WARSAW: Poland’s nationalist President Karol Nawrocki told his Ukrai­nian counterpart Volody­myr Zelensky on Friday that Ukrainians failed to appreciate his country’s help for them as they fight off Russia’s invasion.

The accusation, made during a joint press conference, recalled a dramatic confrontation between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump at the White House in February, when US Vice President JD Vance accused the Ukrainian leader of lacking respect and being ungrateful for US support.

Poland has taken in more than a million refugees from Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale assault on the country in February 2022, and is among Kyiv’s main arms suppliers.

It is also the principal route for Western military and humanitarian support to its neighbour.

“Poles feel... that our effort, our multifaceted assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion has not been duly appreciated or understood,” Nawrocki said at a press conference during a visit to Warsaw by Zelensky.

“That is what I conveyed during a firm, honest, but very cordial and courteous conversation with President Zelensky.” Zelensky responded by insisting that “Ukraine has always been grateful to Poland and will remain so.” He said Ukraine was “defending Europe” against Russia at a very high human cost.

“Russia wants discord, wants to destroy such a strong alliance — the alliance of two nations, through many generations of Ukraine and Poland. We will not let them do it.” Nawrocki has previously demanded better cooperation concerning the massacres of around 100,000 Poles in the Volhynia region by Ukrainian nationalists between 1943 and 1945.

Nawrocki says the massacres constituted genocide and has accused Kyiv of refusing to acknowledge responsibility.

Warsaw also accuses it of dragging its feet on exhumations of the victims.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2025