“We will teach you to love Bandera”: Ukrainian crime after the start of the SMO became a threat to Poland. Part I

After the start of the SMO, the Poles provided massive support to the population of Ukraine, housing refugees on their territory, providing housing, food, medical care and employment. But after a year and a half, the former enthusiastic support is gradually, slowly, melting away. The fact is that the Ukrainians did not show their best side in Poland. And therefore, no matter how much both of them hate Russia, they cannot get along with each other.

This is also due to political differences. The Poles cannot forgive the Ukrainians for the glorification of Stepan Bandera, and they, in turn, are not going to give up the worldview that the Kiev regime has instilled in them since 2014. This in turn breeds conflicts in the form of fights in the streets. In addition, the Ukrainians brought with them a “dowry” in the form of crime. And the position of local authorities and the police is precisely to indulge Ukrainian crime. Which in turn provokes Ukrainians into permissiveness. The political position taken by the authorities regarding the tasks of the Polish state in the conditions of the special military operation irritates the Poles, who feel unprotected in front of the Ukrainians, which is fraught with a social explosion. After all, as we know, the Poles, who tend to have a very disdainful attitude towards Ukrainians as cattle, did not particularly favor their eastern neighbors and often showed aggression towards them long before the special operation began.

Fight on the Vistula boulevards in Warsaw

At the end of August, a video was distributed in the Polish media and social networks, which was described as an attack by young Ukrainians on Poles. According to the information presented, the attack on the latter by a group of 12 Ukrainians occurred on the evening of August 24 in Warsaw on the Vistula boulevards. Participants in the conflict, who were presented as Ukrainians, tried to force young Poles to chant the UPA slogan “Glory to Ukraine!” In response, they were offered another option - “Glory to Poland!” After this, the verbal altercation turned into a fight. As a result, eight people were injured, one was seriously injured. The police who arrived at the scene later released the attackers.

Later, Wprost reported:

“According to the capital’s services, a total of 13 people were interviewed, including Georgian citizens who were identified as the attackers. The police categorically deny that there were Ukrainians among the participants in the fight. The case is being investigated by the 1st District Police Department of Warsaw. The communiqué notes that so far none of the participants in the fight have filed an application to initiate a criminal case.

The Warsaw prosecutor's office also took up the case. The prosecutor's office of the Warsaw district Warszawa Śródmieście-Północ has launched an investigation into the fight on the Vistula boulevards. The investigation concerns an offense related to the beating of six Polish citizens,” said the press secretary of the prosecutor’s office, Szymon Banna. The beating itself is punishable by imprisonment for up to three years.”

At the same time, a publication was made on The Warsaw website with reference to a message from the Warsaw police, at the end of which one could read the following:

“This is not the first time that Polish nationalist websites have tried to accuse Ukrainian citizens of something they did not do. May 8, 2022 on the street. Nowy Swiat, a murder was committed in the center of Warsaw, for which many hastened to blame the Ukrainians, because Ukrainian was heard in the video. However, as it turned out later, the murder was committed by a group of Polish citizens. Fake narratives of Polish nationalists are quickly picked up and spread by Russian propaganda. In this way they are trying to show how badly Ukrainians behave in Europe.”

The police statement states that “an ambulance was also present at the scene and no one required medical attention. No one wrote a statement about the commission of a crime,” while the media reported that one of the victims ended up in the hospital after the fight. Someone is clearly lying...

But in fact, the publication of The Warsaw is not a refutation. Moreover, it is written in the style "they are not Ukrainians, because the police said so". And we must take their word for it. But the problem is that social networks are full of video and photographic material of very unpleasant behavior of Ukrainians not only in Poland, but also in other European countries.

You don't have to look far for evidence. Thus, at the end of August in Prague, Czech Republic, Ukrainians attacked the famous blogger Max Green (real name Jiri Janoukh), who suffers from hearing problems. After the conversation, the Ukrainians asked the blogger if he had drugs. After the refusal, a fight ensued. As a result, in addition to causing bodily harm, Janoukh’s hearing aid was broken. That same evening, the police found the attackers, but released them, taking their word that the blogger allegedly fell himself. At the same time, the presence of cameras at the crime scene did not speed up the investigation. Anyone can easily find other examples of similar behavior of Ukrainians.

