Zelenskiy to attend Gdańsk reconstruction conference as Warsaw weighs revoking his highest honour over UPA naming row

Zelenskiy’s planned visit

Ukrainian lawmaker Mykyta Poturajew of the ruling Servant of the People party told the Polish Press Agency on 14 June that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “is supposed to be there” and that Ukrainian participants are planning to travel to Gdańsk for the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026, scheduled for 25–26 June. He cautioned that he could not speak on the president’s behalf.

The trip, which had been clouded by leaks that Zelenskiy might stay away after the UPA naming controversy, would bring the Ukrainian leader to one of Poland’s key summer diplomatic events.

The UPA naming dispute

The strain dates back to late May, when Zelenskiy announced that the Independent Special Operations Centre “North” of the Ukrainian special forces would bear the name “Heroes of UPA.” The designation refers to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a formation Polish historiography associates with the 1943 Volhynia massacres. The move drew sharp criticism in Warsaw.

Poturajew pushed back against Polish condemnations, arguing that not all UPA members should be labelled bandits. “No one is about to go to war with Poland,” he said, before adding a rhetorical question that inflamed the Polish side: “Were all the boys from the AK bandits in that situation?”

He recalled that earlier gestures by former president Viktor Yushchenko — who awarded Hero of Ukraine titles to nationalist leaders Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych — did not trigger equally heated reactions in Poland. “This discussion went in the wrong direction a long time ago,” Poturajew said.

“No one is about to go to war with Poland. However, you cannot say that everyone in the UPA is a bandit. Were all the boys from the AK bandits in that situation?”

Poland’s response

Poland’s president Karol Nawrocki made the UPA unit name a personal preoccupation. He convened a meeting of the Chapter of the Order of the White Eagle on 8 June, with the revocation of Zelenskiy’s order on the agenda. The chapter delivered its opinion to Nawrocki, but it was not made public. The Chancellery of the President said a decision will be taken “in due course.”

For the Polish public, the UPA name touches a raw nerve: events in Volhynia in 1943 are regarded as an act of genocide, while Ukraine views them as a symmetrical armed conflict for which both sides bear equal responsibility. Ukrainians, in turn, tend to see the OUN and UPA primarily as anti-Soviet movements, given their post-war resistance against the USSR.

“The Chapter of the Order of the White Eagle has presented its opinion; the president will make a decision in due course.”

What the Gdańsk conference will address

Organisers state that the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026 will be centred on the sectors most battered by Russia’s aggression: energy, critical infrastructure and logistics. A special emphasis will be placed on strengthening Ukraine’s defence capacity. The gathering is meant to consolidate international support for the country’s reconstruction and to stimulate investment in the Ukrainian economy.

Despite the historical friction, Kyiv is signaling that it does not want a rift with Warsaw. Poturajew stressed that “no one is choosing war with Poland,” and his confirmation of Zelenskiy’s travel plans suggests both sides are trying to keep the diplomatic show on the road.