Nawrocki gave Zelenskyy time to change course. Inside the dispute over Poland’s highest honor

Karol Nawrocki did not revoke Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Order of the White Eagle immediately. Poland’s president gave Kyiv weeks to reconsider its decision to name a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, but Warsaw concluded that the opportunity had not been used.

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Ukraine was given a lot of time by us to change its approach. There was clearly no such willingness. The Ukrainians calculated and played for time.

The order’s chapter met on June 8, although its recommendation was not made public. On June 13, Rzeczpospolita reported that, without a change in Zelenskyy’s decision, revoking the decoration was only days away. Nawrocki announced the move on June 19.

“Ukraine was given a lot of time by us to change its approach. There was clearly no such willingness. The Ukrainians calculated and played for time,” people at the Presidential Palace said unofficially, according to the newspaper. Their assessment was that the delay allowed Zelenskyy to show Ukrainian citizens that he had not responded immediately to Polish actions and instead needed time to consider them.

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Not the slightest intention

The Ukrainian response was firm. The day after Nawrocki’s decision, Zelenskyy said on social media that he was returning the Order of the White Eagle by courier, without using the embassy. Former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko later announced similar steps. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also returned the Commander’s Cross with Star and called Nawrocki’s decision “a strategic mistake by Poland’s president, from which only Moscow will benefit.”

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A strategic mistake by Poland’s president, from which only Moscow will benefit.

Kyiv’s position, conveyed during talks, was that naming the unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army was not intended as a move against Poland. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Zelenskyy had told him he had “not the slightest intention” of damaging Polish-Ukrainian relations. Polish officials, however, said informal attempts to ease the crisis, including efforts attributed to former president Aleksander Kwaśniewski, produced no Ukrainian response. Deputy minister Marcin Przydacz said Zelenskyy had had “every opportunity to withdraw from his bad decision” after an active dialogue requested by Kyiv. The article ends by suggesting that Ukraine had not sought a way out of the dispute.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had every opportunity to withdraw from his bad decision. In recent weeks, active dialogue with Kyiv was conducted. The Ukrainian side requested such dialogue and time. We responded with openness.