Poland to build Warsaw memorial wall for Volhynia victims as historical dispute with Ukraine deepens
Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared on Saturday that a Wall of Remembrance with an eternal flame and the names of identified victims will be erected in Warsaw, one day before the anniversary of the 1943 'Bloody Sunday' in Volhynia.
A memorial with an eternal flame
Poland will raise a Wall of Remembrance in Warsaw inscribed with the names of Polish citizens killed during the Volhynia massacres, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced in a video message published on social media on Saturday. The memorial will include an eternal flame and list every victim found and identified. "The Republic will forget none of them," Tusk declared. The statement comes on the eve of the anniversary of 11 July 1943, known as Bloody Sunday, when units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) slaughtered thousands of Polish civilians in what is today northwestern Ukraine.
We will raise a Wall of Remembrance in Warsaw, with an eternal flame and the names of every victim found and identified. The Republic will forget none of them.
Tusk called the massacres "a genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists against Poles and Polish citizens of other nationalities." Between 1943 and 1945, between 70,000 and 100,000 Polish civilians were killed, according to Polish figures cited across multiple sources. Ukrainian reprisals caused up to 12,000 Ukrainian deaths, with some sources reporting a range of 15,000 to 20,000. Tusk stressed that those killed cannot remain anonymous or without a dignified burial.
- Bloody Sunday: UPA and OUN units massacre thousands of Polish civilians in Volhynia.
- Between 70,000 and 100,000 Polish civilians killed in Volhynia and Galicia; reprisals kill up to 12,000 to 20,000 Ukrainians.
- President Andrzej Duda awards Volodymyr Zelensky the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour.
- Zelensky authorises naming a Ukrainian special forces unit 'Heroes of the UPA'.
- President Karol Nawrocki revokes Zelensky's Order of the White Eagle in retaliation.
- Zelensky returns the Order of the White Eagle by post to Poland.
- Tusk announces the Wall of Remembrance in Warsaw on the eve of the Volhynia anniversary.
A diplomatic rupture over historical symbols
The historical dispute reignited in late May 2026, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky authorised giving the name 'Heroes of the UPA' to the 'North' operations centre of the Ukrainian special operations forces. In Ukraine, the UPA and OUN are viewed primarily as movements that fought for independence against the Red Army and the Soviet Union. Warsaw interprets them as perpetrators of ethnic cleansing against Polish civilians. Kiev also repatriated and reburied the remains of Andrii Melnyk, a leader of the OUN, an organisation whose members fought in SS formations and took part in the massacre of Jews and thousands of Polish civilians in Volhynia.
In retaliation, Polish President Karol Nawrocki revoked Zelensky's highest Polish state honour, the Order of the White Eagle, which had been awarded by the former Polish president Andrzej Duda in 2023. Zelensky returned the decoration by post on 20 June 2026. The Ukrainian president also did not attend a support summit for Kiev held in Poland shortly afterward, according to Ouest France.
The Europe of peace and mutual respect, the Europe reconciled after the Second World War, was possible thanks to the truth and calling things by their name. Whoever wants to join this community must be ready for this truth.
EU accession and the memory condition
Tusk, a former president of the European Council (2014-2019) and a staunch supporter of Kiev against Russia, used the announcement to tie Ukraine's EU path directly to the memory question. He stressed that the EU's post-war reconciliation was built on truth and that any country seeking membership must confront historical facts. "Memory and truth must help us build a better future: without hatred and without contempt," Tusk said, implicitly pressing Kiev to accept the Polish framing of the Volhynia events.
Despite Poland's role as a critical hub for Western military aid to Ukraine, the government suspended deliveries of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets that Ukrainian pilots can fly without dedicated training. The decision reflects the broader domestic political calculus: with legislative elections one year away, Tusk's centre-right government cannot cede the patriotic memory ground to the right-wing PiS opposition.
Public fatigue and Russian exploitation
Polish public opinion has grown more hostile toward Ukraine, driven by fatigue from hosting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and disputes over grain imports, according to Ouest France. The historical friction adds another layer to a relationship already strained by economic and social pressures. Russian troll factories are actively amplifying the tensions on Polish social media, the same report notes, turning a bilateral historical argument into a wedge in the Western alliance. While Poland remains one of Ukraine's foremost backers against Russian aggression, the memory wall announcement makes clear that Warsaw intends to pursue its own historical accounting regardless of the wartime partnership.
