“President Zelensky is wrong.” Nawrocki said that the decision to strip Zelensky of the order does not concern domestic politics

On June 21, President Volodymyr Zelensky gave an interview to TSN, in which he stated that Polish President Karol Nawrockiʼs decision to strip him of the Order of the White Eagle concerns Polandʼs internal affairs.

Nawrocki is pressuring Prime Minister Donald Tusk because he wants to gain popularity for his Law and Justice party before next yearʼs elections.

PolsatNews journalists asked Nawrocki for a comment on Zelenskyʼs words.

"Dear Mr. President Volodymyr, the dispute does not concern Polandʼs internal affairs at all. They do not exist, because all Poles know and understand how much harm Ukrainian nationalists have caused to Poles and Polish children. President Zelensky is wrong, thank you," said Nawrocki.

According to him, the dispute concerns purely historical issues and the fact that in Poland "they do not accept the red-and-black flag of Bandera".

Conflict over 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 (SOF) 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 former Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman all renounced their other Polish awards.

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