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Drone deaths and a Polish honour stripped
Summary
A look back at the Russian drone attacks reported on 22 June 2026 and Poland's decision on 19 June to withdraw its highest honour from Ukraine's president.
What did the days leading up to 25 June 2026 reveal about Ukraine's war and its relations with a close neighbour? Two strands stood out: continued Russian drone attacks and a sharp diplomatic rupture with Poland.
Drone attacks
On 22 June, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba said Russian drone attacks had killed at least five people. Among the dead was an Egyptian crew member aboard a Panamanian-flagged vessel in the Black Sea. Three members of one family were killed in Sumy Oblast. The strike on the vessel also damaged it and forced its crew to evacuate.
Drones had by then become a critical part of the war. Russia used them to strike Ukrainian critical infrastructure, while Ukraine used them against military infrastructure on Russian territory.
A row with Warsaw
On 19 June, Polish president Karol Nawrocki stripped Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest state honour. The move followed Zelenskyy's decision to award an army special forces unit the honorary title "Heroes of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army". That organisation carried out mass killings of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia during the Second World War.
The decision placed an open dispute over wartime history into relations between Kyiv and Warsaw, even as Russian drone strikes were still killing civilians and seafarers in Ukraine.
