Chief of Staff of the President of Ukraine renounced the Polish medal

“I cannot stand by and watch the cycle of hatred unjustly targeting our people,” Kyrylo Budanov, chief of staff of the President of Ukraine, said on June 20 when announcing the renunciation of the Golden Officer Merit Medal awarded by Poland last year.

Mr. Budanov said Kiev would “evaluate” Warsaw’s revocation of the White Eagle Medal awarded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2023.

This medal, which is Poland’s highest award, was awarded in recognition of the Ukrainian leader’s contributions “to bilateral relations, democracy, peace and security in Europe as well as his steadfastness in protecting inalienable human rights”.

“We will maintain the principles of open partnership with all allies. However, it must be an equal relationship, based on the principles of mutual respect,” Mr. Budanov said.

Ambassador of Ukraine to Poland Vasyl Bodnar also returned the Knight’s Order of Merit awarded by Poland, and emphasized that President Zelensky is “a friend of Poland”.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called Poland’s decision a “strategic mistake”.

“We regret that emotions prevailed in Warsaw and pushed Polish politicians to unreasonable, impulsive and disrespectful steps, not only towards President Zelensky personally, but first of all towards the Ukrainian state,” he said.

Foreign Minister Sybiha said he would also return the Order of Merit of the Commander class awarded by former Polish President Andrzej Duda in 2022.

Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk took an even tougher stance, calling Poland’s move a “catastrophic mistake that will have far-reaching negative consequences for the Ukraine-Poland partnership”.

Warsaw’s decision to revoke the medal took place just a week before the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference was about to open in the Polish city of Gdansk. Mr. Stefanchuk described Poland’s actions as “intentional, calculated and harmful”.

The latest tensions between the two countries occurred when Poland expressed dissatisfaction with President Zelensky’s approval to name a Ukrainian military unit ‘UPA Heroes’.

UPA is the name of a nationalist rebel group during World War II. This group is accused of participating in the Volhynia massacres of 1943-1945. Poland believes that about 100,000 Poles were killed by Ukrainian nationalist forces during this period. Thousands of Ukrainians also died in subsequent retaliation.

Poland has been a close ally of Kiev since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022. Warsaw has provided billions of dollars in aid, serves as a key logistics route for military aid flows into Ukraine, and has taken in nearly a million Ukrainian refugees.

Despite this latest controversy, President Karol Nawrocki stated that Warsaw’s continued support of Ukraine in its conflict with Russia “has not changed”.