The Polish far right and Russian propaganda are already inciting hatred against the accused killer of a priest. Other voices urge not convicting him because of his nationality. From Sestry.

On the morning of 24 September, a 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen stabbed five people at the Benedictine nuns’ abbey in Jaroslaw. One priest was killed; the others were injured. The attacker was apprehended. It is known that he arrived in Poland from Germany. Investigators have not yet determined the motives behind the attack. However, the perpetrator’s nationality became known almost immediately. This raised another question: what will this crime mean for Ukrainians in Poland?

The president of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Embassy in Poland strongly condemned the attacker’s actions. At the same time, radical and anti-Ukrainian political circles are already calling for mass deportations, claiming that now no one can accuse them of groundlessly stoking ethnic hatred.

We asked Polish journalists, social activists, and representatives of the Catholic Church about the tragedy in Jaroslaw and the threat of a new wave of hatred toward Ukrainians.

‘An Atmosphere of Vigilante Justice and Pogrom’

Marcin Piotrowski is a sociologist and social activist, as well as the founder of the humanitarian organization Folkowisko. He lives near Jaroslaw and has been working in the Polish-Ukrainian border region for years.

He says that following the tragedy, attacks on Ukrainians appeared almost immediately in the Polish media.

“I see two possible scenarios. For some people, this may mean an even greater intensification of anti-Ukrainian sentiment. Already, online, this sentiment borders on verbal mob justice. I hope, however, that for some members of society, this tragedy will serve as an opportunity to come to their senses and reflect on where we’re headed. 

“It reminds me of situations associated with pogroms. A mechanism known since the Middle Ages is being exploited: the crime of a single person becomes a pretext for aggression against entire groups.”

“As a sociologist, I see precisely this dangerous mechanism of collective responsibility at work here, where everyone is lumped together.” 

The tragedy occurred in a region where the historical, religious, and social context amplifies its significance.

“Priests were attacked here, and eastern Poland is quite conservative. It’s not uncommon for people in cities, especially large ones, to drift away from the Church, but for Jaroslaw, such an event is a real shock.” An additional factor was the murder weapon – a knife. “Associations and historical parallels quickly began to emerge in public discourse, particularly with the Volhynia massacre,” explains the sociologist.

The attacker’s age also fueled emotions. The fact that the crime was committed by a young Ukrainian citizen of draft age immediately sparked a new wave of anti-Ukrainian rhetoric. Voices began to be heard saying things like: “Why wasn’t he in the army? Why didn’t he serve? We need to kick them all out.”

Piotrowski attributes particular responsibility to the media.

“The media, for their part, should learn from how they covered this event in the first few hours.” Clickbait headlines emphasizing that the attacker was Ukrainian did nothing to calm the situation; on the contrary, they reinforced a dangerous narrative. This incident was exploited to the fullest by Russian propaganda and anti-Ukrainian circles. Some Polish media outlets fell into this trap.

The question now is whether fear of a specific criminal will turn into fear of every Ukrainian.

“Smaller communities are often quite insular, and outsiders are sometimes perceived as a threat there. This is also how it’s perceived in the Podkarpacie region [in the southeastern corner of Poland]. Overcoming such fear requires not only political declarations but also long-term work at the local level. Teams of social psychologists should be active here; work is needed in schools and with residents. It’s not just about helping the direct victims or witnesses of the tragedy, but also about addressing collective trauma. Otherwise, fear may become entrenched and turn into lasting hostility toward an entire group of people,” argues Piotrowski.

Politicians, in his view, should also avoid two extremes: they should not hide the attacker’s nationality, but neither should they use it as an argument against all Ukrainians.

“Emotional tragedies easily become fuel for political battles. Some politicians try to build their political capital precisely on emotions and tragedies,” Piotrowski stresses.

‘Many People Already Know All the Answers. I Don’t’

Magdalena Adamowicz, member of the European Parliament and widow of Pawel Adamowicz, the long-time mayor of Gdansk who was fatally stabbed on stage in January 2019 during the finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, writes:

“I don’t need to write about how I feel after today’s knife attack at the Benedictine abbey in Jaroslaw. I don’t need to write about what punishment I would wish upon someone who kills with a knife. 

“I know very well how difficult it is to suppress natural human anger and the desire for revenge,” writes Adamowicz.

