Speaking to Ukrainian broadcaster TSN, Zelensky said he saw Nawrocki's move as part of an election battle rather than a matter affecting Ukraine.
"I see this purely as an electoral process. President Karol Nawrocki is fighting for his party's premiership against Prime Minister Tusk."
"It has nothing to do with us – it's an internal matter for them," he said.
The row centres on Nawrocki's decision to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest state honour, which he was awarded in 2023.
The Polish president linked the move to Ukraine's decision to name a military unit after the UPA, a nationalist group held responsible for the massacres of tens of thousands of Polish civilians in the Volhynia and eastern Galicia regions of what was then German-occupied Poland.
Zelensky said the row was being used to stir up anti-Ukrainian sentiment for domestic political ends, comparing Nawrocki's approach to that of Hungary's former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
"That's what Orbán did. This is a bad business. I believe it will end badly," he said.
"You can't earn political dividends from hatred, because in the long run it will lead to bad relations between nations," he added.
The Ukrainian leader also disclosed a previously unmentioned detail from his first meeting with Nawrocki, saying he had been given a book about the Volhynia tragedy as a welcome gift.
"I'd come to see him, and his gift to me as we shook hands was a book about the Volhynia tragedy. I haven't spoken about this," Zelensky said.
He added that Poland is "a democracy, not a monarchy," and argued it should be building ties with Ukraine, which he said is currently defending Europe from Russia.
Nawrocki announced the decision to revoke Zelensky's honour on Friday, saying it was not directed against the Ukrainian people and did not signal any change in Poland's security policy or support for Ukraine against Russia.
Zelensky said on Saturday that he had returned the order.
Several senior Ukrainian officials, including Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, also renounced their Polish state honours in response.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the dispute between the two countries "delights Putin and shocks our allies," adding that it was the job of the two presidents to calm tensions rather than inflame them, since "the front line is elsewhere."
(ał/gs)
Source: PAP, pravda.com.ua
Click on the audio player above for a report by Marcin Matuszewski.