Budanov and Sybiha renounce Polish awards after decision to strip Zelenskyy of order

Head of the Ukrainian presidential office Kyrylo Budanov announced on Saturday, June 20, 2026, that he is renouncing the Golden Cross of the Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, which was awarded to him last year. The move is a response to Polish President Karol Nawrocki's decision to revoke the Order of the White Eagle from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which had been awarded three years earlier.

Budanov stated that Nawrocki's step is 'a gift to the Moscow aggressor' that Russia will certainly use against both nations. He emphasized that the Ukrainian and Polish peoples share a long history with both heroic and tragic pages, but these differences should be grounds for reflection, not crude political speculation.

Similarly, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha announced that he would return his Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland to Poland. Sybiha condemned the Polish decision as a strategic mistake and a display of disrespect, adding that only Moscow would benefit from it.

On Friday, in a video statement, Polish President Nawrocki announced the revocation of Zelenskyy's Order of the White Eagle following Ukraine's decision to rename the Independent Special Operations Center 'North' of the Special Operations Forces as 'UPA Heroes'. This was intended to restore historical traditions of the national army, but in Poland it sparked outrage because the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) is associated with the Volhynia massacre – the mass killing of Polish civilians during World War II.

The Volhynia massacre, which began on July 11, 1943, was an ethnic cleansing operation by the UPA in which between 60,000 and 100,000 ethnic Poles were killed. Retaliatory attacks and subsequent partisan warfare also claimed the lives of 2,000 to 3,000 Ukrainians. As violence spread, the communist regime carried out ethnic cleansings that killed approximately 20,000 more Ukrainians by 1947. This historical issue remains a painful point in Ukrainian-Polish relations.