Poland’s anti-Ukrainian turn spills into violence

Politico ^ | September 7, 2026 | Wojciech Kość

[Mount Athos]

During Poland’s 2025 presidential campaign, politicians began portraying Ukrainians in Poland as freeloaders straining the country’s public finances.

This summer, Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Poland’s highest honor, the Order of the White Eagle, in reaction to Zelenskyy’s decision to name a military unit after the World War II-era Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA. The group murdered tens of thousands of Poles during an ethnic-cleansing campaign in 1943-1945, although it also fought against the Soviet Union.

The libertarian Confederation party denounced Ukrainians getting social welfare, while Gregorz Braun, the European Parliament member who leads the far-right Confederation of the Polish Crown party, said: “The Kyiv regime is neither our ally nor our friend, it is our enemy,” during a summer gathering commemorating the wartime killing of Polish civilians by Ukrainians.

Przemysław Czarnek, the candidate for prime minister from the Law and Justice party, said July: “Military aid to Ukraine must be suspended until that country changes its historical policy.”

Opinion polls show a decided shift against Ukrainians.

In an annual survey by the state-run pollster CBOS, sympathy among Poles toward Ukrainians fell from 51 percent in 2023 to 29 percent in January 2026, while antipathy rose from 38 percent to 43 percent over the last year.

Another CBOS poll found that 45.4 percent of those polled attributed the deterioration to disputes over the wartime massacres and historical policy, with social benefits for Ukrainians in second place at 36.4 percent.

Ivan, a Ukrainian national who works at the University of Warsaw, said a neighbor confronted him over Zelenskyy’s decision to name a military unit after the UPA.

My neighbor started yelling at me, telling me to go back to Ukraine and explain to Zelenskyy that he shouldn’t have done that.” Ivan said.

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Ukraine
KEYWORDS:

[Mount Athos]

Stepan Bandera OUN-B leader; political architect of the movement that carried out the massacres

Ivan Lytvynchuk (”Dubovyi”) – Commander of the UPA “Zahrava” military district (Kostopol/Sarny counties). His own UPA report describes the massacre of 500+ Poles at Huta Stepanska and the destruction of 26 Polish settlements (July 1943). Also responsible for the Janowa Dolina massacre (~600 killed, April 1943). His UPA-North headquarters was based in the village of Hirka Polonka (Boratyn area).

Dmytro Klyachkivsky (”Klym Savur”) – Inaugural commander of UPA-North. Issued the regional orders for the extermination of Poles, resulting in an estimated 40,000–60,000 Polish deaths in Volhynia by mid-1944.

Ivan Klimchak (”Lysiy”) – UPA commander; his unit killed 180–213 Poles at Kąty, 86–87 at Jankowce, and 86–87 at Ostrówek (August 1943).

Vasyl Ivakhov (”Som”) – UPA organizer; one of the commanders behind the decision to massacre Poles.

Petro Oliynyk – UPA commander; also among the decision-makers.

Mykola Lebed – OUN-B leader who, in March 1943, imposed a collective death sentence on all Poles in the former Kresy region.

May 2026: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a decree granting the 144th Separate Special Operations Forces Center “North” (Pivnich) the honorary name “Named After the Heroes of the UPA.” He stated the purpose was “to restore the historical traditions of the national army.”
This triggered a severe diplomatic crisis. Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripped Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland’s highest state honour) in June 2026.
Polish officials compared the act to “Germany naming a military unit after the Einsatzgruppen.”

he Volhynia massacres (1943–1945) killed an estimated 80,000–100,000 Poles. Poland designates July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide.
The Polish government has threatened to block Ukraine’s EU accession until the historical dispute is resolved.
(Because Ukraine systematically renames streets and military units after genocidal historical figures)

[nonliberal]

The Poles are finally wising up.

[Rockingham]

For Poland’s military, Ukraine is a buffer state against Russia. Fifteen years ago, Poland’s general staff concluded that Russia was likely to attack Ukraine and that Poland’s interests would be served by supporting Ukraine against Russia.

[tlozo]

For Ivan and Olena, the hostility remained verbal. For other Ukrainians, it has turned violent.

