When Russia attacked on Feb. 24, 2022, after massing troops near Ukraine and in Belarus, Polish leaders framed the war as a fight for the continent. President Andrzej Duda, who visited Kyiv with Lithuania’s president the day before the invasion, said they came “as a sign of our solidarity with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian nation”.
On the first day of the assault, Duda called it “an unprecedented act of aggression” and “a rape of a sovereign and independent state,” expressing hope for a firm international response.
Then-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told parliament “today Ukraine is fighting on behalf of the whole of Europe, for the freedom of the whole of Europe,” before flying to Brussels to press for “very concrete, painful sanctions” including cutting Russia off from SWIFT and killing Nord Stream 2.
In European capitals, Polish officials urged tougher measures and support for Ukraine’s EU bid. “We want to see Ukraine in the EU, everyone agrees it should join,” Morawiecki said after an EU summit in Versailles in March 2022.
Poland also delivered large volumes of weapons. A government report said that between 2022 and 2024 it supplied 586 armored vehicles, 137 artillery systems, 318 tanks, 10 Mi-24 helicopters and 10 MiG-29 fighters.
Warsaw helped finance Starlink terminals for Ukrainian forces, and the hub at Jasionka near Rzeszów became the main transit point for Western aid, handling around 95% of military and humanitarian supplies, according to estimates cited in the text.
‘Carnival of solidarity’ and refugee fatigue
The humanitarian response was just as intense. At the peak, about 100,000 refugees were entering Poland daily; four days after the invasion more than 320,000 Ukrainians had crossed the border, rising to over 1.5 million by March 12. The government adopted a special support law, while the state reserves agency said 100 truckloads of humanitarian aid left for Ukraine every day.
Ordinary citizens mobilized on a massive scale, organizing collections and driving to the border to collect women and children. Many took Ukrainians into their homes in what was described as a “carnival of solidarity.” The Polish Economic Institute estimated 77% of Poles helped refugees and 7% hosted them, valuing public assistance at PLN 20 billion (EUR 4.7 billion). A government report put total state spending on aid to Ukraine and its citizens in 2022–2023 at PLN 106 billion (EUR 25 billion).
Over time, the sudden presence of so many Ukrainians brought social tensions. By late 2024, a CBOS poll found 48% of Poles supported accepting refugees from conflict areas and 46% opposed it, down from 94% backing in early 2022. Researchers said these were “the worst results in the history of our measurements.”
Criticism grew as Ukrainian became more common on streets and in public transport. Stories circulated of young Ukrainians frequenting expensive clubs and driving luxury cars with Ukrainian plates, feeding claims that “the poor stayed in Bucha, the rich came here on vacation.”
Public figures warned of “Ukrainization,” and some Poles complained Ukrainians were privileged through access to child benefits such as the 500-plus and later 800-plus programs. Morawiecki responded: “I deny all information […] about any priority in access to public services for people coming from Ukraine; this will not happen.”
Historical grievances and Volhynia exhumations
Historical grievances also resurfaced, especially over the Volhynia massacre and the role of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in killing nearly 100,000 Poles during 1943–1945. A dispute had simmered since 2017 over a Ukrainian ban on searches and exhumations of Polish victims’ remains, imposed after a UPA monument was removed in Hruszowice.
Tensions spiked again in August 2024 at the Campus of the Future event in Olsztyn, when then-Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, speaking alongside Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, was asked about exhumations.
Referring to Ukrainians resettled in 1947 under Operation Vistula, he said: “If we started digging into history today, the quality of the conversation would be completely different and we could go very deep into history and remind each other of the bad things Poles did to Ukrainians and Ukrainians did to Poles.”
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he had an “unequivocally negative” view of Kuleba’s remarks and argued Kyiv should realize that clarifying history was in Ukraine’s own interest, as it could not join the EU without Poland’s consent. Ukraine’s foreign ministry denied Kuleba had made territorial claims, but he stepped down a few days later; Andriy Sybiha became foreign minister.
At a joint news conference in late November 2024, Sikorski and Sybiha announced that a moratorium on searches and exhumations of Polish victims had been lifted. Ukraine confirmed there were “no obstacles” to work by Polish institutions in cooperation with Ukrainian counterparts, and pledged “readiness to positively consider” requests.
Polish teams later exhumed remains in the former village of Puźniki in today’s Ternopil region, where Ukrainian nationalists killed dozens of Poles in February 1945, finding at least 42 victims. On Dec. 19, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to meet Poland’s expectations on speeding up exhumations, and on Feb. 18 this year the culture ministry authorized searches in the former village of Huta Pieniacka in the Lviv region.
Grain disputes and economic friction
Economic issues have added to the strain. EU trade preferences for Ukraine led to a surge of cheaper grain, sparking farmer protests in neighboring states. Poland and others imposed bans on Ukrainian goods after heavy imports in 2022–2023 boosted supply and pushed down prices. An open-ended embargo took effect on Sept. 16, 2023.
The European Commission later agreed a new trade deal with Kyiv that grants Ukraine favorable tariff exemptions but includes safeguards to respond to market disruption. By late October 2025, Poland’s agriculture ministry said a national ban on importing certain Ukrainian products, mainly grain, still applied.
Even as disagreements persist, economic cooperation and reconstruction remain on the agenda. Leaders worldwide have stressed the need for coordinated rebuilding of Ukraine, and Poland is due to host a major reconstruction conference in June in Gdańsk.
Source: PAP