Zelensky and Kirill Budanov declared that nobody will dictate to Ukrainians who they’re allowed to honor in a retort to Poland after President Karol Nawrocki revoked the Order of the White Eagle from Zelensky for his state-level glorification of the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits. This coincided with Zelensky submitting a bill to the Rada for the creation of a “national pantheon”, which was swiftly approved, thus prompting Nawrocki’s spokesman to condemn this development as an “escalatory step” in their dispute.
Zelensky already repatriated and reburied the remains of former OUN leader Andrey Melnik just prior to naming an elite commando unit in honor of the UPA so Poles expect that other genocidaires like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich will be eternally glorified in Ukraine’s “national pantheon”. That would destroy Polish-Ukrainian political ties indefinitely even though Poland would probably still continue facilitating NATO’s military-technical exports to Ukraine until at least the end of the ongoing hostilities.
Deputy Speaker of the Rada Olena Kondratiuk confirmed that her institution will pass separate laws for each individual who’ll be honored in their “national pantheon”, which could allow Zelensky to pass off those two Nazi collaborators’ glorifications as “the democratic will of the people”. On the flip side, that would remove any lingering doubt from the most delusional Poles that Ukraine has indeed transformed into an anti-Polish state, which wasn’t inevitable but was helped along by Germany as explained here.
Political ties would thus never be the same if the Rada approved the glorification of Bandera and Shukhevich in the “national pantheon” with the reburial of their repatriated remains. “Poland Could Quickly Denazify Ukraine Without Firing A Single Shot But Tusk Refuses To Do So” by threatening to end Poland’s role in facilitating the export of 90% of NATO’s military-technical equipment to Ukraine. If Ukraine didn’t comply, and Tusk went through with it, then Zelensky would likely crawl back within days.
Since Tusk lacks the political will to do this, it should be assumed that those two Nazi collaborators will become part of Ukraine’s “national pantheon” sometime in the future, but the EU isn’t expected to flinch since the bloc’s German leader is now the country’s new military patron (behind the US of course). This is a crucial part of its grand strategy as explained here, especially vis-à-vis Poland, so Berlin won’t balk at continuing to support Kiev despite its inevitable glorification of genocidal Nazi collaborators.
Poland is thus poised to become diplomatically isolated in Europe over this issue, which will certainly come as a shock to most Poles, who expected solidarity with Poland’s struggle against Ukraine over the historical truth of the Volhynia Genocide after all that it’s done for the EU and NATO over the decades. The resultant disappointment could easily translate into an overwhelming victory for the conservative and populist opponents of the ruling pro-EU liberal coalition after fall 2027’s next Sejm elections.
The only way to avert an electoral bloodbath would be for the liberals to compete with their opponents over who has the hardest line towards Ukraine, but Tusk lacks the political will since he’s a pro-German Ukrainophile, so his entire coalition can be considered lame ducks for all practical purposes. It’ll take around 15 months, but the impending return of the conservatives to power (likely in a coalition with the populists) would solidify the revived Polish-Ukrainian rivalry as the region’s new political reality.
