The Polish Foreign Ministry called the scandal surrounding Zelenskyy's medal "nonsensical"
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski stated that President Karol Nawrocki should not have stripped his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of the Order of the White Eagle. According to the diplomat, the debate surrounding this issue is pointless, despite the negative assessment of the Ukrainian president’s decision to bestow the title “Heroes of the UPA.”
Bartoszewski also noted that the question of a possible counter-signature by Prime Minister Donald Tusk on this decision is already settled, since the award itself is physically kept at the Presidential Palace.
In addition, the Foreign Ministry representative urged people not to link Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s absence from the economic conference in Gdańsk to this diplomatic dispute. According to him, the main focus of the event is the presence of about 5,000 participants, including 2,000 business representatives, who are focused on the real challenges of Ukraine’s reconstruction and plan to sign contracts worth nearly 10 billion euros.
The official made these remarks during an interview on RMF FM radio.
In response to the Polish president’s actions, Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga stated that he would return his state award to Poland.
Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov reacted to Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to revoke Poland’s highest state award, the Order of the White Eagle, from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He called the Polish leader a liar and a manipulator.
Oleg Tyahnybok, leader of the All-Ukrainian Union “Svoboda,” recalled the events in the village of Sahryn—now a village in Poland’s Lublin Voivodeship—where between 600 and 1,240 Ukrainians were killed and tortured in March 1944.
