The variety of nationality-motivated assaults in Poland is steadily rising, based on knowledge offered to the Polish press by the Nationwide Police Headquarters.
A vile assault on a teenage woman from Ukraine on a metropolis bus in Bielsko-Biała has already been broadly reported this month. Grownup males verbally abused, threatened, and insulted the ladies just because they spoke Ukrainian.
And this is only one of 180 incidents reported to police within the first half of 2026.
Alarming numbers about assaults
In response to knowledge, the size of aggression towards Ukrainians in Poland is quickly rising.
In 2024, Ukrainians residing in Poland filed 267 experiences of suspected hate crimes. In 2025, that quantity elevated to 275. The 180 experiences filed within the first half of 2026 are already a rise of greater than 30% in comparison with the identical interval final yr and practically 35% in comparison with 2024.
political blame sport
Politicians are buying and selling blame over who’s responsible for the rise in assaults.
Marcin Kielwiński, Minister of the Inside and Public Administration, wrote to X: “Kaczynski, Braun and Czarnek are making nice efforts to make sure that the Brown Wave spreads all through Poland. The victims are each Polish and overseas. We’ve a message for all those that have fallen prey to hatred: The police will at all times reply decisively. Zero tolerance!”
Opposition Regulation and Justice (PiS) spokesperson Rafał Bochenek stated: “All types of bodily and verbal violence and assaults, particularly towards weak folks, together with kids, are unequivocally condemned and perpetrators have to be held accountable.”
He claimed that Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Minister of Inside and Public Administration Marcin Kielwiński have been chargeable for these assaults. “Donald Tusk and Marcin Kielwiński haven’t solely intentionally downplayed the rising aggression on Poland’s streets, however are additionally immediately chargeable for the brutalization of Polish nationwide life.”
Deteriorating relations between Poland and Ukraine
Natalia Panchenko, a Ukrainian activist with the Polish group Stand With Ukraine, referred to as for a discount in tensions between Ukrainians and Poles in a Fb put up after Ukrainian teenage women have been verbally abused on a metropolis bus in Bielsko-Biała.
“The nation is preventing towards xenophobia. Poland embodies the rule of legislation. Regulation enforcement businesses, courts and legal guidelines are at work right here. That’s the reason we attempt to carry perpetrators accountable, somewhat than projecting their particular person actions onto the nation as an entire. I do know many Poles who’ve supported Ukraine for years. The idiots on the bus will not be the entire of Poland, simply because the Ukrainian criminals will not be the entire of Ukraine.
