Kyiv-Warsaw rift deepens as Poland revokes Zelenskiy honour over WW2 history

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Poland stripped its highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle, from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for renaming his country’s military units that has been accused of massacring Poles during World War Two. — AFP pic

WARSAW, June 20 — Poland’s president has decided to strip Volodymyr Zelenskiy of the country’s top honour after the Ukrainian president caused outrage by renaming an army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), nationalists who massacred Poles during World War Two.

President Karol Nawrocki’s decision looked likely to unleash a severe diplomatic crisis between the neighbours just days ahead of a conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction in the Polish city of Gdansk.

“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 revoke the Order of the White Eagle from the President of Ukraine,” Nawrocki said in a statement. 

“At this point, I would like to emphasize: this decision is not directed against the Ukrainian people. It does not signify a change in the strategic direction of Polish security policy.”

There was no immediate comment from Zelenskiy’s office.

Strained relations

While Warsaw is a strong supporter of Kyiv’s war effort, public sentiment towards Ukraine has become more and more negative in recent years due to weariness with refugees, disputes over grain imports and the legacy of the World War Two massacres.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the decision a “strategic error”.

“We regret that instead of looking for solutions, the Polish side decided to escalate this conflict to an unacceptable and inappropriate level,” he wrote on Facebook. 

“No president of another country is going to dictate our history to us.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a political opponent of Nawrocki who had sought to defuse the dispute, called for both presidents to cool emotions late on Friday. 

“The conflict between Poland and Ukraine delights Putin and shocks our allies. The task of Presidents Zelenskyy and Nawrocki is to calm emotions, not to stoke tensions. The front line runs elsewhere,” he wrote in a post on X.

Order of the White Eagle

Former president Andrzej Duda awarded Zelenskiy the Order of the White Eagle in 2023 in recognition of his contributions to bilateral relations, democracy, peace and security in Europe and for “steadfastness in defending inalienable human rights”.

But Nawrocki said in May that an advisory council should consider stripping Zelenskiy of the honour after he signed a decree recognising a Ukrainian special forces unit’s contribution to the fight against Russian forces by naming it after the UPA.

The decision caused outrage across the political spectrum in Poland. Former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa said he would no longer wear a badge with the Ukrainian flag and, while he still supported the nation in its fight against Russia, he would not support Zelenskiy.

Some Ukrainians regard the UPA as heroes for the resistance they mounted against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and as symbols of Kyiv’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.

Kyiv had previously said that the name had been chosen by soldiers who wanted to commemorate the UPA’s fight against Moscow and who had no intention of offending Poland. — Reuters