More than six in ten Poles surveyed think relations between Poland and Ukraine worsened in 2025, a new survey has found.
Although Warsaw remains one of Kyiv’s most ardent backers in its defense against Russia’s war and is in favor of Ukraine’s eventual accession to the EU, a poll conducted by research firm IBRiS for Polish news site Wirtualna Polska found that 65.5% of Poles interviewed think Poland-Ukraine relations deteriorated this year – an increase of more than four percentage points compared to a similar questionnaire carried out in 2024.
Almost half of all respondents this year, 49.1%, said relations have “somewhat” soured and 16.4% indicated that relations have “definitely” worsened.
Over a fifth of those polled, 21.4%, said they think relations have neither worsened nor improved, while less than 9% said there has been an improvement – a slight increase compared to last year’s survey.
Tensions among allies
Opinion polls this year have also indicated flagging enthusiasm among Poles for state assistance to the large Ukrainian population in Poland.
Warsaw passed a law in September limiting financial support for Ukrainian citizens in Poland by making payouts dependent on recipients being in work.
However, a UN report published in June showed that Ukrainians have contributed more to the Polish economy than they have taken out, while a separate report released last month revealed that Ukrainians living in Poland also put more money into the Polish healthcare system than they take out of it.
Simmering historical tensions have also resurfaced between the two countries in recent months, with Warsaw and Kyiv disagreeing over how to mark the role of Ukrainian nationalists in the World War Two-era massacres of Polish civilians in what is today eastern Poland and western Ukraine.
The latest IBRiS survey was conducted from October 10 to 13 for Wirtualna Polska, with a sample of 1,000 respondents.