Overview
- Polish President Karol Nawrocki revoked the Order of the White Eagle on June 19 in protest at Ukraine’s decision to give a special forces unit an honorific linked to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
- President Volodymyr Zelensky returned the medal to Warsaw by courier on June 20 and said the Polish action was driven by domestic political fights tied to upcoming elections.
- Nawrocki has denied the move was motivated by Polish politics and said the revocation responds to historical harms that the UPA inflicted on Poland.
- Poland’s prime minister warned the row was a strategic mistake, Ukrainian officials said Kyiv may take reciprocal steps, and several former Ukrainian presidents renounced their Polish awards.
- The dispute rests on contested memory of the UPA and the 1943–44 Volyn killings, a subject Poland regards as a national trauma and that now risks disrupting joint military cooperation, refugee arrangements, and Poland’s role in Ukraine’s reconstruction.