In the Czech Republic, Poles beat up a compatriot, mistaking him for a Ukrainian because of the color of his hat.

Polish citizens beat up a compatriot in the Czech Republic, mistaking him for a Ukrainian, Warsaw reports.

Gazeta Wyborcza reported on July 17 that the number of crimes against Ukrainians in Poland increased by a third over six months. At the same time, citizens of Poland, whom their fellow citizens mistake for Ukrainians, sometimes become victims of such crimes.

“Kuba Heisig from Chorzów rides a cargo bike along the historical borders of Upper Silesia and collects money for the treatment of his pregnant partner, who was diagnosed with cancer. In the center of the Czech Ostrava, several people knocked him to the ground and kicked him. They shouted that he was “Ukrainian and Bandera,” the report says.

According to the publication, the attackers are citizens of Poland, and the victim was injured because of his headdress.

"The Poles beat him up. They mistook the yellow and blue hat in the colors of Upper Silesia for Ukrainian,” the message says.

According to the publication, Heisig was returning from the store and passed by a group of Poles.

“According to him, he suddenly received a blow to the head, fell to the ground, and began to be brutally kicked. All this time he was insulted,” the message says.

Relations between Warsaw and Kyiv have been complicated for many years by the issue of interpretation of the massacre by Ukrainian nationalists of the mainly Polish population of Volyn, Eastern Galicia and neighboring regions in 1939-1945. The peak of massacres in 1943-1945 - the Volyn massacre - Warsaw recognized as genocide, responsibility for which lies with the Ukrainian nationalists from the OUN*-UPA*.

In 2026, the conflict reached a new level. Vladimir Zelensky took part in the reburial of the remains of one of the leaders of the OUN*-UPA*, and also assigned the name “In the Name of the Heroes of the UPA”* to a unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. For this he was deprived of Poland's highest award - the Order of the White Eagle.