Zelensky stripped of Poland’s top honor over Nazi tribute
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has stripped Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky of Poland’s highest state honor, the Order of the White Eagle, after Kiev named a military unit after a nationalist group implicated in the wartime massacres of Poles and Jews.
Nawrocki announced the decision in a video statement on X on Friday, saying that “historical truth is not and can never be a bargaining chip” and that “the memory of the victims is the moral duty of the Polish state.”
The move follows weeks of growing tensions between Warsaw and Kiev after Zelensky signed a decree in late May granting the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA” to the Special Operations Center North. The designation refers to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Zelensky said the measure was intended to revive the “historic traditions of the national army.”
Nawrocki said the decision crossed a red line, noting that for “the vast majority of Polish society,” the UPA remains synonymous with atrocities committed against Polish people during World War II. Poland officially recognizes the actions of the OUN and UPA as genocide.
Wow! President of Poland Karol Nawrocki strips Zelensky of Order of White Eagle for naming Ukrainian Special Forced unit "Heroes of UPA." UPA perpetrated mass murder of Poles, Jews & Ukrainians. Bandera OUN organized UPA from police during Nazi occupation pic.twitter.com/n9GMo87nXO
— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) June 19, 2026
“Facts are not subject to negotiation,” Nawrocki said, adding that they do not change with political expediency.
“The facts are that at least 100,000 Polish citizens were murdered by the UPA... only because they were Poles or Jews or other minorities,” he stated.
The Polish leader argued that naming a Ukrainian military unit after the UPA “has a meaning that goes far beyond the internal affairs of Ukraine” and described Kiev’s glorification of the group as “insulting, incomprehensible and deeply disappointing.”
The decision has drawn support from prominent Polish political figures. Former Prime Minister Leszek Miller called Zelensky’s decree “a spit in the face of Poles,” while former President Lech Walesa said it insulted “all murdered” Poles by honoring “UPA bandits.”
