Karol Nawrocki says Kiev crossed a red line by naming a military unit after a group implicated in the wartime massacres of Poles and Jews
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has stripped Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky of Poland’s highest state honor, the Order of the White Eagle, after Kiev named a military unit after a nationalist group implicated in the wartime massacres of Poles and Jews.
Nawrocki announced the decision in a video statement on X on Friday, saying that “historical truth is not and can never be a bargaining chip” and that “the memory of the victims is the moral duty of the Polish state.”
The move follows weeks of growing tensions between Warsaw and Kiev after Zelensky signed a decree in late May granting the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA” to the Special Operations Center North. The designation refers to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Zelensky said the measure was intended to revive the “historic traditions of the national army.”
Nawrocki said the decision crossed a red line, noting that for “the vast majority of Polish society,” the UPA remains synonymous with atrocities committed against Polish people during World War II. Poland officially recognizes the actions of the OUN and UPA as genocide.
Wow! President of Poland Karol Nawrocki strips Zelensky of Order of White Eagle for naming Ukrainian Special Forced unit “Heroes of UPA.” UPA perpetrated mass murder of Poles, Jews & Ukrainians. Bandera OUN organized UPA from police during Nazi occupation pic.twitter.com/n9GMo87nXO
— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) June 19, 2026
“Facts are not subject to negotiation,” Nawrocki said, adding that they do not change with political expediency.
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