Poland's Nawrocki Revokes Zelensky's 2023 Top Honor Over UPA Unit Award

3 articles · Updated · The Conversation · Jul 1

Karol Nawrocki on June 19 rescinded Volodymyr Zelensky's Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honor, after Zelensky granted a Ukrainian special forces unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA.”
The clash centers on the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, remembered in Ukraine as an anti-Soviet resistance symbol but in Poland for the 1943 Volhynia massacres that killed tens of thousands of Poles.
Donald Tusk urged both sides to stop fighting over history, while Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called Zelensky's decree inappropriate but Nawrocki's response disproportionate and useful to Moscow.
Nawrocki, aligned with the opposition Law and Justice party, appears to be using the dispute in domestic politics ahead of next year's parliamentary election; his approval rating rose to 54.8%, up 8.4 points in a month.
Despite fatigue after hosting millions of Ukrainians since Russia's invasion, Poland still broadly backs Ukraine, suggesting the row reflects internal Polish political maneuvering more than a lasting foreign-policy break.