Yushchenko Renounces Polish Order of the White Eagle in Protest Over Zelenskyy's Award Revocation

Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's third president, has also renounced the Polish Order of the White Eagle following Polish President Karol Nawrocki's decision to strip Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the order. Yushchenko's press secretary Iryna Vannykova announced this on Facebook, stating that Yushchenko decided to renounce the award in disagreement with the revocation.

Vannykova noted that any attempts to revoke such a decision go far beyond attitudes toward one politician and inevitably affect millions of Ukrainians who defend their country on the front line every day, work for victory in the rear, and lose their loved ones in this war.

She recalled the tears in the eyes of Yushchenko and then-Polish president Lech Kaczyński in Huta Pieniacka in Lviv Oblast in 2009, where Polish victims of a punitive operation during World War II were commemorated. "At that time, Yushchenko and Kaczyński consciously chose the path of reconciliation. A few years earlier, our presidents together honoured Ukrainian victims in the village of Pavlokoma in Poland and emphasised the need for Ukrainian-Polish understanding despite tragic pages of the past," she added, also recalling Poland's assistance to Ukrainians in the first months of Russia's full-scale invasion.

"Today, Ukraine is defending not only itself. Our soldiers are defending the eastern border of the whole of Europe. And any steps that weaken Ukrainian-Polish unity ultimately only serve the Kremlin," Vannykova wrote.

Earlier on 20 June, Ukraine's second president Leonid Kuchma renounced the Order of the White Eagle. On the evening of 19 June, Polish President Karol Nawrocki decided to strip Zelenskyy of the order in connection with the naming of a Ukrainian unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, stating that Poland would not allow EU accession for those who do not understand the need to renounce the "cult of totalitarianism and violence." Following this move, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar, and Head of the President's Office Kyrylo Budanov announced they would return their Polish state awards. On 20 June, Zelenskyy said he had sent the order back to Nawrocki by post. Nawrocki explained that he had stripped Zelenskyy of the award because the latter had crossed the Poles' "pain threshold."