Polish presidential aide accuses Ukraine of forgetting Western aid

Polish state official Zbigniew Bogucki has criticised Ukrainian politicians for ingratitude despite receiving help, noting that “he who took forgets, and he who gave remembers.”

The head of the presidential chancellery said, in a post on X, that representatives of the Ukrainian authorities are easily handing out Polish awards, forgetting that these same hands were once stretched out for help, and that help came from Poles, Caliber.Az reports.

Przedstawiciele ukraińskiej władzy odznaczenia polskie oddają lekką ręką zapominając, że te same ręce były wyciągnięte po pomoc i ta pomoc przyszła z polskich rąk: od rządu polskiego, samorządów, organizacji pozarządowych i milionów Polaków.
PS. ,,Stąd się to utworzyła…

— Zbigniew Bogucki🇵🇱 (@BoguckiZbigniew) June 21, 2026

Bogucki accompanied his post with a quote from the poem On Ingratitude by Polish writer Ludwik Kropiński.

“Hence arose this cursed ingratitude, that he who took forgets, and he who gave remembers. We would both have greater merit before God if the first remembered and the second forgot,” he added.

Earlier, Polish President Karol Nawrocki revoked Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state decoration.

The presidential office said the decision was linked to Ukrainian authorities naming a Ukrainian Armed Forces unit after “Ukrainian Insurgent Army heroes.”

Poland considers members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) responsible for the killing of more than 100,000 Polish civilians in Volhynia in 1943.

Following the decision, several Ukrainian politicians renounced Polish awards.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov