Zelensky to miss Ukraine recovery conference in Poland amid World War II dispute

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will not attend this year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference in Poland, as tensions between Kyiv and Warsaw deepen over a dispute tied to the memory of World War II.

The annual conference, which opens on Thursday in Gdansk, is expected to bring together officials and business figures to discuss Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction. But the event has been overshadowed by a diplomatic rift between the two neighbouring allies.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Tuesday that she would head Ukraine’s delegation to the conference, effectively confirming Zelensky’s absence.

Honours row deepens diplomatic tensions

The latest escalation followed a move by Polish President Karol Nawrocki, who last week revoked the White Eagle Order previously awarded to Zelensky. The decision came after Zelensky named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, a World War II-era force that is regarded in Poland as responsible for the killing of thousands of Poles in the Volyn region of western Ukraine.

In Ukraine, however, the UPA is widely viewed as a symbol of the country’s independence struggle against Soviet, Nazi and Polish rule.

Over the weekend, Zelensky returned the Polish state honour in a symbolic response. Former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko also sent back their awards in what was presented as a gesture of solidarity.

War-time alliance tested by historical grievances

During the weekend, Zelensky accused Poland’s political establishment of seeking domestic advantage from the dispute and of encouraging anti-Ukrainian feeling.

The disagreement has strained ties between two countries that have otherwise maintained close cooperation since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth year. Poland has been one of Kyiv’s strongest backers during the war, hosting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and serving as a major logistics centre for Western assistance.

Despite that support, relations between Warsaw and Kyiv have repeatedly come under pressure over differing views of the World War II legacy.