PM Juliia Svyrydenko will head the Ukrainian delegation at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC-2026) in Gdańsk, Poland
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that the absence of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Ukraine Recovery Conference on 25-26 June in Gdańsk ,Poland, may have a positive impact on the course of the event. During a press conference in Hungary, the Polish PM admitted that tensions between Polish President Karol Nawrocki and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He described the entire situation as an unnecessary escalation of emotion.
Ukraine Recovery Conference is a key event in Europe’s political agenda aimed at drumming up support for the country’s reconstruction process when and if Russia’s full-scale invasion ends.
On 23 June, the Ukrainian PM Juliia Svyrydenko announced on FB that she will head the Ukrainian delegation at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC-2026) in Gdańsk, which President Zelenskyy had initially been expected to attend.
"The Ukrainian team at the Conference will include business representatives, heads of state-owned companies, representatives of our communities from across the country and, of course, government officials and members of parliament. There will be numerous events at various levels aimed at strengthening Ukraine, and Poland, and all our partners, and Europe. The Ukrainian team expects the conference to result in concrete agreements that will enhance the country's defence capabilities and resilience, while also expanding economic cooperation with international partners,”she said.
"The decision that was made for the prime minister to lead Ukraine's delegation to this conference this year is entirely justified. It is intended to ensure that the conference stays within a pragmatic, economic and appropriate framework, with no excessive politicisation and no rows," Ukraine"s Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said.
History has sparked a major diplomatic crisis between Warsaw and Kyiv. President Zelenskyy named one of an elite special operations unit after "UPA Heroes". In response, Polish President Nawrocki announced intentions to strip Zelenskyy of Poland’s highest state Order of the White Eagle.
For Poland, the UPA, or the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, accused of a killing Poles in the 1940s on Volhynia ( ukr.Volyn. pol.Wolyń, before and in IIWW Polish, now Ukrainian terrytory), a historic region with deep Polish and Ukrainian roots. Officially, Polish historiography calls this the Volhynian Massacre. In July 2016, the Polish Sejm adopted a resolution recognising the Volyn tragedy as genocide "committed by Ukrainian nationalists against Poles".
For Ukraine, the UPA is a symbol of anti-Soviet and Anti-Nazi resistance and a heroic struggle for independence. Ukraine reminded - Ukrainians civilians were also killed in the Volyn tragedy by the Polish Home Army .
Ukrainian and Polish historians still are debating the organisers' purpose, who was to blame and how many civilians of both nationalities died.