FOREIGN MINISTER RETURNS HIGH POLISH STATE DECORATION

KYIV, JUNE 20 /SRNA/ – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha announced that he will return a high Polish state decoration after Polish President Karol Nawrocki decided to revoke the Order of the White Eagle previously awarded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Sybiha described the Polish president’s decision as a strategic mistake that benefits only Moscow.

He expressed regret that emotions had prevailed in Warsaw, prompting Polish politicians to take unjustified, impulsive, and disrespectful actions directed not only against Zelenskyy but, above all, against the Ukrainian state.

In a post on Facebook, Sybiha commented that the issue was not about decorations but about mutual relations, emphasizing that Ukraine has always advocated an approach based on mutual respect, even when dealing with difficult and sensitive issues.

He believes that the current escalation, considering everything that has been achieved, is counterproductive and unnecessary for both Ukrainians and Poles, expressing hope that reason will prevail and that Poland's friends will return to an equal dialogue.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki decided to revoke Zelenskyy’s Order of the White Eagle following a decision to grant an honorary designation to a Ukrainian military unit named after heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army /UPA/, whom some Ukrainians regard as heroes of resistance against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany and as symbols of Ukraine’s struggle against Moscow.

The UPA was also involved in the Volhynian Massacres, a series of killings that took place between 1943 and 1945 in which, according to Polish sources, Ukrainian nationalists killed around 100,000 Poles, while thousands of Ukrainians were subsequently killed in Polish retaliatory actions.