Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that he had returned Poland's highest honour after Karol Nawrocki said he was stripping him of the award, turning a dispute over wartime memory into a fresh political break between Ukraine and Poland. The honour was the Order of the White Eagle, the same decoration Andrzej Duda bestowed on Zelensky in 2023.
Zelensky framed the move as part of keeping the door open, saying Ukraine would remain open to all meaningful formats of engagement with Poland in order to avoid conflicting interpretations of the difficult and painful chapters of the two countries' shared past. He also said he was grateful to the Polish People for their support and co-operation, a pointed reminder that the row is landing even as Poland remains one of Ukraine's most important partners in the war against Russia.
The fight sharpened late last month after Kyiv caused outrage by renaming a Ukrainian army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA. Nawrocki called that decision outrageous, incomprehensible and deeply disappointing, and said the UPA remained, above all, a formation responsible for the brutal crimes committed against citizens of the Republic of Poland during World War Two. Poland says the UPA carried out a genocide of about 100,000 ethnic Poles in Volhynia in 1943-45.
Three senior Ukrainian officials then said they were returning awards bestowed by Poland to show solidarity with Zelensky, underscoring how quickly the dispute widened beyond one title. That history matters because many in Ukraine regard the UPA as heroes who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Soviet Red Army, Nazi Germany and Polish authorities, and the unit's red and black flag is often used by Ukrainian troops on the front line today. The clash has become a test of whether both sides can hold onto wartime cooperation while arguing over the past.
Nawrocki said support for Ukraine against Russia would continue even as he stripped Zelensky of the honour, but he also warned that the dispute undermines trust built over the years and in recent months. Donald Tusk said any feud between the two delights Vladimir Putin and urged calm emotions, not to stoke tensions. With Ukraine attending the first phase of membership negotiations in Luxembourg this week, the question now is whether this row stays as a symbolic gesture or spills into the wider diplomatic work still needed between Poland and Ukraine.