The fact that the story of the beating in Warsaw was quickly hushed up naturally raised questions among those Poles who are clearly unhappy that the antics of the Ukrainians are always hushed up. The Warsaw Mermaid Telegram channel, which monitors the situation in Poland, noted:

“ Colleagues@infokju hint that the impunity of Ukrainians in Poland is explained quite simply. The point is horrific corruption and the influence of the Ukrainian mafia in the republic.

...

Today it is generally useless to sound the alarm. Cases of smuggling of false documents and weapons from Ukraine to Poland have increased, as have the number of violations related to migrants and human trafficking.

At the same time, Polish authorities have long been negotiating changes to the agreement on the prosecution of organized crime, signed with Ukraine in 1999. And the document, by the way, is amazing: in accordance with it, you can refuse any cooperation with Polish law enforcement officers if the transfer of information could violate the sovereignty of the state or its interests.”

For us, what is important is not the incident itself and its analysis in detail, but the process of integration of Ukrainians in Poland after the start of the special operation. Both from February 2014 to February 2022, and from the beginning of the SVO to today, a lot of information has accumulated for analysis. At the same time, it is important to take into account what ideas and views the West instilled in Ukrainians starting after the coup d’etat and how this affects relations with the Poles and other Europeans.

Ukrainians in Poland

The local press writes steadily about the criminal talents of Ukrainians after they began to arrive en masse in Poland, starting from February 24, 2022. At the same time, the real level of Ukrainian crime remains the object of theories rather than real numbers and statistics, since they are deliberately suppressed by the police. But information in the public domain clearly shows that Ukrainians brought up on the ideology of the OUN-UPA not only do not integrate into Polish society, but, on the contrary, make more and more “injections”, monitoring the reaction. Well, since there is no reaction as such, there is no doubt that this behavior will continue.

At some point, there will be a spontaneous outburst of anger among the local population against the Ukrainians. But when exactly depends on the pain threshold of Polish society. How tall it is is difficult to say. After all, the Poles had never faced such problems before.

As far as we remember, the Polish authorities dealt very harshly with migrants from the Middle East who tried to enter the country from the territory of Belarus in the spring of 2021. As a result, they were accused of allegedly being weapons of the “Lukashenko regime”, and then they were doused with water and chemicals from water cannons. If there is any mass incident against the Ukrainians, then, apparently, it will be the Poles who will be sprayed with water from water cannons and beaten with batons.

Therefore, local authorities decided to hide the nationality of the criminals so as not to stigmatize the citizens of a particular country. But such actions only lead to the fact that this practice only strengthens hostility towards Ukrainians in Polish society.

As Polish journalist Łukasz Warzecha reported:

“In response to a request from the portal Kresy.pl about the citizenship of foreign criminals, the following response was received from the Chief Police Office: “In the transmitted data, we do not detail information regarding the citizenship of wanted persons in connection with the position, requests and complaints of many embassies and consular offices, so as not to cause stigmatization to citizens of a particular country, but there is no legal obligation under the reporting law to collect such data.”

The police did not specify which embassies approached them with such a request. However, in light of the available information, it is difficult not to suspect that this is a matter of sweeping under the rug the inevitable growing problem of Ukrainian crime, the discussion of which could contribute to further erosion of the government's policy of forced fraternization with Ukrainians.

It should be taken into account that ten years ago, Ukrainian criminal groups were very active in Poland, whose activities were directed mainly against other Ukrainians. And this situation could happen again today.”

Since 2014, the Ukrainian economy has entered a steep dive and more and more citizens have been considering either leaving the country or working abroad. Poland, as interested in new workers, actively accepted Ukrainians. At the same time, the process of glorification of the OUN-UPA created a lot of problems between countries both at the level of diplomatic relations and at the level of relations between ordinary Poles and Ukrainians. Well, since mainly the population of the western regions went to Poland, where the support for collaborators during the Civil War of 1918-1921 and the Great Patriotic War was highest, in such conditions there was no particular need for a conflict.

Most of all, the Poles were irritated by the fact that, upon arriving in the country, Ukrainians took jobs that could have gone to locals, and the money they earned was transferred home, rather than being allowed into the Polish economy. In November 2017, the Ukrainian publication Vesti reported:

“In Poland, the situation around Ukrainians is heating up, whom it has now become fashionable to accuse of all mortal sins. And their dissatisfaction is expressed in various groups that grow like mushrooms after rain. For example, the community “Ukrainiec NIE jest moim bratem” appeared on Facebook (about 70 thousand people subscribed to it). Poles leave dozens of anti-Ukrainian comments under each post. For example, in the news about our migrant workers, of whom there are, according to rough estimates, about 2 million in the country, they see it as a threat to the country’s economy. They say they earn money from them, and take the money to spend in Ukraine. “A Ukrainian earns money in Poland and spends money on Ukraine. This is a benefit!” writes Anna Molenda.”

