Poland's President Strips Zelensky of Highest Honor Over Nationalist Unit Name
Quick Look
- Polish President Karol Nawrocki revoked Zelensky's Order of the White Eagle after Ukraine named a commando unit "Heroes of the UPA," linked to WWII massacres of Poles.
- Zelensky refused to rename it, crossing Poland's "pain threshold."
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Poland's President Karol Nawrocki revoked Zelensky's highest state honor, the Order of the White Eagle, due to Ukraine naming a special operations unit "Heroes of the UPA," which is linked to WWII massacres of Poles.
Vladimir Zelensky broke Poland’s “pain threshold” when he named a commando unit after a Ukrainian nationalist group implicated in the World War II killings of tens of thousands of Poles, Polish President Karol Nawrocki said on Saturday.
The decision sparked outrage in Poland, where the massacres remain an open wound. Despite pressure from Warsaw to rename the unit, the Ukrainian leader has refused.
“We are a proud Polish nation and we have our threshold of pain in matters that concern us and our allies. And that pain threshold has been crossed,” the Polish president said at a rally in northeastern Poland on Saturday. He added that this was why he stripped Zelensky of Poland’s highest state honor, the Order of the White Eagle, on Friday.
The revocation followed escalating tensions between Warsaw and Kiev after Zelensky in late May signed a decree granting a special operations unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA.” The name refers to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which have been lionized in Ukraine since the bloody 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev.
The UPA brutally and savagely massacred at least 100,000 Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine during World War II, with the crimes being recognized as genocide by Warsaw, Nawrocki recalled on Friday.
Zelensky has responded by posting a photograph of the award along with a completed mailing form for shipment to Warsaw. Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has renounced his own Order of the White Eagle, which he received in 1997, to protest Warsaw’s decision, his press secretary has announced.
Russian presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev reacted to Warsaw’s move with dark irony.
“Poland finally discovers Nazi sympathizers in Ukraine,” he wrote on X on Friday.
Moscow has long warned that Kiev’s glorification of Nazis and Nazi collaborators is an open secret and has cited denazification of the country as one of its key goals in the conflict.
Open Questions
- Will Zelensky rename the unit?
- What is the long-term impact on Poland-Ukraine relations?
