“We will soon see organized lynchings”: a wave of attacks on Ukrainians in Poland 0 14

In Poland, the number of crimes committed by Poles against Ukrainians is increasing. In most cases, these crimes are rooted in xenophobia and ethnic hatred, writes the Polish portal Onet.

The publication provides several examples of such street attacks, where Poles have assaulted Ukrainians while shouting "go back home" and "go to the front, Bandera supporters."

"It has happened more than once that when someone hears us speaking our language, they immediately react aggressively. This happens in trams, in stores, and in other public places. Once, a man simply insulted me at a bus stop. For no reason at all. I was told that I was a parasite and should go home," said a Ukrainian who has lived in Poland for 10 years.

According to the publication's sources, in 2022, Polish attitudes towards Ukrainians were very warm and friendly, with many helping Ukrainians in any way they could. The current aggression sharply contrasts with what it was just three years ago.

According to the Polish police, the most common crimes against Ukrainians are "threats of crime." If 317 such incidents were recorded in 2022, there were already 479 last year. In 2025, there will be even more if the trend continues.

The second most common crime against Ukrainians is property destruction. The third is physical violence. In 2022, there were 160 registered attacks on Ukrainians, and in the current year, from January to July, there were already 196. Additionally, there has been a sharp increase in the number of robberies targeting Ukrainians.

Professor Przemysław Sadura, a sociologist from the University of Warsaw, says that the aggression towards Ukrainians is provoked by both targeted anti-Ukrainian propaganda and ordinary gossip. Moreover, anti-Ukrainian narratives manage to combine mutually exclusive theses: Ukrainians are allegedly all living off the Polish state, receiving financial aid, while at the same time, these same Ukrainians are supposedly taking jobs from Poles.

"On the one hand, we know very well that Russia is involved in this disinformation, wanting to increase Polish hostility towards Ukrainians. On the other hand, we have internal populists who have also joined in," says the sociologist.

According to the professor, there is a paradoxical dualism in the consciousness of Poles: on one hand, they sympathize with the state of Ukraine, which is holding back the Russian horde, while on the other hand, they hate Ukrainians, who are allegedly taking jobs and money from Poles.

"In my opinion, what Brown, Benkiewicz (Polish right-wing populists exploiting anti-Ukrainian rhetoric - UNIAN) and others like them are doing is already preparing the mood for a pogrom. We haven’t had such a thing for a long time, but this antipathy towards Ukrainians could take such a form that we will soon see the first organized lynchings, rather than just isolated cases of aggression," the expert believes.

As UNIAN reported, in September, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk complained that the country was engulfed by a wave of anti-Ukrainian sentiment. He is particularly concerned that Polish politicians are trying to ride this wave instead of opposing it.

Even the newly elected president of Poland, who took office in the summer, is promoting anti-Ukrainian policies. During the election campaign, he promised to fulfill one of Putin's key demands and close Ukraine's path to NATO. And after becoming president, he submitted a bill to ban the "Bandera symbol."