To the reasonable Poles who keep telling me Nawrocki doesn’t represent them: your country is producing what a fascist state looks like in formation. Your silence is what allows it to spread.
This is by far one of the most brutally honest assessments of the bigotry and violence perpetrated by Poles against the Ukrainian people that I’ve seen. It would be difficult to believe, but we are seeing parallels in our own country every day with unwarranted hatred displayed toward our immigrant community. Donald Tusk appears to be a supportive voice of reason, but for how long? I hope that Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte can use their positions to leverage a more conciliatory tone from Nawrocki. But, changing the mentality of 60% of the population is daunting. It is probably wishful thinking, but perhaps the appeal of returning to Ukraine at some point to help in the rebuilding of their country will prove so strong that remaining in Poland is no longer an issue.
I fear the EU Commission can and will do little; for years, it has watched as Orbán’s Fidesz party ruined Hungary. In the European Parliament, the conservative EPP group increasingly votes alongside far-right parties. The EPP is led by the German politician Manfred Weber (CSU), who long shielded Orbán. Germany’s far-right AfD party is openly pro-Russia and wants to halt support for Ukraine.
The time has come to shift from alarm to actionable legal accountability.
Thank you for documenting these terrifying incidents, Roman. Silence and passive concern are no longer options—when xenophobic violence is fueled by political rhetoric and met with systemic police inaction, international human rights frameworks must be leveraged immediately.
The Council of Europe (CoE) provides concrete remedies and mechanisms that victims, civil society, and international partners can activate right now:
1. Legal Action via the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)
• Individual Applications (Article 34 ECHR): Victims who encounter unhelpful police, dismissed complaints, or inadequate investigations can file against Poland in Strasbourg. Under established case law, states have a strict positive obligation to investigate hate motives and protect physical integrity under Article 3 (prohibition of degrading treatment), Article 8 (right to personal integrity), and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination).
• Inter-State Complaints (Article 33 ECHR): Partner nations (such as Ukraine or fellow CoE members) can bring an Inter-State case against Poland before the ECtHR to address systemic failures and administrative inaction in protecting targeted minorities.
2. High-Level CoE Oversight & Escalation
• ECRI Dossiers: Filing formal complaints and empirical evidence directly with the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) and the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights. ECRI can trigger rapid country visits, publish urgent warnings, and demand official accountability from the Ministry of Interior.
• PACE Urgent Debates: Delegations within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) can request urgent debates and resolutions concerning the spike in hate crimes and political incitement.
3. Diplomatic Sanctions & Statutory Proceedings
• Article 8 of the CoE Statute: Should a member state persistently permit widespread human rights breaches or tolerate impunity for hate crimes, the Committee of Ministers holds the authority to launch formal proceedings, suspend representation rights, or issue severe diplomatic sanctions for breaching core CoE obligations.
Documentation is step one; enforcement is step two. The legal tools are already in place—it is time to start using them.
I have only experience from replies on Facebook, which flabbergasted me at first. But I now can say that they fully corroborate this analysis. Nationalist Poles are totally blinded by a distorted view on history and are supporting Ruzzia - which did far worse. Nationalism is a cancer that needs to be eradicated.
I still think that the vast majority of Poles support Ukraine in its fight against Russia (whether they support Ukrainian EU membership is a separate issue). That said, the urgency of the war has decreased. In 2022, people thought that Russia could capture Kyiv, occupy most of Ukraine and then threaten NATO. Today, it is clear beyond reasonable doubt that the Russian military will not capture anything more than a few more cowsheds in Donbas. Hence the war feels increasingly distant to most Poles.
I lived in Poland for two years, during the period when the main wave of Ukrainians arrived there. They were refugees mainly from the south-east and east of Ukraine. Most of them use Russian when speaking to one another in everyday life, or more precisely, a regional variety of Russian.
I do not understand why, for rhetorical purposes, people write that it was the Ukrainian language that triggered the Poles in each of these shocking incidents. In about 90 percent of such cases, the people involved were not speaking Ukrainian to one another.
Apart from this “small lie,” there is another one. The great majority of these Ukrainians are completely disconnected from Ukrainian historical memory concerning the UPA and its heroes.
The most disturbing part of the situation is that these people speak a variety of Russian in their everyday conversations with one another and, until the recent events, knew almost nothing about the historical problems connected with Volhynia. Yet both sides, Polish and Ukrainian, treat them as one collectively responsible group and turn them into hostages of this conflict while they are living in Poland.
I don’t really see that. Sure, you can cherry pick events. But isolated events don’t create a pattern. Every country, including Ukraine, has a far Right fringe. I would suggest you examine the political views, not historical but right now, of a minority of people in Western Ukraine.
Nawrocki is not sowing hate, although his rhetoric is divisive. He is reactive not proactive. He is reacting to Ukraine attempting to rewrite historical fact and elevate notorious sociopaths and war criminals as national heroes. As soon as Ukraine backs away from that, the problem will resolve itself. Poland did not start this donnybrook, they merely responded to it.
I don’t care for Nawrocki’s politics, but I don’t like the cultish worship of mass murdererers either. I see this as more a Ukraine problem than I do a Poland problem. I don’t see any other Western countries bestowing honors on people who planned and executed a genocide or ethnic cleansing.
The more people understand this historical situation, the less sympathetic they will be to your point of view. Ukraine has a lot of international sympathy right now. Why squander it honoring mass murderers?
People like you are precisely the problem. After reading everything I pointed out, seeing the general stats, polls, and even academic research point out that it is a huge current problem in Poland - you still defend this type of fascism. That is sickening. You are no better than ruzzians.