In July, two men were arrested after two Ukrainians, Anastazja, 20, and her 21-year-old partner Maksym, were beaten outside a Wrocław grocery store. The attack was denounced by Poland’s Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha thanked the police for the arrests.

Earlier that month, an off-duty employee of Bielsko-Biała’s municipal bus company hurled nationality-based abuse at three Ukrainians, including two 11-year-old schoolgirls, on a bus.

In August, a Ukrainian man was attacked on a tram in Poznań.

The Polish police recorded 180 reports of ethnically motivated crimes against Ukrainians in the first half of this year, a 30 percent increase over the same period last year, reported the Rzeczpospolita newspaper.

The Polish government — which has tightened Ukrainians’ access to welfare, even though their collective contribution to Poland’s economy far exceeds public spending on them — set up 50 specialist prosecution teams in early 2026 to investigate hate crimes.

[tlozo]

A couple speaking Ukrainian was followed and brutally beaten which left both victims hospitalized with suspected concussions. According to the footage taken by the witnesses, the attackers knocked the man to the ground and kicked him repeatedly before turning on his partner, who tried to intervene. The woman was punched several times in the face and head.

Two Men Face Prison After Brutal Attack on Ukrainian Couple in Poland’s Wrocław - July 28, 2026

The assault took place on Sunday in Wrocław’s Zakrzów district. According to Ukrainian officials, a young Ukrainian couple was walking home after visiting a nearby store when several men began following them because of their accent.

The attackers caught up with the couple near their car. According to the footage taken by the witnesses, the attackers knocked the man to the ground and kicked him repeatedly before turning on his partner, who tried to intervene. The woman was punched several times in the face and head.

Two men arrested over the brutal assault of a Ukrainian couple in Poland’s Wrocław face up to five years in prison as prosecutors investigate a possible hate crime. A third suspect remains at large after the attack, which left both victims hospitalized with suspected concussions.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/81234

[FLT-bird]

Honestly.....I think Poland should absorb as many Ukrainians as possible. The languages are close and this is a chance for Poland to fix any demographic issues it has for a generation or two at least. White, Christian, Europeans have similar culture and values and can be assimilated much much more easily than anybody else.

[delta7]

The answer to this war is simple. Return the new experimental nation of Ukraine ( established in 1991) to its historic ethnic roots. Give Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Russia its historic land back. Carving up Ukraine benefits every party involved.

And why not? The West and NATO did exactly that to Yugoslavia, carved them up back to their historic roots....by military force....been Peace since then.

Good for the Goose, good for the Gander.

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander” means that one person or situation should be treated the same way as another. If it’s right (or acceptable) for one side, it should be right for the other side too”.

[FLT-bird]

When the Soviet Union broke up, there probably should have been some kind of conference followed by local plebiscites to draw boundaries along ethnographic lines. That could have been offered as the price for peacefully seceding from the Soviet Union.

Yes, it would have meant giving up the dream of holding onto valuable land filled with ethnic Russians who did not want to be a minority in another country. So be it. Its better to move borders than have wars or ethnically cleanse millions of people. That’s what they should have done in Central and Eastern Europe after WWI.

as an aside, I do have some sympathy for the Baltic countries which have relatively small populations and where Stalin both butchered a bunch of them and then planted Russian colonies in them. Less so for Ukraine claiming the Donbas or Georgia claiming South Ossetia where Russians have lived for centuries and centuries and which were historically part of Russia.

[tlozo]

Return the new experimental nation of Ukraine ( established in 1991)... its historic land back.

LOL, Boris-bot, even the Soviets recognized the nation of Ukraine and its people. What you fail to mention is that "historic land" was always populated by UKRAINIANS.

[tlozo]

Less so for Ukraine claiming the Donbas or Georgia claiming South Ossetia where Russians have lived for centuries and centuries

Ethnic Ukrainians were the dominant nationality in the Donbas until the years after WW2 when most of the Russians arrived. Area was depopulated by a deliberate Soviet famine in the 30's and then completely devastated by WW2.

Moscow directed thousands of workers, young communists, and laborers from various regions of the Russian SFSR to move east(Ukraine).

Census data shows ethnic Russians in Donbas increased from about 639,000 in 1926 to 2.55 million by 1959, permanently altering the cultural and linguistic balance of the area.

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-donbas-donetsk-war-putin/33564948.html