In brief
FM Sikorski says revoking Zelenskyy's order was humiliating and suggests airport naming as alternative.
Sikorski proposes naming Jasionka airport after UPA victims, unaware it already bears the Ulma family name.
Aides Jarosław Dębowski and Paweł Szefernaker publicly ridicule the foreign minister's oversight.
The minister acknowledges the airport's existing name but reiterates that a different symbolic gesture would have been better.
Zelenskyy's consent to name a unit after 'heroes of UPA' prompted Nawrocki to revoke the Order of the White Eagle, triggering a diplomatic rift.
- 20 JunPresident Nawrocki revokes Zelenskyy's Order of the White Eagle after unit naming.
- 21 JunZelenskyy returns the order by courier; Ukrainian officials renounce Polish decorations.
- 26 JunFM Sikorski on TVN24 calls the decision humiliating and proposes naming Jasionka airport 'Victims of UPA'.
- 27 JunPresidential aides mock Sikorski's gaffe; Sikorski admits the airport's existing name.
The TVN24 interview
On Friday 26 June, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told TVN24 that President Karol Nawrocki's revocation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Order of the White Eagle was inadequate and humiliating.
“Our response was inadequate, because it personally humiliated the president of Ukraine.”
An airport naming proposal that backfired
Sikorski suggested naming the Rzeszów-Jasionka airport "airport of victims of UPA" as an equivalent symbolic gesture.
“The equivalent would be, for example, naming the airport in Jasionka 'airport of victims of UPA' and then we would be even.”
Sikorski acknowledges the oversight
The foreign minister later acknowledged the mistake.
“I learn that the airport in Jasionka already bears a name connected with our history, the Ulma Family, and rightly so.”
The underlying Order of the White Eagle dispute
The row was triggered when Zelenskyy consented to naming a Ukrainian military brigade after "heroes of UPA", the WWII Ukrainian Insurgent Army responsible for mass killings of Poles. President Nawrocki revoked Zelenskyy's highest Polish state decoration, awarded in 2023, after consulting the order's chapter. Zelenskyy returned the order by courier the following day, and several Ukrainian officials renounced their Polish honours. The presidential office stressed the decision was not directed against the Ukrainian people, while Kyiv officials called it a blow to bilateral relations.