Maria Zacharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of abroad Affairs, attacked Poland on the latest briefing for the aid of Ukraine worth over $4.5 billion and utilized the dispute about commemorating UPA. This is an effort to drive a wedge between Warsaw and Kiev. Poland should respond with a tough memory policy, not a Russian script.
Russian propaganda hits Polish memory
As she stated WP News, Maria Zacharowa stated during the Russian MFA briefing that Poland was to supply Ukraine with military aid worth more than $4.5 billion and in return receive commemoration of the people liable for the murders in Poles during planet War II. This quote is not just a diplomatic statement. It is an component of the Russian information war, which tries to exploit the real injury of Polish memory against Polish security.
Russia speaks the language of false concern. The Kremlin does not defend Polish victims of Volyn out of respect for historical truth. He does this due to the fact that he sees the tension between Warsaw and Kiev and wants to deepen it. The same mechanics was seen erstwhile Zacharowa threatened Poland for Nord Stream: Moscow turns roles, pretends to be an arbitrator of morality and hopes that Poles will forget who has been treating our region like a region of influence for years.
Volyn cannot be a Kremlin tool
Poland has the full right to request from Ukraine truth, exhumation, worthy burials and the end of the state cult of formations liable for murders on citizens of the Second Republic. By Institute of National Memory In 1943-1945 Ukrainian nationalists murdered 80 to 120 1000 Poles in Volyn and east Małopolska. It's not a delicate item in vicinity relationships. It's a national wound that must not be covered with diplomatic silence.
That's why Russian manipulation is so dangerous. Zacharova takes real Polish pain and puts it in the mouth of a state that itself built an empire on lies, deportations and violence. Moscow wants Polish anger to be directed exclusively at Kiev and not at Russian aggression, which has changed the safety of the full Central Europe since 2022.
Kiev makes a mistake, Warsaw must talk clearly
The dispute didn't come out of nowhere. In May 2026, the Polish MFA negatively assessed the decision to give 1 of the Ukrainian units the name “UPA heroes”, indicating that specified a decision hurts the memory of the victims and strikes a dialog between nations. She's been reporting it. Polish Press Agency. There was besides a state burial of Andrij Melnyk, 1 of the leaders of the CNS, at the National Military Cemetery close Kiev.
These are facts uncomfortable for supporters of unconditional support of Ukraine. The Polish right doesn't gotta pretend they're not there. Military and political assistance to Kiev cannot mean abdication from Polish memory. It must not mean a silent consent to the pedestal of symbols which in Poland associate with the genocide of our fellow countrymen.
Aid does not exempt from the national interest account
The scale of Polish support is huge. In July 2026, the head of the MON Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that the full cost of Polish grants made to Ukraine is around PLN 16.45 billion. Earlier, the Chancellery of the president of the Republic of Poland stated that the military support of Poland for the fighting Ukraine was about PLN 15 billion. It is money, equipment and hazard incurred by the Polish state and Polish taxpayers.
Therefore, Warsaw has a work to talk to Kiev hard. Not from a petent position. From the position of a country which has a real cost and has its own interests. erstwhile DN wrote that Ukraine asks Musk for StarlinkMilitary communications were at stake. In Polish-Ukrainian relations there is something wider at stake: safety from Russia, fact about victims and political maturity of both capitals.
Tough to Kiev, resistant to Moscow
The Polish answer should be double. In the face of Ukraine: clear conditions, force on exhumations, opposition to the worship of UPA, defence of the memory of victims. In the face of Russia: opposition to propaganda, which pretends to defend Poles only erstwhile it can hit the Polish right state with this.
There is no contradiction between a tough historical policy and the realism of security. The contradiction occurs only erstwhile Warsaw is silent towards Kiev or erstwhile Moscow is allowed to lead behind emotions. Poland has its own voice, its own memory and own account of national interest. Zacharova would like us to choose between the memory of Volyn and safety from Russia. The mature state chooses both: memory without surrender and safety without naivety.
Source: WP News, PAP, IPN, Chancellery of the president of Poland, BELTA.
Source: WP News
