Polish president threatens to strip Ukraine’s Zelenskyy of highest honor | Stories of the World Wars

Ukraine’s leader’s move to name an army after the massacre of Poles in WWII has sparked ‘outrage’ in Poland.

Poland’s president wants a cabinet to discuss removing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from Poland’s highest honor, following Ukraine’s reform of the military after its freedom fighters killed Poles during World War II.

Poland has been a strong supporter of Kyiv in Russia’s war in Ukraine, and former President Andrzej Duda awarded Zelenskyy the Order of the White Eagle in 2023.

But the Ukrainian leader has angered Poland by signing a law earlier this week naming the special forces “Heroes of the UPA”, after the renegade Ukrainian Armed Forces (UPA).

For some Ukrainian nationalists, the UPA is seen as a hero in their resistance to the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

But UPA fighters were also involved in the massacres in Volhynia in what is now western Ukraine from 1943 to 1945 where Poland says around 100,000 Poles were killed.

In response to Zelenskyy’s order, Polish President Karol Nawrocki said he was “indignant”, and also said “the removal of the Order of the White Eagle from President Zelenskyy”.

According to Nawrocki, the Chapter of the Order of the White Eagle, an advisory body that oversees state decorations, will meet on June 8.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the actions of the Ukrainian leader “hurt our reputation” and “worried about our relations”.

Polish Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa, who was instrumental in the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, said he decided to stop wearing a Ukrainian flag pin.

“By honoring the UPA thugs, the President of Ukraine insulted me and all our comrades who were killed,” Walesa said on Facebook.

Since Russia’s annexation of Ukraine in February 2022, Poland has been a close ally of Kyiv and has served as a link to Western militaries.

But as the war continues, without a clear end and peace talks have been suspended, Zelenskyy has been trying to unite the country against Russia by calling on historical figures.

Earlier this week, Kyiv returned the remains of the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the umbrella group that formed part of the UPA.