A Ukrainian citizen attacked people with a knife in a monastery in Poland, one person died

Author, News Department

Place of work, BBC Ukrainian Service

Published 4 minutes ago

Reading time: 4 min

In the city of Yaroslav in southeastern Poland, a 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen attacked people in a monastery with a knife. Five people were injured, including three priests. One of the priests later died, two more people are in serious condition. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky responded to the attack.

The suspect was detained by the police and is now in a psychiatric hospital.

As Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasily Bodnar told Slawa TV, according to preliminary data, the detainee suffers from mental illness.

According to Bodnar, the suspect usually lives in Germany, and the day before he tried to cross the border from Poland into Ukraine, but was not allowed through due to lack of insurance. Bodnar speculated that his actions may have been influenced by this situation or other circumstances.

What is known about the attack

The attack took place on Thursday, September 24, at around 09:30 on the territory of the Benedictine abbey in the town of Jarosław, Subcarpathian Voivodeship.

As Interia reports, citing Anna Dlugosh, a representative of the local police department, a Ukrainian citizen attacked four men and one woman with a knife.

Radio station RMF FM adds that police initially received a report of an attack on one person. When law enforcement officers arrived at the scene, it turned out that five people were injured. This was also reported by TVN24.

According to Gazeta.pl, first a man with a knife attacked one of the priests in the dining room. He then headed to the church, where mass was to begin at 10 a.m. At the time of the attack, a confession was taking place there. There he attacked other people.

The victims were taken to hospitals.

Polish media reported that three men were in serious condition and their lives were in danger. Later it became known that one of them died.

“Witnesses are being interviewed at the scene, an inspection is being carried out and all the circumstances of the incident are being established,” said Yaroslav police spokeswoman Anna Dlugosh.

The police have not yet reported on the possible motives of the attacker.

Security measures in the city were tightened after the attack. The mayor of Jarosław, Marcin Nazarewicz, said that the authorities warned schools, institutions and parishes about the incident. They were advised to pay closer attention to who entered the buildings.

The abbess of the monastery, Sister Barbara Dender, told Polish journalists that she did not know the person who attacked people on the abbey grounds.

“Nobody expected this. This place has always been considered calm. A place where another world reigns,” Gazeta.pl quotes the nun. She also added that when a man with a knife began attacking people in the abbey, “total chaos” reigned.

“I believe that this is an attack on our identity, on who we are, what we do here and who we represent,” the publication quotes her as saying.

What Zelensky and Tusk said

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reacted to the attack. “The killer from Yaroslav is in the hands of the Polish police. The necessary procedures are being carried out. The criminal is a citizen of Ukraine,” he wrote on the social network X.

“He will be punished to the fullest extent of Polish law. “I share the grief of the loved ones of the victims of this brutal attack,” Tusk added.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky also commented on the attack.

“A terrible crime in the abbey of the Benedictine sisters in Yaroslav, committed by a citizen of Ukraine. We are shocked by this evil,” he wrote in a telegram. The President also expressed condolences to the family of the deceased and wished the victims a speedy recovery.