Key actors — tap for context
Karol Nawrocki
Polish president (since 2025), historian and former head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN)
Why here: Demands that Zelensky be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle over the naming of a unit after the UPA.
More info →
Donald Tusk
Polish prime minister and leader of the centrist Civic Coalition
Why here: From the opposite camp to the president — warns that conflict with Kyiv plays into Moscow's hands.
More info →
Volodymyr Zelenskyj
Ukrainian president
Why here: Triggered the Polish rift by naming a unit after the "heroes of the UPA."
More info →
Cezary Tomczyk
Polish deputy defense minister
Why here: Admitted that not a single MiG-29 has been delivered until Kyiv hands over drone technology.
More info →
Roman Polko
general, former commander of the GROM special forces unit
Why here: Author of the phrase "business is business" about hard bargaining with Kyiv.
More info →UPA
Ukrainian Insurgent Army, a nationalist formation from the Second World War era
Why here: Poland attributes the Volhynia massacre to it; Kyiv named a unit after it.
What Rzeczpospolita says
The agreement from late 2025, confirmed by a letter of intent in February 2026, was simple: Poland would hand over its remaining Soviet-era MiG-29s, and Ukraine would share combat drone and counter-drone technology in return. Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk admitted on June 15 that not a single fighter jet from the current batch has been delivered — until Kyiv hands over the technology. "Business is business, you have to negotiate hard even with partners. Honest communication is better than silence, which is later hard to fix," General Roman Polko, former commander of the GROM unit, told the paper. Rzeczpospolita ↗The paper also gives space to a poll showing that 51.2% of Poles want Zelensky stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, while only 35.5% are opposed (United Surveys for the daily Wirtualna Polska, June 12–14). The split is sharply partisan: 80% or more of opposition and Confederation voters favor stripping the honor, while supporters of Tusk's coalition are mostly opposed. Rzeczpospolita ↗
What differs from Slovak and Czech coverage
Slovak and Czech media have so far paid no attention to the Polish-Ukrainian tension — in their coverage, Poland features via the heat wave or football, not the rift with Kyiv. Yet the details matter. The trigger came on May 27, when Zelensky granted the honorary name "heroes of the UPA" to the special operations center "Pivnich" (Sever in Slovak, meaning "North"). Poland attributes to the UPA responsibility for the Volhynia massacre of 1943–1945, in which, according to Polish historiography, around 100,000 Poles were killed. Ukrajinska Pravda ↗Poland's internal rift is also key. Nawrocki, a historian and former head of the Institute of National Remembrance, wants to strip the honor — making the whole dispute a test of Polish cohabitation. Prime Minister Donald Tusk is from the opposite camp: he warns that "cooperation serves both nations' interests, while conflict serves Moscow's," and calls on both presidents to talk directly. He is also expecting Zelensky at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdansk on June 25–26. Ukrinform ↗
(June 19, evening) Deliberation turned into decision. On Friday evening, Nawrocki declared: "I have decided to strip the President of Ukraine of the Order of the White Eagle." He stressed that the step is not directed against the Ukrainian people and does not change Poland's security policy: "We have supported and continue to support Ukraine, because we know that Russian aggression threatens Poland and all of Europe." The act, however, may not yet be legally finalized. Awarding honors falls within the president's powers, but on the question of stripping them, Polish constitutional lawyers disagree over whether a revocation also requires the prime minister's countersignature. If it does, the final word would belong to Tusk, Nawrocki's political opponent — meaning his signature would decide whether the order is actually withdrawn. Tusk himself responded shortly after Friday's speech on X: in his view, the conflict "pleases Putin and shocks our allies," and he called on both presidents to calm emotions rather than inflame them. Notes from Poland ↗ A sharp response came from Kyiv — according to the Kyiv Independent, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the decision "reckless" and "a strategic mistake that benefits only Moscow," and announced that he would also return his own Polish honor, the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit, awarded in October 2022. Kyiv Independent ↗
(June 20) The dispute was resolved quickly. On Saturday, Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had returned the Order of the White Eagle to the Polish president — Kyiv "respects" the decision, according to the head of state. On X, he added that he had viewed the 2023 honor as a tribute to the Ukrainian people and army, not to himself, and that he believes "the future will confirm the respect Ukrainians deserve." The dispute over whether the revocation also required Prime Minister Tusk's countersignature thus became moot in practice — the order was returned voluntarily by the Ukrainian side. The stripping also triggered a chain reaction: besides Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, also gave up his Polish honor — Budanov, until January 2026 the long-serving head of military intelligence (HUR), took over the office after Andriy Yermak was dismissed. Budanov returned the Golden Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, which he received last year, and called Nawrocki's move "a gift to the Moscow aggressor, who will certainly use it against both our countries." UNITED24 ↗ Ukrajinska Pravda ↗
For the Central European reader, this is a mirror. Poland had been a model of unconditional solidarity with Ukraine — the counterpart to Fico's Slovakia and Orbán's Hungary. If even Warsaw is shifting to a transactional mode and reopening historical wounds, the entire narrative of a united eastern flank of Europe is changing.
Limits of this perspective
Rzeczpospolita is a center-right, economically and legally oriented daily that is naturally lenient toward memory politics and the rhetoric of "hard bargaining." It underestimates just how much freezing fighter jets in the middle of a war weakens Ukraine — and who benefits from that. Caution is warranted here: Russian networks are deliberately fanning this dispute and twisting it into a narrative that "Poland should accept the glorification of the UPA in exchange for reconstruction contracts." The historical grievance itself is real, but its exploitation is neither Polish nor Ukrainian. The paper's lens also sidesteps the Ukrainian perspective — front-tested drone technology is Kyiv's most valuable leverage, and it is precisely this that Poland is making a condition for delivering the fighter jets — as well as the economic ties between the two countries: according to Rzeczpospolita, more than 100,000 Ukrainian-owned businesses have opened in Poland since 2022.What hotinfo is following
- Whether Zelensky will rename or modify the "heroes of the UPA" unit before Gdansk — according to his office, Nawrocki's deadline "is counted in days."
- Whether other Ukrainian officials will follow Zelensky, Sybiha, and Budanov in returning Polish honors — and how deep the dispute between Warsaw and Kyiv will go.
- Whether the delivery of the MiG-29s will be unfrozen once a deal on drone technology is reached.
- The Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdansk, June 25–26: will Zelensky attend and meet with Nawrocki?
- Whether Warsaw's transactional shift will also be reflected in Slovak and Hungarian rhetoric about helping Kyiv.