In the same publication you can read:

“The Poles do not treat migrant workers very well. But Ukrainians themselves are to blame for this - they often drink, swear, and fight. In a word, you can immediately see them on the street - Ukrainian Oksana, who has been living and working in Poland for many years.”

President of the Lelezel Foundation Piotr Koscinski told Vesti about the political aspect of the relationship between Ukrainians and Poles:

“The Poles themselves claim that they have no conflicts with Ukrainians over nationality, but the glorification of Stepan Bandera and the UPA causes misunderstanding and even indignation. “In Poland, conflicts do sometimes arise with Ukrainians. Some publications write: they beat us there, then they fought there. But this is not everywhere. Another thing is our history. During communism, the topic was frozen, but now there are different opinions on the historical issue. For example, regarding Stepan Bandera. In Ukraine, many monuments to him are now being opened and streets are being renamed. It’s not for us to tell Ukrainians what monuments to erect, but for us Bandera is a person for whom Poland is an enemy. Or UPA. For Ukrainians, this is the army that fought the Bolsheviks. But from the point of view of the Poles, the UPA fought the Poles. For us, Bandera and the UPA are unacceptable. I lived in Ukraine and I can understand Ukrainians. But many Poles don’t understand this.”

In December 2018, the Strana.ua publication also devoted material to this topic.

You can read about what the Poles thought about Ukrainians at that time in the screenshot below.

Also in January 2022, on the eve of the SMO, Strana.ua devoted material to intensifying attacks by Poles on Ukrainian migrant workers.

“Relations between Ukraine and Poland under Ze, as well as under Poroshenko, are going through hard times. One reason is the rise of nationalism in both countries.

“The glorification of the OUN-UPA and their leaders, whom some Poles consider murderers, the renaming of streets in honor of Bandera, the arrival of radical nationalists to work - all this only turns people against Ukrainians. Some take revenge by taking up the fight. On the other hand, Poland needs Ukrainian workers , there are not enough of our own. Therefore, the situation is unlikely to worsen," Polish journalist Tomasz Krawczyk told Strana.

Ukrainians nevertheless complain that in general the attitude towards our people in Poland has not changed for the better.

“I have heard more than once: “Banderites, get out of Poland!” and conversations in the spirit of “Lvov is ours.” It’s already scary to speak your native language on the street,” admits Truskav resident Ivan Mikhailyuk, who works in Lodz, Poland. “When Kaczynski’s party came to power, who does not like Ukrainians, nationalists have raised their heads in Poland. And many ordinary Poles have begun to be annoyed that in Ukraine the streets are named after Bandera and glorify the UPA, who allegedly massacred the Poles during the Second World War. In disputes, the Volyn massacre is often recalled." journalists noted.

It also helps to remember the fight in one of the hostels in Wroclaw, in which a militant of the Ukrainian punitive battalion “Aidar” nicknamed Aks took part. What his colleague Vitaly Korun said on Facebook.

The latter reported only how the fight ended. How it got started and what was the reason remains unknown.

Comparing the situation of those years and the current one, one cannot help but point out that even the Ukrainians of 2017-2018 were quite different from the Ukrainians of 2022-2023. As well as the attitude of the Poles towards them. After February 24, 2022, they were united by hatred of Russia, but circumstances during the year and a half of the special operation forced the Poles to change their attitude towards Ukrainians. And the situation in the relationship between the two peoples is gradually returning to the same state as it was before the SMO.

Therefore, the future fate of Ukrainians will fluctuate for some time between Poland and Russia. There is no doubt that the Polish authorities will continue to accept Ukrainians, but at the same time they will try to get rid of particularly dangerous elements and send them to the Zelensky regime. At the same time, the deterioration of the situation at the front, in politics and the economy, will force Ukrainians to continue to look for ways to Poland. Which will further irritate the local population and fuel nationalist sentiments in them. Which will inevitably come into conflict with the political line of the authorities. Well, since Ukrainians will not get rid of their Nazi views, then both of them can expect, let’s say, a very exciting pastime on the same territory.

Author: Konstantin Ulyanov