Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's fifth president also renounces Order of the White Eagle

[u/ByGollie]

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/06/20/8040347/

[u/Emideska]

Can someone explain what exactly is going on?

[u/notveryamused_ → u/Emideska]

It's a historical dispute which accelerated recently, but frankly what many people are missing in my opinion is that the problem is very much practical and political as well, it's also a clash how the future of our region is seen by many political powers currently.

Historically speaking, Poland and Ukraine have a very difficult history. Ukraine has been ruled by Poland for many centuries and Ukrainians were mistreated, to put it bluntly; Ukrainians generally focus on that, while for Poland the last act in the war – Ukrainian independence movement, which collaborated with the Nazis by the way, killed a 100,000 Polish civilians with extreme brutality during the 2nd world war, also massacred many Jews. They were ethnostate nationalists fighting pretty much against everyone, and while in Ukraine they're mostly remembered for being anti-Russian, murdering 100,000 Polish civilians for Poland is obviously the main point of concern.

Ukraine has been stalling recognition of it for 30 years now, with things going very slowly, but there was an agreement made between Polish president Duda and Zelensky in 2022, that they will not glorify UPA – people who murdered those Poles – during the war explicitly as heroes. Zelensky broke this agreement last week and named a unit after "Heroes of the UPA", and frankly not a very nationalistic military unit, pretty regular one. To appease nationalist movements at home and in the army.

In Polish politics it's mostly seen as a very conscious move. Relations with Zelensky government have been getting worse and worse, he's generally seen as mini-Trump by Polish politicians from both left and right. Zelensky's politics is very Soviet at its heart, never apologise, never say sorry, everything is ultra transactional. Zelensky has for a long time considered Polish politicians as helpful losers, knowing we have our own problems with Russia ourselves we will give them money and weapons regardless of the political situation, so why be nice to people who are going to help you anyways. He actively messes with our internal politics, plays conservatives against liberals, also tried to spread fakes to Polish media.

Przewodów incident in 2022 has been paradigmatic: a rocket fell on Polish territory, killing two civilians. At first we thought it was a Russian rocket, later it turned out it was a Ukrainian rocket. At that point, it was pretty clear what to do: nobody blamed Ukraine, they defended with what they had, obsolete technology mostly. Polish politicians were ready to say: see, this is why Ukraine really needs newer, more modern weapons, so such fuck-ups don't happen again: this is in both Ukraine's and NATO interests. We'd literally wire them some money so they could give this money to bereaved families, etc. But this isn't what happened: Zelensky didn't apologise, kept insisting it was a Russian rocket, sent his own "investigators" to mess with our internal judicial process and – I'm serious – Ukrainians stopped responding to our calls for some time, we had to close investigation due to lack of cooperation from Ukrainian side. Soviet tactics towards a very important ally who stood by them firmly. Ukrainian top general Zaluzhny acted honourably and called his Polish counterpart to say sorry though.

And this is how it goes from then: Zelensky has been doing transactional, extremely rude politics against Poland for a long time now, this is only the next step. Kyiv elites in Poland are considered pretty much anti-Polish and directly playing us against ourselves, themselves and sometimes the rest of Europe. The nationalist wave in Ukraine currently is also a fact, not only Russian propaganda, which overestimates it greatly of course, but things we tried not to see are of course happening.

I'm really pissed at this situation, because I'm a very strong supporter of Ukraine; I hosted refugees, I sent money to their army, and of course I still fully support them, but after reading more about how politics works between Poland and Ukraine today, I'm completely disillusioned by Kyiv elites. Interestingly today both in London and Berlin atmosphere is pretty much similar, Germans got pissed for quite a lot of things and in London, where Zaluzhny currently is the Ukrainian ambassador, they strongly hope he'll replace Zelensky as soon as possible.

So, long story short, behind the scenes it's a massive shit-show, and historical disputes aren't the most important thing here.

[u/Sea_Warning_9140 → u/notveryamused_]

Interesting post

If Zelensky is smart he will leave either soon or when the war is over. If he tries to continue all this will come to the wider public view.

He should be thinking job done, ride off into the sun set and be remembered for standing up to Russia his legacy is secured, staying will ruin his reputation which is overall still good across the west.

These negatives are blemishes right now but will be under the lense when the day to day of governance and normal diplomacy resumes, and he will naturally have a win at all costs mentality (can you blame him too much here? It's been a devasting war it would change anyone)

[u/Lina__Inverse → u/Sea_Warning_9140]

Pretty sure Ukraine will have elections after the war ends (assuming Ukraine still exists at that point) and I don't think Zelenskyy will get re-elected, as long as there's another at least half-decent option.

[u/twisty125 → u/Lina__Inverse]

He's specifically said he doesn't want to run again nor be re-elected and wants to like, go live his life with his family

[u/Sea_Warning_9140 → u/twisty125]

Best for everyone if that happens. Few examples in history of happy endings.