President Karol Nawrocki's decision looked likely to unleash a severe diplomatic crisis between the neighbours just days before a conference on Ukraine's reconstruction in the Polish city of Gdansk.
"In light of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's consent to name one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 'Heroes of the UPA' ... I have decided to revoke the Order of the White Eagle from the president of Ukraine," Nawrocki said in a statement.
He stressed the decision was not directed at the Ukrainian people and did not signify a change in Poland's security policy.
There was no immediate comment from Zelenskiy's office.
While Warsaw is a strong supporter of Kyiv's war effort, public sentiment towards Ukraine has become more negative in recent years due to weariness with refugees, disputes over grain imports and the legacy of the World War II massacres.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the decision a "strategic error".
"We regret that instead of looking for solutions, the Polish side decided to escalate this conflict to an unacceptable and inappropriate level," he wrote on Facebook.
"No president of another country is going to dictate our history to us."
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a political opponent of Nawrocki who had sought to defuse the dispute, called for both presidents to cool emotions late on Friday.
"The conflict between Poland and Ukraine delights Putin and shocks our allies. The task of Presidents Zelenskiy and Nawrocki is to calm emotions, not to stoke tensions. The front line runs elsewhere," he posted on X.
Former president Andrzej Duda awarded Zelenskiy the Order of the White Eagle in 2023 in recognition of his contributions to democracy, peace and security in Europe.
But Nawrocki said in May that an advisory council should consider stripping Zelenskiy of the honour after he signed a decree recognising a Ukrainian special forces unit's contribution to the fight against Russian forces by naming it after the UPA.
The decision caused outrage across the political spectrum in Poland.
Some Ukrainians regard the UPA as heroes for the resistance they mounted against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and as symbols of Kyiv's struggle for independence from Moscow.
But the UPA was also involved in the Volhynia massacres, a series of killings from 1943 to 1945 in which Poland says about 100,000 Poles were killed by Ukrainian nationalists.
Kyiv had previously said the name had been chosen by soldiers who wanted to commemorate the UPA's fight against Moscow and who had no intention of offending Poland.
