Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation has warned that Russia may be planning to exploit current tensions between Poland and Ukraine by “preparing provocations using Polish symbols…on the territory of Ukraine”.

It says that Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU, has been tasked with carrying out the operation during the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) that began in Poland today.

Poland and Ukraine have been locked in a diplomatic dispute since the end of May, when President Volodymyr Zelensky named a military unit after the “heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)”.

In Ukraine, the UPA is remembered primarily for its role in fighting for Ukrainian independence from Moscow-imposed Soviet rule during and after World War Two.

However, in Poland, it is associated with the Volhynia massacres, in which the UPA led the slaughter of around 100,000 ethnic Polish civilians, mostly women and children. Poland regards those events as a genocide, though Ukraine has rejected that label.

On Friday last week, after efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to the situation had failed, Poland’s president, Karol Nawrocki, followed through on his earlier pledge to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honour.

That in turn prompted an angry response in Ukraine, including Zelensky cancelling plans to attend the URC, which is being jointly organised by the Polish and Ukrainian governments. Ukraine’s prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, is instead leading the country’s delegation at the event.

Nawrocki’s decision was, however, met with delight in Russia, where Dmitry Medvedev, the former president and current chairman of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, celebrated that “Poland’s president has finally stripped the Nazi-worshipping Kiev degenerate of the Order of the White Eagle”.

In a statement published early on Thursday, Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, a state body, warned that “Russia may be preparing provocations using Polish symbols, and intends to carry them out on the territory of Ukraine” while the URC is taking place.

“According to available information, the GRU of Russia has been tasked with this mission,” they added. “The main goal of the enemy is political destabilisation, creating tension and a rift between Poland and Ukraine.”

The centre’s warning comes just two days after it reported that Russia has “launched a series of fake stories to fuel hostility between Ukraine and Poland”, falsely presenting them as coming from well-known Western media outlets.

They included false claims that the director of the Auschwitz Museum, a Polish state institution, had called for Zelensky not to be invited to commemorative events because of his “glorification of Nazis”, and that Zelensky would name more military units after the UPA “to spite Poland”.

Russia has long sought to exacerbate tensions between Poland and Ukraine, especially regarding historical issues. It stepped up those efforts in 2022, when Poland became one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters in its defence against Russian aggression and welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees.

Last year, a Ukrainian teenager was arrested on suspicion of working on behalf of Russia to vandalise a memorial to Poles massacred by Ukrainians. Last month, Poland charged three of its own citizens with working on behalf of Russian intelligence to spread disinformation intended to evoke support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, warned that “Russia is waging a full-scale cognitive war against us”, including efforts to “keep us in a constant state of polarisation”.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.