Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he has returned Poland’s highest state decoration, the Order of the White Eagle, to Polish President Karol Nawrocki, deepening a diplomatic row between the two neighboring allies over historical memory and wartime symbolism.
In an official statement, Zelensky said the award had been sent back after Nawrocki described it as a symbol of the “highest trust” of the Polish state and people.
Zelensky responded that if such a distinction could remain associated with figures such as Catherine II, Benito Mussolini and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, “then we in Ukraine will not argue with that.”
He added that Ukraine had originally understood the award, granted in 2023, as recognition not of him personally but of the Ukrainian people and armed forces for their resistance to Russia’s invasion.
The move comes after Nawrocki revoked the honor from Zelensky in a dispute linked to Ukraine’s decision to name one of its military units after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, a World War II-era nationalist force viewed in Ukraine by many as a symbol of resistance but regarded in Poland as responsible for the Volhynia massacres of Poles.
The issue has reopened one of the most sensitive chapters in Polish-Ukrainian relations, despite the close partnership the two countries have built since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the sharp criticism, Zelensky struck a conciliatory tone toward Poland itself, thanking the Polish people for their support and saying Ukraine remained committed to cooperation with Warsaw.
He stressed that solidarity between countries in the region remains one of the key security guarantees against Russian aggression and said Kyiv would continue seeking meaningful dialogue with Poland to prevent conflicting interpretations of their painful shared history and to honor innocent victims of the 20th century.
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