EPA
At least 2.5 million Ukrainians live in Poland – making up almost 7% of the country’s total population
Svitrana says her daughter loved Polish school.
“Even when we moved to another area, she didn’t want to change schools,” says the 31-year-old Ukrainian mother. “She loved it so much. There was no bullying.”
Now she says that the atmosphere at school has changed throughout Poland and overall.
“Two weeks ago she went home and said, “A boy told me today that I’d say ‘Back to Ukraine’.” Svitrana was surprised.
She is one of dozens of Ukrainians living in Poland and told the BBC that anti-Uraine sentiment has risen considerably in recent months.
Many explain online materials about school bullying and xenophobia that have experienced abuse on public transport.
The polarized presidential campaign joined the tension, and the first round of votes took place on Sunday.
Svitrana says her daughter was bullied at school because she was Ukrainian
The abuse got worse the day after Svitrana’s daughter was told to return to Ukraine.
“The girls in the class above began to complain about her talking Ukrainians, and they pretended to fall to the ground screaming, “Missile! Enter!” And laugh,” Svitrana says. “She went home crying.”
A Russian missile was slammed into Ukraine’s homeland a few days ago, killing civilian scores, including children. Her daughter was traumatized.
Svitlana – Her real name didn’t want to be identified as she was afraid of retaliation. She showed me a screenshot of a message she had with school staff complaining about her daughter’s treatment.
She said she noticed that her attitude was changing towards Ukrainians elsewhere. “At work, a lot of people have said that Ukrainians come here and behave badly, and my Ukrainian friend says that they want to go home because Poles don’t accept us.
According to government statistics, at least 2.5 million Ukrainians live in Poland, accounting for almost 7% of Poland’s total population.
When a full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, there was a pour of compassion from Paul. “It was amazing. Every day people would ask, ‘How can I help?'” says Natalia Panchenko, head of the Warsaw-based Ukraine Wikraine with Ukraine Foundation.
Natalia Panchenko’s organization has seen an increase in anti-Uraine abuse online and in real life
“Some of them either organize humanitarian convoys or brought refugees here. They gave them their homes, their food, everything they had.”
Three years later, Natalia says she believes that most of the poles still support Ukraine. But some aren’t – and her organization noticed a surge in anti-Oony online abuse that began a few months ago.
“Then it started to become a real life,” she says. “These types of situations have become more and more popular these days… alien dislikes [abuse] Just because they talk with a Ukrainian accent, it’s about people working in shops and hotels. ”
Natalia says many Ukrainian refugees are traumatized. “These groups of women and children are in Poland for war. Very often, their relatives are on the frontlines who are captive or dying…and this is a group of people being targeted.”
Research suggests that Polish public opinion about Ukrainians is indeed worsening. A March 2025 poll by the respected CBOS Centre found that just 50% of Poles were in favor of accepting Ukrainian refugees, a drop of 7 percentage points in four months. Two years ago, the figure was 81%.
Approximately one million Ukrainians are officially registered as having arrived after the start of a full-scale invasion. Poland spends 4.2% of its GDP on Ukrainian refugees.
EPA
President’s top runner, Rafal Truzaskovsky, has performed his pro-Urainia qualification in the campaign
Ukraine has become a hot button political issue in Poland’s key presidential campaign.
Currently third-voting far-right populist Slawomir Mentzen is an anti-Uchinist and supports a “consensus” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Second place is conservative Karol Naulocky, who opposes Ukraine’s EU-NATO membership and refugee financial support but supports war efforts.
The most procran candidate is Rafal Truzaskovsky, the forefront of Prime Minister Donald Tass, coalition prime minister Ranfal Truzaskovsky, but he has pledged to cut social welfare for Ukrainians.
Trzaskowski refrains from supporting his pro-Ukrainian qualifications in order to attract centralist votes in the election, said political analyst Marcin Zaborowski.
“He is responding to a change in national attitudes. The initial enthusiasm for supporting the victims of the war has disappeared, negative emotions have taken over, and it is not a completely comfortable matter for him.”
Another far right candidate, Grzegorz Braun, is under investigation by police after he demolished the Ukrainian flag from a city hall building during an April campaign rally. Brown, who votes for just 3%, regularly fums what he calls “Ukrainization of Poland.”
Last week, the Polish government warned of an “unprecedented attempt” by Russia to interfere in Polish elections by “spreading false information online among Polish citizens.” Moscow has denied all allegations of election interference.
Mikal Marek, who runs an NGO that monitors disinformation and propaganda in Poland, offers several examples of anti-ukrane materials circulating on social media.
“The main story is that Ukrainians are stealing money from Polish budgets, that Ukrainians do not respect us, that they want to steal and kill us, and that they are responsible for the war,” he says.
“This information begins with a Russian-speaking telegram channel, and then displays the same photo and the same text, translated by Google Translation. [the material] At the Polish Infos Fair. ”
Marek directly links such disinformation to the increasing number of Polish anti-Ukurein sentiments, saying the increasing poles are affected by propaganda.
“But we will only see the effect after the election – what percentage of Paul wants to openly vote for a Russian candidate?”
