Tusk tells Ukraine to show goodwill to repair strained relations with Poland

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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expects Ukraine to take the next step in repairing relations between the two countries after weeks of escalating tensions over wartime history. Rebuilding trust “requires goodwill from Kyiv,” he warned Friday.

“It won’t be the case anymore that only Warsaw proposes a good stance,” said Tusk in a video shared on X , adding that Ukrainian politicians now understood that “good relations between us are in everyone’s interest.”

The clash had erupted after Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle — Poland’s highest state honor. The decision followed Kyiv naming a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), whose fighters massacred tens of thousands of Poles during World War II. The diplomatic fallout quickly escalated, with Ukrainian officials returning their Polish honors and Zelenskyy sending his medal back to Warsaw.

Zelenskyy then skipped the Ukraine Recovery Conference in late June, sending Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko to lead the country’s delegation instead.

Tusk’s comments mark a sharper tone from the prime minister, who has repeatedly urged both sides not to let historical disputes undermine cooperation against Russia.

Earlier on Friday, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski met his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha in Warsaw to ease tensions. Sikorski had previously called Nawrocki’s decision to strip Zelenskyy of the medal an “inappropriate” response, as it “humiliated the president of Ukraine personally.”

Tusk said he had received signals that Kyiv now understood “it is worth looking for ways to have an honest conversation also about the past.” Reconciliation will likely be “a long process,” he added, “but good Ukrainian-Polish relations are in mutual interest.”