On the evening of 19 June, Polish President Karol Nawrocki took the decision to strip Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle in connection with the naming of a Ukrainian military unit after the Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. He said Poland would not allow EU accession for those who do not understand the need to renounce the “cult of totalitarianism and violence”.
Following this, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar, and Head of the President’s Office Kyrylo Budanov announced that they would be returning the Polish state awards they had received.
I’ve read a short article about it but it seems that without relevant historical knowledge it’s hard to determine. My initial impression is that the Polish president is purposely making a spectacle of the issue and rage baiting his population, and that the main beneficiary is Putin.
Tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv have been high for days following Zelensky’s decision to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a World War II militia that Warsaw accuses of participating in massacres of Poles.
I don’t like it at all.
I’ve read a short article about it but it seems that without relevant historical knowledge it’s hard to determine. My initial impression is that the Polish president is purposely making a spectacle of the issue and rage baiting his population, and that the main beneficiary is Putin.
That’s better context.
Thank you for a little background. The story keeps going through the news cycle and I was unclear on what the fundamental problem was.
Think he’s gunning for some of that Orbán oligarch money?