Informal presidents' summit in Poland amid dispute with Zelenskyy

An informal meeting of the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Romania was held at the presidential residence in Jurata, hosted by Polish President Karol Nawrocki.

The meeting comes ahead of the upcoming Ankara NATO summit in Turkey.

“Joint positions ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara were discussed. During the talks, priorities were set for regional cooperation and for the security of the Baltic and Black Sea basins, and key issues in transatlantic relations were also discussed,” the Presidential Chancellery wrote on X.

The participants also focused on strengthening NATO’s eastern flank, developing Europe’s defence capabilities, and activity within the framework of the Bucharest Nine and the Three Seas Initiative.

According to the Chancellery, the presidents raised issues linked to the development of energy and transport infrastructure in the region. They also discussed the future of the European Union and the main challenges facing the bloc.

Just before the talks, the leaders visited the Naval Port in Gdynia.

Nausėda on mediating in the Polish-Ukrainian dispute

During the meeting, the issue of deteriorating relations between Poland and Ukraine was raised. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda had earlier declared his readiness to mediate between Warsaw and Kyiv, provided both sides showed such willingness.

“In an informal setting, we will also talk about this issue, which is extremely important to me,” the Lithuanian leader said. Nausėda added that he would like to hear President Nawrocki’s position on the roots of the conflict and ways to resolve it.

“The past matters, but the present is even more important, especially while Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine continues,” he stressed.

Background to the conflict

Tensions in Polish-Ukrainian relations escalated recently after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to name a military unit “Heroes of the UPA”.

The move drew criticism from, among others, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski.

In response to the decision, Nawrocki stripped Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Warsaw’s highest honour. The Ukrainian president returned the state decoration back to Warsaw by courier.

The dispute concerns the historical assessment of the activities of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), held responsible for the genocidal ethnic cleansing of the Polish population of Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland in 1943–45.

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