In an unprecedented diplomatic rupture, Poland has revoked the highest state honour awarded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The decision, announced late Tuesday, stems from a long-simmering dispute over the legacy of a World War II Ukrainian military unit that Warsaw views as complicit in atrocities against Poles.
Zelensky was awarded the Order of the White Eagle in 2022 in recognition of Ukraine’s resistance against Russian aggression. However, Poland’s government has taken exception to Kyiv’s official designation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) as a ‘national liberation movement’. The UPA, which fought for Ukrainian independence during and after WWII, is accused by Poland of ethnic cleansing campaigns that killed tens of thousands of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
“Poland cannot honour a leader who glorifies those who murdered our people,” stated Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. “History is not a bargaining chip.” The revocation follows years of tension between the two neighbouring states, which have otherwise been firm allies against Russia.
This is not merely a symbolic gesture. It signals a deep fracture in the Eastern European front that has held firm since 2014. Poland has been Ukraine’s staunchest advocate within NATO and the EU, supplying critical military aid and hosting millions of refugees. Yet historical animosities, long papered over by geopolitical necessity, are now resurfacing.
The UPA remains a divisive symbol. In western Ukraine, monuments honour its fighters as heroes who resisted both Nazi and Soviet occupation. In Poland, those same monuments are seen as provocations. Zelensky’s government has attempted to navigate this without alienating either side but has consistently refused to condemn the UPA outright, citing the need for national unity against Russia.
“The White Eagle is not a toy to be given and taken,” said historian Dr. Katarzyna Kwiatkowska of the University of Warsaw. “This revocation is a political message to Kyiv that historical truth cannot be subordinated to current alliances.” The Polish government has also announced it will launch a formal investigation into Ukrainian legislation that ‘promotes the UPA’.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry responded with measured outrage, calling the decision “a mistake that plays into the hands of our common enemy, Russia.” President Zelensky himself has not commented directly, though his office stated, “We respect Poland’s sovereignty but regret that historical narratives are being weaponised at a time when our nations face existential threats together.”
The timing is critical. Ukraine is preparing for a counteroffensive that depends heavily on Western support. Any fraying of that coalition, even a symbolic one, emboldens Moscow. Russian state media has already seized on the story, framing it as evidence of NATO’s internal decay.
Yet the dispute runs deeper than politics. It touches on the very nature of national memory. For Ukraine, acknowledging UPA crimes could undermine the narrative of a unified resistance against foreign domination. For Poland, failing to condemn those crimes would betray the victims of Volhynia. There is no easy synthesis.
What happens next? Diplomats expect a cool period, with possible tit-for-tat measures. Poland may block some EU funding for Ukraine; Ukraine may restrict Polish cultural organisations in western regions. Neither side can afford a total rift. War does not wait for history to be settled.
For now, the Order of the White Eagle sits in a drawer. Its return will require more than diplomatic niceties. It requires a reckoning with a past that neither nation can fully bury.
