Poland is currently hosting around one million Ukrainian refugees, most of them women and children. However, public attitudes have shifted since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. According to the Public Opinion Research Center (CBOS), 51 percent of Poles held positive views of Ukrainians in 2022, whereas by early 2025 this figure had fallen to 30 percent, while negative opinions had risen to 38 percent. Anti-Ukrainian narratives seek to exploit genuine socio-economic concerns in order to deepen divisions, which is a common feature of information operations linked to Russia.

After Karol Nawrocki vetoed amendments to the law on assistance for Ukrainian citizens in Poland, claims began circulating online that Ukrainians were allegedly living at the expense of the Polish state and giving nothing in return. These messages portrayed refugees as “dependents” who abuse social welfare programmes and drain the national budget. The rhetoric was often dehumanizing and framed Ukrainians in opposition to Polish citizens.

The facts tell a different story. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 78 percent of Ukrainians in Poland are employed, and in 2024 their work and consumption contributed 2.7 percent to the country’s GDP growth. In the same year, Ukrainians paid 15.2 billion zlotys into the Polish budget, while receiving 2.8 billion zlotys in benefits through the “Family 800+” programme. Nevertheless, false claims portraying Ukrainians as “parasites” continue to spread widely.

An even stronger surge of hostile narratives followed the incident involving Russian drones in September. The information space was flooded with accusations that Ukraine was allegedly trying to drag Poland and NATO into a war with Russia. Some posts described the incident as a “Ukrainian provocation” or a “false flag operation,” completely ignoring Russia’s role.

Analysts at DFRLab examined more than 400,000 posts, comments, and videos on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok and identified signs of coordinated behavior. Small networks of accounts, often operating under non-political page names, simultaneously published identical content, indicating platform manipulation. Certain clickbait websites and their associated social media pages monetized traffic by spreading anti-Ukrainian content.

The research also found that some anti-Ukrainian narratives are promoted under the guise of “spiritual” or conspiracy-focused communities, as well as through AI-generated videos. Such materials are often distributed in non-political groups, making them more difficult to detect and moderate.