Ukraine says a decision by the Polish president to strip Volodymyr Zelensky of Poland’s highest state honour only benefits Moscow, which has an interest in seeing Kyiv in conflict with its allies.
Polish president Karol Nawrocki announced on Friday that he will strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle over the Ukrainian leader’s decision to name a military unit after a Ukrainian paramilitary organisation accused of massacring Poles during the Second World War.
Former Polish president Andrzej Duda bestowed the award on Zelensky in 2023 for services to security, resilience and the defence of human rights.
Zelensky issued a decree on 26 May naming a military unit of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, which operated during the 1940s and 1950s and has been accused in Poland of mass killings.
“For the majority of Polish society, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army remains above all a formation responsible for cruel crimes against the citizens of the Polish Republic during World War II,” Nawrocki said in a 13-minute address on social media.
The decision to revoke the honour did not mean Poland’s support for Ukraine in its defence against Russia would decrease, Nawrocki said.
Ukrainian Presidential Office chief Kyrylo Budanov wrote on Telegram that Nawrocki’s decision was “an unfriendly act toward our people” and “a gift to the Moscow aggressor, which will certainly use it against both of our countries.”
Ukraine foreign minister Andrii Sybiha called the decision “a strategic mistake by the president of Poland, one that benefits only Moscow.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar said the decision was “especially painful” as Ukrainians battle missile and drone attacks.
All three Ukrainian officials said they would return orders issued to them by the Polish state.
Poland is scheduled to host a major event on Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction next week, which Zelensky is expected to attend.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, a political rival of Nawrocki, urged the two leaders to “calm emotions, not stoke tensions.”
“The front line runs elsewhere,” Tusk wrote on social media Friday night, adding that the conflict between Poland and Ukraine “delights Putin and shocks our allies.”
Zelensky’s May decree said the designation was meant to restore the historical traditions of the national military and recognise the unit’s performance in defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity and independence.
The UPA fought for Ukrainian independence against both Nazi German and Soviet forces. But it has been accused of killing tens of thousands of Poles, most in the Nazi-occupied regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. In 2016, the Polish Parliament recognised the crimes committed by UPA as genocide.
Ukrainians say armed formations on both sides, including the UPA and Polish underground forces, were involved in attacks and reprisals that led to large-scale civilian casualties among Poles and Ukrainians.
Poland and Ukraine had recently made progress on the issue of exhumation of Polish victims. A December meeting between the two presidents in Warsaw had signalled progress on historical reconciliation.
