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Poland’s President Nawrocki is Behaving Like Viktor Orban, Zelensky Says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to revoke his Order of the White Eagle was driven by domestic political rivalry, not bilateral relations. Zelensky accused Nawrocki of fueling anti-Ukrainian sentiment for political gain and warned it could damage

Kyiv Post

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22. Juni 2026

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Polish President Karol Nawrocki revoked his top state honor due to internal political infighting, adding that his behavior is similar to former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Nawrocki’s decision on Friday to strip Zelensky of Poland’s highest state decoration, the Order of the White Eagle, was the latest episode of a diplomatic row that has snowballed between Kyiv and Warsaw over historical memory and wartime solidarity. 

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On Sunday, the Ukrainian president said the move was connected to Poland’s domestic politics.  

“I see this purely as an electoral process. President Karol Nawrocki is fighting for his party’s premiership against Prime Minister Tusk. It has nothing to do with us – it’s an internal matter for them,” Zelensky told the TSN television station, as reported by the Ukrainska Pravda website. 

He added that Nawrocki is creating hostility towards Ukrainians for his own political gain, drawing a comparison with the former Hungarian prime minister.  

“That’s what Orbán did. This is a bad business. I believe it will end badly,” Zelensky told the outlet.  

He stressed that “you can’t earn political dividends from hatred, because in the long run it will lead to bad relations between nations.” 

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Poland is ‘a democracy, not a monarchy’ 

Nawrocki’s decision to revoke the decoration came after Zelensky approved the naming of a Ukrainian military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a nationalist paramilitary organization accused of massacring Poles during World War II. 

Zelensky said that the Polish president had given him a book about the Volhynia tragedy in which tens of thousands of Poles were killed by the UPA, during their first meeting.  

“I’d come to see him, and his gift to me as we shook hands was a book about the Volyn tragedy. I haven’t spoken about this. I didn’t tell people. I’ve been living with this calmly. We’re talking about it openly now because he is taking steps that I believe are wrong,” the president said. 

He added that Poland is “a democracy, not a monarchy”, which is why it should build relations with Ukraine, which is currently defending Europe, including Poland.