Reports of attacks on Ukrainians in Poland rise sharply, police data shows

The number of reported hate crimes targeting Ukrainian citizens in Poland has increased significantly, with police receiving 180 reports during the first half of 2026—more than 30% higher than during the same period last year, according to Poland's National Police.

The Police figures indicated that the attacks were motivated by nationality, Caliber.Az reports, citing Euronews.

One of the latest incidents, which received widespread media attention, involved an adult man verbally abusing, threatening and insulting teenage Ukrainian girls aboard a municipal bus in the city of Bielsko-Biała simply because they were speaking Ukrainian.

Police data shows the case was one of 180 reported incidents involving alleged hate crimes against Ukrainians in the first six months of the year.

The trend has continued to worsen in recent years. Ukrainians living in Poland filed 267 reports of alleged hate crimes in 2024, a figure that increased to 275 in 2025. The 180 complaints recorded during the first half of 2026 alone represent an increase of more than 30% compared with the corresponding period in 2025 and nearly 35% compared with 2024.

The rise in attacks has sparked political debate, with government and opposition figures blaming one another for the growing tensions.

Interior and Administration Minister Marcin Kierwiński accused opposition politicians of fueling hatred.

"Kaczyński, Braun and Czarnek are doing a great deal to ensure that the brown wave spreads across Poland. The victims are both Poles and foreigners. I have a message for all those who have fallen in love with hatred: the police will always respond firmly. Zero tolerance!" he wrote on X.

Opposition Law and Justice (PiS) spokesperson Rafał Bochenek condemned all forms of violence while accusing the government of failing to address the problem.

"Every form of violence and aggression, both physical and verbal, especially against vulnerable people, including children, should be unequivocally condemned and the perpetrators held to account."

He added that Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Interior and Administration Minister Marcin Kierwiński were responsible for the deterioration of public discourse.

"Donald Tusk and Marcin Kierwiński have not only deliberately downplayed the rise in aggression on Polish streets so far, they are directly responsible for the brutalisation of public life in Poland."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian activist Natalia Panchenko, who represents the organisation Stand With Ukraine in Poland, urged people not to judge an entire nation by the actions of individuals.

"The state is fighting xenophobia. Poland stands for the rule of law. Law enforcement agencies, the courts and the law operate here. That is why we should seek to hold the individual perpetrator to account, rather than projecting his actions onto an entire nation. I know many Poles who have been helping Ukraine for years. (...) Some idiot on a bus is not the whole of Poland. Just as any criminal among Ukrainians is not the whole of Ukraine," she wrote on Facebook.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov