Foreign Minister Sikorski suggests renaming Jasionka airport after UPA victims, then learns it already bears the Ulma family name
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski criticised President Karol Nawrocki's decision to strip Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, calling it humiliating, and proposed naming the Jasionka airport after victims of UPA. Presidential aides quickly pointed out the airport already honours the Ulma family, a gaffe Sikorski later acknowledged.
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.
He added that if Nawrocki had consulted him, he would have proposed a different response.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.
Within hours, presidential aides pointed out the airport already carries the name of the Ulma family, Polish victims of German genocide. Deputy cabinet head Jarosław Dębowski called the idea "wonderful" in a clearly sarcastic tone, while chief of staff Paweł Szefernaker declared Sikorski was "compromising himself again," labelling him a dilettante who either did not care or did not know.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.
He nonetheless stood by his broader criticism, arguing that naming any place or unit "Victims of UPA" would have been better than starting an "atomic war" over decorations. He concluded that neither Ukraine nor Poland gained anything from the quarrel.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.
Timeline of the diplomatic row
- President Nawrocki revokes Zelenskyy's Order of the White Eagle after unit naming.
- Zelenskyy returns the order by courier; Ukrainian officials renounce Polish decorations.
- FM Sikorski on TVN24 calls the decision humiliating and proposes naming Jasionka airport 'Victims of UPA'.
- Presidential aides mock Sikorski's gaffe; Sikorski admits the airport's existing name.
