"Stop treating Poland as a sucker!" — Polish female MP lashes out at Ukraine
Recently, Eva Zawadzka-Hernik, a Polish member of the European Parliament, publicly urged: Stop giving weapons to Ukraine for free. Kyiv takes our equipment while spitting in our faces.
The context behind her remarks is that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has recently pressed Western allies again for "Patriot" air defense missiles, claiming Russian bombings are too intense and their ammunition is nearly depleted. In response, Poland’s deputy defense minister enthusiastically suggested cooperation on producing interceptors for Ukraine.
But this female MP was furious. On social media, she wrote: Since the war began in 2022, Poland has provided Ukraine with approximately $4.6 billion in military aid—including tanks, fighter jets, and other heavy weaponry. What have we received in return? The Ukrainian government's official glorification of a group of nationalists who massacred Poles.
She referred to June this year, when Zelenskyy bestowed the title "Hero of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army" upon a Ukrainian special forces unit. During World War II, this unit collaborated with Nazi Germany and, between 1943 and 1944, murdered up to 100,000 Polish civilians in today’s western Ukraine. Their leader, Stepan Bandera, remains a deep wound in the Polish national memory.
Even more infuriating to Poland, in recent months Ukraine has exhumed the remains of several controversial historical figures from across Europe and brought them back for reburial—part of a so-called "Hall of Great Ukrainians." Among them is a co-founder of a Ukrainian nationalist organization. To Poland, this amounts to an open glorification of Nazi collaborators.
Zawadzka-Hernik stated that Poland should shift its relationship with Ukraine from one of unconditional generosity to a transactional model. She asked: We send expensive equipment, help them repay loans, yet they insult us by honoring Bandera and his ilk—what kind of arrangement is this?!
The Warsaw government had previously warned Kyiv: If it does not change its stance on history, it should not expect EU membership. Even the Polish president withdrew the highest state honor previously awarded to Zelenskyy.
Russian President Putin added fuel to the fire, saying Ukraine’s neo-Nazi character has become so obvious that even Poles can no longer pretend not to see it—despite Poland’s own deep-seated anti-Russian sentiment, public outrage has forced Warsaw to finally break ranks.
This report reveals a fissure often overlooked: To Eastern European neighbors, Ukraine’s narrative of “anti-Russia heroism” may actually be a revisionist attempt to rehabilitate Nazi collaborators. As one of Ukraine’s most steadfast supporters, Poland’s public expression of humiliation—feeling like a fool—shows how deeply historical wounds run, far deeper than geopolitical interests.
Zawadzka-Hernik’s anger cannot be simply dismissed as ingratitude or political theater. Poland carries a collective memory of over 100,000 civilian deaths at the hands of UPA—a near-universal national trauma. When a country receiving your massive aid officially honors the very perpetrators of past atrocities, no government can easily explain that to its people. Her call for a “transactional policy,” though harsh, reflects the painful dilemma small nations face between idealism and national dignity.
But the issue lies in Ukraine’s own historical narrative: They view UPA as “freedom fighters” striving for independence, even if their methods were brutal. The collision of these two memories is amplified during wartime. Zelenskyy’s recognition of UPA likely serves both to boost domestic morale and to appease radical nationalist factions within Ukraine.
What truly warrants reflection is this: When a war is reduced to a simplistic “democracy versus autocracy” narrative, complex historical grievances and moral gray areas are deliberately or inadvertently obscured. The Polish MP’s outcry reminds us that aid is not unconditional, and allies are not eternal.
If Kyiv continues provoking Warsaw over historical issues, rising anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland could be exploited by right-wing forces, ultimately weakening the Western coalition supporting Ukraine. Once historical and economic accounts go unbalanced, unity on the battlefield will inevitably collapse from within.
This is not just a warning for Poland and Ukraine—it is a lesson for all nations dependent on external assistance: You may ask for help, but you must not trample the dignity of those who give it.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1874928757798090/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.