Ukraine has downgraded its representation at a key recovery forum in Poland by sending Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko instead of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in an effort to insulate the conference from a simmering diplomatic row.
Svyrydenko said on Tuesday that she would lead the Ukrainian delegation to the two-day Ukraine’s Recovery Conference, which opens on Thursday in Poland’s Baltic port of Gdansk.
“Our delegation has a clear mission: to secure concrete agreements that will strengthen Ukraine’s defence capabilities and resilience while expanding economic cooperation with our partners,” Svyrydenko said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine expects to sign several agreements with foreign partners, including on strengthening its energy infrastructure, which has been severely damaged by Russian airstrikes over the past year, she said.
Asked about Zelenskiy’s planned absence, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: “I’m not disappointed. From my perspective, this means the conference may even run more efficiently without unnecessary tensions, and I see it as a gesture to de-escalate tensions.”
Zelenskiy’s decision to skip the event follows a row between Ukraine and Poland over 20th-century history, after a Ukrainian military unit named itself after a nationalist unit that massacred Poles during World War Two.
The latest rupture came after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelenskiy of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state honour.
The move triggered a diplomatic backlash, with several top Ukrainian officials, including Zelenskiy and three former Ukrainian presidents, relinquishing their own Polish awards.
The recovery forum is the main annual international event dedicated to Ukraine’s reconstruction and was aimed at helping Polish businesses to win contracts to rebuild Ukraine once the war with Russia ends.
Now it is also about an attempt to save bilateral ties.
“To speak seriously, the Ukrainian government and parliamentary delegation should attend the conference and get down to work, doing their utmost to normalise bilateral relations,” said Iryna Geraschenko, a lawmaker from Ukraine’s opposition European Solidarity party.
“We depend on Polish logistics, and the Poles’ security today is ensured by the self-sacrifice and bravery of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
Tusk, a political opponent of President Nawrocki, has tried to calm the tensions, saying the government had worked to prepare 200 agreements for the conference and would ensure the job was done.
“We’re talking about hundreds of billions of dollars, and this is not Polish money,” Tusk said.
“It will also be money to be spent by Polish companies in Ukraine after the war ends. It is in the interests of Poland and Ukraine that this cooperation continues.”
(Reporting by Olena Harmash , Pawel Florkiewicz and Karol Badohal)
