Ukraine, Poland smooth over WW2 dispute at Gdansk aid forum

Ukraine, Poland smooth over WW2 dispute at Gdansk aid forum June 25, 2026Ukraine is expecting to sign more than 160 defense, business and regional development agreements worth over €10 billion over the next couple of days, the country's prime minister, Yulia Syvyrdenko, said in Poland on Thursday. "The challenges facing our continent are existential," she said at the opening of the annual Ukraine Recovery Conference in the Baltic port city of Gdansk. "We're forced to to survive. This has become our superpower." Coinciding with the start of the conference, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry confirmed receipt of the first €3.2-billion ($3.63-billion) tranche of a €90-billion ($102-billion) European Union loan to Ukraine, which it intends to spend not only on defense and security but also on energy resilience. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, also in attendance, reasserted the EU's financial commitment to Ukraine and said a second tranche of €6 billion would follow "in the coming days" and would be dedicated to drone production. "Ukraine empowers European defense," said Syvyrdenko in an appeal for continued investment in her country. "And Ukraine empowers energy resilience." Poland: Zelenskyy stays away amid historic tensions Syvyrdenko is attending the conference in place of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has opted to stay away in a bid to reduce tensions between Poland and Ukraine over Second World War atrocities. Late last week, Poland's nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, stripped Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle – Poland's highest state honor – following the latter's decision to name a special forces unit after the World War II-era Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). While the UPA are regarded by some Ukrainians as heroes of the resistance to both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during and immediately after the Second World War, the nationalist partisan formation was also involved in the Volhynia massacres, a series of killings from 1943 to 1945 in which Warsaw says around 100,000 Poles were murdered. While Nawrocki and Polish nationalist parties have looked to stoke anti-Ukrainian sentiment, Prime Minister Donald Tusk attempted to smooth over the tensions. "We can build the future only on truth, on mutual respect, on an understanding of history," he said, adding that the choice of his hometown of Gdansk to host the conference was symbolic because it, too, had to be rebuilt following the devastation of WW2. "The condition for true, full unification has always been an understanding of one's own history and a genuine capacity and willingness for reconciliation." Ukrainian Prime Minister Svyrydenko also struck a friendly tone, thanking the Polish audience for their solidarity, including welcoming over one million Ukrainian refugees since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. "Thank you for your help when it was the most urgent time to support us," she said, without explicitly mentioning the historical spat. EU calls for investment in Ukraine Despite a recent opinion poll suggesting that almost 60% of Poles now oppose Ukraine's potential accession to the EU, Kyiv officially began EU membership negotiations on June 15. Rebuilding Ukraine's battered economy will cost an estimated $588 billion ($670 billion) over the next decade, the World Bank, the United Nations, the European Commission and the Ukrainian government said in February. To that end, Commission President Von der Leyen also said an investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine, backed by the EU, France, Germany and Poland, was "ready to go" and could potentially mobilize around €500 million this year alone. "The message is simple," she said, echoing Svyrydenko: "When you invest in Ukraine, you're not only investing in Ukraine's future; you are investing in Europe's future." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that public funding alone will never be enough to rebuild Ukraine but backed the fund which he said would be kick-started by an initial public package worth up to €220 million. "We are creating the confidence and the risk-sharing mechanism that private investors need to engage," he said. "By investing now and committing long-term capital, Europe is sending a clear message: we believe in Ukraine's future within the European family." And, despite the historical tensions over the UPA, Polish businesses represented at the conference in Gdansk do appear keen to benefit from their geographical proximity and invest in their neighbor once a peace deal is eventually achieved. "From the business side, we see no problems," one businessman, Michal Rzepnikowski, told the AFP news agency. "We want to help and develop business." Rzepnikowski, whose company Endolink SA ships Polish prosthetics into Ukraine, said the diplomatic row "does resonate in our relations with Ukraine and it does come up in conversations," but insisted that both sides understand that it is "not a priority during the war." Ukraine strikes Russian oil facilities Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Ukraine has continued to target Russian oil and gas facilities deep inside Russia itself. On Thursday, President Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian drones had hit oil refineries in Ufa, 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from the front line, and an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, 300 kilometers from Ukraine, in overnight strikes. He also claimed that Russia was deploying additional air defense systems to Moscow as well as to Valdai, a town about 500 kilometers northwest of the capital and the location of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's residences. "In the Moscow region alone, they have amassed hundreds of [air defense missile] launchers," Zelenskyy said in claims which could not be independently verified. "Nearly 90 launchers have been redeployed to Valdai from other regions of Russia." The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 269 Ukrainian drones from late Wednesday until early Thursday. Also on Wednesday night, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 90 long-range drones and a ballistic missile at Ukraine, striking a gas station in the northeastern Sumy region and injuring four people. On the ground in eastern Ukraine, Russian forces continue to push towards to their objective of conquering the entirety of the Donbas region, including one of Ukraine's so-called "fortress cities" in Donetsk oblast. But the advance is slow and costly, and Ukrainian forces have even recaptured small amounts of territory in some areas. "This year we've seen advances on the frontline," one returning Ukrainian soldier told AFP at the conference in Gdansk, adding: "We are looking with positivism into the future. We think we are getting there."