The story is entirely fabricated: Ukraine has made no announcement about plans to build a UPA memorial complex near Lutsk, and propagandists are manipulating the subject to inflame Polish-Ukrainian tensions.
A video bearing the France 24 logo is spreading actively online — in both Russian- and English-language spaces — claiming that the Ukrainian government plans to build a UPA memorial complex near Lutsk, with construction scheduled to begin on July 11, the day Poland commemorates the victims of the Volhynia tragedy, and the project to be funded by the European Union under the Ukraine Facility Platform.
The story is entirely fabricated. Propagandists have once again produced a counterfeit video report attributed to a credible Western outlet: France 24 published no such video, as a basic keyword search on the outlet’s website confirms. No announcement of a UPA memorial complex appears on the President’s Office website or in the official communications of Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, who is also quoted in the fake report. The Ukraine Facility Platform has likewise made no mention of any forthcoming UPA memorial. The video itself further undermines its own credibility: over a montage of stock footage, an AI-generated voiceover mispronounces basic Ukrainian proper nouns, rendering Lutsk as “Latsk” and Svyrydenko as “Svayridenko.”
For context: the deterioration of Polish-Ukrainian relations began in late May 2026. On July 3, the foreign ministers of the two countries held talks, during which Ukraine proposed a crisis-management package — ministerial consultations, a new meeting of historians within the Polish-Ukrainian forum, and the involvement of religious figures in dialogue — while Poland reaffirmed the continuity of its military support for Ukraine.
The official position of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory — and therefore of the Ukrainian state — is to acknowledge the Volhynia tragedy as a harrowing chapter in shared history that cannot be silenced, while calling for honest, fact-based examination of all its circumstances. The Institute stresses that mass killings occurred on both sides and that the events were deliberately fueled by Nazi and Communist regimes seeking to destroy organized Polish and Ukrainian resistance. It also emphasizes that remembrance of the tragedy should serve reconciliation and the strengthening of both societies — not be weaponized to sow hostility. Russia is actively stoking the issue, both through fakes of this kind and through pro-Russian media operating in Poland.
For additional debunks on Polish-Ukrainian relations, see StopFake’s Manipulation: ‘Lviv Is a Polish City’ — Polish Fans Display Banner Amid Escalating Ukraine-Poland Tensions and Fake: Polish Schools Enrolling Ukrainian Children Will Not Teach the Volhynia Tragedy — United24.
