Polish Sejm Speaker Warns Anti-Ukrainian Sentiment Is Intensifying

Overview

• The Sejm speaker said negative attitudes toward Ukrainians have been building for years and are likely to grow more radical.
• He described an early surge of public assistance giving way to irritation, noting help for about one million Ukrainian children and gaps in school readiness to integrate them.
• An NGO worker from Ukrainian House reported a rise in complaints since the summer, largely about verbal harassment and backlash to speaking Ukrainian in public.
• President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a bill that would have provided benefits, including the 800+ child allowance, to non-working Ukrainians and then signed a separate law removing such support for non-working foreigners.
• Estimates cited in the reports put the Ukrainian refugee population in Poland at roughly 1.5 million.