Polish-Ukrainian relations have entered a deep crisis after Polish President Karol Nawrocki revoked Poland’s highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle, from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on June 19.

The decision came just days before Zelenskiy was expected to travel to Gdańsk for another international conference on Ukraine’s post-war recovery. It marks a new low in bilateral relations, which have long been strained by historical disputes centred on World War Two.

Zelenskiy's office said the president will decide on the trip to Gdańsk on June 22.

In late May, Zelenskiy named a Ukrainian military unit after the World War Two-era Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a move certain to cause anger in Poland. Unlike in Ukraine, the UPA is widely viewed in Poland through the killings of tens of thousands of Poles in a genocidal campaign in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia in 1943-1945.

“Naming one of Ukraine’s military units after the UPA criminals carries significance that extends far beyond Ukraine’s internal affairs,” Nawrocki said in a video statement in which he explained the decision to revoke the distinction.

“I would like to emphasise: this decision is not directed against the Ukrainian people. It does not signify a change in the strategic direction of Polish security policy. We have supported and continue to support Ukraine because we know that Russian aggression poses a threat to the security of Poland and all of Europe,” Nawrocki also said.

“Poland remains ready to cooperate with Ukraine … Poland will not consent to the glorification of those who murdered defenceless Polish civilians,” Nawrocki added.

Zelenskiy said he had returned the order to Poland and posted photographs of the award being packed for dispatch.

“Ukraine is grateful to the Polish People for their support and cooperation, which play a significant role in the struggle for our and your independence from Russia,” the Ukrainian president said on X.

Ukraine will “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 and to ensure proper respect for all innocent victims of the 20th century,” Zelenskiy also said.

But Zelenskiy argued that revoking the order ran counter to the reasons why it was awarded.

“We believed that the Order of the White Eagle, awarded in 2023, was meant for the Ukrainian People and our army. That is what was said at the time,” Zelenskiy said.

A wave of reactions

Former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko all said they would return or renounce the Order of the White Eagle, which they had received years earlier.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar, former prime minister Volodymyr Hroisman, Kyrylo Budanov, and Vasyl Zvarych, a former Ukrainian ambassador to Poland, also said they would return their Polish distinctions.

The dispute alarmed Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who faces the fiasco of the conference in Gdańsk. More broadly, the spat now threatens Poland's role in Ukraine's reconstruction.

“Getting entangled in the political conflict between politicians in Poland and Ukraine is a strategic mistake that will cost both sides: in business, geopolitically, and reputationally. And in politics, as is well known, a mistake is worse than a crime,” Tusk said on social media.

Zelenskyy’s May decree granted the honorary name “Heroes of the UPA” to the Separate Special Operations Centre North of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces.

The decree said the decision was intended to restore “the historical traditions of the national army” and recognised the unit’s role in defending Ukraine’s territorial integrity and independence.

The UPA is viewed by many Ukrainians as part of the country’s anti-Soviet independence struggle and as an inspiration for Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.

In Poland, however, the formation is viewed very differently. The massacres, in which the UPA killed tens of thousands of Polish civilians in 1943-1945, remain the most contentious chapter in relations between the two countries.

Historians estimate that as many as 100,000 Poles could have been killed, while Polish reprisals claimed 10,000 to 20,000 Ukrainian lives.

Warsaw classifies the events as genocide. Kyiv, however, regards the nationalist movement behind the killings as central to its statehood narrative, making an official apology politically difficult.

Over years of talks, Poland and Ukraine have reached some incremental agreements on commemorating the victims. Last year, after a long hiatus, exhumations resumed in the Volhynia region of Ukraine, where the UPA was most active against Poles, as part of work aimed at identifying the victims and burying them properly.

The Russian wedge

The Kremlin predictably sought to exploit the dispute between Warsaw and Kyiv after Nawrocki’s decision very quickly.

“Poland’s president has finally stripped the Nazi-worshipping Kiev degenerate of the Order of the White Eagle. I’m sure that won’t be a problem for the Banderite-in-chief — now there’s more room on his green sweatshirt for Hitler’s Iron Cross with Golden Oak Leaves,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on X.

Russia has long sought to exploit the history of Ukrainian nationalist groups, including the UPA, which collaborated with Nazi Germany at points during World War 2, to support its broader propaganda claim that modern Ukraine has rehabilitated Nazism.

The narrative resonates in Russia, where victory over Nazi Germany remains central to state identity and political memory.

The claim draws on real but highly selective history. Parts of the Ukrainian nationalist movement collaborated with Nazi Germany and were implicated in violence against Poles. Until World War 2, large parts of what is now western Ukraine belonged to Poland.

The UPA later fought both German forces and the Soviets, hoping that an independent Ukrainian state would emerge from the post-war order.

Moscow has sought to equate Ukraine’s modern independence movement with the pre-World War Two nationalist movement.

Despite centuries of painful history, Poland has been one of Ukraine’s strongest and most vocal backers since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than four years ago.