GRU plotting provocations to exploit Poland-Ukraine rift, Kyiv warns
Ukrainian intelligence has warned that Russia is planning to stage provocations using Polish symbols to deepen a damaging diplomatic rift between Warsaw and Kyiv during a major economic recovery conference.
Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation warned on Thursday that Russia’s GRU foreign military intelligence agency is preparing provocations using Polish symbols on Ukrainian soil. The operations are timed to coincide with the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC), a joint Polish-Ukrainian event focused on rebuilding the country's economy that began in Poland today. The state body stated the primary Russian objective is political destabilisation and driving a deeper wedge between the two allies.
The warning highlights the vulnerability of Europe's eastern flank to targeted psychological operations at a time when allied unity is under severe strain. The URC is a critical forum for securing international investment and mapping out Ukraine's post-war economic future. Disrupting the diplomatic relationship underlying the conference directly threatens European efforts to stabilise the region and secure a viable economic pathway for Kyiv.
Historical wounds reopened
The alleged Russian plot aims to exploit a bitter dispute that erupted in late May when President Volodymyr Zelensky named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). In Ukraine, the UPA is celebrated for resisting Soviet rule, but in Poland it is infamous for the Volhynia massacres, where around 100,000 ethnic Polish civilians, mostly women and children, were killed. Poland classifies the massacre as a genocide, a label Ukraine rejects.
Tensions escalated last Friday when Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest honour. In response, Zelensky cancelled his planned attendance at the URC, sending Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to lead the delegation instead. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev publicly celebrated the Polish decision, calling Zelensky a "Nazi-worshipping Kiev degenerate".
A pattern of cognitive warfare
The Centre for Countering Disinformation noted that the planned provocations follow a recent wave of fabricated stories designed to fuel bilateral hostility. These included false claims, circulated as Western media reports, that the director of the Auschwitz Museum had barred Zelensky from commemorative events, and that Kyiv planned to name more UPA units specifically to antagonise Warsaw.
Polish officials have increasingly warned of this strategy. Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski stated that "Russia is waging a full-scale cognitive war against us" aimed at efforts to "keep us in a constant state of polarisation". Polish authorities have recently arrested a Ukrainian teenager and charged three Polish citizens with conducting Russian-backed disinformation and vandalism operations targeting historical sites tied to Polish-Ukrainian relations.
