Poland’s new president, Karol Nawrocki, has vetoed a bill that would have extended support for Ukrainian refugees. The conservative politician, who was sworn in earlier this month, argues that after three and a half years of full-scale war, it’s time to scale back their access to social benefits, particularly child allowances and free medical care. Polling suggests many Poles agree — some see Ukrainians as freeloaders, even though economic data shows otherwise. Meduza looks at Nawrocki’s decision, which could push nearly a million Ukrainian refugees in Poland into a legal gray zone.

From warm welcome to growing resentment

Ukrainians are by far the largest group of foreigners in Polish society, making up 78 percent of all foreign citizens in the country. About 1.55 million Ukrainians hold either temporary or permanent residency permits in Poland. Of these, 993,000 received legal status under the refugee protection program launched after the start of the full-scale war. The only country with more Ukrainians holding comparable status is Germany, with 1.2 million. In total, 23 percent of Ukrainian refugees in Europe have settled in Poland.

At first, Poland’s population of 37 million embraced those fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Over time, however, that goodwill has steadily eroded, giving way to concerns about the country’s own economic interests. Politicians across the spectrum have seized on the issue. Ahead of Poland’s presidential election earlier this year, both major candidates proposed rolling back benefits for Ukrainians: liberal Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.

Nawrocki ultimately won the election, campaigning under the slogan “Poland first, Poles first.” He has pushed for closer ties with the United States while rejecting Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. His victory signaled an immediate challenge for Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s center-left government, which supports deeper integration with the European Union and continued aid to Ukraine. The Polish presidency carries limited powers — the office does not run the government or appoint the prime minister — but it does hold veto power over legislation passed by parliament. Overriding that veto requires a 60 percent majority.

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On August 25, Karol Nawrocki vetoed a bill passed by parliament that would have extended support for Ukrainians. The legislation prolonged their right to temporary protection, child benefits, and free medical care until March 4, 2026. Without it, those benefits will expire on September 30.

Explaining his decision, Nawrocki pointed to the child benefit program. Under Poland’s Family 800+ initiative, families receive 800 złoty (about $217) per month for each child — a payment that Ukrainian refugees are also eligible to receive. But a 2025 poll showed that 54 percent of Poles believe the program should be reserved for Ukrainian families in which parents are employed and pay taxes in Poland.

“Much has happened over the three and a half years of war,” Nawrocki said in defense of his veto.

We remain a country open to helping refugees from Ukraine. […] But the law introduced three and a half years ago must change. All major political circles in Poland have said that the 800+ benefit should be paid only to Ukrainian citizens who commit to working [in Poland]. Yet the bill I received contained no such amendment.

Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the president’s office, emphasized that the legislation also extended Ukrainians’ access to free medical care without requiring contributions to the national insurance system. (During the presidential campaign, this benefit was debated alongside child payments, and Nawrocki pledged to restrict it.) “Ukrainian citizens received the full range of medical services simply because they were in Poland. That was justified at the start of the [full-scale] war. Today, the situation is entirely different,” Bogucki said.

After vetoing the government’s bill to support Ukrainian refugees, the president introduced his own initiative. He proposed tripling the residency period required to apply for Polish citizenship, tightening penalties for illegal border crossings, and banning “” in Poland on par with Nazi and communist insignia.

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As of the end of February 2025, nearly 709,000 Ukrainian citizens were officially employed in Poland. They make up 67 percent of all foreign workers in the country and about five percent of the national workforce. According to U.N. estimates, Ukrainians generated 2.7 percent of Poland’s GDP last year. “If you think refugees are a drain on the economy, think again,” said Kevin Allen, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees’ representative in Poland.

In a 2024 survey by Poland’s central bank, 78 percent of adult Ukrainians living in the country said they were employed. By comparison, only 57 percent of Poland’s adult population works. The gap is largely explained by demographics: there are far more elderly people among Poles than among the refugee population.

Poland’s National Development Bank reported that in 2024 Ukrainians paid more than 15 billion złoty (about $4 billion) in taxes. By contrast, they received 2.7 billion złoty (about $732.8 million) in payments through the Family 800+ child benefit program. According to the bank, Ukrainians’ presence is crucial for the stability of Poland’s labor market, especially as the country faces an aging population and persistent labor shortages.

Changing child benefit rules could hurt the most vulnerable refugees

If Poland does not extend its refugee protection law for Ukrainians by October 1, nearly a million people will find themselves in a legal “gray zone”: they would still be covered by the E.U.’s general directive protecting Ukrainian refugees, but their stay in Poland would technically become illegal, Oleksandr Pestrikov of the Ukrainian House foundation told Onet.

According to him, many Ukrainians living in Poland under refugee status are already working. They would likely rush to apply for residency permits on the basis of employment — a move that could create chaos in government offices already overwhelmed with applications. Employers, meanwhile, would be left uncertain about what to do with their Ukrainian staff. The situation would also upend Ukrainians running small businesses in Poland, whose companies could be struck from state registries.

Commenting on the government’s plan to tie child benefits to employment in Poland, Pestrikov stressed that such a policy would hurt the most vulnerable refugee groups: mothers with many children, mothers caring for gravely ill children who require constant attention, and pensioners raising grandchildren orphaned by the war. “If we say that Poland is guided by Christian values, this is very un-Christian,” Pestrikov said.

Poland’s minister of family, labor, and social policy, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, argued that the president was effectively punishing children “who bear no responsibility for whether their mother works, has lost her job, or is caring for a sick grandmother.” Still, some — including the architect of Poland’s child benefit program — have backed Nawrocki’s position.

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The bill President Karol Nawrocki refused to sign not only covered the legal status of Ukrainian refugees in Poland but also included other forms of aid to Ukraine — among them, funding for the Starlink satellite Internet system.

Poland’s digital affairs minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, said the president’s veto “means the end of the Starlink Internet service that Poland provides to Ukraine.” He added that he “couldn’t imagine a better gift for Putin’s troops.”

But Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the president’s office, insisted that Nawrocki is not blocking Starlink’s operation in Ukraine. According to him, the president’s own bill — the same one that introduces new restrictions for Ukrainians — does not prevent continued funding for Starlink. “It’s enough [to pass] the president’s initiative in parliament,” Bogucki said.

Kyiv’s response

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said it is studying how recent developments in Poland could affect Ukrainian citizens. “We are grateful to Warsaw for all its past decisions in favor of our fellow citizens, and we believe their rights will be safeguarded no less than in other E.U. countries,” the ministry said, as quoted by the BBC’s Ukrainian service.

But Kyiv’s response to Nawrocki’s comments about “Banderite symbols” was sharper: “Any politicized decisions to allegedly equate Ukrainian symbols with Nazi and communist ones could fuel negative sentiment in Ukrainian society and require a response from Ukraine.”

Leon Pińczak, a security and Eastern European affairs analyst at Warsaw’s Polityka Insight think tank, told the BBC’s Ukrainian service that relations between Ukraine and Poland could cool under Nawrocki. As a professional historian, he said, Nawrocki is likely to raise historical issues more often — something Kyiv may perceive as interference in its internal affairs.

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