Sikorski calls Nawrocki’s decision to take away Order of the White Eagle from Zelenskyy "inadequate": "They humiliated the president personally"
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to take away the Order of the White Eagle from Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy was "inadequate." He believes that such a step humiliated the Ukrainian president.
Sikorski said this in an interview with TVN24, Censor.NET reports.
Another name for SOF unit
The head of Polish diplomacy, commenting on the scandal over Zelenskyy’s decision to name a Special Operations Forces unit after the Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, said that the Ukrainian president could have taken another path and chosen a more acceptable name.
Sikorski explained that when Zelenskyy received the soldiers’ request, he "should have thought: all right, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought against Soviet rule, but it also killed Poles."
"So, perhaps let us find and suggest a better name to the soldiers. For example, take a specific hero who fought against Soviet occupation," the Polish minister said.
"They humiliated the president personally"
At the same time, Sikorski believes that "our response was also inadequate, because it humiliated the president of Ukraine personally."
"If President Nawrocki had asked me, I would have advised something else. An equivalent could have been, for example, renaming the airport in Jasionka as the airport of the victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and then everything would have been balanced," the Polish foreign minister said.
According to the head of Polish diplomacy, "President Nawrocki deprived himself of the opportunity to conduct dialogue with the president of an important country that is waging a war."
Historical disputes and Ukraine’s European integration
He also noted that he would like to see "what arguments the Ukrainian side will use to convince the president of Poland to ratify the accession treaty" to the European Union.
"After all, negotiations are one thing, and at the end there is a treaty that in several countries even requires a referendum, and in our country requires the signature of the head of state," Sikorski added.
Background
Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the country’s highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle, amid a scandal over the naming of an elite unit of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces after the Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
In response, a number of Ukrainian officials issued statements:
- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha declined the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order ‘For Merit to Poland’ in response to the decision by Polish President Karol Nawrocki to strip Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland’s highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle;
- The Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, declined the Order "For Merit to Poland";
- Vasyl Bodnar, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Poland, also announced that he was returning his Polish award following the stripping of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle.
- On 20 June, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent the Order of the White Eagle to Polish President Karol Nawrocki.
- The second President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, the third President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, and the fifth President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, also announced that they were declining the Polish Order of the White Eagle.
