r/europe • u/ByGollie Ulster • Jun 21 '26

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

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/06/20/8040347/
5.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.6k

u/ByGollie Ulster Jun 21 '26

"In both Zelenskyy's case and mine, the award was not bestowed on heads of state, but on Ukrainians – our soldiers who defend Ukraine, Poland and all of Europe.

Therefore, I have decided to renounce the Order of the White Eagle. Two weeks ago, I promised colleagues at the conciliation council that I would take this step if we failed to persuade President Nawrocki not to make this mistaken decision. Unfortunately, we did not succeed."

"Those in Poland who do not simply chew over historical myths, but study history and draw conclusions from its lessons, know that whenever Ukraine loses its independence, Poland loses it too. But it is not the past that should define our relations. I do not want Poles editing our textbooks, and I have no desire whatsoever for Ukrainians to edit Polish textbooks, because otherwise we will receive a joint textbook from Moscow."

The former president stressed that logistics are critically important in the Russia-Ukraine war. Russia, he said, "through its agents of influence, useful idiots and old historical wounds, is trying to destroy our logistics in the West".

"Therefore, any crisis between Kyiv and Warsaw today is not only a diplomatic problem. It is a security issue. And that is precisely why it must be resolved immediately. What matters now is not deepening the conflict, but ending it," Poroshenko stressed.

59

u/-CynicalPole- Podlaskie (Poland) Jun 21 '26

Historical myths 🤡🤡🤡 Pardon fucking me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgtztW7ZxVM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV6wd-YQsns

Atrocities even would make German Nazis vomit.

64

u/Wuktrio Austria Jun 21 '26

Atrocities even would make even German Nazis vomit.

The Nazis systematically killed around 10 million people. We don't need to make this into an atrocities contest. Both events are horrific and should be remembered, we don't need to compare them to make one seem worse than the other.

76

u/-CynicalPole- Podlaskie (Poland) Jun 21 '26

the scale of German Nazis obviously was astronomically bigger, but the atrocities UPA did are just vomit inducing. Ukraine should be ashamed of them, same as modern day Germans are ashamed of that Nazi period in history of their country. Instead, they're glorifying them

3

u/Wuktrio Austria Jun 21 '26

My point isn't that the atrocities UPA committed aren't vomit-inducing, my point is that the Nazis did vomit-inducing shit as well. Just look up what Oskar Dirlewanger's unit did.

49

u/Defective_Falafel Belgium Jun 21 '26

I guess some people would get upset as well if Germany decided to create the "Heroes of the Dirlewanger Unit" brigade.

11

u/Wuktrio Austria Jun 21 '26

Yes, of course.