The comments came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided to give a military unit an honorary title referring to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a nationalist force involved in the massacres of some 100,000 Polish civilians in the 1940s. Anger in Poland at Zelenskyy’s decision has soured relations between Kyiv and Warsaw, which has been one of Ukraine’s strongest backers since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. During a conference focusing on a NATO summit in Ankara next week, Sikorski said Ukraine had removed monuments to Lenin, unlike Russia, and added: “We hope Ukraine will show us that its heroes are people we can all agree on, not people who divide us.” When asked about ongoing negotiations with Ukrainian officials on how to ease tensions between the two countries he said: "In this case, more than ever, diplomacy prefers silence to public demonstrations." Kyiv has rejected outside pressure over whom it chooses to honor, while Polish leaders say reconciliation and respect for historical memory are needed to ensure the countries’ long-term partnership. Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on Tuesday warned that Kyiv’s handling of the spat over wartime history could complicate its path toward European Union membership. On Friday, Kosiniak-Kamysz said: “If you want to be friends with someone in the EU, you don’t cause them suffering… This is a fundamental principle of how cooperative organizations operate.”