Ukraine’s top officials return Polish honours after rift deepens

KYIV – Several of Ukraine’s top officials said they would return Polish state awards after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky of the country’s highest state honour, deepening a row over the commemoration of controversial World War II fighters.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov and Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar said in separate social media posts that they would return awards they had previously received. 

Former President Leonid Kuchma, who led the country for a bit more than a decade until 2005, has also renounced Poland’s Order of the White Eagle that he received in 1997, Interfax-Ukraine reported, citing his fund’s representative.

The dispute, which risks driving relations between the allies to a fresh low, started in May when Zelensky named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), nationalist fighters who Kyiv hails for their guerrilla independence warfare during and just after World War II. 

The UPA remains a long-standing source of tension with Poland for its 1943-1945 killings in the Volhynia region.

An estimated 100,000 Poles were killed, including women and children.

As a result of the move, Nawrocki on June 19 stripped Zelensky of the country’s highest state honour, the Order of the White Eagle, saying in a video post on X: “The decision by Ukraine to glorify UPA is inexplicable and deeply disappointing.” 

“It undermines not only history but also the trust that has been built for years and recent months.”

Zelensky said on June 20 that he had sent the Order back to Nawrocki.

“We believed that the Order of the White Eagle, awarded in 2023, was meant for the Ukrainian people and our army. That is what was said at the time,” he said in a post on X. “Ukraine is grateful to the Polish people for their support and cooperation, which play a significant role in the struggle for our and your independence from Russia.

The escalating row comes as Poland’s solidarity with Ukraine has shown signs of cracking more than four years into the war with Russia that turned the European Union member into a hub of western military aid for Kyiv.

In response to the move, Sybiha said that only the Kremlin stands to gain from Nawrocki’s decision and that he regrets that “emotions have got the better of Warsaw”.

Budanov described Nawrocki’s decision as “a gift for the Moscow aggressor”, while Bodnar said it was being perceived in wartime as a gesture directed against the Ukrainian people.

The disagreement comes just days before Zelensky, who has yet to comment on the situation, is expected to attend a conference on Ukraine’s recovery hosted by Poland.

Companies, donors and officials are set to discuss the country’s postwar reconstruction, but the dispute over the awards now threatens to overshadow the event.

The Parliament in Warsaw has described the massacres in the territories now belonging mainly to Ukraine as genocide.

While Kyiv recognises the atrocities and has agreed to allow the exhumation of the victims, it has also called on Warsaw not to politicise the issue – and to seek ways for a peaceful settlement. 

Souring sentiment

Nawrocki has tapped into souring sentiment toward Ukraine during his successful election campaign in 2025 when he spoke against extending public support for Ukrainians living in the country. 

He said on June 19 that his decision is not against the Ukrainian nation and that Poland’s security policy toward Ukraine and support for its neighbour in the war with Russia has not changed.

Poland’s pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a fierce rival of Nawrocki, has called for the two presidents to de-escalate the situation.

The decision to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle needs a sign-off from Tusk to become effective.

“The conflict between Poland and Ukraine pleases Putin and shocks our allies,” Tusk said in a post on X on June 19.

“It is the duty of Presidents Zelensky and Nawrocki to calm tensions, not fuel them. The front line lies elsewhere.” BLOOMBERG