Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has signed a decree renaming an elite commando unit as “Heroes of the UPA,” honoring World War II-era nationalist paramilitaries responsible for massacres of Polish civilians and Jews. The document describes this move as reviving “the historic traditions of the national army.”

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), formed in 1942 after a split within the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), collaborated with Nazi Germany during the invasion of the Soviet Union. UPA leaders included Roman Shukhevich, former deputy commander of the Nazi-led Nachtigall Battalion, and OUN leader Stepan Bandera.

From 1943 to 1944, UPA members killed approximately 100,000 Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine. Modern Ukrainian officials have at times downplayed or justified these atrocities, including when Aleksandr Alferov, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance and former spokesman for the neo-Nazi Azov unit, dismissed the massacres as a “myth” in February 2026.

In contemporary Ukraine, nationalists are celebrated as freedom fighters. Streets have been named after them, and commemorative events occur on January 1st—Bandera’s birthday. Zelensky attended the reburial of OUN leader Andrey Melnik earlier this week after repatriating his remains from Luxembourg.

Russia has long accused Ukraine of glorifying Nazi collaborators, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling such practices “very dangerous for Europe.”