Poland strips Zelensky of highest honor after Ukrainian army unit is named for controversial WWII fighters; Ukrainian officials return their awards
- In late May, Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree granting the Special Operations Forces’ separate special operations center “North” the honorary name “Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).”
- Poland reacted swiftly and sharply. The Ukrainian ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, and right-wing parties demanded that military aid to Kyiv be cut and Ukraine’s EU accession process be blocked.
During World War II, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) waged an armed struggle for an independent Ukrainian state on lands inhabited by ethnic Ukrainians. Its opponents included the Nazi German occupation authorities, Soviet partisans — and, after Ukraine’s de-occupation, the Soviet government — as well as the Polish armed underground.
Beyond sabotage and combat operations, UPA fighters carried out ethnic cleansing against civilian populations. The most notorious such episode is the Volhynia massacre: over several months in 1943, more than 50,000 civilians were killed in Volhynia — a historical region at the junction of present-day Ukraine, Poland, and Belarus — the overwhelming majority of them ethnic Poles. According to Polish historians, UPA ethnic cleansing claimed up to 100,000 Polish lives between 1943 and 1945.
Modern Poland officially recognizes the Volhynia massacre as a genocide of the Polish population. In modern Ukraine, amid the war with Russia, the UPA is regarded primarily as a symbol of the struggle for independence.
- On June 19, Polish President Karol Nawrocki announced he was revoking Poland’s highest state honor — the Order of the White Eagle — from Volodymyr Zelensky, who had received it in 2023. Nawrocki said that for the overwhelming majority of Polish society, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army remained above all a formation responsible for brutal crimes committed against Polish citizens during World War II.
- Several Ukrainian officials responded by returning awards they had previously received from Poland. Presidential chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, his deputy Ihor Zhovkva, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, and Ambassador to Warsaw Vasyl Bodnar all renounced their Commander’s and Knight’s Crosses of the Order of Merit of Poland.
- Budanov called Nawrocki’s decision an “unfriendly act toward the Ukrainian people.” Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said it was “a catastrophic mistake that would have far-reaching negative consequences for the Ukrainian-Polish partnership.”
- Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the only winner of a war of history and medals could be Moscow. Indeed, sardonic commentary from that direction was not long in coming.
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged against escalating tensions. He wrote on X that a conflict between Poland and Ukraine “delights Putin and shocks their allies,” and that it was the task of Presidents Zelensky and Nawrocki to “calm emotions rather than stoke tensions, since the front line runs elsewhere.” Notably, if Tusk does not sign the presidential decision to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, it will not take legal effect.
Zelensky / Official / Telegram
- Zelensky said he had already sent his order back to Karol Nawrocki, adding that Kyiv remains grateful to the people of Poland for their support and cooperation.
- Following Zelensky’s lead, former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma , Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko also renounced the Order of the White Eagle.
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