A Czech coalition party says the award should be revoked after the Ukrainian leader honored a nationalist group accused of WWII atrocities
A Czech coalition party will seek to strip Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky of the country’s highest state honor after he named a military unit after a World War II nationalist formation accused of Nazi-era atrocities, local media have reported.
Zelensky last month signed a decree granting the unit the honorary title ‘Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army’ (UPA), triggering a diplomatic row with Poland. Warsaw later revoked his Order of the White Eagle, the country’s highest state decoration.
The Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party said on Tuesday it would seek backing in parliament for a recommendation that President Petr Pavel revoke Zelensky’s Order of the White Lion. Zelensky received the award in October 2022 from then-president Milos Zeman for his leadership during the Ukraine conflict.
“We cannot remain silent about the fact that our highest state award is held by a man who names military units after Nazi monsters,” MP Jindrich Rajchl, who initiated the proposal, told reporters.
The Czech Republic, then part of Czechoslovakia, was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, when the occupying forces committed atrocities including mass executions and reprisals.
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