Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has announced that he will return the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland following a decision by Polish President Karol Nawrocki concerning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The statement was published on the minister’s social media accounts.
Sybiha described the Polish president’s decision as a “strategic mistake” that, in his view, benefits only Moscow.
“We regret that emotions prevailed in Warsaw and led Polish politicians to take unjustified, impulsive and disrespectful steps directed not only against President Zelenskyy, but above all against the Ukrainian state,” he said.
The foreign minister stated that he no longer sees any possibility of retaining the high Polish state award he received in October 2022 and intends to return it to Poland in the near future.
According to Sybiha, the issue is not about decorations themselves but about attitudes and the principles of mutual respect between states.
He noted that Ukraine has spent the past year and a half working to resolve disagreements in bilateral relations, depoliticize historical issues, conduct search and exhumation efforts, and restore the work of the Congress of Historians.
The minister also pointed out that search operations are currently underway in Huta Pieniacka at Poland’s request.
In his view, the current escalation is counterproductive and serves neither Ukrainian nor Polish interests.
“No president of another country will dictate our history to us,” Sybiha stressed.
At the same time, the Ukrainian foreign minister expressed hope that Poland would return to an equal dialogue consistent with the allied relationship between the two countries as they face a common threat from Russia.
