Former Polish Ambassador to Ukraine Calls for Restraint Amid Award Revocation Scandal

Former Polish ambassador to Ukraine, Bartosz Cichocki, called for restraint on social media platform X amid the controversy surrounding the revocation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's award. "There is a way out of any crisis. Success awaits those who show restraint today. Every offensive word spoken today will remain in memory for a long time," Cichocki wrote.

Cichocki returned his Ukrainian Order of Merit, awarded by Zelenskyy in 2022, in early June to protest the renaming of a Ukrainian unit in honor of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). He was one of the few ambassadors who did not leave Kyiv during the first weeks of the full-scale war.

On the evening of June 19, Polish President Karol Nawrocki decided to strip Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle over the naming of a Ukrainian unit after the UPA, and stated that Poland would not allow EU membership for those who do not understand the need to abandon the "cult of totalitarianism and violence." Following this move, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar, and Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Budanov announced they would return their Polish awards. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed regret that the dispute between Poland and Ukraine is deepening, noting that it "only pleases Putin and shocks our allies."