How Russia Tries to Divide Poland and Ukraine

Why Russia Needs This

The Polish-Ukrainian alliance is the Kremlin’s nightmare:

• Poland is the most active defender of Ukraine in the EU and NATO
• The main flow of military and humanitarian aid passes through Poland
• Poland has taken in over a million Ukrainian refugees
• Together, Poland and Ukraine are a barrier against Russian expansion westward

Therefore, Russia systematically works to destroy this alliance, using painful topics from shared history.

Do Ukrainians Worship Bandera?

The short answer: no.

What the Polls Say

According to KIIS (2022):

• Positively view Bandera — about 30% of Ukrainians (mostly in the west)
• Negatively — about 20%
• Neutral or have no opinion — about 50%

This is far from “worship” or a “national ideology.” For comparison: support for Bandera is lower than support for EU membership (over 80%).

Streets and Monuments

Yes, some cities in Western Ukraine have streets named after Bandera. But:

• France has streets named after Napoleon — who started wars with millions of victims
• Belgium has monuments to Leopold II — responsible for genocide in the Congo
• Great Britain has statues of Churchill — who caused the Bengal famine
• Russia has Lenin’s Mausoleum — the man who created the Gulag and the Red Terror

The existence of a street does not mean “worship.” It means a complex, unfinished discussion about one’s own history — a sign of a living society, not totalitarianism.

What Matters More

After 2022, for the absolute majority of Ukrainians, the main symbol is not Bandera but the Armed Forces of Ukraine, volunteers, and defenders. Bandera is a historical discussion. Defending the country is the present.

The Volhynia Tragedy: The Pain of Both Peoples

What Happened

1943 — during the Nazi occupation, mass killings of Polish civilians took place in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. Responsibility lies with UPA formations and local militants. Tens of thousands of Poles were killed (estimates: 50,000–100,000).

There were also retaliatory actions — killings of Ukrainians by Polish formations (the Home Army, battalions) — thousands of Ukrainians died.

Honest Acknowledgment

The Volhynia tragedy is a real crime that requires:

• Acknowledgment from the Ukrainian side — of what happened and who was responsible
• Honoring the memory of victims from both sides
• Joint research — by Polish and Ukrainian historians together
• Context — the Nazi occupation, the Soviet occupation, the manipulations of both regimes

Many Ukrainian politicians and public figures acknowledge the Volhynia tragedy. This is a painful but necessary process.

How Russia Manipulates

”Wedge” Tactics

Russia does not seek truth about Volhynia — it uses this topic as a weapon:

1. Exaggeration — presenting the history exclusively as “Ukrainians killed Poles” without context
2. Equating — “Bandera = UPA = Volhynia = modern Ukraine” (a logically incorrect chain)
3. Silencing its own crimes — Russia does not mention Katyn (the execution of 22,000 Polish officers by the NKVD)
4. Fake accounts — pro-Russian bots mass-publish provocative content in Polish and Ukrainian social media
5. Supporting radicals — financing and media support for marginal groups that incite hatred

Documented Operations

EUvsDisinfo and CEPA have documented:

• Coordinated campaigns in Polish social media with anti-Ukrainian content
• Fake “Polish” Telegram channels operated from Russia
• Manipulative articles on cloned sites of Polish media outlets (Operation Doppelganger)
• Increased anti-Ukrainian rhetoric ahead of important EU/NATO decisions

A Shared History of Suffering at Russia’s Hands

Poland and Ukraine have more shared pain from Russia than from each other:

What Russia Did to Poland

• Three Partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795) — Russia destroyed the Polish state
• Katyn (1940) — the NKVD executed 22,000 Polish officers, blaming the Nazis for decades
• The Warsaw Uprising (1944) — the Red Army stopped on the right bank of the Vistula and waited while the Nazis destroyed the insurgents
• Communist occupation (1945–1989) — 44 years of puppet rule
• The Smolensk crash (2010) — the death of President Kaczynski, and Russia still holds the plane wreckage

What Russia Did to Ukraine

• The Holodomor (1932–1933) — an artificial famine, millions of victims
• The Executed Renaissance — the destruction of Ukrainian intelligentsia
• Language bans — over 60 decrees against the Ukrainian language
• The full-scale invasion (2022) — the ongoing war

The Present: Alliance Despite Everything

Despite the difficult history, the reality of 2022–2025:

• Poland is No. 1 in Europe in the volume of military aid to Ukraine (relative to GDP)
• Over a million Ukrainians found refuge in Poland
• Polish volunteers are among the most active in helping Ukraine
• Joint defense projects and military cooperation
• The majority of Poles support aid to Ukraine, despite the difficult history

This is the answer to Russia: two peoples with a painful shared history choose the future, not hatred.

Conclusion

Russia does not want the truth about Volhynia or Bandera — it wants to destroy the Polish-Ukrainian alliance. Ukrainians do not “worship” Bandera — they are conducting a complex internal discussion about their history. The best way to honor the memory of Volhynia’s victims is not hatred between peoples, but joint resistance to the country that committed crimes against both.