Volodymyr Zelensky has returned Poland’s highest honour.
The Ukrainian president said he sent back the Order of the White Eagle after Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki stripped him of the award.
Poland gave Zelensky the award in 2023 when Andrzej Duda was president. But ties frayed last month when Kyiv renamed a Ukrainian army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, UPA.
—Why the row exploded—
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In Ukraine, many see the 1940s-50s UPA as fighters for independence against the Soviets, Nazis, and Polish authorities. Its red-black flag flies on the front line today.
In Poland, the UPA means something else.
Warsaw accuses it of the Volhynia massacres of 1943-45, where about 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed.
Nawrocki called Kyiv’s move “outrageous”, “incomprehensible” and “deeply disappointing”.
“For the overwhelming majority of Polish society, the UPA remains… a formation responsible for brutal crimes,” he said.
Zelensky fired back on social media, saying Ukraine “remains open to all meaningful formats of engagement” to avoid clashing over “painful chapters of our shared past”.
He added Ukraine is “grateful to the Polish People”.
Three senior Ukrainian officials also returned Polish awards in solidarity.
*What it means for the war*
Both sides stressed the feud won’t hit military aid. Poland has hosted refugees and served as Ukraine’s main logistics hub since Russia’s invasion.
Polish PM Donald Tusk warned: “Any feud delights Putin.” He urged Zelensky and Nawrocki to “calm emotions, not stoke tensions”.
The timing is tense. Ukraine just started the first phase of EU membership talks in Luxembourg this week.
*Bottom line*: An honour returned. A wound reopened. But the alliance against Russia holds — for now.
Culled from BBC
