Nawrocki Plans To Revoke Poland’s Highest Honor From Zelensky After His UPA Scandal
It’s completely unacceptable to all self-respecting Poles for Zelensky to rename an elite commando unit after the Nazi collaborators who genocided over 100,000 Poles during World War II.
Zelensky finally crossed the line with most Poles and completely disgusted them by giving an elite commando unit the honorary name of “Heroes of the ‘Ukrainian Insurgent Army’ (UPA)”. For those readers who aren’t aware, the UPA was the “Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists’” (OUN) armed wing that was responsible for the Volhynia Genocide of over 100,000 Poles, mostly women and children. One of its former leaders, Andrey Melnik, just had his remains repatriated and reburied with honors in Kiev.
That was already infuriating for many Poles as explained here, but it’s an even deeper insult to them and the victims of the Volhynia Genocide for an active commando unit to be named after the UPA. This glorification of literal fascists and Nazi collaborators also sends the signal, whether intentionally or not, that the post-conflict “competitive relationship” with Poland that Zelensky’s top aid Mikhail Podolyak predicted in summer 2023 could lead to the revival of Ukrainian claims over southeastern Poland.
That dark scenario was elaborated on here in fall 2024 after the current leader of the OUN implicitly threatened Poland with such a possibility in response to a shitpost map showing Western Ukraine as Polish. Poland’s “Operation Trident”, which aims to thwart a post-conflict Ukrainian crime wave, might thus also have the dual purpose of thwarting a post-conflict Ukrainian insurgency. Germany’s new military patronage of Ukraine also unnerves Poles due to their wartime collaboration against them.
Speculation about Ukraine’s post-conflict intentions aside, conservative Polish President Karol Nawrocki announced that he’ll request the revocation from Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle during the chapter’s next meeting on 8 June, which decides to whom to bestow Poland’s highest civilian honor. Zelensky received it from Nawrocki’s predecessor Andrzej Duda in 2023, but Polish activist Małgorzata Zych called on Nawrocki to revoke it after Zelensky reburied Melnik repatriated remains with honors.
After Zelensky’s UPA scandal, Confederation MP Grzegorz Płaczek submitted an official request about this to Nawrocki, which prompted his announcement the day after. In between both, Przemysław Czarnek, the conservative opposition’s prime ministerial candidate in fall 2027’s next elections, posted on X that “The Ambassador of Ukraine should be immediately summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where Polish authorities must demand clear explanations and a retraction of this decision.”
He added that “If Zelenskyy does not reverse this scandalous gesture, Poland should move from diplomatic statements to real political actions and consequences in bilateral relations, including limitations on support.” This hints that the possible return of his party to power next fall, potentially in coalition with the populist-nationalist Confederation party whose co-leader lambasted Czarnek’s and his rival’s party for not attaching anti-fascist strings to Polish aid for Ukraine, could lead to a harder policy.
If Zelensky goes through with reburying the infamous Stepan Bandera’s repatriated remains like Polish media reported is being considered and isn’t opposed by his descendants, then liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk might feel pressured by the public into adopting a relatively harder policy than today’s. That’s because his ruling liberal coalition would risk a landslide defeat next fall if they continued business as usual in the event that Zelensky gives Bandera a hero’s burial in Kiev like many now expect him to do.
The funny thing is that Bandera and his UPA weren't exactly fans of Jews, as Zelenskii knows full well. However, the nationalist ideology happens to be convenient at the moment, so Zelenskii will go along with it, just as he speaks Ukrainian in public but Russian, wherever the mike is off.
For that matter, I don't know a Polish family that did not suffer at the hands of the UPA, yet Poles spent the last four years embracing the literal direct ideological and biological descendants of the same Ukrainian nationalists who so gleefully murdered theit parents and grandparents, so why this should be a bridge too far is left unsaid.
Andrew, off topic: Did you see on RT, Trenin setting the record straight, dotting the 'i's and calling a spade a spade, apparently in response to Kashin's 'Enchanted Carousel' vision where it's claimed that all you need to do is make a deal (surrender) to the USA and everything will be much better. So there, unlike the dreamers or the braggarts, he explains that peace is needed but that it won't really be peace because 'the West wants to crush Russia.' He also reminds us that building a new Russia is not a toy for the intellectual 'elite' but a common project shared by the entire people. That, in my opinion, properly lays out the foundation of the alternative.