Vasily Bodnar stated on 18 August in an interview reported by Super Express that the name of the Ukrainian unit of the UPA Heroes would not be changed. The Ambassador of Ukraine recognized the Polish position as being perceived in Kiev as an ultimatum. For Poland it is simply a hard test: support for the neighbour must not mean silence about Volyn.
Kiev leaves the name, Warsaw stays with the problem
Vasyl Bodnar made it clear. As Super Express reports after the morning conversation with RMF FM, Ukrainian ambassador to Poland said that the name of the Ukrainian unit of the name of the UPA Heroes would not be changed, due to the fact that Kiev treats it as a sovereign decision of the Ukrainian state. It's not just a small diplomatic noise. This is simply a dispute over the limits of friendship, in which 1 side remembers the victims, and the another 1 expects the memory to go to the background.
The case returns after Volodymyr Zelenski decree of 26 May 2026. The president of Ukraine has given a separate peculiar Operations Center to the "North" Armed Operations Force Ukraine forces honorary name of the UPA Heroes, which results from Issue No 440/2026 published by the Chancellery of the president of Ukraine. The justification was about restoring the national tradition of the military and the merits of the individual in defence of the state. In Poland these words could not pass without reaction.
UPA is not a neutral symbol
For Polish memory, UPA is not a distant shorthand from the textbook. The Institute of National Memory reminds that the Volynsk crime was an anti-Polish cultural cleansing of the character of genocide, conducted by Ukrainian nationalists from 1943 to 1945, besides outside Volyn, as it describes IPN portal dedicated to the Volyn Crime. These are facts, not the emotional exaggeration of Warsaw.
Therefore, earlier statements by the ambassador, in which he tried to separate the dispute over the UPA from Ukraine's right to its own decisions, raised specified a strong consequence in Poland. We've already written that Vasily Bodnar defended Ukrainian sovereignty, but Polish memory of UPA is not negotiable. The sovereignty of Kiev exists. There is besides the sovereignty of the Polish historical evaluation. No serious individual should request from Poles that in the name of the current alliance they swallow the cult of the formation liable for the murders on citizens of the Second Republic.
The word "ultimatum" reverses the burden of the case
Bodnar argued that the Polish request to change the name was received on the Ukrainian side as an ultimatum. This is simply a convenient formula, due to the fact that it carries the weight from Zelenski's decision to Warsaw's reaction. Only that Poland did not request Ukraine to renounce independence, the army or the right to defend itself against Russia. Poland demanded respect for the memory of its own citizens.
That's the point. A nation that helps its neighbour in the war has the right to say: our past must not be treated as a procedural obstacle. Poland opened borders, provided humanitarian, military and diplomatic aid. But no aid erases the memory account. An alliance with Ukraine against Russia makes sense erstwhile it is based on fact and not on silence.
A crisis that must not be powdered
The Ukrainian Ambassador acknowledged that the dispute was 1 of the most serious crises in the fresh relations between both countries. And it's hard to be surprised. In Poland, the name from UPA acts like a hit on a delicate nerve, due to the fact that behind it there are families, villages, churches, graves and decades of exhumation. This context will not vanish due to the fact that individual in Kiev calls the automatic decision.
The Polish state should talk calmly, but hard. More exhumations are needed, full recognition of victims, historical education on both sides of the border and a clear principle: the memory of murdered Poles is not anti-Ukrainian. Anti-Russian safety policy must not turn into historical amnesia. It would be a moral and political mistake.
National realism without rusophilia and without surrender
Russia will, of course, usage this dispute propagandaally. That's for sure. But the cure for Russian propaganda is not Polish silence, but fact given in a liable manner. Moscow uses both Ukrainian deficiency of sense and all hysteria on our side. Poland's answer must be different: factual, firm, not to be bought with inexpensive accusations of deficiency of solidarity.
The National diary besides wrote that Vasily Bodnar called for dialog and Poland is waiting for further exhumations of victims. dialog only makes sense if it leads to actions. If the name of the unit is left, and Polish reservations are brought to the "ultimatum", then Kiev sends a very bad signal to Warsaw.
The stakes for Poles are specific. The question is whether our state can support Ukraine against Russia at the same time and defend the fact about Polish victims. This is what a mature national policy looks like: no rusophilia, no cultural hostility, no kneeling before individual else's narrative. Polish memory is not an ultimatum. It's a duty.
Source: Super Express, RMF FM, Office of the president of Ukraine, IPN.
Source: Banderism / Ukraine (monitor PL)
