Top Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Saturday that they were returning Polish state honors after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped the Ukrainian president of Poland's highest award.
Zelenskyy said in a social media post that sent back the Order of the White Eagle, which he received in 2023 as a symbol of friendship between Poland and Ukraine.
"Ukraine will remain open to all meaningful formats of interaction with Poland, in order to strive to avoid misinterpretations of the complex and painful pages of the past of our peoples and to ensure due respect for all innocent victims of the 20th century," he wrote.
He called the medal a symbol of Poland's "highest trust," but also suggested it no longer held the same meaning after Nawrocki's decision.
The Polish decision to strip the honor from Zelenskyy could further strain ties between the two close strategic partners as Kyiv seeks to rally international support to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
