Poland and Ukraine's difficult history creates political minefield for Tusk

FILE PHOTO: Polish President Karol Nawrocki and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy inspect a guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony at the courtyard of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, December 19, 2025. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

WARSAW, June 25 - As policymakers discuss Ukraine's reconstruction in Poland on Thursday, the government in Warsaw is struggling to defuse tensions over history that could hamper collaboration as Kyiv eyes a path to peace and European Union membership.

President Karol Nawrocki's decision to strip Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Poland's top honour due to a dispute over the naming of an army unit after insurgents who massacred Poles in World War Two unleashed the biggest diplomatic crisis between the neighbours since Russia's 2022 invasion.

Zelenskiy opted not to attend Thursday's Ukraine Reconstruction Conference in the Baltic port city of Gdansk, as he sought to insulate the gathering from the row.

Nawrocki's move also marked a challenge to the pro-European coalition government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which will have to balance its more conciliatory approach to Kyiv with rising negativity about Ukraine among voters.

"It's plain to see that Nawrocki truly has it in his mind that he must make life difficult for the government at all costs, even at the expense of Poland's position, and he's certainly succeeding," said a source close to the government.

Nawrocki has rejected any suggestion that domestic politics played a part in his decision to strip President Zelenskiy of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour.

While Poles remain strong supporters of Kyiv's war effort, public sentiment towards Ukraine has grown increasingly negative in recent years due to weariness with refugees, disputes over grain imports and the legacy of the World War Two killings.

According to an SW Research poll for Rzeczpospolita daily, 51.9% of Poles said Zelenskiy's decision to name an army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) had harmed their attitude towards Ukraine.

Some Ukrainians regard the UPA as heroes for the resistance they mounted against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and as symbols of Kyiv's struggle for independence from Moscow.

But the UPA was also involved in the Volhynia massacres, a series of killings from 1943 to 1945 in which Poland says around 100,000 Poles were killed by Ukrainian nationalists. Thousands of Ukrainians also died in reprisal killings.

Tusk and Zelenskiy met in Brussels just a day before Nawrocki decided to strip the Ukrainian president of the Order