Don’t travel to Poland: Volodymyr Zelenskyj.Image: keystone
June 23, 2026, 1:45 p.mJune 23, 2026, 1:45 p.m
Because of an escalating historical dispute with Poland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is not traveling to a reconstruction conference in Danzig (Gdansk).
Prime Minister Yulia Syrydenko said on Telegram that she would lead the Ukrainian delegation to the conference co-hosted with Poland on Thursday and Friday. The meeting will focus on the reconstruction of Ukraine with other invited heads of state and government.
Poland outraged by Kiev’s historical policy
Ukraine and Poland are close allies in the face of Russia’s war of aggression but have fallen apart over a dispute over their troubled history. Zelensky had named an army unit after the fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in World War II. The UPA murdered tens of thousands of Poles under German occupation in what is now western Ukraine, which is why the honor caused great outrage in Warsaw.
Karol Nawrocki withdrew a medal from Zelensky.Image: keystone
The Polish head of state Karol Nawrocki withdrew a Polish medal from Zelensky. Zelensky and other Ukrainian politicians then returned Polish awards. Sharp words flew back and forth between Warsaw and Kyiv. The conflict threatens to affect all areas of strategically important cooperation.
The dispute in Poland also has a domestic political side. The reconstruction conference is the responsibility of the left-liberal government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The right-wing populist Nawrocki is trying to make Tusk’s work more difficult; he is taking advantage of a growing Ukraine fatigue in Polish society.
Media call for prudence on both sides
Major media outlets in both countries called for prudence. “Our politicians should show wisdom and reason, look for agreement and a way out of the crisis,” it said in one call. It was published in Warsaw by, among others, “Gazeta Wyborcza” and the portal “Onet.pl”, and in Kiev by the news portal “Ukrajinska Prawda”. It was said that the dispute only benefits the common enemy Russia.
The conferences on the reconstruction of Ukraine (Ukraine Recovery Conference/URC) with representatives from politics and business have taken place annually at different locations since the first year of the war. Zelenskyj was connected in Lugano in 2022 and in London in 2023. He traveled personally for the 2024 conferences in Berlin and 2025 in Rome. (sda/dpa)