War refugees complain about abuse in Poland

Svitlana says her daughter loved her school in Poland.

“Even when we moved to another area, she didn’t want to change school,” says the 31-year-old Ukrainian mother. “She liked it so much. There was no bullying. “

Now she says that the atmosphere at the school – and in Poland in general – has changed.

“Two weeks ago she came home and said,” A boy said to me today: “Go back to Ukraine.” “Svitlana was surprised.

She is one of the dozens of Ukrainians who live in Poland who have told the BBC that the anti-Ukrainian sentiment has risen considerably in recent months.

Many describe the experiencing abuse on public transport, bullying in schools and xenophobic material online.

A polarizing presidential election campaign has added the tension, with the first round of voting that takes place on Sunday.

The day after Svitlana’s daughter was told to go back to Ukraine, the abuse became even worse.

“Girls from the class above started complaining about her speaking Ukrainian. Then they pretended to fell on the floor and shouted” Rocket! Go down! ” And laughing, “says Svitlana.”

A Russian rocket was beaten in Ukrainian days earlier in the hometown of Svitlana and kill dozens of civilians, including children. Her daughter was traumatized.

Svitlana – not her real name did not want to be identified as she did Fear reprisals. She showed us screenshots of messages with school staff where she complains about the treatment of her daughter.

She said that in other places she had also noticed the attitude to Ukrainians: “At work, many people said that the Ukrainians come here and behave poorly. And my Ukrainian friends say they want to go home because Polish people don’t accept us. It is frightening to live here now.”

According to government statistics, at least 2.5 million Ukrainians live in Poland, consisting of almost 7% of the total population of Poland.

When the full invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022, there was an outpouring of compassion from Poland. “It was great. Every day people called and asked:” How can we help? “”, Says activist Natalia Panchenko, head of the Warsaw-based ‘stand with Ukraine’ Foundation.

“Some of them organized humanitarian convoys or brought refugees here. They gave their homes, food, everything they have – and also their hearts.”

Three years later Natalia says that she believes that the majority of the Poles are still supporting Ukraine. But some non-and her organization has noticed an increase in anti-ukrainian online abuse that started a few months ago.

“Then it started to come to real life,” she says. “Recently we have more and more situations like this … Xenophobic (abuse) of people who work in shops or hotels just because they speak with a Ukrainian accent.”

Natalia says that many Ukrainian refugees are traumatized. “These groups of women and children are in Poland because of the war, very often their family members in the front line, in captivity or death … and this is the group of people who are the target.”

Research suggests that Poland’s public opinion about Ukrainians is indeed deteriorating. According to a survey of March 2025 by the respected CBOS center, only 50% of the Poles are in favor of accepting Ukrainian refugees, a decrease of seven percentage points in four months. Two years ago the figure was 81%.

About a million Ukrainians are officially registered as arrived after the start of the full invasion. Poland spend 4.2% of his GDP on Ukrainian refugees.

Ukraine has become a hot-button political issue in the crucial presidential election campaign of Poland.

The extreme right-wing populist Slawomir Mentzen, currently Polling Third, is Virulent Anti-Offrainian and supports an “agreement” with the Russian Vladimir Putin.

Secondly, is conservative Karol Nawrocki, who opposes EU and NATO membership for Ukraine and financial assistance for refugees, but supports the war effort.

The most pro-Ukraine candidate is Front-Runner Rafal Trzaskowski of the Coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, although he has even promised a reduction in social well-being for Ukrainians.

Trzaskowski has abandoned his pro-Ukrainian references to attract the central mood in the elections, says political analyst Marcin Zaborowski.

“He responds to the change in public attitude. The initial enthusiasm for supporting victims of war disappears, negative sentiments take over and it is not a completely comfortable problem for him.”

Another extreme right -wing candidate, Grzegorz Braun, is being investigated by the police to break down a Ukrainian flag from a town hall building during an election rally in April. Braun, who only monitors 3%, regularly fulminates what he calls the “Ukrainization of Poland”.

Last week, the Polish government warned of an “unprecedented attempt” by Russia to interfere with the Polish elections by “spreading false information among Polish citizens online”. Moscow denies all accusations of election interference.

Michal Marek, who runs an NGO that monitors disinformation and propaganda in Poland, offers some examples of the anti-ukraine material that is spread on social media.

“The most important stories are that Ukrainians steal money from the Polish budget, that Ukrainians do not respect us, that they want to rob us and kill us and be responsible for the war,” he says.

“This information starts in Russian -speaking telegram channels, and then we see the same photos and the same text that is just translated by Google Translate. And they push (the material) into the Polish information atmosphere.”

Mr. Marek connects such disinformation directly with the increase in anti-ukraine sentiment in Poland, and says that an increasing number of poles is influenced by propaganda.

“But we will only see the effect after the elections – what percentage of Poland wants to vote for open pro -Russian candidates.”