Polish-Ukrainian journalist: solidarity with Ukraine has curdled into online hostility

Polish-Ukrainian journalist and political analyst Anna Husarska writes in a column for Ukrainska Pravda that after a Russian ballistic missile struck a building near her temporary home in Odesa in August, she recorded an appeal in Polish asking people to donate power banks for Ukraine and sent it to a friend in Warsaw. Within 48 hours the video had received nearly a thousand comments, almost all of them anti-Ukrainian.

From solidarity to criticism

Husarska recalls that after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Poland took in nine million Ukrainians, and 78 percent of Poles backed military aid to Ukraine at the time. Today, she writes, most Poles criticize that aid, and 52 percent no longer want to host refugees. She points to Ukrainians being viewed as competitors on the labor market, Polish farmers' anger over duty-free grain imports from Ukraine, and a widespread belief that Ukrainian refugees are a burden on the budget — even though, she notes, they are in fact net taxpayers.

A painful shared history

The strained relations are compounded by historical grievances, chiefly the 1943 Volyn tragedy, when the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) massacred Polish civilians. Poland cites around 100,000 victims, a figure Ukraine disputes. Last year Polish President Karol Nawrocki presented Zelensky with a two-volume publication on the Volyn tragedy; after Zelensky later named a special forces unit in honor of UPA heroes, Nawrocki stripped him of Poland's highest state honor. Prominent dissident Adam Michnik called the move shameful, but most Polish politicians either supported Nawrocki's decision or stayed silent.

The role of disinformation

Husarska notes that after the presidents' dispute, anti-Ukrainian content surged on social media — the share of negative posts about Ukrainians rose from 15 percent in May to 49 percent in July, according to one monitoring group, while another think tank recorded a rise of more than 250 percent in anti-Ukrainian Polish-language content. Some of this may be bot-driven, but it is also actively amplified by Polish far-right figures. In mid-August, Prime Minister Donald Tusk argued that supporting Ukraine serves Poland's own security interests, offering some reassurance, though Husarska stresses there is no simple formula for repairing the relationship.