Former Prime Minister of Poland and leader of the right-wing Law and Justice party (President Karol Nawrocki is a member of it) Jarosław Kaczyński will return the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, 2nd degree, to Ukraine.
He said this during a press conference, RMF24 reports.
Kaczynski received the order in 2022 from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He now explains that he wants to express his attitude not to Ukrainians, but to “Ukrainian elites”. It is also an act of loyalty to Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a member of Law and Justice.
The Polish politician condemned the arrival of Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy to the conference on the restoration of Ukraine in Gdansk (which takes place from June 25-26), because he is an "open supporter of Bandera".
Kaczynski also believes that his country should start blocking the opening of the next negotiation clusters with Ukraine on EU membership. He clarified that this is not the partyʼs position, but his opinion.
The conditions that should improve relations between Ukraine and Poland, according to Kaczynski, are "Ukraineʼs admission of guilt (in the events of 1943 in Volyn), an apology, and the burial of all victims".
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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