“Contacts and relations are in poor condition, but not because of anything President Nawrocki did. Rather, it is because the Ukrainian side has effectively chosen to disregard the memory of the victims and the agreements reached in Warsaw,” Bogucki said.
Bogucki also criticized the decision to name a Ukrainian military unit after UPA heroes, calling it “unacceptable from the perspective of Polish policy.”
“It was simply a bad decision — scandalous, offensive to Poles and harmful to the memory of those victims. I hope it was not planned, because that would suggest something even worse,” he said.
At the same time, Nawrocki’s chief of staff said diplomatic channels between the two countries remain open despite strained relations.
Revocation of Zelenskyy’s Order of the White Eagle
On June 19, Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state honor. Nawrocki said the decision was prompted by the naming of a Ukrainian military unit after UPA heroes, arguing that the move “goes far beyond Ukraine’s internal affairs” and is offensive to Poland.
The issue is linked to the Volhynia massacres, a period of mutual ethnic violence between Poles and Ukrainians in Volhynia and Galicia in 1943–44, in which the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) was involved.
Commenting on the decision, Zelenskyy compared his Polish counterpart to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying he was using Ukraine-related issues to gain political support and describing the dispute as “a story that will end badly.”
The move triggered a broader diplomatic response from Ukrainian officials. On the same day, June 19, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he was returning the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, subsequently announced he was relinquishing his Officer’s Golden Cross of the same order, while Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, said he would return his Knight’s Cross.
In a show of solidarity, former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko also announced they were returning their previously awarded Orders of the White Eagle.