The airport in Jasionka returned to Volodymyr Zelensky's favor

Dmytro Lytvyn, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, answered when asked by journalists on the WhatsApp group whether for the first time since June, when there was a cooling in Polish-Ukrainian relations, that the President of Ukraine was setting off on a business trip from the airport in Jasionka near Rzeszów, he replied: "He has already flown out."

Presidential spokesman Serhiy Nykyforov confirmed that this is the first flight of the Ukrainian leader to a third country from Polish territory since June this year. However, he recalled that the head of the Ukrainian state later visited Poland, among others. in July he met Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Lublin.

Dispute over "UPA heroes"

Let us recall: Volodymyr Zelensky stopped using the Rzeszów airport after the deterioration of Polish-Ukrainian relations, which resulted from his decision at the end of May to name one of the military units "UPA heroes".

It was assessed negatively by, among others, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and the Ministry of Diplomacy, and President Karol Nawrocki announced on June 19 that he had decided to revoke the Order of the White Eagle from the Ukrainian president. A day later, Zelensky sent the order to Warsaw via a courier company.

The Order of the White Eagle was also renounced by former presidents of Ukraine - Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko, and other Polish state decorations were returned by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Andriy Sybiha, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov, his deputy Ihor Zhovkva and the ambassador of Ukraine to Poland Vasyl Bodnar.

The dispute over the UPA and genocide in Volhynia

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) remains one of the most controversial topics in Polish-Ukrainian relations. According to Polish historians, in July 1943, UPA troops carried out coordinated attacks on approximately 150 towns inhabited by Poles in Volhynia, which became the culmination of a crime known in Poland as the Volhynian genocide. The perpetrators are members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists of Stepan Bandera's faction and the UPA subordinated to it.

Poland recognizes the crimes committed against the Polish population as genocide, while many Ukrainian historians and politicians interpret them as part of a broader Polish-Ukrainian conflict for which both sides were responsible. At the same time, in Ukrainian historical memory, the OUN and UPA are often perceived as symbols of the struggle for independence and post-war resistance against the Soviet Union. The Ukrainian document on the National Pantheon allows, among others, commemorating figures associated with these organizations.