{"id":13301,"date":"2026-06-22T04:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T04:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/13301\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T04:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T04:15:08","slug":"tensions-between-poland-and-ukraine-prime-minister-donald-tusk-makes-efforts-to-cool-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/13301\/","title":{"rendered":"Tensions between Poland and Ukraine, Prime Minister Donald Tusk makes efforts to cool down"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 21, Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for de-escalation after Polish President Karol Nawrocki on June 19 decided to strip Poland of the Order of the White Eagle – the most prestigious title of Poland<\/a> that this country once awarded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/p>\n

This move has caused 3 former Ukrainian presidents and some other senior officials to return the state rewards that Poland once awarded them.<\/p>\n

Mr. Nawrocki made the above decision after President Zelensky angered many Poles for renaming a Ukrainian military unit after the Ukrainian Uprising (UPA) – a force that participated in the massacres of Poles in World War 2.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed concern about this development. “Finging into the conflict between Polish and Ukrainian politicians is a strategic mistake, causing damage to both sides in terms of economy, geopolitics as well as international prestige. In politics, as we all know, mistakes are worse than guilt” – Mr. Tusk wrote on social network X.<\/p>\n

The Polish Prime Minister added that in discussions with European partners, he always tries to minimize damage and cool down tensions, although this is not an easy task.<\/p>\n

In an interview published on X, President Zelensky affirmed that Ukraine and Poland “cannot be anything other than partners and friends”, and warned that political disagreements could lead to “very dangerous escalation”.<\/p>\n

Our soldiers chose a heroic name for their unit and as President and Supreme Commander, I must support them” – Mr. Zelensky said.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian President emphasized: “Without Ukraine, no one will be able to protect Poland. That is simply impossible”.<\/p>\n

Tensions originated from the fact that on May 27, President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> signed a decree naming the Independence Special Operations Center “North” under the Ukrainian Special Operations Force “The Heroes of UPA”.<\/p>\n

Mr. Zelensky said that this decision was made to “restore the historical traditions of the national army” as well as to recognize the unit’s outstanding achievements in the task of protecting the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian Uprising Army (UPA) is a Ukrainian guerrilla force established in October 1942 in Volhynia region, northwestern Ukraine. This is the military wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) – an extremist nationalist movement led by Stepan Bandera.<\/p>\n

During its existence, the UPA also carried out massacres against Poles in Volhynia.<\/p>\n

The decision to honor the UPA has caused a particularly strong reaction in Poland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On June 21, Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for de-escalation after Polish President Karol Nawrocki on June 19…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,9389,419,9392,9,789,5488,9391,7659,127,9386,9387,7449,9390,9388],"class_list":["post-13301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-tusk","tag-donald-tusk","tag-historical-polish-ukrainian-dispute","tag-karol-nawrocki","tag-latest-world-news","tag-poland","tag-polish-prime-minister-donald-tusk","tag-polish-ukrainian-relations","tag-polish-ukrainian-tension","tag-second-world-war","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelensky","tag-ukrainian-rebel-army","tag-upa","tag-volhynia","tag-white-eagle-medal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}