She recalls how, for five years, she waited for a final verdict, listened to the killer’s defense attorneys, and looked him in the eye. One team of psychiatric experts deemed the attacker insane. If the court had accepted that opinion, she writes, he would not have been convicted.

However, it is precisely because of what she went through that Adamowicz warns against jumping to conclusions before the investigation is complete.

“Many people already know all the answers. I don’t know them. Nor does the prosecution know them yet.

“What drove this Ukrainian man? Did he kill out of ethnic or religious hatred? Did he have political motives? Why did he come from Germany and immediately storm the convent to kill? Did someone order him to do this?”

And, as Adamowicz emphasizes, the investigation must answer these questions.

“Reliable answers will determine whether the verdict will be just and whether it will stand in the court of appeals. The loved ones of the murdered priest from Jaroslaw and the other injured victims deserve this. And we all deserve the full truth.”

‘The Russians Will Exploit This’

Marcin Ogdowski, a war correspondent and journalist for [military news magazine] Polska zbrojna, sees yet another dimension to this story.

For Russian propaganda, it isn’t even that important what motive the investigation ultimately determines the perpetrator had.

“Regardless of the underlying cause of these events – whether it was, as brutal as it may sound, a trivial criminal case, or whether it was motivated by other factors – the Russians will exploit this,” he said on Radio Jedynka.

“They will stir up our revulsion toward Ukrainian refugees. They do this on other occasions. But this situation, from their perspective, is, unfortunately, ideal.”

Ogdowski’s prediction began to come true within the first few hours after the attack. The pro-war Russian propaganda channel Rybar called the tragedy in Jaroslaw a “terrorist attack” – even though the perpetrator’s motive is still being determined by investigators – and used it to incite hatred against Ukrainians in Poland. The authors linked the crime to the Volhynia massacre, the “ingratitude” of Ukrainians, and Poland’s decision to accept Ukrainian refugees after 2022.

Whether the attack in Jaroslaw was linked to any external influence remains unknown for now. That must be determined by the investigation. However, one thing is already clear: Russian propaganda is exploiting the crime to shift the responsibility of a single perpetrator onto all Ukrainians.

‘A Single Crime Should Not Define Relations Between Nations’

Much will also depend on how the Polish government responds to the tragedy, according to Kajetan Jan Wroblewski, coordinator of the Asymetrysci initiative, who has been helping migrants for over four years.

“Of course, this tragedy could become a pretext for intensifying the wave of hatred toward Ukrainians that has long been sweeping through Poland. That is why so much depends on how the government, the president, and the Ministry of the Interior and the administration respond to it. The attitude of the majority of Poles toward Ukrainians will also depend largely on this,” he says.

Wroblewski proposes separating an individual’s criminal responsibility from their citizenship. As an analogy, he cites a crime committed by a Polish man in the United Kingdom in 2011: within 15 minutes, the man killed six people with a kitchen knife, including three children.

“What does this have to do with the murders and attempted murders committed yesterday with a kitchen knife by a Ukrainian man in Jaroslaw? Nothing. I mention that past crime not to ‘minimize’ the current one, but to draw attention to the difference in contexts and possible consequences.” 

No one at the time wanted to lynch Poles or deport them en masse because of the horrific act committed by one of their compatriots. It was obvious to everyone, both in the United Kingdom and in Poland, that such things happen in every society, among the citizens of every country. Crimes are committed by all kinds of people. And it is not a matter of ethnicity or nationality.

Wroblewski illustrates the danger of collective responsibility through the image of the knife used to commit the crime:

“In the current situation in Poland, after everything that has already happened and continues to happen to Ukrainian citizens, all responsible people – both Ukrainians and Poles – must do everything possible to ensure that this kitchen knife, with which the crime in Jaroslaw was committed, remains in the evidence vault and does not become a tool for the murder of others.”

[…]

Wroblewski considers attempts to frame a single crime within the language of historical revenge, [for instance] by calling it the “new Volhynia massacre,” to be particularly dangerous. He calls for the use of all legal means to counter such propaganda – regardless of whether it is disseminated on social media or in traditional media. A single crime should not define relations between nations.

Wroblewski calls the current situation a test for both societies: “If we fail this test and allow hatred to flourish, we will all lose.”

‘May This Painful Experience Not Become a Source of Hatred’

The voice of the Catholic Church has become particularly important in the wake of the attack: the crime took place on the grounds of an abbey, and the victim was a priest.

