Poland’s Support for Ukrainians Is Cracking at a Dangerous Time
An increase in hate crime comes as aid for Kyiv takes center stage in a political battle in Warsaw.
Ukrainians living in Poland and their supporters gather outside the Ukrainian embassy in Warsaw to mark the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion.
Photographer: Piotr Lapinski/NurPhoto/Getty ImagesWhen the man heard Oleksandra Iwaniuk speaking Ukrainian with a friend on a crowded tram in Warsaw, he launched into a tirade of verbal abuse. Bald and wearing military camouflage, he addressed his slurs in Polish to the whole carriage, never making eye contact with the two women.
“Everybody could hear him, but the most striking thing to me was that nobody reacted,” recalled Iwaniuk, 39, an academic who has lived in the Polish capital for 15 years, long before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “I realized that I didn’t have courage to address him myself because it really felt like there could be physical violence.”