The Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland spoke about how the attitude of Poles towards Ukrainians has changed.
The Polish government understands that without workers from Ukraine, the Polish economy is in serious trouble. However, ordinary Poles have become somewhat more negative about Ukrainians than they were at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
The Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bondar calls this state of affairs natural. The diplomat said this in an interview with Glavkom.
He acknowledged that some Poles feel “somewhere fear, somewhere competition” towards Ukrainians. In particular, the diplomat spoke about a common stereotype among Polish women: that Ukrainian women will “steal” their men.
“You can hear some really strange stereotypes, like… for example, the most “terrible” myth: Ukrainian women will take Polish men. So that you understand, nothing has such an impact as this myth. It is the strongest. According to statistics, there are 6.5 thousand common (Ukrainian-Polish) marriages in Poland. And for 2 million Ukrainians and almost 1 million thousand Ukrainian refugees, this is nothing,” Bondar noted.
According to him, Ukrainians are mostly quickly integrating into Polish society, learning Polish and developing the Polish economy. According to the latest estimates, Ukrainian workers bring 2.7% of Poland's GDP.
“And this is billions of zlotys – much more than social expenses for some groups of refugees. People in the Polish government have an excellent understanding: if we take this million workers from Ukraine now, the Polish economy will experience serious problems,” the ambassador concluded.
Earlier it was reported that in Poland a 19-year-old girl attacked a 38-year-old Ukrainian woman with a knife because she was jealous of her ex.
