Polish civil society activists have launched an initiative to award President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people a “Civil Order of the Future,” responding to Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to strip Zelensky of Poland’s highest state honor amid a growing diplomatic rift between Warsaw and Kyiv. According to the Polish-Ukrainian news outlet Sestry, the initiative was organized by the “Warmth from Poland” group, which drew signatures from dozens of prominent Polish figures, such as politicians, journalists, and filmmakers.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “We have helped and will continue to help,” the group said. “We do not need a politician’s permission to treat other people with decency.” “We want to hand over our own order. This is an initiative from below,” the group’s statement read. The initiative came after Nawrocki revoked the Order of the White Eagle from Zelensky, following the Ukrainian president’s decision to name a frontline military unit after fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – a World War II nationalist partisan force that many Ukrainians regard as part of their independence struggle, but which Poland holds responsible for mass killings of Polish civilians in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. History or political tool? The organizers accused Poland’s right wing of exploiting the Volhynia tragedy ahead of parliamentary elections, saying that “Politicians are arguing over the year 1943, while people are still dying in Ukraine in 2026.”