Overview
- Polish President Karol Nawrocki announced on Friday that he revoked the Order of the White Eagle he had awarded to Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Kyiv approved naming a Ukrainian special forces unit for the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
- Ukrainian President Zelenskyy sent the decoration back to Poland on Saturday and posted a photo of the medal being packed for shipment to express regret for hurt caused while keeping channels of cooperation open.
- Several senior Ukrainian officials, including the foreign minister and the president’s chief of staff, said they would return or renounce Polish awards in solidarity with Zelenskyy and to protest what they called a decision that benefits Moscow.
- Polish leaders are divided on the row, with nationalist President Nawrocki stressing historical memory and Prime Minister Donald Tusk urging calm and warning that a bilateral clash could damage support for Ukraine and please Russia.
- The dispute centers on the contested legacy of the UPA, which many Ukrainians view as anti‑Soviet fighters while Poland recalls mass killings in Volhynia that its parliament labeled genocide in 2016, and the row has already lowered public goodwill in Poland and risks complicating an upcoming reconstruction conference in Gdańsk.