Polish President Karol Nawrocki said on Saturday his countrymen's "pain threshold" had been crossed, defending his decision to strip Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland's highest decoration amid a growing diplomatic row over a dispute rooted in World War Two history. “We are a proud Polish nation and we have our own pain threshold,” Nawrocki said during a public event in southern Poland. He added: “That pain threshold has been crossed, which is why I took the Order of the White Eagle away from President Zelenskyy." Nawrocki announced on Friday that he had initiated proceedings to revoke the Ukrainian leader’s order. The honor was awarded to Zelenskyy in 2023 by then-President Andrzej Duda for strengthening ties between Poland and Ukraine and for his leadership after Russia's invasion. Experts say that under Polish law, the revocation still requires the countersignature of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to take effect. Nawrocki’s decision followed Zelenskyy's approval of the name "Heroes of the UPA" for a Ukrainian special forces unit. The name refers to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a nationalist paramilitary organization accused of massacring Poles during World War II. Nawrocki said his move was not directed against the Ukrainian people and did not signal a change in Poland's support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. ‘We continue to support Ukraine’ "We have supported and continue to support Ukraine," he said on Friday, adding that "nothing has changed" in Poland's strategic approach to security. The dispute centers on differing Polish and Ukrainian views of the UPA. Many Ukrainians regard the group as part of a struggle for independence, while in Poland it is associated with the Volhynia massacres, in which up to 100,000 Polish civilians were killed in 1943-45 in what Warsaw considers an act of genocide. Nawrocki said on Saturday that a president’s role includes speaking “with the voice of those who are no longer here and cannot speak." His decision to strip Zelenskyy of his order has drawn criticism from top Ukrainian officials. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called it a "strategic mistake" from which "only Russia will benefit," while several senior Ukrainian officials announced they would return Polish state decorations in protest. Zelenskyy has previously said that naming a military unit the "Heroes of the UPA" was meant to restore the historical traditions of Ukraine’s armed forces and was not aimed at Poland, which remains one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies as it fights Russia’s invasion.
