Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki is revoking Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top state honour following a diplomatic row over the naming of a Ukrainian army unit. Multiple outlets report that Zelenskyy’s office sparked backlash in Poland after renaming a unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a World War Two-era nationalist force associated in Polish accounts with massacres of Poles. Nawrocki’s decision is described as a step that could further strain relations between the neighbouring countries at a time when both support each other amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Several reports also highlight efforts to prevent escalation. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has appealed to Poland and Ukraine not to “waste” solidarity between allies and urged both sides to de-escalate the dispute. Ukrainian officials are reported to be critical of Nawrocki’s move. While accounts focus on Poland’s decision and its stated link to historical commemorations, they also frame the controversy as a wider test of diplomatic and political coordination between Warsaw and Kyiv.