Polish president wants Zelensky stripped of Order of the White Eagle for honoring Nazis

🇺🇦 public Ukraine · May 29, 2026 · 385 words · By Russia Today

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What to know about Polish president wants Zelensky stripped of Order of the White Eagle for honoring Nazis

Polish president wants Zelensky stripped of top state honor Vladimir Zelenksy’s decision to name a commando unit after Ukrainian Nazi collaborators is evidence that his country is “not ready to become part of the European family,” Polish President Karol…

Claims checked 13

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center50%

Right50%

2 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

Under a decree signed on Tuesday, Zelensky granted the title ‘Heroes of the UPA’ – the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) – to the Special Operations Center North, saying the move is aimed at reviving…

Common ground

He also called for Zelensky to be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state decoration.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Polish president wants Zelensky stripped of Order of the White Eagle for honoring Nazis?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Former Polish President Lech Walesa said the Ukrainian leader insulted “all murdered” Poles by honoring the “UPA bandits.”?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.rt.com/news/640733-nawrocki-zelensky-strip-white-eagle/

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 13 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 4

check_circle Corroborated 4

schedule Pending 3

help Insufficient Evidence 2

info

Claim 1: “Former Polish President Lech Walesa said the Ukrainian leader insulted “all murdered” Poles by honoring the “UPA bandits.””

SINGLE SOURCE

While the context of the controversy is corroborated, the specific quote attributed to Lech Walesa is only mentioned in the context of the general reports and not independently verified by a second distinct news organization in the provided evidence (the Facebook result and the news result appear to be reporting the same set of reactions).

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Jarosław Leszek Wałęsa (pronounced [jaˈrɔswav vaˈwɛ̃sa]; born 13 September 1976) is a Polish politician. He was elected to the Sejm on 25 September 2005, getting 14,709 votes in 25 Gdańsk district as …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarosław_Wałęsa

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Lech Wałęsa (born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęs…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Wałęsa

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Lech Wałęsa Institute (Polish: Instytut Lecha Wałęsy) is a non-governmental, non profit organization established in 1995 by Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and a first democratically elected P…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_Wałęsa_Institute

+ 3 more evidence sources

help

Claim 2: “The Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned the decision to honor Melnik”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided for this claim.

info

Claim 3: “Walesa withdrew his support for Zelensky following the state reburial of OUN leader Andrey Melnik in Kiev on Sunday”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of search results for the town of 'Lech' in Austria, which are irrelevant to the political figure Lech Walesa. No evidence regarding the reburial of Andrey Melnik or Walesa's reaction to it was found.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Lech am Arlberg (Alemannic: Lääch) is a mountain village and an exclusive ski resort in the Bludenz district in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg, on the banks of the river Lech.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lech_(Vorarlberg)

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Lech Zürs on the Arlberg. So many mountains, so many possibilities. Find out now for your next vacation in Lech Zürs am Arlberg.
https://www.lechzuers.com/en

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The Lech Ski Resort is an upmarket skiing village in Austria with connections to the truly massive Arlberg ski area. Read more about travel, hotels and skiing.
https://www.ski-austria.com/lech/

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Claim 4: “Slovak MEP Lubos Blaha called Zelensky’s move “an open admission of fascism.””

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 5: “He [Karol Nawrocki] also called for Zelensky to be stripped of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state decoration.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources, including the BBC and other web search results, report that President Karol Nawrocki is considering or calling for the stripping of the Order of the White Eagle from Zelensky.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Presidential elections were held in Poland on 18 May 2025. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 1 June 2025. Incumbent president Andrzej Duda was ineligible for …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Polish_presidential_elect…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Karol Tadeusz Nawrocki (born 3 March 1983) is a Polish historian and politician who has served as the 7th president of Poland since 2025. Previously, he served as the director of the Institute of Nati…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karol_Nawrocki

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Karol Nawrocki was elected to the office of President of Poland in the 2025 presidential election, and inaugurated on 6 August 2025. Throughout Nawrocki's presidency, several polling agencies conducte…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Karol_N…

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 6: “Former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller called Zelensky’s decision “a spit in the face of Poles.””

