Poland revokes Zelensky's Order of the White Eagle over naming of unit after WWII insurgents
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Poland withdrew its highest state honour from President Zelensky after Ukraine named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a group Poland says committed wartime atrocities against Poles.
Poland has stripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, the country’s highest civilian decoration, in response to Kyiv’s decision to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). The UPA, active in the 1940s, is celebrated by many Ukrainians as a resistance movement against Soviet and Nazi forces, but Polish officials accuse the group of perpetrating mass killings of ethnic Poles in the Volhynia region during 1943-45.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said the move “hurts not only our historical memory” and undermines the trust built between the two nations, especially after Poland welcomed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees following Russia’s invasion in 2022. He added that Ukraine’s aspirations to join the European Union require “a willingness to honestly confront the difficult chapters of its own history.”
"For the overwhelming majority of Polish society, the UPA remains, above all, a formation responsible for the brutal crimes committed against citizens of the Republic of Poland during World War II," Duda said in a video posted on the presidential website.
"That is why the Ukrainian authorities' decision to glorify the UPA is not only outrageous, it is also incomprehensible and deeply disappointing," he continued.
The revocation comes as Ukraine participates in the first phase of EU membership negotiations in Luxembourg. Former European Council President Charles Michel warned that the dispute could be exploited by Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged both leaders to “calm emotions, not to stoke tensions.”
Zelensky defended the naming, stating that it aims to restore historical traditions of Ukraine’s national army, and noted that the UPA’s red and black flag is still displayed by some Ukrainian troops on the front line.