Polish PM Tusk condemns anti-Ukrainian violence amid rising tensions

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 assistance after 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.

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.

Along with Polish opposition politicians, Tusk is also critical of Zelenskyy in the row about the UPA. However, he believes that the reactions on both sides are exaggerated and counterproductive. Poland's president Karol Nawrocki revoked the award of Poland's highest order to his Ukrainian counterpart, which had been made in 2023. Zelenskyy returned the award by courier to Warsaw.

Avalanche of hate

These demonstrative gestures by both leaders have set off an avalanche. The Polish internet is flooded with hatred for Ukraine. Przemyslaw Czarnek, the prime ministerial candidate of the leading opposition Law and Justice party (PiS), demanded that all military aid for Ukraine be stopped until Kyiv backs down in the row over the interpretation of history.

Current opinion polls speak for themselves. According to a survey by the CBOS institute, for the first time since the start of the war a majority of respondents (54%) were opposed to taking in more Ukrainian refugees. Only 42% supported maintaining the policy to date. In 2022, at the start of the war, 94% of Poles wanted to offer sanctuary to refugees.

Another poll, by the Opinia24 institute for the weekly newspaper Polityka, found that 44% were against providing further aid to Ukraine, and 41% in favor. 54% of respondents opposed Ukraine joining the EU. Only 33% supported Kyiv's desire to become part of the European Union.

The Ukrainians who were attacked in Wroclaw spoke to the NEXTA Polska news service and urged their fellow countrymen to be careful while in Poland. They advised them to avoid any kind of conflict and to "speak less Ukrainian" in public, as a precaution.

Tusk wants to de-escalate the row with Ukraine

Poland's center-left government under prime minister Donald Tusk has emphatically condemned the anti-Ukrainian attacks. The Polish police and judiciary have also acted swiftly and decisively. After the incident in Wroclaw, Tusk urged President Nawrocki to "break his silence" and condemn the violence. So far, Poland's head of state still has not commented. During the presidential election campaign, Nawrocki, a former boxer, admitted that in his youth he took part in an organized brawl between fans of rival football clubs, violence he described as a form of "noble, masculine combat."

Tusk agrees with the opposition's criticism in the row about the UPA. All the same, he is trying to pour oil on troubled waters. On Wednesday, he met with the Ukrainian president Zelenskyy in private for the first time since the UPA crisis. "We also talked about the security challenges that, unfortunately, affect our people as well: it is important that Ukrainians who have left their homes because of the war and found refuge in Poland feel safe," Zelenskyy wrote afterwards on social media, and thanked Tusk.

Continued support for Ukraine

Polish-Ukrainian cooperation is vital for both countries, as demonstrated by an incident in eastern Poland in the early hours of Thursday (30.07.2026). During a massive Russian attack on Ukraine, a Russian rocket crossed into Polish airspace, landing in a field near a village around 90 kilometers inside the Polish border. The explosion left a crater ten meters wide.

"I know it's not very popular these days to speak well of Ukraine," Tusk said after visiting the scene. Nonetheless, the Polish leader continued: "Poland's security directly depends on the effective actions of Ukrainian forces, including in the air." Tusk stated: "I know where the enemy stands," and added that, despite protests by the Polish opposition, he remains committed to supplying weapons to Ukraine.