Poland's Foreign Minister Sikorski apologises for airport‑naming gaffe

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski sparked criticism after suggesting on TV that the Rzeszów‑Jasionka airport should be named "of Victims of the UPA". He later discovered the airport already bears the name of the Ulm family – Polish victims of the Nazi genocide – and wrote that he had "learned the airport already has a historically appropriate name, the Ulm family, and rightly so".

Sikorski reiterated that naming a place after the UPA would have been preferable to revoking the White Eagle Order from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that "neither Ukraine nor Poland gained anything from this dispute". His remarks were condemned by members of the President’s office, including Paweł Szefernaker, who called Sikorski a "delinquent" for appearing unaware of the airport’s existing patronage.

The episode inflamed a broader Polish‑Ukrainian debate over wartime memory and the handling of military honours, prompting public polling that shows the Polish public divided on the issue.