Polish President Karol Nawrocki announced a decision to revoke President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Order of the White Eagle, citing disagreements over historical memory and attitudes toward the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
The statement was published by the Office of the President of Poland on the social media platform X.
"Historical truth is not and can never be a subject of bargaining. The memory of the victims is a moral duty of the Polish state," Nawrocki said.
At the same time, according to Ukrainian presidential communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn, Ukraine’s Presidential Office is not commenting on the situation.
According to Nawrocki, for the majority of Polish society, the UPA remains a formation responsible for crimes committed against citizens of the Polish Republic during World War II. He recalled that in 2016, Poland’s Sejm recognized the "crimes of the OUN and UPA" as genocide and designated July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide Committed by Ukrainian Nationalists. According to the Polish president, this position was reaffirmed by a special law in 2025.
Nawrocki also expressed disagreement with Zelenskyy’s decision to grant the Separate Special Operations Center "North" of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces the honorary title "Named After the Heroes of the UPA." According to the Polish president, such a step has significance beyond Ukraine’s domestic affairs and affects Polish-Ukrainian relations, given the Polish state’s position regarding the UPA’s activities.
"Therefore, assigning one of Ukraine’s military units a name associated with UPA perpetrators carries significance far beyond Ukraine’s internal affairs," the statement said.
As reported, Zelenskyy awarded the honorary title "Named After the Heroes of the UPA" to the Separate Special Operations Center "North" of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces. The decision sparked outrage in Poland. Nawrocki said that by naming a Ukrainian military unit after the Heroes of the UPA, Zelenskyy had "provided Russian propaganda with its best material."
Nawrocki also proposed that "one of the measures should be depriving Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle."
On May 28, Polish Foreign Ministry State Secretary Marcin Bosacki expressed "deep dissatisfaction" with the decision to award the elite Special Operations Forces unit the title "Heroes of the UPA" during talks with Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar.
The same position was reiterated on May 29 by Chargé d’Affaires of Poland in Kyiv Piotr Łukasiewicz during a conversation with Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleksandr Mischenko.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry stated that, in initiating the awarding of the honorary title "Heroes of the UPA" to the Special Operations Forces unit, Ukrainian servicemen had no intention of offending the friendly Polish people and that only Moscow benefits from Ukrainian-Polish disputes.
