Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has returned Poland's highest state honour amid an escalating historical dispute between the two allies, after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped him of the award.
Zelensky said on X he had sent back the Order of the White Eagle, which he received in 2023 as a symbol of friendship between Poland and Ukraine.
While calling the decoration a symbol of Poland's "highest trust," he suggested it no longer held the same meaning after Nawrocki's decision. He said, however, that Ukraine was still open to cooperation with Poland despite the public row.
"Ukraine will remain open to all meaningful formats of interaction with Poland, in order to strive to avoid misinterpretations of the complex and painful pages of the past of our peoples and to ensure due respect for all innocent victims of the 20th century," he wrote.
Nawrocki said on Friday that the revocation was "not directed against the Ukrainian nation" and did not alter Poland's strategic support for Ukraine.
The dispute stems from a historical row over the legacy of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), whose members are honoured in Ukraine for resisting Soviet rule after World War II. During the war, however, the group massacred tens of thousands of Poles and Jews in what is now western Ukraine.
Zelensky triggered the controversy at the end of May when he bestowed the nickname "Heroes of the UPA" on a Ukrainian army unit fighting Russian forces.
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Kyrylo Budanov, has also announced that he will return a Polish state award. Budanov wrote on Telegram on Saturday that he was renouncing the Golden Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, which he received last year.
Budanov described Nawrocki's decision as an "unfriendly gesture toward the Ukrainian people and a gift to the aggressor Russia." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had earlier also announced the return of a Polish award.
Later on Saturday, former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko said they were renouncing the Order of the White Eagle, which they had all received, in solidarity with Zelensky.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on both sides to show restraint.
"The conflict between Poland and Ukraine is a source of delight for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and shock to our allies," Tusk wrote on X on Friday.
The dispute comes less than a week before a reconstruction conference for Ukraine in the Polish port city of Gdańsk.
