photo: Darka Olifer on Facebook
The second President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma (1994-2004), decided to renounce the Order of the White Eagle after the President of Poland, Karol Navrotsky, stripped the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, of this award.
Source: statement Kuchma, which was published by the press secretary of the Leonid Kuchma presidential fund “Ukraine” Darka Olifer
Order of Kuchma, photo: Darka Olifer on Facebook
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Direct speech: “In connection with the decision of the President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, to deprive the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, of the Polish Order of the White Eagle, I have decided to renounce this order, which I had the honor of being awarded in 1997.”
Details: Kuchma noted that throughout his presidency he considered building friendly relations with Poland one of his priorities.
“Together with my colleague Aleksandr Kwasniewski, we made maximum efforts for this. We paid special attention to the solution of historical problems in the relations between our peoples, the result of which was our joint statement in 2003 on their reconciliation. We forgive and ask for forgiveness – this is exactly the principle that President Kwasniewski and I developed with the spiritual mediation of the great Pole, Pope John Paul II,” said the second president of Ukraine.
As he added, this principle worked for decades and the true friendship between Ukraine and Poland became a reality. Its confirmation was the invaluable help that Poland provided to Ukraine from the first hours of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation.
“And I am sure that the current unfriendly step of President Navrotsky cannot cancel all of this. But today I have no other choice than to refuse the high Polish order. This is not why Ukraine accepted the fight from Russia, which justified its invasion with historical claims, so that today other countries dictate our history to us and determine whom we should honor,” Kuchma said.
He expressed his belief that friendship and allied relations between Ukraine and Poland will be preserved, but emphasized that today he feels sadness and anxiety.
“It’s one thing when an enemy attacks. It’s quite another when enmity separates friends. And it’s even worse if these friends are also threatened by a common danger. We have to remember history. However, the past cannot be more important than the future,” Kuchma said.
Prehistory:
