Polish President Karol Nawrocki announced his decision to strip Volodymyr Zelenskiy of the Order of the White Eagle because he exceeded the “threshold of pain“ of the Polish public by naming one of the units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces “Heroes of the UPA“.
“We are a proud Polish nation and we have our own threshold of pain. The pain threshold has been exceeded, that's why I have stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle," Nawrocki said at a public event in southern Poland, according to TVP World.
Nawrocki's decision sparked an unprecedented diplomatic crisis between Warsaw and Kiev, which led to the mass return of Polish state awards by the Ukrainian leadership.
The conflict is rooted in a deep historical dispute. In late May 2026, Zelensky signed a decree naming a special military unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine after the "Heroes of the UPA" (Ukrainian Insurgent Army). For Poland, the UPA is directly responsible for the Volhynia Massacre (1943–1945), officially recognized by Warsaw as genocide, in which up to 100,000 Polish civilians, mostly women and children, were brutally murdered.
President Nawrocki stated that the order demanded respect for the values of Polish society and that “historical truth cannot be a bargaining chip“.
In Ukraine, the UPA is seen primarily as a symbol of the struggle for national independence against Nazi Germany and Soviet Bolshevism. Kiev stressed that the soldiers had no anti-Polish intentions.
Instead of waiting for the official revocation procedure, Volodymyr Zelensky returned the order to Poland by mail. In an official statement, he noted with irony that if this high award can remain in the possession of historical figures such as Catherine II, Benito Mussolini and Gerhard Schröder, then Ukraine will not argue for it.
In an unprecedented act of solidarity, three former presidents of Ukraine - Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko - also renounced their Orders of the White Eagle and returned them to Poland.
Other key Ukrainian figures did the same, returning their Polish state awards in protest - Andriy Szybiga - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov - Chief of the Presidential Cabinet, Vasyl Bodnar - Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland, Ihor Zhovkva - Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Szybiga called Navrotsky's act a “strategic mistake” and added firmly: “No president of another country will dictate our history“.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a political rival of conservative President Nawrocki, criticized Zelenskiy's decision to honor the UPA, but called for an urgent calming of emotions. Tusk warned on the X platform that such discord “pleases Putin and shocks our allies”, reminding that the real front line is elsewhere. Despite the sharp diplomatic rhetoric, President Karol Nawrocki explicitly emphasized two important things - his decision is not directed against the Ukrainian people. This will not change Poland's strategic security policy — Warsaw will continue to provide military and logistical support to Ukraine against Russian aggression, as Moscow remains a threat to all of Europe.
However, the conflict threatens to overshadow the upcoming major international conference on Ukraine's reconstruction in the Polish city of Gdansk, with speculation that Zelensky may refuse to attend in person. Nawrocki also issued a stark warning that Poland will not allow Ukraine to integrate into the European Union until Kiev abandons the "culture of violence" and rethinks its attitude to historical events.