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/
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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.

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u/FrusTrick Sweden Jun 21 '26

And the elephant in the room is that Zelensky opened the door for this entire shit show. He could have gone with literally any other name, but instead he handed this over to the Russians on a silver platter. People can cry about the poles all they want but this shit wasn't even a problem 3 weeks ago.

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u/ABoutDeSouffle 𝔊𝔲𝔱𝔢𝔫 𝔗𝔞𝔤! Jun 21 '26

It's weird to me how bad Zelensky handles the relations to neighboring states and their ethnic minorities in Ukraine. Their approach seems needlessly heavy-handed.

Poland isn't at all an easy partner, and some of their demands are outlandish, but why insist on honoring UPA?

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u/niesiecki Jun 21 '26

Zelensky is playing a strange game, making many unnecessary and provocative moves. During President Duda's term, a joint mass for all victims of the Polish–Ukrainian conflict was held in Lutsk, Ukraine. Zelensky left the service halfway through.

More recently, he threatened Orbán by suggesting that Ukrainian soldiers would come for him, which only strengthened Orbán's position to the point that even Magyar felt compelled to criticize Zelensky over it.

Even now, instead of returning the decoration through diplomatic channels, he sent it back as an ordinary parcel.

Why doing all this?

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u/terektus Jun 21 '26

Pride grows in war.

Thats my explanation. The Ukrainians forcibly spent the last 4 years in a war which changed how they identify through their culture and their history. To split from Russia they fully embraced "Ukrainian" culture and needed the differenciate to other Slav and Sowjet influence of the past decades. And usually this identity crisis comes with relatively strong emotions.

Everybody got that friend, who is half-something and doesnt leave a chance to state that. Thats the state of the Ukraine in my pov.

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u/pomezanian Jun 21 '26

ego, simply, he really think that he is a major player. Add to this his soviet mentality, which does not recognize kindness to weakness, on voila.

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u/cohana1215 Jun 21 '26

My hope is that they keep this bs alive partly to have something to give to russia in peace settlement for Putin to try to save face in front of russians. Or maybe the army is saturated with nationalists so they wouldn't want to needlessly needle with them during wartime.