{"id":13497,"date":"2026-06-23T06:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T06:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/13497\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T06:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T06:22:15","slug":"poland-archives-returned-white-eagle-order-from-zelensky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/13497\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland archives returned &#8216;White Eagle&#8217; Order from Zelensky"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s highest state honor, a presidential spokesman said, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.az\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News.Az<\/a> reports, citing the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kyivpost.com\/post\/78751\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kyiv Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe order was indeed sent back. We received it at the Presidential Chancellery,\u201d Leskiewicz said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the decoration and its annulled certificate would be placed in the custody of Poland\u2019s Office of Orders and Decorations, where they would remain permanently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 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\u2019s highest and most important state decoration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Leskiewicz, the specific insignia returned by Zelensky will never again be awarded to another recipient.<\/p>\n<p>The spokesman added that formal completion of the revocation process still requires publication of the relevant presidential decree, countersigned by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.<\/p>\n<p>The dispute began after Nawrocki announced on June 19 that he was stripping Zelensky of the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.az\/news\/kyiv-slams-poland-for-stripping-zelensky-of-honor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Order of the White Eagle<\/a>, citing the Ukrainian president\u2019s approval of naming a Ukrainian military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).<\/p>\n<p>The decision drew criticism from Kyiv, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha calling it a \u201cstrategic mistake\u201d 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\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the controversy, Leskiewicz expressed confidence that the episode would not lead to a broader deterioration in relations between Warsaw and Kyiv.<\/p>\n<p>He added that Nawrocki said in his original statement that the decision was not directed against Ukrainians and did not alter Poland\u2019s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRussia remains the enemy of Ukraine, of all free Europe and of the free world,\u201d Leskiewicz said, referring to the Polish president\u2019s position.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.az\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News.Az<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"by-user\" href=\"https:\/\/news.az\/journalists\/nijat-babayev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">By Nijat Babayev<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Poland has received the Order of the White Eagle back from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after Polish President&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9,127,790,8539],"class_list":["post-13497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-poland","tag-ukraine","tag-volodymyr-zelensky","tag-white-eagle-order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13497","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=13497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}