The head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Kyrylo Budanov, has said he will follow his country’s top diplomat in returning a Polish state award amid a historical dispute between the neighbouring allies against Russia.
Budanov wrote on Telegram on Saturday that he is renouncing the Golden Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, which he received last year.
This comes in response to Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to renounce the Order of the White Eagle bestowed on him by his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
At the core of the row lies the bloody legacy of the underground fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), who are honoured for their resistance against Soviet rule after World War II. During the war, however, the force massacred tens of thousands of Poles and Jews in what is now western Ukraine.
Zelensky triggered the controversy at the end of May when he bestowed the nickname “Heroes of the UPA” upon an army unit fighting against the Russians.
In his post, Budanov described Nawrocki’s action as an “unfriendly gesture toward the Ukrainian people and a gift to the aggressor Russia.” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had earlier also announced the return of an award.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called on both presidents to exercise restraint.
” The conflict between Poland and Ukraine is a source of delight for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and shock to our allies,” Tusk wrote on X on Friday as the dispute escalated less than a week before a reconstruction conference for Ukraine in the Polish port city of Gdańsk.
Zelensky received Poland’s highest honour in 2023 from Nawrocki’s predecessor, Andrzej Duda, to underscore the friendship between Poland and Ukraine in the struggle against Russia’s aggression.