Ukraineʼs third president Viktor Yushchenko also refused the Order of the White Eagle. This was a reaction to Warsawʼs decision to strip Volodymyr Zelensky of this highest Polish state award.
This was reported by Yushchenkoʼs former press secretary Iryna Vannikova.
"Viktor Yushchenko decided to refuse the Polish Order of the White Eagle as a sign of disagreement with attempts to review the decision to award the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. This award was presented not only to a specific person. First of all, it became a sign of respect for the Ukrainian people, who pay an extremely high price for their freedom, independence and the right to live in their own state. That is why any attempts to review this decision today go far beyond the limits of treating one politician," the statement says.
The second president Leonid Kuchma made the same decision that day. Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and the head of the Presidentʼs Office Kyrylo Budanov also 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".
Yesterday, Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle. All because Zelensky signed a decree to name one of the SOF units after the Heroes of UPA. President Zelensky, in turn, has already sent his order to Poland.
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 (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 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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