WARSAW, June 19 (Reuters) – – Polish President Karol Nawrocki decided to strip his Ukrainian counterpart Volodimir Zelensky of the country’s highest honor after Ukraine renamed a unit in its army after a group of nationalist fighters who carried out massacres of Poles during the Second World War worldwide.
The decision of the Polish presidency risks straining relations between the two neighboring countries, a few days before a conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine which is to take place in the Polish city of Gdansk.
« With the agreement of President Volodimir Zelensky to name one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine « Heroes of the UPA » (…) president of Ukraine of the Order of the White Eagle, to declare ‘Karol Nawrocki in a community.
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) is a nationalist group responsible for massacres of Poles during World War II.
“I would like to emphasize that this decision is not directed against the Ukrainian people. This does not mean a change in the strategic direction of Poland’s security policy,” added the Polish head of state.
If Warsaw supports Kyiv in its war against Moscow, public opinion in Poland is increasingly negative towards Ukraine because of an influx of refugees, disputes over grain imports and the legacy of the Second World War.
“STRATEGIC MISTAKE”
The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiha, deplored a “strategic error”.
“We regret that instead of looking for solutions, the Polish side has decided to escalate this conflict to an ‘inappropriate and unacceptable’ level,” he wrote on Facebook.
“No president of a third country can dictate our history.”
Former Polish President Andrzej Duda decorated President Zelensky with the White Eagle in 2023 in recognition of his contributions to democracy, peace and security in Europe.
The new name adopted by Volodimir Zelensky caused a stir in Poland. Former Polish president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa reacted by declaring that he would no longer wear a Ukrainian flag badge, while affirming to support the fight of the Ukrainian nation against Russia.
Some Ukrainians see UPA members as heroes of the resistance against the Soviet Empire and Nazi Germany and as symbols of Kyiv’s struggle for independence against Moscow.
But the military unit was also involved in the Volhynian massacres, a series of killings between 1943 and 1945 that killed some 100,000 Poles, according to Warsaw. Dozens of Ukrainians were also killed in reprisals.
Kyiv said the name was chosen by soldiers wanting to pay tribute to the UPA’s battles against Moscow without intending to offend Poland.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka, Alan Charlish, Ron Popeski ​and Karol Badohal; French version Zhifan Liu)
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