Zelenskyy Returns Poland's Top Honor After Revocation
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- Zelenskyy returned the Order of the White Eagle and posted a postal receipt to social media, saying the honor "was meant for the Ukrainian People and our army" and sending it back to the Polish presidential office
- President Karol Nawrocki revoked the award over Zelenskyy's May 26 decree naming a Ukrainian special forces unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which Poland holds responsible for mass killings of Poles in the 1940s
- Former Polish President Andrzej Duda had originally bestowed the Order on Zelenskyy in 2023 for services to security, resilience, and the defense of human rights
- Four Ukrainian officials, including Presidential Office chief Kyrylo Budanov, said they would also return their Polish state honors, with Budanov calling Nawrocki's move "a gift to the Moscow aggressor"
- Polish PM Donald Tusk, a political rival of Nawrocki, urged both leaders to "tone down emotions," warning the dispute "delights Putin and shocks our allies," and Nawrocki insisted the revocation would not reduce Poland's military support for Ukraine
- Former Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk publicly criticized Zelenskyy's decision to return the honor, calling it "another incorrect decision" that cannot correct Nawrocki's move
- The timing complicates Poland's scheduled hosting of a major Ukraine postwar reconstruction conference next week, which Zelenskyy was expected to attend, and disrupts recent progress on exhumation of Polish WWII victims
Why it matters: The dispute erupts between two of Ukraine's most critical wartime partners days before Poland hosts a Ukraine reconstruction conference, threatening Zelenskyy's attendance and coordination on refugee and military support. The split is largely driven by Nawrocki's nationalist politics rather than Polish government policy, as PM Tusk openly opposes it — but the public row hands Moscow a propaganda opening at a moment when both countries depend on unified messaging against Russia's invasion.
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