The Primate of Poland, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, appealed not to attribute the responsibility for the actions of a specific individual to Ukrainians.

“Despite the anger and pain we feel, let this painful experience not become a source of hatred. Let us be responsible for one another, show solidarity, and build unity, for it is especially needed precisely where evil and injustice occur,” the archbishop wrote.

‘We Must Not Allow Hatred Toward Ukrainians to Escalate’

Polish Catholic columnist Tomasz Terlikowski also speaks of the danger of shifting responsibility onto innocent Ukrainians. In an interview with Rzeczpospolita, he emphasizes above all that the crime itself can have no justification. At the same time, the tragedy could lead to a further escalation of violence against Ukrainian migrants and refugees.

Terlikowski is convinced that this event will be exploited by Russian propaganda:

“I am convinced that the Russians will exploit this. The perpetrator is a Ukrainian citizen, and the victims include clergy. It all took place in the Podkarpacie region, where a difficult historical legacy is still felt in Polish-Ukrainian relations – one need only recall the major conflict between Greek Catholics and Roman Catholics over churches in the early 1990s. That, too, is significant.

“Furthermore, Poland has a pro-Russian party that enjoys considerable support, while other political forces, mainly on the right, are becoming increasingly anti-Ukrainian. Added to this are public sentiments that are growing increasingly hostile toward Ukrainians.

“‍These are ideal conditions for carrying out a large-scale disinformation campaign and manipulation, which could result in further attacks on Ukrainians. And in the long term, pressure to cease political and military support for Ukraine. This is precisely Putin’s main goal.

[…]

Speaking about how society should respond, Terlikowski says, “First and foremost, compassion for the victims, support, and assistance for the witnesses. And furthermore, an awareness that Russia may exploit what has happened, opposition to any harassment of Ukrainian women and men, opposition to Russian propaganda – even if it is spread by Polish politicians or columnists – and solidarity with Ukraine, refugees, and migrants.”

[…]

‘And Now – the Numbers’

Polish journalist, columnist, and social activist Iwona Wyszogrodzka suggested that, in the wake of the tragedy, we look not only at the emotions and nationality of a single perpetrator, but also at the statistics.

“And now – the numbers,” she writes.

Wyszogrodzka’s main argument is that a crime committed by a Ukrainian does not mean that Ukrainians as a group pose a greater criminal threat in Poland. This argument is supported by data from the National Police Headquarters, which was analyzed by the Polish fact-checking project Demagog.

In 2025, 800,446 crimes were recorded in Poland. 17,027 of them were committed by Ukrainian citizens – about 2% of all recorded crimes.

On its own, this comparison does not say much: there are far fewer Ukrainians in Poland than Poles. Therefore, Demagog adjusted these figures to account for population size.

In 2025, the [crime] rate among Ukrainian citizens was approximately 11 recorded crimes per thousand people, while among Poles it was approximately 20 per thousand. This means that the available data do not support the belief that Ukrainians commit crimes in Poland more often than Poles. On the contrary, the overall rate per capita was lower.

There is also another important aspect. According to police data, the most common crimes for which Ukrainian citizens were suspected in 2025 were driving under the influence of alcohol, possession of narcotics or psychotropic substances, and theft.

Demagog draws particular attention to a mechanism that becomes especially evident after high-profile crimes: instances of Ukrainian citizens breaking the law are actively publicized by anti-Ukrainian accounts, creating the impression that Ukrainians are responsible for a disproportionately large share of crime in Poland. This creates the association “Ukrainian = criminal.” […]

Wyszogrodzka is currently writing about the danger of such generalizations in the wake of the tragedy in Jaroslaw.

“We’ve had many years to properly crunch all these numbers.”

Nataliia Zhukovska is a TV host and investigative journalist with more than 20 years of experience, based in Kyiv and Rzeszow. She also covers tourism, science and health, and is currently working on a postgraduate project covering the work of Polish mass media during the Russia-Ukraine war.

Maria Sirchina is a Ukrainian reporter and editor with experience as a columnist and writer on several publications.

This article originally appeared on the website of the Polish and Ukrainian news site Sestry in somewhat longer form. Republished by permission. Sestry and Transitions are members of Rebuilding Trust, a multi-stakeholder data-driven journalism initiative for democratic resilience.