CORROBORATED

Two independent web search results explicitly quote former Prime Minister Leszek Miller calling the decision 'a spit in the face of Poles'.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz (born 19 January 1947) is a Polish economist, statesman, and Professor at Warsaw School of Economics. He served as Chairman of the National Bank of Poland (2001–2007) and twi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leszek_Balcerowicz

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Leszek Cezary Miller (born 3 July 1946) is a Polish politician who served as prime minister of Poland from 2001 to 2004. He served a single term in the European Parliament from 2019 to 2024. From 1989…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leszek_Miller

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The prime minister of Poland (Polish: premier [ˈprɛmjɛr] ), officially the president of the Council of Ministers (Prezes Rady Ministrów [ˈprɛzɛs ˈradɨ miˈɲistruf]), is the head of the cabinet and the…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Poland

+ 3 more evidence sources

help

Claim 7: “Melnik, who co-founded the movement in 1929 and led it from 1938, oversaw espionage and sabotage operations for Nazi Germany’s military intelligence service.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided for this claim.

info

Claim 8: “Ukrainian nationalists killed an estimated 100,000 Polish civilians in what is now western Ukraine from 1943-44.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of search results for the 'Ukrainian language', which are irrelevant to the historical claim about the massacres of Polish civilians.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Ukrainian (українська мова, ukrainska mova, IPA: [ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔwɐ]) is an East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Ukraine. It is the first (native) language of a large majority of Ukrainians. Wr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_language

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Ukrainian is a lineal descendant of the colloquial language used in Kievan Rus (10th–13th century). It is written in a form of the Cyrillic alphabet and is closely related to Russian and Belarusian, f…
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ukrainian-language

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web search NEUTRAL — Ukrainian is an Eastern Slavonic language spoken mainly in Ukraine. In 2016 there were about 30 million speakers of Ukrainian in Ukraine, where it is an official language.
https://www.omniglot.com/writing/ukrainian.htm

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Claim 9: “Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused Zelensky of kneeling before “Nazi scum,””

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info

Claim 10: “The OUN sought to establish an ethnically homogeneous Ukrainian state and collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence consists of dictionary definitions of the word 'organization', which do not provide factual information about the OUN's activities or goals.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity —such as a company, or corporation or an institution (formal organization), or an association —comprising …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization

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web search NEUTRAL — 6 days ago · The meaning of ORGANIZATION is the act or process of organizing or of being organized. How to use organization in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/organization

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Organization refers to a collection of people, who are involved in pursuing defined objectives. It can be understood as a social system which comprises all formal human relationships.
https://businessjargons.com/organization.html

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Claim 11: “Under a decree signed on Tuesday, Zelensky granted the title ‘Heroes of the UPA’ – the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the armed wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) – to the Special Operations Center North”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent web sources from May 2026 report that President Zelensky signed a decree granting the title 'Heroes of the UPA' to the Special Operations Center North (or Separate Special Operations Centre).

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 12th Special Forces Brigade "Azov" (Ukrainian: 12-та бригада спеціального призначення «Азов», romanized: 12-ta bryhada spetsialnoho pryznachennya "Azov") is a formation of the National Guard of Uk…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Brigade

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia (Polish: rzeź wołyńsko-galicyjska, lit. 'Volhynian-Galician slaughter'; Ukrainian: Волинсько-Галицька трагедія, romanized: Volynsʹko-Halytsʹka tr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the north; Poland and Slova…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 12: “Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that honoring a Nazi collaborator exposes the Kiev regime’s “true essence.””

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 13: “Polish President Karol Nawrocki has said... Zelensky’s decision to name a commando unit after Ukrainian Nazi collaborators is evidence that his country is “not ready to become part of the European family,””

CORROBORATED

Multiple web search results from May 2026 confirm that Polish President Karol Nawrocki stated Zelensky's decision to name a unit after Nazi collaborators shows Ukraine is 'not ready to become part of the European family'. Wikipedia confirms Karol Nawrocki has been President of Poland since 2025.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Events in the year 2026 in Poland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_in_Poland

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Poland–Ukraine relations revived on an international basis soon after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Poland was the first country to recognize the independence of Ukraine.…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland–Ukraine_relations

+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.