The news that Volodymyr Zelensky is under pressure from Poland to rename a Ukrainian army unit after a Second World War figure has all the hallmarks of a slow-motion car crash. The unit in question, the SS Galizien division, was formed by the Nazis from Ukrainian volunteers. To call them 'collaborators' is to be generous; they were part of the machinery of genocide.
That Kyiv would even entertain such a name in 2023 is not merely tone-deaf. It is a gift to Vladimir Putin, a man who has spent the last year painting Ukraine as a nest of fascists. Poland, Ukraine's most loyal ally, is now publicly fuming.
The lesson of history is clear: when you start flirting with the ghosts of the past, you lose the present. Zelensky needs to realise that national identity cannot be built on the skulls of his neighbours. Drop the name.
Apologise to Warsaw. Then get back to the war. Or watch your coalition of the willing crumble like the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
