Poland has received the Order of the White Eagle back from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped him of the country’s highest state honor, a presidential spokesman said, News.Az reports, citing the Kyiv Post.
Presidential spokesman Rafal Leskiewicz said the insignia arrived at the Presidential Chancellery on Monday and would now be transferred to a special archive maintained by the office.
“The order was indeed sent back. We received it at the Presidential Chancellery,” Leskiewicz said.
He said the decoration and its annulled certificate would be placed in the custody of Poland’s Office of Orders and Decorations, where they would remain permanently.
“The award will go to the deposit of the Office of Orders and Nominations, where it will be stored with due dignity and respect, because it is Poland’s highest and most important state decoration,” he said.
According to Leskiewicz, the specific insignia returned by Zelensky will never again be awarded to another recipient.
The spokesman added that formal completion of the revocation process still requires publication of the relevant presidential decree, countersigned by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The dispute began after Nawrocki announced on June 19 that he was stripping Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, citing the Ukrainian president’s approval of naming a Ukrainian military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
The decision drew criticism from Kyiv, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha calling it a “strategic mistake” that would benefit Moscow and announcing he would return a Polish state decoration he received in 2022. In addition to Sybiha, several former presidents, high-ranking officials and prominent public figures said they would return Polish state awards, arguing that the move undermined relations between the two countries and played into Russia’s hands.
Despite the controversy, Leskiewicz expressed confidence that the episode would not lead to a broader deterioration in relations between Warsaw and Kyiv.
He added that Nawrocki said in his original statement that the decision was not directed against Ukrainians and did not alter Poland’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“Russia remains the enemy of Ukraine, of all free Europe and of the free world,” Leskiewicz said, referring to the Polish president’s position.