Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy returned Poland’s highest state honour, the Order of the White Eagle, after its President Karol Nawrocki revoked the award, citing disapproval of the Kyiv leader’s decision to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which has been accused of massacring Poles.
Zelenskyy took to his X account, sharing a photo of the Polish order and a postal receipt addressing it to the Polish Presidential Office with a message that the Ukrainians believed the order “was meant for the Ukrainian People and our army”.
“Today, I sent the Order back to the President of Poland. I believe the future will confirm the respect Ukrainians deserve,” he wrote.
Zelenskyy also added that Ukraine was grateful to Poland for its support and would remain open to resolving historical differences.
“I am proud of our people and of EVERY Ukrainian warrior,” he said.
The then President of Poland Andrzej Duda had awarded Zelenskyy the order in 2023 for services to security, resilience, and the defence of human rights.
Reason behind the dispute
Zelenskyy had issued a decree on May 26, naming a unit of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces after the UPA, which was a wartime organisation that operated in the 1940s and 1950s. The decision garnered widespread criticism in Poland, which has long accused the UPA of ethnic cleansing and genocide of Poles. The organisation allegedly killed over 100,000 Poles, predominantly women, children, and the elderly, mainly in Nazi-occupied Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. The Polish Parliament officially recognised the actions of the UPA as a genocide in 2016.
However, Ukraine claims both UPA and Polish underground forces were involved in exchanging attacks, causing large-scale civilian casualties among both Poles and Ukrainians. Retaliatory operations by Polish forces led to an estimate of around 10,000 to 12,000 deaths of Ukrainians by 1945.
President Nawrocki shared a 13-minute address on social media, stating, “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.”
However, he clarified that revoking the honour would not minimise the country’s support for Ukraine in its efforts against Russia’s ongoing invasion. Poland has also been hosting millions of Ukrainian refugees displaced due to the war.
Zelenskyy defended the degree, stating that it was meant to restore military traditions and recognise UPA’s role in defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity and independence from Nazi Germany and Soviet forces.
