From close allies to bitter row: Why Zelensky returned Poland’s highest honour

A fresh diplomatic strain has emerged between Poland and Ukraine, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying he has returned Poland's highest honour after Polish President Karol Nawrocki said he was stripping him of the award. According to BBC.com, the dispute follows anger in Poland over Kyiv's decision last month to rename a Ukrainian army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, a group that remains deeply divisive in both countries.

The Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest honour, had been bestowed on Zelensky in 2023 by then-President Andrzej Duda. Three senior Ukrainian officials have also said they are returning awards bestowed by Poland in solidarity with Zelensky, even as Poland continues to be one of Ukraine's main allies in the war against Russia.

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The latest row was triggered by Kyiv's decision to rename a Ukrainian army unit after the UPA. Many in Ukraine regard the UPA, which existed in the 1940s and 1950s, as heroes who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Soviet Red Army, Nazi Germany and Polish authorities. The group's red and black flag is often used by Ukrainian troops on the front line today.

Poland, however, accuses the UPA of carrying out a genocide of about 100,000 ethnic Poles in Volhynia, now Volyn in Ukraine, in 1943-45. Nawrocki described Ukraine's decision as "outrageous", "incomprehensible" and "deeply disappointing".

In a video released on the president's official website, Nawrocki said: "For the overwhelming majority of Polish society, the UPA remains, above all, a formation responsible for the brutal crimes committed against citizens of the Republic of Poland during World War Two." He added: "It hurts not only our historical memory. It also undermines the trust built up over the years and in recent months."

In a statement on social media, Zelensky said Ukraine would "remain open to all meaningful formats of engagement with Poland in order to try to avoid conflicting interpretations of the difficult and painful chapters of our shared past". He added that Ukraine was "grateful to the Polish People for their support and co-operation".

Despite the dispute, Nawrocki stressed that the diplomatic row would not affect Poland's support for Ukraine against Russia. Poland has taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees and has served as a logistics hub for aid to Ukraine during the war.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also weighed in on social media, saying any feud between the two "delights" Russia's Vladimir Putin. He called on Zelensky and Nawrocki to "calm emotions, not to stoke tensions".

The tension comes as Ukraine pursues its ambition of becoming a member of the European Union and attended the first phase of membership negotiations this week in Luxembourg. The dispute over the UPA has sharpened differences over the two countries' shared past, even as both sides have signalled that support for Ukraine in the war against Russia will continue.