Polish PM Tusk Denounces Anti-Ukrainian Attacks, Warning They Benefit Russia

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for an immediate end to xenophobic attacks targeting Ukrainians in Poland, following a series of violent hate crimes that have heightened social and diplomatic tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv, Reuters reported on July 28.

Tusk addressed a government meeting shortly after a video circulated on social media showing three Polish men beating a Ukrainian couple in Wroclaw. Police subsequently arrested two suspects in connection with the attack, which reportedly stemmed from a disagreement in a local shop.

“Anyone who commits such vile acts is acting directly against Poland’s interests,” Tusk stated, adding that perpetrators are “working against Poland, in favour of Russia and in favour of Polish and Ukrainian nationalism,” Reuters reported.

The Prime Minister’s warning comes amid a documented rise in anti-Ukrainian incidents across the country. According to data published by the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, police recorded 180 hate crime reports involving Ukrainian victims during the first half of 2026, representing a 30% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. While Poland remains a key backer of Kyiv’s defense against Russian military aggression, public sympathy toward refugees has faced strain over time.

Recent weeks have seen several high-profile assaults gain national coverage. In Poznan, a 60-year-old Polish man was beaten at a tram stop after attempting to defend a Ukrainian boy from verbal harassment, while in Legnica, a woman was charged with assaulting two 13-year-old Ukrainians.

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These incidents coincide with political friction over historical grievances, particularly Ukraine’s decision to name a military unit after World War II-era nationalist insurgents reviled in Poland for their role in wartime massacres, a dispute that led Polish President Karol Nawrocki to strip Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland’s top state honor in June, Reuters noted.

Addressing the rising violence, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar stated that such incidents were entirely unacceptable and expressed confidence that Polish law enforcement would bring the perpetrators to justice, according to Reuters.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar had recently reaffirmed Kyiv’s commitment to joint exhumations and historical dialogue during a ceremony in Warsaw honoring victims of the Volyn tragedy.

“For us today it is important and our duty not only to honor this memory, to remember history, but also to work so that the future is free of problems, so that the future is shared, in our common European home,” Bodnar said during the ceremony.

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