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Vladimir Zelensky will skip a major event gathering of Kiev’s key backers in Poland to keep it free of\u00a0\u201cscandals,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0the Foreign Ministry has said. His absence is\u00a0linked to\u00a0 Kiev\u2019s\u00a0honoring\u00a0of nazi-collaborators who murdered over one hundred thousand polish men, women and children \u2013 in what Warsaw views as a genocide \u2013 during WW2.<\/p>\n Tensions between Ukraine and Poland \u2013 a key supporter of Kiev \u2013 escalated in recent weeks when Zelensky named a special-forces unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which collaborated with Nazi Germany during WWII and whose fighters killed tens of thousands of Polish civilians.<\/p>\n Polish President Karol Nawrocki responded by stripping Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland\u2019s highest honor, prompting several senior Ukrainian officials to renounce their own Polish honors.<\/p>\n At the time, Nawrocki argued that\u00a0\u201chistorical truth is not and can never be a bargaining chip\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and that\u00a0\u201cthe memory of the victims is the moral duty of the Polish state.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n On Tuesday, Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko confirmed that Zelensky will not be present at the Ukraine Recovery Conference June 25-26 in Gdansk, which brings together senior EU and NATO figures with Ukrainian politicians and numerous think tanks, and that she will lead the Ukrainian delegation.<\/p>\n Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tikhiy called the decision\u00a0\u201cabsolutely justified,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0adding:\u00a0\u201cIt is aimed at ensuring that the conference remains within a pragmatic, economic, and correct framework, without excessive politicization and without scandals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Tikhiy noted that Ukraine will be represented by top officials, expressing hope that\u00a0\u201cthe conference will be very successful, despite such unfriendly attitudes from the Polish president.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a fierce political rival of Nawrocki, said he will not be troubled by Zelensky\u2019s absence.\u00a0\u201cThere was a certain tension between the presidents and some disproportionate reactions on both sides, an unnecessary escalation of emotional tension,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he told reporters.\u00a0\u201cIt may even mean a more efficient conference, and I treat it as a gesture toward de-escalation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Tusk previously called the dispute a\u00a0\u201cstrategic mistake that will cost both sides: In business, geopolitically, and reputationally.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Moscow has welcomed Poland\u2019s pushback. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in late May that the nationalists being honored by Kiev are\u00a0\u201cabsolute bloody butchers\u201d<\/em>\u00a0that\u00a0\u201ckilled Poles [and] Jews, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n