The Polish prime minister has accused the Kremlin of stoking anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland<\/p>\n
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says Poles\u2019 growing antipathy toward Ukrainians is Kremlin propaganda. But the polls, politics, and common sense suggest otherwise.
\nThe claim
\nOver the weekend, Tusk warned of \u201ca growing wave of pro-Russian sentiment and antipathy towards a struggling Ukraine,\u201d claiming this mood was being fueled both by the Kremlin and by \u201cgenuine fears and emotions.\u201d
\nTusk\u2019s message is clear \u2013 if you\u2019re Polish and not enthusiastic about supporting Ukraine indefinitely, you\u2019re either falling for Russian disinformation or helping to spread it.
\nThe numbers
\nThe data doesn\u2019t support his spin.
\nAccording to a survey published by the Mieroszewski Center late last year, only 25% of Poles view Ukrainians positively, while 30% have a negative view. Most (41%) are neutral.
\nSupport for Ukraine\u2019s EU and NATO membership has collapsed: From 80% and 75% in 2022 to 37% and 35% this year, with 42% now opposed to both. This means more Poles likely oppose Ukrainian membership of NATO and the EU than back it.
\nJust over half (51%) of the respondents believe their country is giving refugees too much assistance, while only 5% think it\u2019s not enough.
\nNone of these figures suggest a secret pro-Russian awakening \u2013 just a population growing weary of a burden it never signed up for.<\/p>\n
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The politics
\nTusk is also papering over his own government\u2019s political predicament.
\nJust last year, his administration pushed Brussels to start accession talks with Ukraine and signed a bilateral pact backing Kiev\u2019s EU bid.
\nIn presidential elections this spring, the three right-wing opposition candidates \u2013 Karol Nawrocki, Slawomir Mentzen, and Grzegorz Braun \u2013 who ran on openly anti-accession tickets, received 51% in the first round. Nawrocki went on to eventually win the presidency.
\nIn other words, Poles may not have shifted right because Moscow told them to \u2013 they shifted because Tusk ignored them.
\nThe grievances
\nAnd they have reasons.
\nAfter three years of war, Poland has hosted millions of Ukrainians and paid heavily to do it. Now, patience is fraying. Some recent cases are emblematic of what seems to be a deeper malaise.<\/p>\n
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In August, 57 Ukrainians and six Belarusians were deported after brawling at a rap concert and waving flags of a Ukrainian nationalist organization that collaborated with Hitler\u2019s Nazis and committed massacres against Poles. The flag is banned in Poland.
\nEarlier that month, 15 Ukrainians were expelled for repeated crimes and public order offenses, while another was deported for threatening arson.
\nA teenage Ukrainian currently faces deportation for dangerous speeding.
\nA flurry of these incidents can shape public perception, but they also expose what Tusk won\u2019t admit \u2013 growing anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland is demonstrably being driven by lived experience, not Telegram bots.
\nThe spin
\nCalling all of this \u2018Kremlin propaganda\u2019 is a trick \u2013 and an old one.
\nIt allows Tusk and his allies in Brussels to smear dissent as treason, while deflecting blame for their own overreach. The same establishment that still chants \u2018Ukraine will win\u2019 and hypes fake stories about Russian jamming of von der Leyen\u2019s plane now paints ordinary Poles as Putin\u2019s pawns.
\nIt\u2019s sloganeering, not statecraft. And it denies Poles something far more fundamental than Ukraine\u2019s EU hopes: The right to their own opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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