WARSAW: Poland’s president unveiled plans on Monday to limit Ukrainians’ access to child benefits and health care, while also proposing a ban on the glorification of a 20th-century Ukrainian nationalist leader, in a sign of a hardening stance toward refugees.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest backers since Russia invaded in 2022, but some Poles have grown weary of large numbers of refugees, while tensions between Warsaw and Kyiv over World War Two Volhynia massacres have at times come to the surface. Official data shows some 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens currently reside in Poland.
President Karol Nawrocki, a conservative nationalist inspired by US President Donald Trump, promised during his election campaign this year to put “Poles first” and to limit the rights of foreigners in Poland.
“I did not change my opinion and I intend to fulfil my obligations and I believe that (family) benefit should only be granted to those Ukrainians who make the effort to work in Poland, the same with health care,” he told journalists.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
