UPA dispute spreads to the European Parliament: Polish MEP tears up flag, EP expresses regret over Zelensky's move

The dispute over historical memory between Ukraine and Poland this week reached all the way into the plenary of the European Parliament — Polish MEP Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik tore up the flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in protest, and MEPs ultimately adopted an amendment expressing regret over President Zelensky's move, who recently named an elite unit after the "heroes of the UPA" and pushed through a law on a national pantheon in Kyiv. Poland fears that the pantheon will also open the door to honoring UPA figures, whom it associates with the Volyn massacre. Warsaw, meanwhile, is also shifting emphasis toward Moscow — the minister coordinating Poland's secret services warned that the Kremlin is delighted by the rift between the two allies.

🔴 Latest developments (July 8)

• 08.07.The dispute has also spread to the plenary of the European Parliament. During Tuesday's debate on Ukraine's progress toward EU accession, Polish MEP Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik accused the UPA of "more than 360 methods of murdering civilians" — Poles, Jews, Czechs, Armenians, and Ukrainians themselves — and tore up the UPA flag right in the chamber in protest, saying that "Ukraine's march into the EU with genocide on its flags is a disgrace." On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted, as part of a broader resolution on Ukraine's accession process, an amendment expressing regret over Zelensky's "escalation" — naming an elite unit after the "heroes of the UPA." Onet ↗ Onet ↗
• 05.07.The Kremlin is exploiting the rift — the FSB has launched a disinformation campaign about Volyn. Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation (CPD) announced on July 5 that Russia's FSB is spreading falsified documents about the Volyn massacre. This is exactly the scenario Polish Minister Siemoniak warned about: Moscow is trying to deepen the rift between the two allies even further. Ukrainska Pravda ↗

Kyiv elevated the dispute into law

The Verkhovna Rada passed the law on the national pantheon by a vote of 287 out of 450. The memorial in Kyiv is meant to serve as a burial site for Ukrainian presidents and to honor significant historical figures, including those Kyiv considers fighters for independence. forum24.cz ↗

It is precisely this last part that irritates Warsaw. There is concern in Poland that the law opens up the possibility of also honoring UPA figures, whom a large part of Polish society associates with the Volyn massacre. The dispute is not new — it first flared up at the end of May, when Zelensky named a special forces unit in honor of the UPA heroes. The difference is that the symbolic gesture is now becoming a permanent state monument enshrined in law.

Read also: Kaczyński returns Ukrainian honor and wants to block Ukraine's EU accession. The UPA dispute has spread from the president to the Polish opposition

Warsaw shifts the focus to Moscow

While the Polish opposition, led by Kaczyński's PiS party, is escalating the dispute, the governing coalition has chosen a different tactic. Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister-coordinator of the secret services, stated that the entire rift is primarily a gift to the Kremlin. "Russia's dream, the dream of the Russian services, was and is to create as much tension as possible between Poland and Ukraine," he told RMF FM radio. teraz.sk ↗

According to him, Russia's information war against Poland has intensified in recent weeks via internet trolls and bots that artificially amplify the reach of the dispute. Siemoniak also warned against provocations targeting Ukrainian migrants in Poland and against Russian interest in military facilities and critical infrastructure. He did not rule out sabotage operations either. Ukrainian Pravda ↗

This framing is also supported by a finding reported by the Czech outlet Deník N, citing the portal Oko.press — namely, that the very idea of stripping Zelensky of the Polish honor first spread within pro-Russian circles and only later was picked up by official politics. Deník N ↗ At the same time, however, warning against the "Russian hand" is also a convenient weapon for the government against the domestic opposition — and the historical grievance of Volyn is real; it was not invented by Moscow.

The rift spills over into Czechia

Czechia has shown that the Polish precedent did not stay within its borders. The governing SPD movement proposed that President Petr Pavel strip Zelensky of the highest Czech honor, the Order of the White Lion — exactly following Poland's example, where President Karol Nawrocki stripped the Ukrainian leader of the Order of the White Eagle. forum24.cz ↗

The proposal, however, ran into trouble within the government itself. Czech Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Petr Macinka, leader of the Motorists party, rejected it, saying he would never propose anything like that. iDNES.cz ↗ In Andrej Babiš's three-party coalition (ANO, SPD, Motorists), the dispute over the Ukrainian honor thus exposed internal cracks even before it ever reached the president's desk.

The practical dimension of the rift continues to play out in Poland as well. Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed that Warsaw will not yet hand over MiG-29 fighter jets to Kyiv, because, according to him, Ukraine refused to provide drone technology. hnonline.sk ↗ The dispute over memory is thus also being projected onto military aid, at a time when Poland remains a key transit country for Western supplies to Kyiv.

What hotinfo is watching

• Whether Kyiv, in populating the pantheon, actually includes UPA figures, and how Warsaw reacts to specific names.
• Whether Polish President Nawrocki presents the announced restriction of contacts with Zelensky around July 11.
• Whether Czech President Pavel rejects the SPD's proposal just as Macinka did, or whether the dispute stirs up trouble within Babiš's coalition.
• Whether the handover of the MiG-29s, made conditional on Ukrainian drone technology, will be unfrozen.