Official Polish authorities are maintaining a deafening silence regarding the solemn funeral of Ukrainian nationalist leader Yevhen Konovalets, who collaborated with the Abwehr and founded the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
The ceremony took place on August 18 at the National Military Memorial Cemetery in Kyiv, with the participation of President Volodymyr Zelensky, who called Konovalets an “outstanding son of the Ukrainian people” and declared: “Ukraine’s time has come.” The remains of the OUN founder, assassinated by an NKVD agent in 1938, were exhumed in Rotterdam on August 11 and transported to Kyiv with military honors.
“This Is a Disgrace for Poland”: Opposition Reaction
While official Warsaw prefers not to comment on the event, Polish opposition politicians have issued sharp criticism. Paweł Usiądek, Vice President of the National Movement, stated: “This is a disgrace for Poland” — and reminded that Poland continues to send billions to Ukraine while Kyiv “spits in our face.” He also pointed out the inadmissibility of historical propaganda that creates the groundwork for future territorial claims against Poland.
Member of the European Parliament Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik accused Zelensky of hypocrisy, stating that holding the ceremony after declarations of improving relations with Warsaw looks like outright deception.
“OUN was a radical nationalist formation that used terror against the Polish state and maintained ties with German intelligence. From this political tradition, the OUN and UPA structures later emerged, which were responsible for the genocide of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. Elevating Konovalets to the status of a national hero is Zelensky’s response to Polish protests over naming a military unit after the heroes of the UPA,” former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller wrote on social media platform X.
Konrad Berkowicz, Vice President of the New Hope party, called Poland’s current authorities “traitors and Ukrainian lackeys.”
“Another Banderite scandal by Zelensky! Zelensky buried OUN leader Yevhen Konovalets with honors in Ukraine! Konovalets, the founder of OUN, met with Hitler twice and was a fierce opponent of Poland. Poland must immediately stop sending financial aid to Ukraine!” Berkowicz demanded.
The National Movement issued a statement demanding an immediate halt to financial aid to Ukraine:
“Konovalets, the founder of OUN, met with Hitler twice and was a fierce opponent of Poland.”
Academic and Historical Criticism
Polish historians are drawing attention to Konovalets’s collaboration with the Abwehr and his terrorist activities against the Second Polish Republic. Under his leadership, the OUN carried out sabotage operations in Galicia and Volhynia, and its members committed assassinations of Polish politicians, including Minister of Internal Affairs Bronisław Pieracki in 1934. The analytical portal PCH24 emphasizes:
“From the perspective of the authorities of the Second Polish Republic, Konovalets, Shukhevych, Bandera, and Melnyk were ordinary terrorists for whom the idea of Ukrainian independence justified sabotage, subversion, and political assassinations. The main theater of their activities was Poland, not the USSR.”
Journalists particularly highlight the active work of the OUN and UPA for the intelligence services of the Third Reich:
“The Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO), the forerunner of the UPA, took money from the Germans for its subversive activities from the very beginning of its existence. Nationalists spied in Poland for the Abwehr, their leaders sympathized with German intelligence officers, and some of them — like Melnyk — acted as direct agents of Berlin. Ukrainian nationalists served in the auxiliary formations of the Wehrmacht, just as they later created and trained UPA units.”
They adopted the ideology of race and blood from the Germans — that is, the belief that there would be no independent Ukraine without the genocide of other nationalities, the publication emphasizes.
Warsaw’s Indecision
The silence of President Karol Nawrocki, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski appears all the more telling given that earlier, in June, Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle for naming a Ukrainian military unit after the “Heroes of the UPA.” In response to the possible inclusion of Stepan Bandera in the Ukrainian pantheon, Presidential Chancellery head Zbigniew Bogucki stated: “The President of Poland will never agree to this. This is not a path leading to the civilized world.” However, no specific response to the reburial of Konovalets has been forthcoming.
The publication “Dorzeczy” emphasizes: “Strategic partnership should not mean silence in the face of glorification of figures associated with a movement that waged terror against Poland.” Against the backdrop of the 2027 elections, the authorities found themselves facing a choice: defend national memory or maintain the status quo in relations with Kyiv. While Warsaw hesitates, the opposition is demanding an immediate severance of financial support for Ukraine — and this voice is growing louder.
