Ukraine PM Heads to Poland amid Diplomatic Row

Ukraine is sending Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko instead of President Volodymyr Zelensky to a key recovery forum in Poland, in an effort to shield the event from a deepening diplomatic row.

Svyrydenko said she would lead the Ukrainian delegation to the two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference, which opens on Thursday in the Polish Baltic port of Gdansk.

“Our delegation has a clear mission: to secure concrete agreements that will strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities and resilience while expanding economic cooperation with our partners”, Svyrydenko said on Telegram.

Zelensky’s decision to skip the event comes after a dispute triggered in late May, when Ukraine reburied nationalist leader Andriy Melnyk near Kyiv and Zelensky granted the Ukrainian military’s Separate Special Operations Center “Pivnich” the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA”. Warsaw saw the moves as glorifying a movement linked to wartime massacres of Poles.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki later stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state honor, prompting several senior Ukrainian officials to relinquish their own Polish awards.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has tried to calm tensions, saying his government had prepared 200 agreements for the conference and would ensure the work was completed.

(Reuters, lud)