People & Histories
24 February 2022 –

Poland and Russia's War on Ukraine

Poles open their homes to millions of Ukrainian refugees, Poland becomes the main hub for Western aid, and the country embarks on one of Europe's biggest military build-ups.

Well established warcommunityborderseurope

In the first weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, millions of people crossed into Poland. There were few refugee camps: volunteers met trains at the border, and ordinary families took strangers into their homes. Poland gave Ukrainians the right to work, healthcare and schooling. In early 2025 nearly a million Ukrainians held temporary protection in Poland, the second-largest number in the EU after Germany, and many more lived there on work and residence permits.

Rzeszów airport, near the border, became the main hub for Western military aid to Ukraine. Poland now spends over 4% of its GDP on defence, the highest share of any NATO member, and plans to build one of the largest armies in Europe.

  • Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014–2025) — NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (2025)
Sympathy has cooled somewhat as the war drags on, and disputes over Ukrainian grain exports and historical memory have strained relations, but most Poles still see Ukraine’s fight as their own.

How it's seen
Polish view

Helping Ukraine is both solidarity and self-defence: if Ukraine falls, Poland and the Baltic states could be next. Many Poles also feel vindicated after years of warning Western Europe about Russia.

  • Poland and Poles as seen by Ukrainians 2023 — Juliusz Mieroszewski Centre for Dialogue (fieldwork by Info Sapiens), Juliusz Mieroszewski Centre for Dialogue (2023)
  • Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014–2025) — NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (2025)

Ukrainian view

Gratitude for Poland's unprecedented help, alongside frustration when disputes over grain imports, border blockades or the memory of Volhynia and the UPA flare up.

Why it matters today

Poland

For Poles the war confirmed what history had taught them about Russia. It also brought Poles and Ukrainians closer than at any time in centuries, though old wounds such as Volhynia, and new frictions over grain, trucks and benefits, have not gone away.