This is by far one of the most brutally honest assessments of the bigotry and violence perpetrated by Poles against the Ukrainian people that I’ve seen. It would be difficult to believe, but we are seeing parallels in our own country every day with unwarranted hatred displayed toward our immigrant community. Donald Tusk appears to be a supportive voice of reason, but for how long? I hope that Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte can use their positions to leverage a more conciliatory tone from Nawrocki. But, changing the mentality of 60% of the population is daunting. It is probably wishful thinking, but perhaps the appeal of returning to Ukraine at some point to help in the rebuilding of their country will prove so strong that remaining in Poland is no longer an issue.
Thank you!
I fear the EU Commission can and will do little; for years, it has watched as Orbán’s Fidesz party ruined Hungary. In the European Parliament, the conservative EPP group increasingly votes alongside far-right parties. The EPP is led by the German politician Manfred Weber (CSU), who long shielded Orbán. Germany’s far-right AfD party is openly pro-Russia and wants to halt support for Ukraine.
The time has come to shift from alarm to actionable legal accountability.
Thank you for documenting these terrifying incidents, Roman. Silence and passive concern are no longer options—when xenophobic violence is fueled by political rhetoric and met with systemic police inaction, international human rights frameworks must be leveraged immediately.
The Council of Europe (CoE) provides concrete remedies and mechanisms that victims, civil society, and international partners can activate right now:
1. Legal Action via the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)
• Individual Applications (Article 34 ECHR): Victims who encounter unhelpful police, dismissed complaints, or inadequate investigations can file against Poland in Strasbourg. Under established case law, states have a strict positive obligation to investigate hate motives and protect physical integrity under Article 3 (prohibition of degrading treatment), Article 8 (right to personal integrity), and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination).
• Inter-State Complaints (Article 33 ECHR): Partner nations (such as Ukraine or fellow CoE members) can bring an Inter-State case against Poland before the ECtHR to address systemic failures and administrative inaction in protecting targeted minorities.
2. High-Level CoE Oversight & Escalation
• ECRI Dossiers: Filing formal complaints and empirical evidence directly with the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) and the CoE Commissioner for Human Rights. ECRI can trigger rapid country visits, publish urgent warnings, and demand official accountability from the Ministry of Interior.
• PACE Urgent Debates: Delegations within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) can request urgent debates and resolutions concerning the spike in hate crimes and political incitement.
3. Diplomatic Sanctions & Statutory Proceedings
• Article 8 of the CoE Statute: Should a member state persistently permit widespread human rights breaches or tolerate impunity for hate crimes, the Committee of Ministers holds the authority to launch formal proceedings, suspend representation rights, or issue severe diplomatic sanctions for breaching core CoE obligations.
Documentation is step one; enforcement is step two. The legal tools are already in place—it is time to start using them.
I have only experience from replies on Facebook, which flabbergasted me at first. But I now can say that they fully corroborate this analysis. Nationalist Poles are totally blinded by a distorted view on history and are supporting Ruzzia - which did far worse. Nationalism is a cancer that needs to be eradicated.
I still think that the vast majority of Poles support Ukraine in its fight against Russia (whether they support Ukrainian EU membership is a separate issue). That said, the urgency of the war has decreased. In 2022, people thought that Russia could capture Kyiv, occupy most of Ukraine and then threaten NATO. Today, it is clear beyond reasonable doubt that the Russian military will not capture anything more than a few more cowsheds in Donbas. Hence the war feels increasingly distant to most Poles.
I lived in Poland for two years, during the period when the main wave of Ukrainians arrived there. They were refugees mainly from the south-east and east of Ukraine. Most of them use Russian when speaking to one another in everyday life, or more precisely, a regional variety of Russian.
I do not understand why, for rhetorical purposes, people write that it was the Ukrainian language that triggered the Poles in each of these shocking incidents. In about 90 percent of such cases, the people involved were not speaking Ukrainian to one another.
Apart from this “small lie,” there is another one. The great majority of these Ukrainians are completely disconnected from Ukrainian historical memory concerning the UPA and its heroes.
The most disturbing part of the situation is that these people speak a variety of Russian in their everyday conversations with one another and, until the recent events, knew almost nothing about the historical problems connected with Volhynia. Yet both sides, Polish and Ukrainian, treat them as one collectively responsible group and turn them into hostages of this conflict while they are living in Poland.
I don’t really see that. Sure, you can cherry pick events. But isolated events don’t create a pattern. Every country, including Ukraine, has a far Right fringe. I would suggest you examine the political views, not historical but right now, of a minority of people in Western Ukraine.
Nawrocki is not sowing hate, although his rhetoric is divisive. He is reactive not proactive. He is reacting to Ukraine attempting to rewrite historical fact and elevate notorious sociopaths and war criminals as national heroes. As soon as Ukraine backs away from that, the problem will resolve itself. Poland did not start this donnybrook, they merely responded to it.
I don’t care for Nawrocki’s politics, but I don’t like the cultish worship of mass murdererers either. I see this as more a Ukraine problem than I do a Poland problem. I don’t see any other Western countries bestowing honors on people who planned and executed a genocide or ethnic cleansing.
The more people understand this historical situation, the less sympathetic they will be to your point of view. Ukraine has a lot of international sympathy right now. Why squander it honoring mass murderers?
People like you are precisely the problem. After reading everything I pointed out, seeing the general stats, polls, and even academic research point out that it is a huge current problem in Poland - you still defend this type of fascism. That is sickening. You are no better than ruzzians.
IMO, Poland was never too different from ruzzia with all their love for a trumpism since 2016.