LVIV -- Shortly before she and her boyfriend were brutally beaten on the streets of the Polish city of Wroclaw, a Ukrainian woman named Anastasia Kitsay was inside a shop buying coffee.When another man cut in front of her at the register to buy a beer, Kitsay pointed out there was a line, Kitsay’s mother, Karyna, said. The man responded “Are you in Ukraine?” and called her a “Ukrainian rag,” as they argued and the man left the store, Karyna told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.Moments later, the man and two others pummeled and kicked Kitsay’s Ukrainian boyfriend, Maksym, as he stood by his car, while also punching Kitsay. The fight, which took place on July 26, was captured on video and circulated widely in Ukrainian and Polish social media.
Both were hospitalized. Two of the men pleaded not guilty to charges of ethnically motivated assault during a July 29 appearance in a Wroclaw court. The city’s mayor condemned the incident: "There is not and will not be tolerance in our city for violence motivated by hatred, xenophobia, or national prejudice."Since the start of Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022, Poland has taken in more Ukrainian refugees than any other European country except for Germany: nearly 1 million Ukrainian had refugee status in Poland as of April, according to United Nations figures.Both the current government in Warsaw and its predecessor have embraced the defense of neighboring Ukraine as a national-security priority.
