{"id":489227,"date":"2026-06-22T02:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T02:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/489227\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T02:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T02:37:09","slug":"ukraine-war-briefing-dispute-over-second-world-war-army-unit-threatens-to-divide-poland-and-ukraine-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/489227\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war briefing: Dispute over second world war army unit threatens to divide Poland and Ukraine | Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A conflict between politicians in Poland \u2060and Ukraine is a strategic mistake that will harm both sides, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk \u2060has cautioned, \u2060as he seeks to \u200bdefuse a rekindled dispute over events that occurred during the second world war. Polish president Karol Nawrocki on Friday \u2060stripped Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the country\u2019s top honour<\/a>, prompting three former Ukrainian presidents and other senior officials \u2060to return their state awards to Poland. Nawrocki revoked the Order of \u200bthe White Eagle after \u200cZelenskyy angered many in Poland \u200cby renaming a Ukrainian army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, \u200cnationalists who massacred Poles during the second world war.<\/p>\n

\u201cWading into a conflict between politicians in Poland and Ukraine \u200cis a strategic mistake that will harm both sides: business-wise, geopolitically, and reputationally. And in politics, as we know, \u200ba mistake is worse than a crime,\u201d Tusk wrote in a post on X. The pro-European Tusk was elected prime minister in 2023, after leading a coalition that defeated the nationalist Law and Justice party with which Nawrocki is aligned.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy, in \u2060an interview posted on X, said Ukraine and Poland cannot \u200bbe \u201canything but \u200bpartners and friends,\u201d adding that a \u200bpolitical struggle could end in a \u201cvery dangerous escalation\u201d. \u201cOur service members \u200bchoose a \u200cheroic name for \u200btheir unit themselves, \u200band as president and supreme commander-in-chief, I must support them,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout Ukraine, no one will be able to defend Poland. It is simply impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials in Russia-occupied Crimea have suspended civilian gasoline sales as Ukraine increases attacks on fuel supplies. The Kremlin-appointed head of Crimea said Ukrainian strikes killed four people and wounded 28 others overnight. He said local petrol stations will now only sell fuel to government agencies. The Crimean peninsula has had periodic fuel shortages from Ukrainian strikes before, but the current crisis is the worst since its 2014 annexation. Social networks are filled with requests for fuel, and some speculators are selling gas at double the market price.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy described the attacks as part of Ukraine\u2019s \u201clong-range sanctions\u201d against Russia\u2019s energy infrastructure. Zelenskyy said in a statement that a Crimean oil depot, as well as an oil transport facility in Russia\u2019s southern Krasnodar region were among the targets. \u201cRussia understands only strength, and our long-range strength is certainly working for peace,\u201d he said. Separately, overnight Russian strikes in eastern Ukraine killed three people.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has in recent months also stepped up drone attacks on energy facilities in Russia, striking targets deep behind the frontlines. Last week, it hit a large refinery in Moscow twice. Ukraine says the attacks are aimed at denting oil revenues that Russia uses to fund the war. Some petrol stations in Russia, the world\u2019s third-biggest oil producer, introduced fuel rationing this month. Fuel exports have been banned since April. Energy Intelligence, a US-based energy research firm, said earlier this month that about a third of Russian oil refining capacity had gone offline because of Ukrainian strikes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A conflict between politicians in Poland \u2060and Ukraine is a strategic mistake that will harm both sides, Polish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-489227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}