Ukraine-Poland rift deepens as Zelensky returns Polish state honour over WWII row

Poland's presidency said last week that Karol Nawrocki had stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, citing the Ukrainian parliament's rejection of a symbolic motion commemorating Polish victims. On Friday, seven senior Ukrainian officials including former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and former armed-forces chief Valery Zaluzhny also returned their Polish decorations.

In 1943, Ukrainian-nationalist UPA forces killed more than 100,000 Polish civilians in Volhynia, in present-day western Ukraine. Poland formally recognises the killings as genocide; Ukraine has called for a neutral historians' commission to assess the events. The dispute had been largely set aside during three years of war but has re-emerged in sharp form as Russia's frontline pressure has eased.

With Warsaw and Kyiv anchoring NATO's eastern-flank defence posture, analysts are asking whether the row threatens operational security coordination. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on both sides 'not to weaponise history for political gain', while Germany's foreign minister floated Berlin as a potential mediator.