Hundreds of protesters have gathered in the Polish city of Jaroslaw, demanding tighter immigration controls and denouncing Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera following the fatal stabbing of a local priest by a Ukrainian national.
Last month, a 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen stabbed five people at the city’s Benedictine abbey, killing Father Stanislaw Zbojnowicz and wounding four others. Investigators said the suspect entered Poland from Germany and was apparently heading toward Ukraine. He admitted to the charges on October 7 but declined to explain his actions, prosecutors said.
The demonstration took place in the city’s market square on Saturday, with participants waving Polish flags, setting off flares, and chanting slogans including “Poland for Poles” and “Bandera, get out!”
“We want a safe Poland, and this is not racism. This is our concern for our loved ones, our families, and ourselves,” Marcin Kowalski, a local activist with the nationalist Ruch Narodowy (National Movement), told the crowd, insisting that demands for an immigration crackdown are “about safety.”
Manifestacja antyimigracyjna w Jarosławiu https://t.co/zPXaln8vBc
A banner featuring a crossed-out Ukrainian trident declared: “No more hospitality, you ungrateful bastards!” Some demonstrators wore clothing condemning the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
“Zero tolerance for Banderism,” Kowalski continued. “We say it loud and clear: We do not want Bandera here in Poland,” he said as protesters chanted, “Bandera, get out! Go beyond the Don.”
Bandera led a radical faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II. The faction and its armed wing, the UPA, were responsible for massacring tens of thousands of ethnic Polish civilians in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, territories that belonged to prewar Poland and are now largely in western Ukraine.
The massacres remain a major source of tension between Warsaw and Kiev. Poland recognizes the killings as genocide and estimates that Ukrainian nationalists murdered around 100,000 Poles, while Ukraine continues to honor OUN and UPA figures as national heroes.
The dispute intensified earlier this year after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky took part in the reburial of OUN leader Andrey Melnik and later approved the honorary title ‘Heroes of the UPA’ for a Ukrainian military unit. The move sparked outrage in Poland, prompting President Karol Nawrocki to strip Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, the country’s highest state honor.
Saturday’s rally followed a March of Silence held in memory of the slain priest. Organizers also collected signatures demanding an end to Jaroslaw’s partnership with the Ukrainian city of Skole.
The killing has also fueled wider calls for tougher border controls, while a July survey found that 52% of Poles oppose accepting Ukrainian refugees.
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