Amna Nawaz:
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters since the full-scale Russian invasion. But much of its population is slowly turning against the million Ukrainian refugees who have found refuge over the past four years.
Divisions between Poles and Ukrainians are exacerbated by the bitter cultural memory of the Second World War massacre, as special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Warsaw, the Polish capital.
Malcolm Brabant:
In March 2022, at Warsaw Central Station, two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the hall was filled with refugees fleeing the war; Four and a half years later, nearly a million Ukrainian refugees remain here. Only Germany offers refuge for more.
After enduring the war for a month, Natalia Klimenko fled to Poland with eternal gratitude.
Natalia Klimenko, Ukrainian refugee (through interpreter):
When I came, you understand, I still can’t talk about it without crying. They welcomed us like we were family. I was stunned by this welcome, like relatives at the border.
Malcolm Brabant:
What a difference four years makes. In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, 94% of Poles were in favor of welcoming Ukrainians fleeing the front lines. But today, according to the latest public opinion poll, more than half the nation, 52 percent to be precise, opposes the idea of granting refuge to those fleeing war.
Sometimes Polish antipathy towards Ukrainians escalates into violence. This couple was attacked after their attackers heard them speaking in their native language.
Dmytro Dymydyuk runs a hotline at a Ukrainian help center. The hostility in Warsaw is so palpable that he remains very discreet.
Dmytro Dymydyuk, coordinator, Ukrainian House Foundation:
I try not to use social media. I don’t write any comments. I do not participate in these holy wars on social networks. So I’m just trying to live a normal life, job, house, shopping, etc. So I try to avoid any place, any demonstration where someone from the Polish side could attack me.
Natalia Panchenko, President, alongside Ukraine:
Over the past few months, we have been receiving more and more calls every month, when people call us and they need support because they are victims of hate crimes.
Malcolm Brabant:
Natalia Panchenko, president of a nonprofit called Stand With Ukraine, blames extremist politicians.
Natalia Panchenko:
The role of politicians is very important in everything I am talking to you about, because hate speech or hate crimes are the consequence. First, politicians are starting to portray the Ukrainian community in Poland as very bad people.
Grzegorz Braun, leader of the Confederation of the Polish Crown: Polish Crown This is Poland. It’s not some kind of Ukropole.
Malcolm Brabant:
Grzegorz Braun is a far-right politician who is not easy to ignore. In the 2025 presidential election, he surprised his critics by winning 1.2 million votes.
Grzegorz Braun:
With people coming from other countries, we face social illnesses, and not just social illnesses. As a bonus, we get fees.
Malcolm Brabant:
Braun shocked Poland on a sacred Jewish holiday by extinguishing a menorah in the Polish Parliament. Braun openly expresses his anti-Semitic beliefs and his hatred of what he calls the Ukrainianization of Poland.
But isn’t it the decent thing to do as a neighbor to offer your neighbors sanctuary when they are threatened by one of the most powerful armies in the world?
Grzegorz Braun:
ALL RIGHT. OK, is it a decent thing to have a neighbor in trouble who makes a hole in Europe, in the wall of the house, and invites your neighbor with his problems, probably giving him your wallet and all the keys to your apartment, to your car? This is not a decent thing.
Malcolm Brabant:
Such rhetoric contributed to the exodus of Ukrainians. Over the past six months, more than 100,000 people have left Poland.
Natalia Panchenko:
Unfortunately, yes, it is true. Some people do not feel safe here and leave our country to go to different countries. Some of them even return to Ukraine, a Ukraine which is still attacked daily.
Malcolm Brabant:
Behind the scenes, Moscow is suspected of stoking resentment.
Filip Bryjka, Polish Institute of Foreign Affairs: Obviously, Russia is the main beneficiary of these tensions between Poland and Ukraine.
Malcolm Brabant:
Defense analyst Filip Bryjka specializes in Russian hybrid warfare.
Filip Bryjka:
Indeed, since 2014, Russia has been carrying out long-term disinformation campaigns targeting bilateral relations between Poland and Ukraine. Most of the time, these campaigns are linked to certain historical conflicts.
Malcolm Brabant:
In Warsaw, activists recall the massacre of 100,000 Poles in the Volhynia region 83 years ago. The pogroms, described as genocide by the Poles, were carried out by Ukrainian ultranationalists.
They were led by Stepan Bandera, who during World War II collaborated with the Nazis in the fight against Stalin’s Soviet Union.
Jan Darasz, historian:
The Ukrainian paramilitaries surrounded the defenseless villages, snatched the men, women and children, massacred them using agricultural tools, axes, scythes, hammers, that sort of thing. Houses were looted and burned.
Malcolm Brabant:
Jan Darasz is a historian and journalist for Polish television.
Jan Darasz:
History matters in Poland. This is very comparable to what we saw in Rwanda.
Malcolm Brabant:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has aggravated Polish sensitivities by naming a contemporary military unit after Ukraine’s World War II insurgent army, Stepan Bandera’s militia.
Pawel Kryszczak, anti-Bandera activist (through interpreter):
As a result, Zelensky was stripped of Poland’s highest national honor. Polish President Karol Nawrocki called Zelensky’s decision a scandalous glorification of historical atrocities. Zelensky may have intended to honor the insurgent army’s fight against the Soviet Union, but the Poles don’t see it that way. Since the arrival of the wave of Ukrainian refugees, we have seen an increase in vandalism, flags or other symbols that simply clearly indicate a reference to the ideology that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Poles in Volhynia.
Malcolm Brabant:
Last year, funerals took place for around a hundred massacre victims whose bodies were exhumed from mass graves. But there are tens of thousands of additional victims who do not expect a Christian burial and whose murders deepen the division between Ukrainians and Poles.
President Zelensky has shown no signs of reversing his decree and has doubled down on his efforts, saying it is a matter of internal sovereignty.
Jan Darasz:
There are two views of the same problem, and I don’t think it’s possible to solve it.
Malcolm Brabant:
As sympathy and charity wane, Ukrainian refugees hope that the problems that are widening the divide between the two countries do not fester even further.
For the PBS News Hour, I’m Malcolm Brabant in Warsaw.
Gn world
