Poland explained why the order taken from Zelensky is still in Mussolini, Catherine II and “Kremlin friend” Schroeder

The Polish Presidentʼs Office explained why the order taken from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is still in the possession of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Russian Empress Catherine II, and former German Chancellor and "Kremlin friend" Gerhard Schroeder.

As Agnieszka Jędząk, Minister of the Chancellery of the President of Poland, wrote, the first two have it, since they are not deprived of awards posthumously.

As for the former German chancellor, known for his close ties to Russia, he “never insulted the Polish nation as openly as the president of Ukraine did, although his activities in favor of Putin’s Russia should indeed be condemned as harmful to Poland and Europe,” says Jędzhak.

"During Schröderʼs rule, no monuments were erected in Germany to Hitler or Himmler. No part of the Bundeswehr was named after the ʼSS heroes,ʼ" she added.

Scandal surrounding the name of the SOF unit

On May 26, Volodymyr 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 a badge with the Ukrainian flag, and 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.

On June 2, 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.

On June 19, Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of Polandʼs highest state award, the Order of the White Eagle. Presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Petro Poroshenko subsequently renounced the order. The head of the Presidentʼs Office Kyrylo Budanov, the Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, and the former Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman all renounced their other Polish awards.

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