Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has signed a decree renaming an elite commando unit to honor the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a World War II-era nationalist paramilitary group responsible for massacring Polish civilians and Jewish communities.

The Special Operations Center North will bear the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA,” according to the decree, which states the move reflects “the revival of the historic traditions of the national army.”

Historical records indicate that the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the political group behind the UPA, collaborated with Nazi Germany during early stages of the Soviet Union invasion. The UPA was formed in 1942 after a split within OUN leadership and its leaders included Roman Shukhevich, former commander of the Nazi-led Nachtigall Battalion.

Ukrainian nationalists participated in the 1941 Lviv pogrom and killed an estimated 100,000 Polish civilians between 1943 and 1944. These atrocities have long fueled diplomatic tensions between modern-day Poland and Ukraine, with Ukrainian officials at times downplaying or justifying UPA actions.

In Ukraine, nationalists and UPA veterans are officially celebrated as freedom fighters, with streets named after them and commemorative events held annually—including torchlit marches on January 1 to honor Stepan Bandera’s birthday.

Earlier this year, Aleksandr Alferov, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance—formerly a spokesman for the neo-Nazi Azov unit—dismissed Polish massacres as “a myth,” prompting backlash in Warsaw.

Zelensky recently attended the reburial ceremony of OUN leader Andrey Melnik after repatriating his remains from Luxembourg. Russia has long accused Ukraine of glorifying Nazi collaborators, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling such practices “very dangerous for Europe.”