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Zelenskyy arrived in Poland for first time since being stripped of his medal
On Wednesday, 29 July, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Lublin, Poland, where he will meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
This is reported by Censor.NET, citing TVP.
First visit following the diplomatic row
The Polish Prime Minister’s Office has stated that the discussion will focus on the outcome of Mr Zelenskyy’s visit to the United States, in particular his meeting with President Donald Trump.
Polish media report that this is Zelenskyy’s first visit to Poland since a dispute broke out between Kyiv and Warsaw over Zelenskyy’s decision to name one of the military units after UPA heroes.
Following this, the President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, stripped him of the Order of the White Eagle.
Relations between Ukraine and Poland
- 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, demonstratively 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, has 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.
