A poll by CBOS in Poland in August 2026 found that 46% of Poles hold a negative view of Polish-Ukrainian relations, the highest figure ever recorded by the agency. This result is striking given Poland’s central role in supporting Ukraine’s war effort, including military, logistical, and humanitarian assistance. This is a striking reversal from the solidarity expressed by the Polish in 2022 when 76% of respondents agreed with taking in refugees from Ukraine at the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and Poland took in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.
This climate of solidarity is clearly souring amid a renewed diplomatic conflict between the Polish President, Karol Nawrocki, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine. This began when Zelenskyy awarded the honorary title “Heroes of the UPA” to a unit of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces. This angered many among the Polish population, as the UPA was one of the insurgent guerrilla groups that, during the Second World War, fought both the Soviet Union and the Nazis while also committing a series of massacres of Poles in the Volhynia region.
President Nawrocki, a historian who has worked to keep alive the memory of atrocities committed against Poles in the past, stripped Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, the highest honour of the Republic of Poland, in response. This was the first time the Order of the White Eagle had ever been stripped from a recipient, leading Zelenskyy to return the honour and prompting three former Ukrainian presidents to renounce and return their own Orders of the White Eagle in solidarity.
This has resulted in greater animosity between the two nations and greater political support for “anti-Ukrainian” and war-sceptic politicians in Poland. Polling ahead of the next legislative elections in Poland shows growing support for a “radical right” bloc of anti-Ukrainian parties, including PiS, Konfederacja, and the Confederation of the Polish Crown (Korona). These heightened diplomatic tensions are pushing two necessary allies further apart and causing their respective populations to view each other with increasing suspicion.