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Zelensky to miss Poland summit as Second World War row escalates

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not attend the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, Poland, amid a diplomatic row over his naming of a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelenskyy of Poland's highest honour, and several Ukrainian officials returned their Polish awards in response.

By Tertius News AI Desk 3 outlets · 3 articles Version 1 Coverage Jun 23–25, 2026 Published Aug 15

Zelenskyy Skips Poland Reconstruction Conference as UPA Dispute Deepens

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will not attend the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, Poland, this week, as a dispute between the two close allies over Second World War remembrance escalates. Instead, Ukraine's delegation will be led by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, according to statements from Kyiv.

The annual conference, which has previously been held in Rome, Berlin, and London, aims to bring together partners and businesses to support Ukraine's post-war reconstruction. However, attention has shifted to a diplomatic rift triggered by Zelenskyy's decision last month to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

The UPA, a nationalist paramilitary formation that emerged from the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, fought both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in its push for an independent Ukrainian state. In Ukraine, the partisan group is widely seen as a symbol of heroic resistance against Soviet forces. In Poland, however, the UPA is notorious for its role in the killings of tens of thousands of ethnic Poles, with estimates ranging from 10,000 to up to 100,000, in the Volhynia region between 1943 and 1945. That territory, which was part of pre-war Poland and now lies within Ukraine, has been a source of deep historical tension between the two nations.

The dispute intensified when Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest civilian honour. Nawrocki, a former head of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, said the UPA "remains above all a formation responsible for cruel crimes against" Poles during World War II. In response, Zelenskyy returned the award, as did former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Petro Poroshenko, along with several senior Ukrainian officials, including Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha and Kyrylo Budanov, head of Zelenskyy's administration.

The dispute has cast a shadow over the conference, with Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy saying Kyiv's decision to send the prime minister instead of the president was aimed at avoiding "excessive politicisation" and "scandals." He added that the two countries remain in constant contact through diplomatic channels.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Poland has been one of Ukraine's chief allies, serving as a logistics hub for Western military support and sheltering hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. Despite the current tensions, analysts suggest the spat is unlikely to alter Warsaw's fundamental support for Kyiv, as both nations view Russia as a far greater, existential threat.

The UPA's legacy remains one of the most painful and unresolved issues in bilateral relations. In 2016, the Polish parliament unanimously adopted a motion describing the Volhynia killings as a "genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists." Polish underground forces later killed thousands of Ukrainians in reprisals, historians say. The recent naming of the unit dampened hopes of a breakthrough following last year's agreement on exhumations, which could eventually allow Polish families to bury their massacred relatives.

As the conference opens, the focus has shifted from reconstruction to the fragility of a friendship tested by historical grievances. Whether the two sides can navigate this latest rupture while maintaining their strategic partnership remains to be seen.

How each outlet told it

Al Jazeera as of Jun 24, 2026, 9:00 AM UTC

Framing: Ukraine-Poland diplomatic spat over UPA legacy — Neutral, with a focus on explaining the historical context and the current diplomatic tensions

Facts Included:

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, named an elite military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
The UPA was a nationalist group that fought in World War II and resisted Sovietisation and Russification of western Ukrainian regions
The UPA was responsible for the killings of tens of thousands of ethnic Poles in western Ukraine during World War II
Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelenskyy of Poland's highest state honour, the Order of the White Eagle, in response to the naming of the military unit
The dispute has led to a diplomatic spat between Ukraine and Poland, with both countries exchanging accusations and counter-accusations

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The Guardian — World as of Jun 23, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC

Framing: Zelenskyy snubs Ukraine reconstruction conference amid Poland row — Neutral, with a focus on explaining the historical context and the current diplomatic tensions

Facts Included:

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will skip the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Poland due to a deepening rift with Poland over the UPA legacy
The UPA is seen in Ukraine as a symbol of heroic resistance against the Soviet forces, but in Poland, it is notorious for killing up to 100,000 Poles during World War II
Polish President Karol Nawrocki revoked the Order of the White Eagle from Zelenskyy in response to the naming of the military unit
The dispute has led to a rare show of unity across the political divide in Ukraine, with Zelenskyy's predecessors and senior officials returning their Polish honours

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RFI — English as of Jun 25, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC

Framing: Ukraine-Poland diplomatic row overshadows reconstruction conference — Neutral, with a focus on reporting the facts of the diplomatic row

Facts Included:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will not attend the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Poland due to a diplomatic row over the UPA legacy
The UPA fought both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in its push for a Ukrainian state, but also killed thousands of Polish civilians
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

Read the source article →

What was claimed, and who backed it

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimUkraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, named an elite military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Al Jazeera as of Jun 24, 2026, 9:00 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe UPA was a nationalist group that fought in World War II and resisted Sovietisation and Russification of western Ukrainian regions.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Al Jazeera as of Jun 24, 2026, 9:00 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe UPA was responsible for the killings of tens of thousands of ethnic Poles in western Ukraine during World War II.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Al Jazeera as of Jun 24, 2026, 9:00 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimPolish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelenskyy of Poland's highest state honour, the Order of the White Eagle, in response to the naming of the military unit.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Al Jazeera as of Jun 24, 2026, 9:00 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe dispute has led to a diplomatic spat between Ukraine and Poland, with both countries exchanging accusations and counter-accusations.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from Al Jazeera as of Jun 24, 2026, 9:00 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimVolodymyr Zelenskyy will not attend the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Poland due to the diplomatic row.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from RFI — English as of Jun 25, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimPoland 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.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from RFI — English as of Jun 25, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe UPA is seen in Ukraine as a symbol of heroic resistance against the Soviet forces, but in Poland, it is notorious for killing up to 100,000 Poles during World War II.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from The Guardian — World as of Jun 23, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimThe dispute has led to a rare show of unity across the political divide in Ukraine, with Zelenskyy's predecessors and senior officials returning their Polish honours.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusMulti-source quoted from The Guardian — World as of Jun 23, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC the outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim

Transparency & Audit Trail

3 outlets · 3 articles consulted: Al Jazeera, The Guardian — World, RFI — English 9 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-15