WARSAW — Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has returned Poland’s highest state honor, after the Polish president stripped him of the award as a politically charged dispute over World War II history resurfaced.
Ukrainians believed the order “was meant for the Ukrainian People and our army,” Zelensky wrote in a social media post explaining the gesture. “Today, I sent the Order back to the President of Poland. I believe the future will confirm the respect Ukrainians deserve.”
The message published on X is accompanied by photos of the Polish order and a postal receipt that it was about to be mailed to the Polish presidential office.
President Karol Nawrocki decided to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle over the Ukrainian leader’s decision to name a military unit after a Ukrainian paramilitary organization accused of massacring Poles during World War II.
Former Polish President Andrzej Duda bestowed the award on Zelensky in 2023 for services to security, resilience and the defense of human rights.
Zelensky issued a decree on May 26 naming a unit of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, which operated during the 1940s and 1950s and has been accused in Poland of mass killings.
“For the majority of Polish society, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army remains above all a formation responsible for cruel crimes against the citizens of the Polish Republic during World War II,” Nawrocki said in a 13-minute address on social media.
Reopening old wounds
The Ukrainian decree was met with widespread criticism in Poland, which has hosted millions of Ukrainian refugees and is a key supporter of Kyiv as it battles Russia’s four-year invasion. However, Nawrocki is a nationalist politician who has exploited anti-Ukrainian sentiment for electoral gain. Ukrainians in Poland have been facing increasing prejudice despite their contribution to the economy.
The decision to revoke the honor did not mean Poland’s support for Ukraine in its defense against Russia would decrease, Nawrocki said.
Ukraine is grateful to Poland for its support, and would stay open to resolve historical differences with Poland, Zelensky wrote Saturday in his post. “I am proud of our people and of EVERY Ukrainian warrior.”
Ukrainian Presidential Office chief Kyrylo Budanov wrote on Telegram that Nawrocki’s decision was “an unfriendly act toward our people” and “a gift to the Moscow aggressor, which will certainly use it against both of our countries.”
Four Ukrainian officials including Budanov said they would return state honors that Poland had issued them.
Some in Ukraine criticized the decision to return the Polish honors.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukraine’s former prime minister, wrote on X that one “harmful and incorrect decision by the current president of Poland cannot be corrected by other incorrect decisions of ours.”
Calls to resolve differences
Poland is scheduled to host a major event on Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction next week, which Zelensky was expected to attend.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a political rival of Nawrocki, urged the two leaders to “tone down emotions, not stoke tensions.”
“The front line runs elsewhere,” Tusk wrote on social media Friday night, adding that the row between Poland and Ukraine “delights Putin and shocks our allies,” referencing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky’s May decree said the designation was meant to restore military traditions and recognize the unit’s performance in defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity and independence.
The UPA fought for Ukrainian independence against both Nazi Germany and Soviet forces. But it has been accused of killing tens of thousands of Poles, mostly in the Nazi-occupied regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. In 2016, the Polish Parliament recognized the crimes committed by UPA as genocide.
Ukrainians say armed formations on both sides, including the UPA and Polish underground forces, were involved in attacks and reprisals that led to large-scale civilian casualties among Poles and Ukrainians.
Poland and Ukraine had recently made progress on the issue of exhumation of Polish victims. A December meeting between the two presidents in Warsaw had signaled progress on historical reconciliation.
Military strikes in Ukraine and Russia
Meanwhile, in the war in Ukraine, Russian bombs struck an apartment building Saturday in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killing at least one person and wounding nine, including a 6-year-old child, authorities said.
A body was pulled from the rubble hours after the attack, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. He said that the bombs slammed into the low-rise building in Kharkiv’s Kholodnohirskiy district in the early hours of Saturday. The head of the regional administration, Oleh Syniehubov, said that at least nine people were wounded, five of whom were hospitalized.
Elsewhere in Kharkiv, a Russian drone struck a civilian vehicle on Friday evening, killing a man and wounding the woman who was driving the car, Syniehubov said.
Later Saturday, Russia again launched guided bombs at Ukraine, striking the outskirts of the northern city of Sumy, according to local administration head Oleh Hryhorov. The attacks killed a male civilian and damaged at least 20 private houses, Hryhorov reported on Telegram.
Russian strikes on the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least four people and wounded six others, according to regional administration head Ivan Fedorov. Guided aerial bombs were used in the attacks.
Moscow didn’t immediately acknowledge or comment on the attacks.
Ukraine’s air force said that it shot down 92 of 99 Russian drones launched overnight and that seven struck targets in three locations.
In Russia, air defenses repelled a drone attack on an oil refinery in Tyumen in western Siberia, Gov. Alexander Moor said Saturday. He said that there was no damage to the refinery and staff members were evacuated.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian oil facilities, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion. Some areas have reported fuel shortages.
In one of the biggest drone attacks since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, Ukraine on Thursday struck a major Moscow oil refinery for a second time in a week, sending huge plumes of black smoke over the capital and disrupting hundreds of flights.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that its forces shot down 177 Ukrainian drones during the night. It didn’t say how many reached their targets. Two drones were shot down on approach to Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
Ciobanu and Yurchuk write for the Associated Press and reported from Warsaw and Kyiv, respectively. AP writer Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv contributed to this report.
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