Poland Just Handed Putin Exactly What He Wanted

[00:00:00]It's Saturday, June 20th, 2026.

[00:00:04]As you know, Putin has done his level best to separate Europeans from other Europeans. And he he's done this famously with say Victor Orban and making him kind of the spoiler or uh the prime minister of Slovakia has been kind of like Orban in many regards and hostile to Ukraine. Now we see that maybe the Bulgarian uh prime minister could also take up that mantle. So what's interesting here is that the president of Poland uh just stripped Zalinsky of the Order of the White Eagle, the country's highest decoration.

[00:00:39]Duda gave it to Zalinsky or awarded it to Zalinski a couple years ago and Nari just took it back. Now why did he take it back? Well, okay. So, Zalinsky received the Order of the White Eagle in 2023 from President Duda in recognition of his merits in strengthening relations between Poland and Ukraine as well as his efforts in security and resilience and in defending human rights. Uh but Naraki is not like Duda and Naraki is kind of has a little bit of a hostile attitude toward Ukraine. And uh now there was a precipitating event and that is that Zalinsky named a special forces a new special forces unit the heroes of the UPA. Uh the UPA is a uh a name going back historically to nationalist freedom fighters in Ukraine. But those guys were also well uh so here's the UPA. Uh UPA was a Ukrainian nationalist partisan formation founded by the Banderite faction. Sounds almost like something that Medved would be talking about of the organization of Ukrainian nationalists on October 14th, 1942.

[00:01:50]Still existing until the 1950s. The UPA launched guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union, the Polish people as well, both Polish underground state resistance and Sovietbacked forces as well as against civilians. They they were engaged in atrocities. No no doubt about that. Okay. Again, and against Nazi Germany. So they they were fighting every direction. Although though uh in so doing, initially motivated by anti-German ethnic exclusionary sentiment and ultimately entering collaboration with Germans. They were working with them. that were working against them. Uh it was kind of a hot mess. The UPA carried out massacres of Poles in Valia and Eastern Galatia. And now this is documented. No doubt about this. This was bad. This is a terrible scene in history. Uh and polls are rightly upset about that. Sure. So naming it after the heroes of the UPA was maybe not the best move. But this was an opportunity for um for Naraki who doesn't really like this is not this is Duda for Naraki who doesn't really like Ukraine and Zalinski to react to this and strip Zalinsky of that award. So the Polish reaction this Ukraine sees this as part of their nationalist struggle by fighting off Russia. UK the polls I understand why they would they see it as glorifying the perpetrators of these massacres of Polish civilians. So that's why it's condemned. Okay. So, Ukrainian foreign minister Andre Sabha said that he will return a Polish award as well after President Carol Naraki approved the decision to strip Zalinsky of the award of the white eagle. And so that's happening and polls on social media are reacting to Naraki's decision to strip Zalinsky of the Order of the White Eagle. Of course, there's going to be some that are regardless of what politician does what things, some some will react, but it it seems like a serious political mistake to emphasize this. It stokes the controversy. And remember, Putin's kind of the adversary that you need to keep your eye on, but okay. Now, I I understand what's going on here. I was in Lithuania in 2001, and I visited in this place in Kipida. This is where Hitler gave a speech from that balcony.

[00:04:13]And he even had this um there's a statue here of this young lady and he actually had it turned around so it would face him. Like that's some kind of next level kind of arrogance, right? So because it couldn't have its back to him because that would be terrible. But early on the Lithuanians were like, "Yay, the Germans, they're going to give us relief." Well, they didn't realize exactly what they were getting with the Germans. But if you're so bad and now there's a reason why like the banderites and even the Lithuanians remember the holomore right the hoodore where they starved out Ukrainians and took their grain and then wouldn't give any to them forced them into their their collective farms and then took their grain away and the holore was a huge tragedy. So if Band Bandera and I'm not justifying his atrocities, but Bandera fighting against the Soviets kind of made sense for this national Ukrainian independence movement. Same same kind of thing here with the Lithuanians understanding like you know those Soviets, they're pretty bad. Okay. So yeah, now Bandera his upside was that he was a freedom fighter. His downside was he was also involved in some nasty stuff. Uh Marco Milkelson uh he was a he's a chair of the foreign relations committee in uh in Estonia. Ukraine he's quoting Bandaraa.

[00:05:34]Ukraine is a historical graved digger of Moscow Bolevik imperialism. This is how Bandaraa is thinking. Oppression and violence at the same time a a pioneer and crystallization center of a new order on the ruins of the USSR. an order of freedom and justice and relations between nations and people. Stefan Bandera, he was assassinated by KGB in October of 1959 in Munich. Okay, so that's just providing all the context in the background. So Naraki is using that.

