Kyiv is aware that the outside world reacts negatively to its honouring of units and use of symbols that originate from the Second World War. The Azov Brigade uses Nazi symbols such as the Wolfsangel. But now Zelensky has named a special unit after the “Heroes of the UPA”, a Ukrainian force that killed 100,000 Poles and a number of Jews in western Ukraine. Zelensky did this as recently as May of this year.

UPA stands for Ukrayins’ka Povstans’ka Armiya. In Poland, this force is notorious. And the massacres it committed are by no means forgotten.

What does Zelensky mean by naming a special unit after such a command, which recalls the Nazis’ Einsatzgruppen? He must know that it provokes outrage in the neighbouring country, which opened its arms to Ukrainians fleeing the war.

The new president, Karol Nawrocki, is a historian. He has now stripped Zelensky of Poland’s highest distinction, the Order of the White Eagle, which he received from Andrzej Duda in April 2023. Nawrocki said that the revocation was not directed at the Ukrainian people and that support for Ukraine remains unchanged, but that it is unacceptable to glorify “bandits and murderers”. Nawrocki enjoys broad support among Poles.

But the revival of the name UPA testifies that something is wrong with Zelensky and his circle. Instead of backing down, the government in Kyiv characterises Nawrocki’s action as “a strategic blunder”. Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called it “unjustified, impulsive and disrespectful” and said that he would return a Polish medal he had received.

Nawrocki took this step on Friday, the day before a conference is to be held in Poland on the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war.

Zelensky and his circle are now succeeding in drawing attention to the darker aspects of Ukraine’s history. Instead of condemning them, they honour the perpetrators. This raises serious questions about the moral disposition of Zelensky and his associates, who have so far escaped scrutiny at little cost.

The government in Kyiv says that the controversy surrounding the UPA serves only Putin’s interests, but that argument does not sell. Putin has accused Zelensky and his associates of being Nazis. Here, Zelensky is handing the Russian president strong cards.

Ukraine is about to begin preliminary negotiations on EU membership. Ukraine’s history during the Second World War casts long shadows. An active decision to honour the murderers is incompatible with membership.

But in Poland, the former President of the EU, Donald Tusk, is Prime Minister, and he has a far more relaxed attitude towards history than Nawrocki.

The language used in this affair says a great deal about the relationship of the EU and the media to history and the present. Previously, any association with the atrocities of the war would have resulted in ostracism. But not when it comes from Zelensky. The Western elite has opened a door to the past.

According to NTB and Grok, Nawrocki is called a nationalist, while Tusk is described more as a “centrist”. This terminology conceals deep antagonisms, in which those who control the language seek to control reality.

The UPA represented a form of nationalism that was murderous; the worst kind. When Zelensky revives the name UPA, he demonstrates that he wishes to carry on their tradition. It is he who is a nationalist in the tendentious sense of the word and deserves the label.

Yet it is Nawrocki, who merely defends the dead and his country, who receives the designation in its odious sense.

That says much about how political power today is built upon the distortion of history. Just as with the renaming of memorials to Soviet soldiers who took part in northern Norway during the Second World War.

What we are facing here is outright revisionism: pure historical rewriting.

One country that is closely monitoring the growth of revisionism in Europe is Israel. There the affair has received extensive coverage, and the Israelis clearly emphasise Kyiv’s rejection of Nawrocki.

TimesofIsrael.com:

On Saturday, Zelensky’s closest adviser and Ukraine’s ambassador to Warsaw followed Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha in saying that they would relinquish honours awarded by Poland as a sign of solidarity with the president.

They claimed that Nawrocki’s action benefited Russia, whose war against Ukraine is now in its fifth year.

“This is a gift to the Russian aggressor, who will certainly use it against both our countries,” Zelensky adviser Kyrylo Budanov said on social media.

He said he would return the Gold Cross of Merit for Officers of the Polish Order of Merit.

Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar said he would give up his Knight’s Cross of the Polish Order of Merit, describing Nawrocki’s action as “particularly painful and emotional”, and as “a gesture directed against the entire Ukrainian people”.

Sybiha said on Friday that he planned to return an honour he received from Poland in 2022 following the “unjustified, impulsive and disrespectful” decision.

Zelensky’s decree of appointment in May stated that the appointment was intended to restore the historical traditions of the national military and to recognise the unit’s efforts in defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity and independence.

The UPA fought for Ukraine’s independence against both Nazi German and Soviet forces. But the organisation has been accused of killing tens of thousands of Poles, most of them in the Nazi-occupied regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. In 2016, the Polish parliament recognised the crimes committed by the UPA as genocide.

Ukrainians maintain that armed groups on both sides, including the UPA and Polish resistance forces, were involved in attacks and reprisals that resulted in extensive civilian casualties among both Poles and Ukrainians.

According to some historical sources, the group also murdered thousands of Jews during the 1940s. Other historians, as well as supporters of the UPA, dispute this and argue that many Jews themselves served in the organisation’s ranks.

Poland and Ukraine had recently made progress on the issue of exhuming Polish victims. A meeting in December between the two presidents in Warsaw had signalled progress in historical reconciliation.

Nawrocki said that Kyiv’s “decision to glorify the UPA is not only scandalous”, but also “deeply disappointing”, and that it undermines the “reconciliation” between the two nations.

Tusk – whose government is at odds with Nawrocki – said that Zelensky’s choice was “a bad decision”, but that the Ukrainian leader had told him that “he had not the slightest intention of offending Poles”.

Tusk appealed to both nations “not to squander” the solidarity that has existed between the two countries since the start of the Russian invasion, and that “history must not destroy our future”.

NTB circles around the issue, and it is Nawrocki who receives the label “conservative nationalist”.

Polish President Strips Zelensky of Medal – Ukraine Reacts Strongly