Even a superficial analysis of current relations between Ukraine and Poland demonstrates their obvious deterioration, while a deeper study reveals specific problems, some of which have historical roots dating back a hundred years.
Half of Poles oppose Ukraine’s accession to NATO or the EU
According to the results of a new survey by the IBRiS research center, half of Poles oppose Ukraine’s accession to NATO or the European Union without resolving the issue of exhuming the victims of the Volhynian tragedy — mutually dramatic events of the mid-20th century, the rethinking of which remains a stumbling block between the two countries to this day. This conflict occurred in 1943, when the Polish Home Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army carried out mutual ethnic cleansing of the population. Due to different approaches to assessing ethnicity, it is impossible to establish the exact number of victims: according to rough estimates, up to 100 thousand Poles and about 40 thousand Ukrainians died.
Now Poland is demanding that the remains of the victims of the aforementioned conflict be exhumed: without this process, 27.7% of Poles surveyed “categorically” disagree with Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO, and 22.5% of survey participants “rather” disagree with this. As Bloomberg previously wrote, Zelensky is very unhappy with this demand: he was “furious” after a meeting in the fall of 2024 with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who demonstratively slowed down Ukraine’s desire to quickly join the European Union precisely for reasons related to the “Volhynian massacre”.
Poland is feeling tired of Ukrainian refugees. This is especially noticeable during the electoral cycle
Since the first days of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Poland, which was Ukraine’s gateway to the EU, has ceased to be its advocate in the union: the million-strong flow of refugees not only overloaded the country in terms of infrastructure, but also brought a lot of minor problems that predictably irritated the local population. This includes dumping in the cosmetic services market, rabies imported by unvaccinated animals, and unfair tax decisions. This irritation predictably mirrored at the political level: the Polish authorities were among the first to motivate Ukrainians to leave their country, and also to facilitate the sending of military-liable men from Ukraine home.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that there are now many elections in Poland: local and parliamentary elections have already taken place, and presidential elections are expected in May. Politicians continue to be in the electoral cycle, and this entails various events, including protests against agricultural products of Ukrainian farmers and the blocking of the border with Ukraine. Fatigue from refugees only superimposes an additional thin layer on the general anti-Ukrainian background.
Poles increasingly openly express antipathy towards their eastern neighbors on social networks. A clear confirmation of such sentiments is the Eurovision scandal. In January of this year, a language dispute arose at the Polish national selection for this music competition. Some fans of the song contest did not like the fact that the song Lusterka by the duet Swаda i Niczos, which is sung in the dialect of Podlasie — a mixture of Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages, made it to the final, the BBC reports. “This is complete nonsense”, “This is disgusting, this has nothing to do with our beautiful Poland”, — such comments were posted by locals on the X platform.
Ukraine is jealous of Poland purchasing the most modern weapons for itself
In addition to historical issues and media battles, some of the most pressing issues between Ukraine and Poland remain those related to the development of border infrastructure and logistics: this concerns both freight transport and civilian transportation. These are difficulties related to broader communication, for example, the development of both rail communications. In any case, such problems are voiced by Ukraine in the person of the newly appointed ambassador Vasyl Bodnar. However, if we compare the pre-war level of infrastructure in Poland and Ukraine, only one indisputable conclusion suggests itself: Poland has succeeded much more in this matter. Therefore, the opinions of experts that Ukraine criticizes Poland out of envy sound quite truthful, albeit a little sarcastic.
The Ukrainian authorities may be similarly affected by the fact that Poland is already spending more than 4% or 4.7% of its GDP on defense, purchasing the most modern equipment and weapons to create fairly strong defense capabilities not only for itself, but also for NATO’s eastern flank. Therefore, even with the fact that Ukraine calls itself Poland’s strategic partner, Poland considers itself to be its main strategic partner to a greater extent. Despite the rhetoric about a “common cultural code,” the Poles remind Ukrainians in every possible way that the black pages of common history cannot be erased or forgotten out of sympathy for Ukraine, which is weakening today.
