Polish president wants to strip Zelenskyy of honour for naming Special Operations Forces unit after Heroes of Ukrainian Insurgent Army

Polish President Karol Nawrocki will seek to strip Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland’s highest honour following Zelenskyy’s decision to name an elite Ukrainian Special Operations Forces unit after the Heroes of the UPA. [The UPA, or Ukrainian Insurgent Army, was a nationalist paramilitary organisation that fought for Ukrainian independence during and after World War II, primarily against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union – ed.]

Source: Nawrocki as cited by Onet, as reported by European Pravda

Details: On 5 April 2023, then-Polish president Andrzej Duda awarded Zelenskyy the Order of the White Eagle – the country’s highest honour – during an official visit to Warsaw by Zelenskyy. Nawrocki now wishes to strip the Ukrainian president of the award.

“On 8 June, a meeting of the chapter of the Order of the White Eagle will take place. I have proposed that the question of stripping Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the order be included on the agenda,” Nawrocki said.

He added that by naming a Ukrainian unit after the Heroes of the UPA, the Ukrainian president has “provided Russian propaganda with excellent material and considerable fuel”.

“I am very critical of this decision,” Nawrocki said.

Zelenskyy recently granted the honorary designation “named after the Heroes of the UPA” to the Separate Special Operations Centre North of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The presidential decree states that this was done with the aim of restoring the historical traditions of the national military and in recognition of the unit’s exemplary fulfilment of its assigned tasks in defending the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine.

The decision prompted an angry response from Poland’s Foreign Ministry. On 28 May, Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki met with Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar to lodge a protest and explain that this action is a painful one for Poles.