Poland strips Zelenskiy of top honour as WW2 dispute sours ties
WARSAW, June 19 (Reuters) – Poland’s president has decided to strip Volodymyr Zelenskiy of the country’s highest honor after the Ukrainian president sparked outrage by naming an army unit after the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which massacred Poles in World War II.
President Karol Nawrocki’s decision appeared likely to spark a serious diplomatic crisis between the neighbors, just days before a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction was held in Gdansk, Poland.
“In light of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s consent to name one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “Heroes of the UPA”… I have decided to cancel the Order of the White Eagle of the President of Ukraine,” Nawrocki said in a statement. he said.
“At this point, I would like to emphasize: This decision is not directed at the Ukrainian people. It does not imply a change in the strategic direction of Polish security policy.”
CHALLENGED RELATIONSHIPS
While Warsaw has been a strong supporter of Kiev’s war effort, public sentiment towards Ukraine has become increasingly negative in recent years due to frustration with refugees, disputes over grain imports, and the legacy of World War II-era massacres of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the decision a “strategic mistake”.
“We regret that the Polish side, instead of seeking solutions, decided to escalate this conflict to an unacceptable and inappropriate level,” he wrote on Facebook. “No president of another country will dictate our history to us.”
A government spokesman for Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who is Nawrocki’s political opponent and has been trying to defuse the dispute, could not immediately be reached for comment.
ORDER OF THE WHITE EAGLE
Former president Andrzej Duda awarded Zelenskiy the Order of the White Eagle in 2023 for his contributions to bilateral relations, democracy, peace and security in Europe and his “determination in defending inalienable human rights.”
But Nawrocki said in May that an advisory council should discuss revoking the honor after Zelenskiy signed a decree naming a Ukrainian special forces unit after the UPA, recognizing its contribution to the fight against Russian forces.
The decision caused outrage across the political spectrum in Poland. Former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa said he would no longer wear a badge bearing the Ukrainian flag and would not support Zelenskiy, although he still supports the nation in its fight against Russia.
Some Ukrainians see the UPA as heroes of the resistance against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and symbols of Kiev’s struggle for independence from Moscow.
But the UPA was also involved in the Volhynia massacres, a series of killings from 1943 to 1945 in which Poland says around 100,000 Poles were killed by Ukrainian nationalists. Thousands of Ukrainians also died in reprisal killings.
Kiev has previously said the name was chosen by soldiers who wanted to commemorate the UPA’s fight against Moscow and had no intention of angering Poland.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka, Alan Charlish, Ron Popeski, Karol Badohal; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Franklin Paul)
