“From April to July 2025, we detected 94,000 anti-Ukrainian posts on the Polish-language Internet that attack Ukraine and insult its citizens. Their total reach was over 32 million contacts,” the authors write in the introduction to the report. The publication is co-financed by Polish-American Freedom Foundation as part of the “Support for Ukraine” program implemented by the Education for Democracy Foundation.
Since 2022, the Demagog Association, in cooperation with the Institute for Media Monitoring (IMM), has been analyzing the scale of anti-Ukrainian propaganda on the Polish-language Internet in response to disinformation that translates into increased hostility towards Ukrainians among Poles. The latest report, prepared as part of the “Support for Ukraine” program, analyzes trends, provides examples, and identifies the main authors of this type of disinformation.
Anti-Ukrainian propaganda and disinformation translate into increased tension between Poles and Ukrainians. According to the results of a survey conducted by the Public Opinion Research Center (OBOP) and published in February 2025, 30 percent of surveyed Poles feel sympathy for Ukrainian citizens. This is 10 percentage points lower than a year ago. On the other hand, hostility towards our eastern neighbors has increased. It is now declared by 38 percent of respondents, which is 8 percentage points higher than last year. Therefore, the authors of the report are taking action to combat disinformation about war refugees from Ukraine staying in Poland.
Thanks to the “Support for Ukraine” program, a total of 255 grants (including 56 in Ukraine) have been awarded to projects which, in addition to counteracting discrimination and misinformation about the Ukrainian refugee community in Poland, are primarily aimed at supporting children and young people from Ukraine, increasing access to school and extracurricular education, and providing psychological, legal, and language support.
More than 116,000 Ukrainian refugees staying in Poland benefited directly from the program’s support, nearly half of whom were children and young people under the age of 18, and more than 166,000 people in Ukraine, including nearly 38,000 children and young people. Over 236,000 people received humanitarian support, 20,000 benefited from psychological support, and over 13,000 received legal and civic advice. Meanwhile, an information campaign aimed at countering misinformation about refugees from Ukraine reached over 1.3 million people in Poland.
The program supports, among other things, projects aimed at countering misinformation and false narratives and providing reliable information about the situation of Ukrainian refugees in Poland and the situation in Ukraine. “This serves to build digital resilience and counteract the rise of social tensions,” explains Agnieszka Mazur, PAFF Program Director.
