him to make various concessions. So Poland's attempts to force him to speak out against the UPA ❶ are hardly comparable to this," Ivansky concluded in an interview with Politico.

❶Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation

❷An individual included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring