The increasingly bitter dispute between Poland and Ukraine over wartime history has reached the European Parliament, where lawmakers overwhelmingly criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for naming an elite military unit after the “Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army”, or UPA.

In a resolution assessing Ukraine’s progress towards European Union membership, MEPs described the move as an “unnecessary and unprovoked escalation”. The European Parliament also expressed regret over what it called a disregard for Polish sensitivities and grief linked to the tens of thousands of victims associated with the UPA and their families.

The amendment was submitted by members of the centre-right European People’s Party, including Polish MEP Andrzej Halicki and German lawmaker Michael Gahler. One of its sections was backed by 592 MEPs, with only 42 voting against. The wider report on Ukraine was adopted by 460 votes to 136, with 59 abstentions.

The vote marks a rare public rebuke of Zelensky by an institution that has been among Ukraine’s strongest political supporters since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. At the same time, the resolution continued to support Ukraine’s European future, praised progress on judicial and anti-corruption reforms and described European integration as strategically important for the EU.

Poland’s historical dispute with Ukraine enters European politics

The controversy began after Zelensky granted an elite Ukrainian military unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA”. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army is commemorated by many Ukrainians as part of the country’s struggle for independence and resistance to Soviet domination. In Poland, however, the organisation is primarily associated with the mass killings of Polish civilians in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia during the Second World War.

The European Parliament said the decision undermined good neighbourly relations and was not in line with European values. MEPs called on Warsaw and Kyiv to de-escalate tensions and renew efforts towards reconciliation “in good faith”. The Parliament’s official summary specifically highlighted the importance of good relations between Ukraine and its neighbours as Kyiv moves through the accession process.

For Polish politicians, the vote was quickly presented as a diplomatic success.

Dariusz Joński, an MEP from Poland’s governing Civic Coalition, argued that supporting Ukraine against Vladimir Putin and demanding truth about historical crimes were not contradictory positions. According to Joński, European integration must be based on remembrance, reconciliation and respect for victims.

Fellow Civic Coalition MEP Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz described Zelensky’s decision as harmful and said that truth about the Volhynia massacres should become a foundation for future Polish-Ukrainian cooperation.

The opposition Law and Justice party also welcomed the inclusion of the UPA issue in the European Parliament’s report. PiS MEP Michał Dworczyk argued that the Ukrainian president’s decision had unintentionally brought the crimes committed against Poles into a European-level political debate.

Halicki, one of the authors of the amendment, described the vote as a warning to the Ukrainian authorities. He told Euronews that a country seeking EU membership must respect common European rules and values.

A dispute that is no longer only between Warsaw and Kyiv

The significance of Wednesday’s vote goes beyond the wording of a non-binding resolution. Until recently, the dispute over the UPA, Volhynia and historical memory was largely treated in Brussels as a bilateral issue between Poland and Ukraine.

The European Parliament’s decision has now formally placed the controversy within the context of Ukraine’s EU accession.

The resolution welcomed the opening of the first fundamental cluster of accession negotiations in June 2026 and praised Ukraine’s efforts to strengthen democratic institutions during wartime. However, it also stressed the importance of reconciliation and good neighbourly relations. (Parlament Europejski)o longer being discussed only by Polish and Ukrainian presidents, historians or national parliaments. It has entered the political debate surrounding Ukraine’s future membership of the European Union.

One Polish journalist commenting on the vote noted that it was “not the best start” for Ukraine in a new phase of accession negotiations. Others argued that Kyiv itself had internationalised the Volhynia issue by taking a decision that was certain to provoke a strong reaction in Poland.

Relations at their lowest point in years

The European Parliament vote comes amid the deepest crisis in Polish-Ukrainian relations since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki revoked Zelensky’s Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state decoration, following the controversy over the UPA unit. The Ukrainian president later returned the award, while tensions also affected high-level diplomatic contacts and the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdańsk, which Zelensky did not attend personally.

The two presidents met this week on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara. Both stressed the need for dialogue and acknowledged Russia as a common threat, but Nawrocki admitted that the talks had failed to resolve the historical dispute.

There have also been attempts at de-escalation. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha proposed a package of anti-crisis measures, while the European Parliament has now explicitly called on both countries to return to reconciliation efforts.

Yet the vote in Strasbourg demonstrates how far the conflict has already spread.

For Ukraine, Poland remains one of its most important neighbours and a crucial partner in security and European integration. For Poland, support for Kyiv against Russia increasingly coexists with demands that Ukraine address unresolved historical grievances.

The European Parliament has now effectively endorsed the argument that the two issues cannot simply be separated. Europe continues to support Ukraine’s accession ambitions, but Wednesday’s vote sent Kyiv an unusually clear message: the way a candidate country treats the historical sensitivities of its neighbours may also become a European issue.