“The claims made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Polish President Karol Nawrocki did not want to speak with him in order to clarify the matter of naming a military unit after the ‘heroes’ of the UPA are not borne out by the facts,” said Rafał Leśkiewicz, spokesman for President Karol Nawrocki. He also stressed that the meeting between the two heads of state did not take place because Zelensky withdrew from it.
President Karol Nawrocki stripped Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle over the fact that he had named one of Ukraine’s military units after the “Heroes of the UPA.” The Ukrainian president argued that before returning the decoration, he had proposed a meeting with the Polish president and a joint press conference in order to explain Kyiv’s position.
“I proposed a meeting and holding a joint conference. Meanwhile, the president of Poland is taking another step and declaring that there is no place for Ukraine in Europe, because it would supposedly be bad for Polish farmers,”
Zelensky said in an interview with TSN television.
Rafał Leśkiewicz, spokesman for President Karol Nawrocki, addressed Zelensky’s words in a post published on X.
“The claims made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Polish President Karol Nawrocki did not want to speak with him in order to clarify the matter of naming a military unit after the ‘heroes’ of the UPA are not borne out by the facts,”
he stated.
He recalled that “first, the Ukrainian side proposed a telephone conversation between the two presidents; ultimately, it did not take place due to a lack of response from President Zelensky.”
“The Ukrainian president’s associates also proposed a meeting between the two presidents. A date and time were agreed. The meeting did not take place because President Volodymyr Zelensky withdrew from it,”
he pointed out.
In his view, “this means that the Ukrainian authorities were not prepared to change the name of the military unit bearing the name of criminals associated with the UPA.”
“It was nothing more than playing for time. Those are the facts,”
he concluded.