Nawrocki does not plan to meet with Zelenskyy at NATO summit
Poland’s leader, Karol Nawrocki, has no meetings scheduled with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the NATO summit.
This was stated by Marcin Przydacz, Head of the Office for International Policy under the President of Poland, according to Censor.NET, citing Ukrinform.
Details
"The programme does not include any bilateral meetings (with Zelenskyy), but we do not rule out the possibility of some form of contact taking place. However, there is no such meeting on the programme," he said.
Pshyda said that Poland is not initiating this meeting. According to him, the "ball is currently in Ukraine’s court", so a meeting without a specific positive outcome makes no sense.
"Dialogue is important provided that the other side is prepared to engage in constructive dialogue, rather than just a group photo," said the head of the International Policy Bureau.
He also commented on the meeting between the Polish Foreign Minister, Sikorski, and the Ukrainian Minister, Sybiha:
"(The meeting. – Ed.) yielded no positive results whatsoever, apart from the favourable coverage Sibiga received from the international media following this visit."
"It seems that Poland has gained nothing from this visit. Therefore, a meeting for the sake of a meeting is of no value whatsoever. If the President of Ukraine wishes to improve relations with Poland, he knows perfectly well what needs to be done," added Przydacz.
What led up to it?
- Tensions in Ukrainian-Polish relations flared up after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree on 26 May conferring the honorary title ‘in the name of the Heroes of the UPA’ on the ‘North’ Special Operations Centre of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The text of the document stated that the decision had been taken with the aim of "restoring the historical traditions of the national army".
- On 29 May, Polish President Karol Nawrocki announced his intention to strip Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle – Poland’s highest honour, which had been awarded to him in 2023 by the then Polish President Andrzej Duda.
- Lech Wałęsa, former President of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, ostentatiously removed the badge featuring the Ukrainian flag that he always wore as a sign of protest, and accused Zelenskyy of "honouring UPA bandits", which, he said, "offended him personally and all the Poles who were killed".
- Bartosz Cichocki, the former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Poland to Ukraine, has, as a result of this same decision, officially returned the Order "For Merit", which Zelenskyy had awarded him in 2022.
- Marcin Przydacz, Head of the International Policy Bureau at the Office of the President of Poland, stated that Volodymyr Zelenskyy should personally telephone his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki and formally apologise for naming a Special Operations Forces unit ‘after the Heroes of the UPA’.
- Subsequently, the President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, stripped the President of Ukraine, 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 UPA.
