Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha called the decision to strip the President of Ukraine of the Order of the White Eagle a strategic mistake by the President of Poland and added that he would return his Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, reports UNN.
The decision to strip the President of Ukraine of the Order of the White Eagle is a strategic mistake by the President of Poland, from which only Moscow will benefit. We regret that emotions got the better of Warsaw and forced Polish politicians to take unjustified, impulsive, and disrespectful steps not even towards President Zelenskyy, but primarily towards the Ukrainian state.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine added that against the backdrop of such reckless actions, he sees no possibility of retaining the high state award of the Republic of Poland – the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, which was conferred upon him in October 2022. And he will soon return it to Poland.
It is not about the orders, but about the attitude. We have always advocated for an approach of mutual respect — even when it comes to complex and problematic issues. And this implies that we respect each other's decisions even when we disagree with them. "Agree to disagree" as they say. We never wanted this conflict. Instead, for a year and a half, we actively worked on resolving contradictions, depoliticizing historical issues, unblocking professional, scientific work, search and exhumation works, and reburials at the request of the Polish side, and resuming the activities of the Congress of Historians. We have achieved a lot on this path. Just now, search works are ongoing in Huta Pieniacka, which the Poles requested. Against this background, the current escalation is counterproductive and unnecessary for either us or the Poles. We regret that instead of seeking solutions, the Polish side decided to escalate this tension to an unacceptable and inadequate level. No president of another country will dictate our history to us.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine hopes that eventually, cool heads will prevail and "our Polish friends will return to an equal dialogue that befits the allied relations between our countries in the face of countering the common enemy in Moscow."
Recall
President of Poland Andrzej Duda decided to strip President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle and emphasized that there are limits in Polish-Ukrainian relations that cannot be crossed.