Ukraine's Zelensky honors troops under controversial flag

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, visited Kupiansk and Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region on Monday. There, he met with Ukrainian soldiers and presented them with decorations in honor of Sergeant's Day.

"The strength of our Ukrainian army lies in its people—those who serve with unwavering dedication and resilience," he emphasized in a statement posted on the platform X, sharing the recording from Kupiansk.

In the video shared online, Zelensky speaks with three flags behind him: the national flag, the city of Kupiansk flag, and, prominently in the center, the red-and-black flag associated with Ukrainian nationalists and used by the Banderites.

The red color on the flag symbolizes the blood shed for Ukraine, while the black represents the Ukrainian soil. The flag, which is used by Ukrainian nationalists OUN-B/UPA, is unequivocally associated in Poland with the Volhynia massacre—one of the most dramatic episodes of World War II—resulting in highly negative perceptions there.

This is particularly significant because a dispute has been ongoing between Warsaw and Kyiv since spring 2017 over a ban imposed by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) on searching for and exhuming the remains of Polish victims of wars and conflicts on Ukrainian territory.

Source: X, WP