‘Go back to Ukraine’: War refugees complain of abuse in Poland

Research suggests that Poland’s public opinion of Ukrainians is indeed worsening. According to a March 2025 poll by the respected CBOS Centre, just 50% of Poles are in favour of accepting Ukrainian refugees, a fall of seven percentage points in four months. Two years ago, the figure was 81%.

Unfortunately I’m not surprised and have seen evidence of the growing abuse myself. Even within the first 6 months I started to hear some grumbles over the (then PiS) government not looking after Poles as well as they did Ukrainians. Now, you’ll hear people condemn Tusk for being a Putin puppet in one breath before saying Putin’s better than the Ukrainians in the next.