![\"Domostawa,](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2185444677-1-1749125038.jpg\")
In Domostawa, Poland, a memorial to the victims of the 1940s massacre in Volhynia and eastern Galicia stirred controversy [File: Getty Images]<\/p>\nOn May 30, the last day of Poland\u2019s presidential campaign, Karol Nawrocki laid flowers at a monument that has long sparked controversy.<\/p>\n
The 14-metre tall statue commemorating the Volhynian massacre depicts a crowned eagle, the symbol of Poland, with a cross shape cut out from its chest. In that cross, a child\u2019s body is impaled on a trident, representing the Ukrainian coat of arms, the \u201ctryzub\u201d.<\/p>\n
The statue was revealed in July 2024 in Domostawa, a village in southeastern Poland close to Ukraine\u2019s border. It commemorates the ethnic cleansing of Poles by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Polish-Ukrainian borderland between 1943 to 1945. While statistics vary, it is assumed that between 40,000 and 100,000 people perished in the massacre.<\/p>\n
But before Domostawa accepted the monument, several cities, including Rzeszow, Torun and Stalowa Wola, refused to host it due to the brutality of the sculptor\u2019s vision and in order not to damage relations with Ukraine.<\/p>\n
In Domostawa, Poland, a memorial to the victims of the 1940s massacre in Volhynia and eastern Galicia stirred controversy [File: Getty Images]<\/p>\n
To Nawrocki, formerly the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, a state research institute, the scene felt like the place to end his presidential bid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Volhynian Massacre was a cruel crime. The methods of murdering Poles were cruel. It was a neighbourly crime, because neighbours murdered neighbours. It was also a robbery, because Ukrainian nationalists often robbed their neighbours,\u201d Nawrocki said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the right to talk about it. I have the right to talk about it as the president of the Institute of National Remembrance and I will have this right as the president of Poland after June 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nDear President @ZelenskyyUa<\/a>, thank you for your message. I am looking forward to countinue partnership of our countries, based on mutual respect and understanding. I believe it requires not only good dialogue but also solving overdue historical issues. Poland has been Ukraine’s\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2014 Karol Nawrocki (@NawrockiKn) June 3, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
During his ultimately successful campaign, President-elect Nawrocki, a nationalist, said that Poles should have priority in queues for doctor\u2019s appointments and called to limit Ukrainians\u2019 access to benefits. He also said he was against Ukraine joining NATO and the European Union, a stark contrast from Poland\u2019s traditional position of support as Kyiv fights off Russian forces.<\/p>\n
Warsaw\u2019s support, Nawrocki believes, should depend on Ukraine making amends for the Volhynian massacre, which could include the exhumation of Polish victims.<\/p>\n
Following the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in early 2022, Poland, under the rule of the Law and Justice \u2013 or PiS \u2013 party, which supported Nawrocki, accepted more than a million Ukrainian refugees and backed Ukraine with weapons as Kyiv\u2019s other European allies, such as Germany, hesitated.<\/p>\n
Thousands of Poles hosted Ukrainians in their homes as Poland became the loudest pro-Ukrainian voice in the EU and NATO.<\/p>\n
But while PiS has a long history of supporting Ukraine throughout its revolutions in 2004 and 2014, and following the Russian onslaught, anti-Ukrainian rhetoric is now taking hold.<\/p>\n
\u2018Playing the anti-Ukrainian card\u2019<\/p>\n
In the first round of the presidential election, 51 percent of Poles voted for candidates who had touted positions at odds with Ukraine\u2019s ambitions. Even the liberal candidate from the Civic Platform, Rafal Trzaskowski, suggested that Ukrainians who do not pay taxes should be deprived of child benefits.<\/p>\n
According to research by the Mieroszewski Centre, in 2022, 83 percent of Ukrainians had a positive opinion of Poles, but by November 2024, this number fell to 41 percent.<\/p>\n
In January 2025, 51 percent of Poles said that Ukrainian refugees receive too much support. Almost half of respondents said that difficult historical issues should be solved to improve Polish-Ukrainian relations.<\/p>\n
Research published in February 2025 by CBOS found that just 30 percent of Poles had a positive attitude towards Ukrainians, down from 51 percent in 2023, while 38 percent had a negative attitude towards their Ukrainian neighbours, up from 17 percent in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that Poland should continue its support for Ukraine, but I am disappointed with the position of the Ukrainian state. If not for Poland\u2019s strong and decisive reaction at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, which encouraged Europe\u2019s support, Ukraine would not survive. And then in front of the United Nations General Assembly, Ukraine\u2019s president compared<\/a> Poland to Russia,\u201d said Nawrocki voter Michal, a 33-year-old travel guide.<\/p>\n
\u201cUkrainians never showed any remorse for the Volhynian massacre. And I find it unacceptable that figures like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, who are responsible for massacres of Poles during World War II, are considered Ukraine\u2019s national heroes,\u201d Michal added, referring to the Ukrainian nationalist leaders and Nazi collaborators.<\/p>\n
\nThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine considers the decision of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland to establish 11 July as a Day of Remembrance for the victims of the so-called \u201cgenocide committed by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/c5nu1hPaDl<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 MFA of Ukraine \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@MFA_Ukraine) June 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Michal\u2019s views are not uncommon.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, grudges against Ukrainian refugees have swelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn February and March 2022, in a few weeks, Poland became a country that was no longer culturally uniform. For many Poles, who had no experience of diversity, the very fact that suddenly their neighbours spoke a different language became difficult to accept,\u201d said Rafal Pankowski from the antiracism Never Again association.<\/p>\n
Currently, more than 50 percent of Poles declare solidarity with Ukrainian refugees, down from 90 percent in 2022, he said, citing his organisation\u2019s polling data.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons why support for Ukrainians has fallen is right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theories spread on social media. We have been monitoring the situation since the beginning of the war, and it has been clear that in the long run, playing the anti-Ukrainian card will bring the far right political benefits. And this is what happened in this campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Igor Krawetz, a Ukrainian commentator who has lived in Poland for almost 20 years, said that he is surprised at the speed of the shift. Two years ago, open hostility towards Ukrainians was viewed as inappropriate, even among the right, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolish anti-Ukrainian xenophobia is no longer limited to spaces where Ukrainian migrants compete with Poles, such as low-skilled jobs. Now xenophobia is expressed by the middle class, too, who see that Ukrainians moved businesses to Warsaw, buy expensive apartments and are no longer poor people that need the Poles\u2019 support,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The shift brings back memories for Krawetz.<\/p>\n
Polish solidarity with Ukraine ended in disillusionment and mutual accusations in 2004, when Poles supported Ukraine\u2019s Orange Revolution and in 2014, after the Euromaidan<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoles have got used to seeing Ukraine\u2019s misfortunes as their own pain. For the past 20 years, during crises, there have been romantic waves of brotherly support that lasted for several months and were always followed by complaints: \u2018I helped you in 2022 and you still haven\u2019t won the war\u2019 type of thing,\u201d Krawetz said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have survived the first and second wave of solidarity with Ukraine. I will survive the last one, too. It always comes back full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n