An 18-year-old Ukrainian man in Poland has been charged with writing graffiti praising UPA. He could face up to 10 years in prison.

In Poland, an 18-year-old Ukrainian was accused of placing inscriptions glorifying UPA and Stepan Bandera on buildings and memorial sites at the request of Russian special services.

Reuters writes about this.

The Ukrainian was detained by officers of the Internal Security Agency (ABW) of Poland. 18-year-old Illya K. was accused of 47 crimes that he committed from November 2024 to August 2025. Among them: desecration of monuments and preparation for sabotage using a drone.

The Polish agency said in a statement that the purpose of his actions was to incite interethnic tension between Poland and Ukraine. The Ukrainian faces a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.

Deterioration of relations between Ukraine and Poland

On May 26, Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree awarding the Separate Special Operations Center "North" of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine the honorary title "named after the Heroes of UPA". The document states that this was done "to restore the historical traditions of the national army".

This decision by the Ukrainian president caused outrage among Poles. And on June 19, incumbent President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Polandʼs highest state award, which he had been awarded by former Polish President Andrzej Duda. Zelensky later sent his order to Poland via “Nova Post”.

After that, three former Ukrainian presidents: Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Petro Poroshenko, as well as other Ukrainian high-ranking officials, refused the order. In addition, former deputy of the Polish Sejm Piotr Vogler refused the Golden Cross of Merit.

At the same time, Polish politicians began to refuse Ukrainian state awards. In particular, this decision was announced by former Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak and former Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński.

And former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki “as a sign of protest” transferred the Ukrainian Order of Yaroslav the Wise to the Museum of Memory of the Victims of the Volyn Tragedy in Chelm, Poland.

On July 3, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, at a meeting with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski, offered Poland a "package of anti-crisis steps" to regulate relations between the countries. These include consultations between the foreign ministries, a meeting of historians studying World War II, and the involvement of religious leaders of the countries in the dialogue.

On July 8, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Zelensky met with Nawrocki. This was their first known communication after Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle. The meeting lasted for over an hour.

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