“Conflict between Poland and Ukraine delights Putin and shocks our allies,” Tusk wrote on X. He argued that the role of the presidents of both countries should be to ease tensions rather than deepen divisions, adding that “the front line is elsewhere."
The dispute centers on Nawrocki’s decision to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state distinction. The president said the move was prompted by Ukraine’s decision to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a nationalist group viewed by many Ukrainians as anti-Soviet resistance fighters but associated in Poland with the wartime massacres of tens of thousands of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.
Nawrocki stressed that the decision was not directed against the Ukrainian people and did not signal any change in Poland’s support for Ukraine’s security. However, the move has intensified a diplomatic dispute between the neighboring countries at a time when both continue to face the challenges posed by Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
The Order of the White Eagle is Poland’s oldest and most prestigious state honor.
Zelensky received the Polish Order of the White Eagle in 2023 from then-President Andrzej Duda.
(aj)
SOURCE: IAR