WARSAW — The fact-checking Demagog Association and the Institute for Media Monitoring found 327,000 anti-Ukrainian entries on the Polish-language internet in 2024 alone. Every year, there are more and more of them. Member of European Parliament (MEP) Grzegorz Braun — infamous for using a fire hydrant to extinguish a menorah during a Hanukkah celebration in Poland‘s lower house of parliament, or Sejm — is leading the way in vilifying Poles about Ukraine.
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“Tusk’s secret plan — Ukrainization of Poland”, “This is Poland, not Ukropol.” Last year, more than 327,000 such comments attacking Ukrainians and their nation, inciting hatred, appeared on the Polish internet, up 13% from the year before. Anti-Ukrainian content has reached more than 75 million potential contacts; that is how many times users could have encountered false and hateful messages. Here again, an upward trend is visible: Last year, the reach was estimated at 54 million contacts.
Anti-Ukrainian propaganda gained momentum at the end of last year, amid campaigning for the May 18 presidential campaign. In November, there were 36,000 such entries, and in December, 33,000. That is compared to April 2024, when more than 20,000 entries of such content was created.
A growing phenomenon
The Demagog Association and Institute of Media Monitoring have been monitoring the scale or anti-Ukrainian propaganda on the Polish-language internet since November 2022. They are checking how much content is being created that attacks Ukraine and who is behind it.
Ranking eighth among the top 10 accounts with the largest reach and the most zealous activity is that of presidential candidate Grzegorz Braun, who is currently MEP for the monarchist and far-right Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP). Braun leads the way on Facebook, where he most often posts and re-posts anti-Ukrainian content, and has a reach of almost 1 million.
On X (former Twitter), he boasts about anti-Ukrainian gestures, like when he removed the blue and yellow flag from the Kościuszko Mound monument, where it was flying there next to the Polish one — something Braun considered “inappropriate.” He calls President Andrzej Duda an “Anglo-Saxon, Jewish, Bandera lackey.” He insinuates that the killings in Bucha, Ukraine were not the fault of the Russians. In May 2024, he suggested that “Poland has a war to fight with Ukraine.”
The main culprits
The infamous podium of accounts spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda is occupied by Martin Demirov, Ministerstwo Prawdy (Ministry of Truth), and Andy Colt. Those three along with Braun contributed to last year’s list.
First place goes to Martin Demirov, who presents himself as “a Slovak interested in Poland.” He equates Ukrainians with Nazis and supporters of Stepan Bandera (leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, whose forces massacred tens of thousands of Poles after WWII). Experts from the Polish Institute of International Studies note that this is one of the leading lines of pro-Russian disinformation. His previous account was blocked, but Demirov returned with a new one, where he has almost 2 million followers.
The report is only “the tip of the iceberg of hate toward Ukraine and Ukrainians.”
The message that “Russians have the right to live on their own land” and “Putin is the defender of Ukrainian territories” dominates the Ministry of Truth account. This account is full of content that incites Poles to perceive Ukrainian citizens as a threat. It is riddled with false information, including about events on the front lines of the war. They are intended to portray Ukrainians as “criminals.”
On Facebook, the anti-Ukrainian message — in addition to those from Braun — is most often replicated by the following accounts: the KKP; Ukrainiec Nie Jest Moje Bratem (The Ukrainian is Not My Brother); and Marsz Niepodległości (Independence March).
Independence March, for example, claims that “Ukrainians destroyed a Polish cemetery in Lviv“, which was denied by the local consulate. When Deputy Minister of Education Joanna Mucha announced compulsory schooling for Ukrainian children, the account of Marsz Niepodległości posted that she had announced the “Ukrainization of Polish society.”
“The Ukrainization of Poland is a fact,” claims the wrealu24 television channel, which also ranked among the top 10 replicating anti-Ukrainian messages on Facebook.
A difficult phenomenon
To prepare this report, researchers searched for keywords and phrases that are derogatory terms for Ukrainians. They checked how — when used in a specific context — they could depreciate Ukrainians and their nation. The hashtags that the authors use to mark their posts are also important: #StopUkrainizacjiPolski, #StopUkrainizationOfPoland, #StopBanderyzacji, (Stop Banderizarion) #StopBanderyzacjiPolski, (Stop the Banderization of Poland) — again referring to Ukrainian Insurgent Army leader Stepan Bandera.
The phenomenon is exceptionally difficult to combat.
The authors of the report combed through Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube, and also monitored comments on forums and under articles. One of the platforms stands out in particular: as much as 84.72% of negative content (277,000) came from X. Facebook is far behind; its share was 8.14% (over 26,000 entries). In photo and video services and on internet forums, 7.14% of anti-Ukrainian content appeared.
There are fewer and fewer articles, as Monika Ezman from the Institute of Media Monitoring notes, because publishers of portals have started to filter out hateful comments or have limited the possibility of adding them. Haters migrate with their opinions to social media platforms.
Impacting public opinion
Ezman emphasizes that the report is only “the tip of the iceberg of hate toward Ukraine and Ukrainians.” It address the public forum, but does not reach private messages or closed groups, where hate is spread with similar force.
He points out that the phenomenon is exceptionally difficult to combat, as services are unable to moderate comments. When hateful posts are deleted, they immediately replaced by new ones, and identified sources of disinformation are quickly reborn.
Researchers note that the scale of posts aimed at Ukrainians translates into anti-Ukrainian sentiments among Poles. This was confirmed by a recent CBOS poll, which found that as many as 38% of Poles said that they did not like Ukrainians, while only 30% said they were sympathetic to Ukrainians. The percentage of people who said they liked Ukrainians is down 10 points from a year ago — and as many as 21 points from 2023.
Poles’ increasing antipathy toward Ukrainians is also shown in a recent report by sociologists at the University of Warsaw. The group of Poles who have changed their opinion of Ukrainians since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine has grown by 9 percentage points. A full 95% of people from this group said that their attitudes have worsened.
