Top Ukrainian officials said Saturday they were returning a Polish state honor after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky of Poland’s highest award.
The move could further strain relations between the two close strategic partners as Kiev seeks to garner international support to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
“This is a gift to the aggressor from Moscow, who will surely use it against both our countries,” Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Kirill Budanov wrote on social media. He said he was returning the Gold Officer’s Cross of the Polish Order of Merit.
On Friday, Nawrocki announced that Zelenskiy would be stripped of Poland’s highest state honor – the Order of the White Eagle, awarded by former President Andrzej Duda in 2023.
The decision followed Zelensky’s move to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a World War II militia that Warsaw accused of taking part in the genocide of Poles.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s key allies since Russia’s full-scale invasion, hosting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.
Nawrocki said the move would not affect Poland’s support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
Ukrainian officials renounce Polish honor in protest
However, Ukrainian officials argued that Nawrocki’s decision was beneficial to Russia.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Warsaw, Vasyl Bodnar, described the move as “a gesture towards all Ukrainian people” and announced that he was relinquishing his Knight’s Cross of the Polish Order of Merit.
Foreign Minister Andriy Cybiga also said he would return the Polish award he received in 2022, calling the decision “a strategic mistake … that benefits only Moscow”.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a political rival of Nawrocki, urged the two countries to maintain their solidarity, warning that the dispute between Poland and Ukraine “pleases Putin and shocks our allies.”
1 killed in Russian attack on Kharkiv
Meanwhile, at least one person was killed and nine others were injured in a Russian airstrike on the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, according to Governor Oleh Sinyhubov.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday morning that its air-defense systems intercepted and destroyed 187 Ukrainian drones across the country overnight.
In recent weeks, Moscow and Kiev have stepped up attacks on each other as US-led efforts to end the war that began with a full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022 stall.
Edited by: Louis Olofse
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