Polish foreign minister calls decision to strip Zelenskyy of honour "inappropriate"

Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has said that President Karol Nawrocki's decision to strip Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle was "inappropriate" because it humiliated the Ukrainian leader.

Source: European Pravda, citing TVN24

Details: Commenting on the controversy surrounding Zelenskyy's decision to name a Ukrainian Special Operations Forces unit after the Heroes of the UPA, Sikorski said the Ukrainian president could have chosen a different and more acceptable name. [The UPA, or the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, was a nationalist paramilitary organisation that fought for Ukrainian independence during and after World War II, primarily against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union – ed.]

Sikorski explained that when Zelenskyy had received the request from the soldiers, he "should have reflected: yes, the UPA fought against Soviet rule, but it also killed Poles".

"So perhaps we should find and suggest a better name to the soldiers. For example, we could choose a specific individual who fought against the Soviet occupation," he said.

Meanwhile, he acknowledged that Nawrocki's decision to strip the Ukrainian president of Poland's highest state honour was "inappropriate".

"Our response was also inappropriate because it humiliated the president of Ukraine personally," Sikorski said.

He suggested that he could have proposed an alternative response to the Ukrainian decision.

"If President Nawrocki had asked me, I would have advised something different. An equivalent response could have been, for example, renaming the airport in Jasionka as the Airport of the Victims of the UPA and then everything would have been balanced," the foreign minister said.

Sikorski believes Nawrocki's decision "deprived him of the opportunity to maintain a dialogue with the president of an important country that is at war".

He also said he would like to see what arguments Ukraine would use to persuade the Polish president to ratify a future treaty on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.

"Negotiations are one thing, but in the end there is a treaty which, in some countries, even requires a referendum, while in our case it requires the signature of the head of state," Sikorski stressed.

Background:

• On the evening of 19 June, Nawrocki took the decision to strip Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle in connection with the naming of a Ukrainian military unit after the Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. He said Poland would not allow EU accession for those who do not understand the need to renounce the "cult of totalitarianism and violence".
• Following the decision, a number of current and former Ukrainian officials announced that they would be returning their Polish honours.
• Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of Poland's opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, said Poland should begin blocking new rounds of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on 26 June that Ukraine is willing to engage in an equal, honest and mutually beneficial partnership with Poland and wants to use all diplomatic instruments available to resolve the dispute.

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