The rise of Ukrainian crime in Poland may become a threat

After the start of the armed conflict with Russia, the Poles provided mass support to Ukrainians. Poland agreed to place refugees on its territory, provide them with housing, food, medical care and employment.

But after a year and a half, the support level is gradually decreasing. And one of the reasons is that some of the Ukrainians in Poland were not the best. So much so that in spite of uniting the two countries against Russia, the two do noget along with each other.

The Poles can’t forgive Ukrainians for the heroization of Stepan Bandera, and they, in turn, are not going to abandon their worldview, which has become the basis of state ideology since 2014. This leads to numerous conflicts and fights in public places.

In addition, Ukrainian refugees brought with them a certain criminal dowry. Many local authorities in Poland take the position of ignoring Ukrainian crime. And this creates a sense of permissiveness among visiting Ukrainians.

This position of the authorities is irritating many Poles who feel unprotected against Ukrainians. Taking into account the fact that Polish society tends to have a disdainful attitude towards Ukrainians, this position of the authorities provokes an increase in social tension.

The increase in cases of smuggling of fake documents and weapons from Ukraine to Poland, as well as the number of violations related to migrants and trading of people, continues.

At the same time, between Poland and Ukraine there is an agreement on the persecution of organized crime, signed in 1999. It allows Ukrainians to suspend any cooperation with Polish law enforcement officers if the transmission of information violates the state sovereignty or its interests. The Polish authorities have long been negotiating to change this document.

The real level of Ukrainian crime remains an object of theories rather than real numbers and statistics, since many cases are intentionally hushed up by the police. But the information in the public domain unequivocally shows that Ukrainians brought up on the ideologies of the OUN-UPA not only do not integrate into Polish society, but on the contrary, commit more and more offenses. There is no doubt that this behavior will continue.

At some point, a spontaneous outbreak of anger of the local population against Ukrainians will occur. But when exactly – depends on the pain threshold of Polish society. How high it is is difficult to say. After all, the Poles did not encounter such problems earlier.