- The chapter of the Council of the White Eagle submitted its opinion to the president.
- The decision on the eventual withdrawal of the Polish award will be taken by the president later.
- The naming of the Ukrainian unit by the title Heroes of the UPA caused strong criticism in Poland.
On Monday, the chapter of the Council of the White Eagle submitted to President Karol Nawrocki an opinion on the possibility of withdrawing the highest Polish state award from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The opinion is not public and the final decision will be taken by the president later. This was announced by the president’s spokesman Rafal Leskiewicz on the X network, reports the Warsaw news agency TASR.
Monday’s meeting of the chapter was called after Zelenskyy awarded one of the units of the Ukrainian armed forces the name “Heroes of the UPA” at the end of May. This move provoked criticism in Poland, and Nawrocki proposed to include the issue of depriving Zelensky of the honor on the chapter’s agenda. In the years 1943-1944, according to historians, members of the UPA and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) murdered approximately 50 to 60 thousand Poles in Volyn.
Zelenskyj received the Order of the White Eagle in April 2023 from the then president Andrzej Duda for services to the development of Polish-Ukrainian relations, the support of democracy, peace and security in Europe and the defense of human rights.
In connection with the latest tension, last week in Warsaw, the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, Kyrylo Budanov, held talks. He met with representatives of the Polish government, the presidential office and diplomacy. According to the Polish side, the Ukrainian representatives have declared their interest in dialogue and are aware of the sensitivity of the topic in Poland.
The Speaker of the Sejm, Wlodzimierz Czarzasty, also commented on the issue on Tuesday, according to the PAP agency. He called the Ukrainian president’s decision wrong, but at the same time called on both sides to exercise restraint and not escalate the dispute. He recalled that further retaliatory actions could negatively affect mutual relations at the time of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
According to Polish laws, the president can withdraw the state award on his own initiative after obtaining the opinion of the relevant chapter or at its proposal. The Order of the White Eagle is the oldest and most important Polish state decoration.
