Former Polish Defense Minister to return his order to Ukraine. This is the second such case among Polish politicians

Former Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak decided to return to Ukraine the Order of Merit, 1st degree, which he was awarded in 2022.

Rzeczpospolita writes about this.

He explained that he made the decision as a “gesture of solidarity with all families who have been waiting for decades for the opportunity to honor their loved ones with dignity, but today still face obstacles”.

He was probably referring to the events of the Volyn tragedy. Blaszczak added that this was “a protest against the position of the current Ukrainian authorities”.

The former Polish Minister of Defense stated that in this way he also supports the countryʼs President Karol Nawrocki.

Blaszczakʼs statement came a day after a similar decision by former Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński. He refused the Ukrainian Order of Yaroslav the Wise. Kaczyński explained that he wanted to express his attitude not to Ukrainians, but to "Ukrainian elites" and to support his president.

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 Nawrotski 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 Hroysman all renounced their other Polish awards.

Author: Khrystyna Pitsuriak

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