Zelensky returns Poland’s highest honor amid escalating row over nationalist wartime unit | CNN

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has returned Poland’s highest state honor, after the Polish president stripped him of the award as a politically charged dispute over World War II history resurfaced. Ukrainians believed the order “was meant for the Ukrainian People and our army,” Zelensky wrote in a social media post explaining the gesture. “Today, I sent the Order back to the President of Poland. I believe the future will confirm the respect Ukrainians deserve.” The message published on X is accompanied by photos of the Polish order and a postal receipt that it was about to be mailed to the Polish presidential office. President Karol Nawrocki decided to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle over the Ukrainian leader’s decision to name a military unit after a Ukrainian paramilitary organization accused of massacring Poles during WWII. Former Polish President Andrzej Duda bestowed the award on Zelensky in 2023 for services to security, resilience and the defense of human rights. Zelensky issued a decree on May 26 naming a unit of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, which operated during the 1940s and 1950s and has