Four Ukrainian presidents already. Poroshenko also refused the Order of the White Eagle, Polandʼs highest state award

The fifth president of Ukraine and peopleʼs deputy Petro Poroshenko has refused the Order of the White Eagle. He is the fourth president of Ukraine to make such a decision.

He wrote about this on Facebook.

According to Poroshenko, two weeks ago he promised his colleagues to do so if "we fail to convince President Nawrocki not to make the wrong decision".

"I consider the decision of Polish President Karol Nawrocki erroneous and unfair to the people of Ukraine. It is no coincidence that Medvedev has already congratulated him. The Kremlin always applauds everything that weakens the unity between Ukraine and Poland," Poroshenko noted.

He added that the Order of the White Eagle was not awarded to presidents of the state, but to Ukrainians, in particular, to soldiers who defend Ukraine, Poland, and all of Europe.

At the same time, Poroshenko proposed "starting on Monday" to look for solutions "that will prevent the current crisis from deepening", and recalled the formula of Pope John Paul II "we forgive and ask for forgiveness", "which at one time helped our peoples find the path to reconciliation and partnership".

On the same day, a similar decision was made by the second president of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma, and the third Viktor Yushchenko. And Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and the head of the Presidentʼs Office Kyrylo Budanov refused their awards — the Commanderʼs Cross with the Star of the Order "For Merit to Poland" and the Golden Officerʼs Cross of the Order "For Merit to Poland".

This was a reaction to the fact that Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Polandʼs highest decoration, which he had been awarded by former Polish President Andrzej Duda. All because Zelensky signed a decree to name one of the SOF units after the Heroes of UPA.

Zelensky later sent his order to Poland via “Nova Post”.

Scandal surrounding the name of the SOF unit

On May 26, Zelensky signed a decree awarding the Separate Special Operations Center "North" of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine the honorary title "named after the Heroes of UPA". The document states that this was done "to restore the historical traditions of the national army".

Later, former Polish President Lech Walesa reported that due to this decree he would stop wearing the badge with the Ukrainian flag, which he had had since the beginning of the full-scale war, and current President Karol Nawrocki proposed to deprive Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Polandʼs highest state award.

For the same reason, the Ukrainian flag, which had been hanging there since 2022 along with the flags of Poland and the EU, was removed from the town hall in Lublin, Poland.

And the Vice Speaker of the Polish Sejm Krzysztof Bosak called for blocking Ukraineʼs movement towards the EU until Kyiv "departs from the cult of criminals and unblocks all exhumations" of the victims of the Volyn tragedy.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha explained Zelenskyʼs decree as follows: Ukrainians did not want to offend Poles and chose the name for the SOF unit to remember those who fought against imperial Moscow many years ago.

Amid the scandal, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on the presidents of Ukraine and Poland to have a "direct and frank conversation" because, he said, "diplomacy has not yielded any results" to resolve the conflict between the countries. Tusk was referring to the meetings of the Ukrainian delegation with Polish officials.

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