Polish President Karol Nawrocki announced Friday he will seek to strip Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland's highest state honor, the Order of the White Eagle.
The move comes after Zelenskyy named a Ukrainian special forces unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA-a World War II-era nationalist formation Poland holds responsible for the massacre of up to 120,000 Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia between 1943 and 1945.
"This is not how relations between nations are built," Nawrocki said in Warsaw. He argued that glorifying the UPA gives Russian propaganda "a lot of oxygen for disinformation."
The Order of the White Eagle was awarded to Zelenskyy in April 2023 by then-President Andrzej Duda for deepening bilateral ties and defending human rights. Duda said at the time that Zelenskyy's stance was "saving Europe from a tide of Russian imperialism." The chapter reviewing the revocation meets June 8.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged restraint, telling parliament: "Our task is to cool emotions, because we have one enemy." Deputy PM Radosław Sikorski echoed that, saying, "If we quarrel about the past, someone else will impose the future on us." Poland's foreign ministry has lodged a diplomatic protest.
Former President Lech Wałęsa reacted sharply, writing on social media: "By honoring the bandits from the UPA, the President of Ukraine has insulted me."
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi defended Kyiv, saying: "There were difficult times between Poles and Ukrainians, but now we are on the same side. We are fighting Russia, which is attacking democracy."