Poland: Prime minister Tusk defies anti-Ukrainian violence
Anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland is on the rise, with numerous attacks against refugees from the war in Ukraine. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has spoken out
Anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland is on the rise, with numerous attacks against refugees from the war in Ukraine. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has spoken out against the violence and warned of the danger from Russia. The Polish leader didn't mince his words. "We must wage a resolute fight against this violence, because thugs, hooligans, and this culture of violence are becoming increasingly brazen and insolent — and also because they have received political support," Donald Tusk said on Tuesday, before a Polish cabinet meeting in Warsaw. The liberal-conservative prime minister said he deplored the fact that "more and more such incidents" are taking place all over Poland. Tusk's comments came in response to an incident in Wroclaw two days earlier, in which three Polish men brutally beat up a young Ukrainian man and his girlfriend on the street. Cellphone videos show the attackers kicking the Ukrainian man as he lies on the ground. The woman was also hit, sustaining injuries to her neck and ear. The attack came after an argument in a shop; the attackers took exception to the couple's Ukrainian accents. Polish police acted swiftly: Two of the attackers, both of whom have previous convictions, are already in custody, and a third is being sought. Tusk warned that such incidents negatively impact Poland's image abroad. The country's reputation was greatly enhanced by its willingness to provide assistanceafter the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. This could be destroyed, said Tusk, "if we allow thugs, hooligans and common criminals to beat and humiliate people just because they have a slightly different accent." Mood is turning against Ukrainians Poland provided military and humanitarian assistance to its neighbor from the very beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It took in more than one million refugees from the war, and around 1.5 million Ukrainians are currently living in Poland.
The majority of them work, pay taxes, and contribute to the Polish economy. Ukrainian refugees in a reception center in the Polish capital, Warsaw in April 2022, two months after the start of the war Image: Attila Husejnow/ZUMA Wire/IMAGO But four and a half years after the start of the war, the mood in Poland has changed. More and more often, Ukrainians are being verbally and physically attacked in public. Last Wednesday a Polish manager on a construction site in Skawina, near Krakow, was filmed aggressively insulting Ukrainian workers. In another incident on a local train near Warsaw, two drunken men shouted verbal abuse at a Ukrainian passenger. On July 11, a man on a bus in Bielsko-Biala insulted and threatened two Ukrainian girls who were trying to take a selfie. Even schoolchildren, including teenagers at a playground, have fallen victim to the new climate of hate. According to the police, 180 hate crimes against Ukrainians were recorded in the first six months of this year — a third more than in 2025. And on Friday (31.07.2026) the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza warned that the internet is full of fake news about crimes Ukrainians are supposed to have committed against Poles. Award of honorary title considered a provocation Anti-Ukrainian slogans were already apparent during the presidential election campaign last year. But this May was a big turning point. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy prompted outrage in Poland with his decision to award a special unit of the Ukrainian army the honorary title of "Heroes of the UPA." Poland holds the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) responsible for the mass murder of tens of thousands of Polish civilians in Volhynia between 1943 and 1945. Ukrainians, on the other hand, revere the soldiers of the UPA as heroes in the fight against the Sovietization of their country. Individual UPA units continued to fight against Soviet rule well into the 1950s.
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