[00:06:10]Now look, I I'm not saying Narwaki is working for Putin. Uh in the same way that I I don't make the case that Trump is agent Kr Kranoff or whatever they call him like he's a sleeper agent or something. But there Norwalk's position may very well be aligned with Putin's right now and that's putting the camel's nose under the tent. So okay, now what else is happening with this? Dimmitri Medvev is posting this. Poland's president has finally stripped the Nazi worshipping Keev degenerate of the Order of the White eagle. I'm sure that won't be a problem for the Banderite and chief now that there's more room on his green sweatshirt for Hitler's Iron Cross with golden oak leaves. Okay, Zilinski is not doing that. He's not a Nazi. He's Jewish. He's not at all interested in that sort of thing. But anybody who opposes Russia, to their mind, they consider Nazis. And but you know if you're going to look at that let's look at the whole picture. Sergey Sumani posted this. Fortunately Iraqi does not take away the order from Ghart Schroeder. Yeah. Nori does not take away the order from Ghart Schroeder. But you know Gard Schroeder has been like Putin's biggest fan. I mean he's he's been working with Putin for a long time.

[00:07:23]Germany's ex-chancellor and gasp prom officer Ghart Schroeder was awarded white eagle order in March of 2002.

[00:07:30]Already working for Putin. His project Nordstream was designed to undermine Poland's independence. He had never abandoned Putin was never stripped of the order. So it seems like kind of a double standard here when you're like if you're trying to be as fair as possible.

[00:07:45]Like that should have happened too, right? N Iraqi Zalinski sent Naraki the order of the white eagle via Nova Posta.

[00:07:53]If it is considered that this special symbol can remain with Catherine II, Bonito Mussolini Ghart Schroeder, then we in Ukraine will not argue with that.

[00:08:03]Ukraine is grateful to the Polish people for support and cooperation which plays significant role in the fight for our and your independence from Russia.

[00:08:12]Ukraine never forgets solidarity. Knows that cooperation between states and peoples in our region is one of the tangible guarantees of security for both Ukrainians and every neighboring state.

[00:08:22]So he packed it up and sent it off.

[00:08:24]Here's a little bit more of what Zolinsky said. Yesterday the president of Poland noted that the order of the white eagle is not an ordinary award.

[00:08:32]It's a symbol of the highest trust and rep in the republic of Poland signifies a special bond with the Polish state and the special gratitude of the Polish people. Therefore, it's considered that the and I just read that about Mussolini and Schroeder uh and Catherine II. Uh, Ukraine never forgets solidarity and understands this cooperation between states. And Ukraine is grateful to all peoples, states, and leaders who will continue to stand in their defense and freedom, who together with Ukraine will serve as guaranters of post-war peace in Europe and a new real security. Ukraine will remain open to all meaningful formats of engagement with Poland in order to try to avoid conflicting interpretations of the difficult and painful chapters in our shared past and to ensure proper respect for all innocent victims of the 20th century.

[00:09:19]And this is the rub, right? like this.

[00:09:22]It's an unfortunate chapter that they that this is happening right now that Zalinsky used that term used that name for the unit and that the president uh Naraki seized on that in order to strip him of that but did didn't have to happen. We believe that the order of the white eagle awarded in 2023 was meant for the Ukrainian people and our army.

[00:09:45]That is what was said at the time. Today I sent the order back to the president of Poland. Now with that we also saw this top stories at this hour. The head of the office of the president of Ukraine, the legendary intelligence officer Budanov following the foreign minister of Ukraine refused the Polish award. The officer's cross or the order of merit of the Republic of Poland. This is connected to Zalinsky being stripped of the order of the white eagle, Poland's highest award. So Budanov sent his award to I think uh the foreign minister also sent an award back and so yeah so that's that's where we are again the only beneficiary here is Putin and so we have to be careful with that.

[00:10:26]Trump was pressure Putin. I'll say that again. Uh and I showed you this video yesterday. The memes are wild. Uh I promised you that I would tabulate the results but it it like keeps getting views. So, I'm going to have the tabulation for you tomorrow and uh so which like which meme got the best play and or you know got the highest votes.

[00:10:48]So, if you haven't seen that, go and see that and then I'll I'll show you that that tomorrow. But um I'll leave you with this and that is one that still wasn't even in that and that's this also an annoying one with the death star as um you know the lid popping off of the Death Star. So, all right, that's all that I have. I hope that was helpful to understanding the background of what's going on with the controversy between Iraqi and and Zalinski. It'll blow over, but in the meantime, in the short run, Putin's the big beneficiary. All right, my friends. Thank you for your time, the likes, the shares, and the subscribes.

[00:11:21]And thank you for being the kind of person who cares about Ukraine.