Editor’s Note: This feature separates Ukraine’s friends from its enemies. The Order of Yaroslav the Wise has been given since 1995 for distinguished service to the nation. It is named after the Kyivan Rus leader from 1019-1054, when the medieval empire reached its zenith. The Order of Lenin was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union, whose demise Russian President Vladimir Putin mourns. It is named after Vladimir Lenin, whose corpse still rots on the Kremlin’s Red Square, 100 years after the October Revolution he led.
Donald Tusk – Order of Yaroslav The Wise
Ukraine and Poland have a great deal of shared history. Both have seen their states carved up by hostile powers. Both have owned or claimed parts of each other’s territory. Both have struggled to be independent nations, only succeeding in modern times with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe.
There have been bloody events, massacres carried out by both sides, as the two countries attempted to resurrect statehood amid the turmoil of war and the collapse of empires. The two were at war from November 1918 to July 1919, as Ukraine, trying to build a nation-state, laid claim to Volyn and Chelm Land (a region that has been in dispute since as far back as the 10th century, when the Kingdom of Poland and Kyivan Rus waged war over it).
Poland won the war of 1918–1919, and went on to win the Polish-Soviet war of 1919 to 1921, which saw Poland occupy western parts of modern Ukraine and Belarus. Ethnic cleansing of Poles in 1943 and 1944 in Nazi-occupied Poland, and in Ukraine by Ukrainian nationalists, resulted in the deaths of at least 100,000 Poles and up to 20,000 Ukrainians.
Nevertheless, Poland has been one of Ukraine’s best allies since Ukraine finally won independence in 1991. Warsaw helped broker a peaceful resolution to the Orange Revolution protests in 2004, and has backed Ukraine’s efforts to draw closer to NATO and the European Union.
Relations have suffered, however, since Russia started its war on Ukraine in the Donbas in 2014 — and that may not be a coincidence: While both Polish and Ukrainian nationalists have vandalized war memorials to each other’s peoples, there are suspicions that the Kremlin may have supported or encouraged such attacks.
And since the Polish populist, nationalist and conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) came to power in Poland in October 2015, relations with Ukraine have suffered further. In fact, Polish politician Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, has gone as far as to hint that the PiS might be doing the Kremlin’s dirty work.
“Alarm! A vehement dispute with Ukraine, isolation in the European Union, departure from the rule of law and independent courts, attack on non-governmental sector and free media — PiS strategy or Kremlin’s plan?” Tusk tweeted on Nov. 19. “Too similar to rest easy.”
Tusk, who is thus Ukraine’s Friend of the Week and winner of the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, reminds us that Ukraine and Poland both still face a threat from the east that has an interest in seeing their friendship founder. That must not be allowed to happen.
Alexander Lukashenko – Order of Lenin
It’s all smiles whenever Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko meets Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
The Belarusian leader, who used to be known as “the last dictator in Europe” but who has now been overshadowed by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, puts on a show of being a friend to Ukraine. He has hosted peace talks in the Belarusian capital of Minsk for three years between Ukraine and Russia. He presents the image of being an honest broker between his two warring neighbors.
But it’s all a pretense. He is allowed to rule his Belarusian fiefdom at the pleasure of the Kremlin, and when push comes to shove he will always side with his masters in Moscow.
Take the case of Pavlo Gryb, a Ukrainian teenager lured to Belarus, abducted by the Kremlin’s security service, taken to Russia and now held hostage there. Lukashenko didn’t lift a finger to help.
In late September, Belarus hosted Russia’s aggressive Zapad 2017 military exercises — several huge drills that had the twin objectives of testing the Russian military’s readiness to intervene in neighboring states, and intimidating those very neighbors — in particular the Baltic states.
The fact that Lukashenko “allowed” the Russian military to conduct part of Zapad 2017 on his territory emphasizes his subservient relationship with the Kremlin.
Belarus under Lukashenko has not supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity in votes in the United Nations. It was one of 11 countries to reject United Nations Resolution 68/262 of March 27, 2014, which underscored the commitment of the General Assembly to Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, and rejected the result of the sham Crimean referendum of March 16, 2014, which the Kremlin used as justification to illegally annex the Ukrainian territory.
The resolution was supported by 100 countries, while 58 abstained and 24 failed to vote.
Lukashenko himself has accepted Russia’s occupation of Crimea, and told the press on March 23, 2014 that while he would try not to choose sides, if he had to, he would choose the Kremlin.
“Our domestic, foreign, military policy is not aimed against NATO or anyone else. We will pursue a balanced policy. However, if we had to choose, we will choose the Russian Federation,” Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko is no friend of Ukraine — he lets Russia’s secret police abduct Ukrainian citizens on Belarusian soil, supports Moscow’s aggressive military exercises and never misses an opportunity to fail to support Ukraine on the international stage.
The worst kind of foe is the one that pretends to be a friend. Lukashenko is Ukraine’s Foe of the Week and winner of an Order of Lenin.
