Aysu Bicer
28 October 2025•Update: 28 October 2025
LONDON
Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland condemned the growing “wave of anti-Ukrainian hate” on Tuesday after the national flag was torn down in southeastern Poland for the fifth time this year.
Vasyl Bodnar posted a photo on the US social media platform X showing the Polish flag flying next to an empty pole for the Ukrainian flag.
“The wave of anti-Ukrainian hate in social media has manifested itself once again by the tearing down of the Ukrainian flag from the Honorary Consulate of Ukraine in Przemysl,” he wrote. “This year, it is at least the fifth act of public desecration of the flag in the same location.”
Bodnar said he appealed to Polish police and the Foreign Ministry “to take appropriate actions in order to find the perpetrators.”
TVP World said the incident comes amid rising political debate in Poland about the integration of more than 1.5 million Ukrainians, and tensions linked to the World War II-era Volhynia Massacre.
Research by the Demagog Association and the Media Monitoring Institute found 94,000 anti-Ukrainian posts online between April and July, with far-right figures such as MEP Grzegorz Braun among those spreading material.
Bodnar said he “received a lot of hate and accusations” after last week’s Legia Warsaw–Shakhtar Donetsk football match in Krakow.
“This is probably because, from the very first day, I have been working on resolving historical issues,” he wrote.
