UPA evokes painful memories in Poland as the partisans murdered tens of thousands of Poles in an ethnic cleansing campaign in the Volhynia region during World War II.Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images

Polish president strips Zelenskyy of top honor in dispute over World War II unit – POLITICO

by · POLITICO

WARSAW — Poland’s nationalist President Karol Nawrocki has stripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle — Poland’s highest honor — amid an increasingly bitter dispute between Kyiv and Warsaw over a World War II-era Ukrainian military unit.  

The move late on Friday comes days before Zelenskyy is expected to visit Poland, and puts an intense strain one of the most important alliances in the war against Russia. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha slammed Nawrocki for “a strategic mistake” from which “only Moscow benefits.”   

Since 2022, Warsaw has been one of the most committed supporters of Kyiv against the mutual arch-enemy: Russia. The relationship is historically complex, however, and the nationalist camp in Poland has sought to make political capital out of tensions over migration and has put emphasis on Ukrainian massacres of Poles in World War II.