Why Poland’s president is invoking wartime history in a dispute with Volodymyr Zelensky

There have long been tensions, political, economic and cultural, between Poland and Ukraine. But that hasn’t prevented Poland from being the biggest supporter of its neighbour, taking in millions of Ukrainians fleeing the war, about 1 million of whom have remained.

And in 2023, Poland conferred its highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle, on Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky. At the time, then-president Andrzej Duda told the Ukrainian president: “It is difficult to hide the tears of emotion…

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