Why protests across Poland are focusing on attacks against Ukrainians

A nationwide protest campaign in Poland is putting attacks against Ukrainians at the center of a wider debate over safety, migration and public responsibility. Organizers say rallies carrying the message “My Poland does not beat, insult or persecute” took place in 22 cities, followed by the delivery of an 11,000-signature petition to the prime minister’s office. The immediate demand is for stronger action against violent attacks. The broader context is measurable but requires care: Rzeczpospolita reported, citing national police data, that Ukrainian citizens filed 180 hate-crime notifications in the first six months of 2026, an increase of more than 30 percent year over year. Those are reports made to police, not a count of offenses ultimately proven. Recent media coverage has also included individual cases of xenophobic abuse and assaults in public transport and other public spaces. Together, the incidents and the new demonstrations raise a practical question for Polish institutions: whether prevention, policing and prosecution are keeping pace with a more visible climate of hostility. Illustrative image: Warsaw solidarity rally, 2022. Image credit: Tomasz Molina / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.