Photo credit: independent kyiev
As Ukrainian-Polish relations took a nose-dive, war refugees and other Ukrainian migrants in Poland are feeling the impact.
The Kyiv Independent reports that nationality-based attacks against Ukrainians, ranging from verbal abuse to physical assault, have been on the rise.
Experts say that disinformation, including Moscow’s direct efforts to inflame relations between the two neighbours, certainly plays a role.
However, that is only part of the story. Ukrainian refugees have become caught in the crossfire of diplomatic disputes between Kyiv and Warsaw, historical grievances, and domestic Polish politics.
On July 26, in Wroclaw, three men physically assaulted a Ukrainian couple, in an attack the police identified as nationality-based.
A few weeks earlier, in Bielsko-Biala, a 54-year-old man hurled insults at a group of Ukrainians, including two 11-year-old girls, one of whom recorded the incident on her phone.
The Polish police received 180 reports of hate crimes against Ukrainians in the first half of 2026, an increase of over 30% compared to the same period last year, the Rzeczpospolita newspaper reports.
This dire statistic emerged as Polish-Ukrainian relations hit rock bottom after Ukraine named one of its military units after the World War II-era Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
The UPA is viewed in Ukraine as a resistance movement against Soviet rule, but in Poland it is chiefly remembered for its role in the Volyn massacres, the mass killing of Poles in what is today western Ukraine.
The move sparked widespread outrage among the Polish public and led to Polish President Karol Nawrocki stripping his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, of the highest state honour.
More than half of Poles said their view of Ukraine and the Ukrainians has worsened due to the UPA name dispute, according to a June poll.
Another survey showed that, for the first time since the measurement began in 2014, the majority of Poles oppose taking in Ukrainian refugees.
Poland currently holds more than 900,000 people who fled Russia’s full-scale invasion, the second-largest Ukrainian population in the EU, and the country’s largest ethnic minority.
However, this minority is now an increasingly popular target of hate speech and disinformation online.
