WARSAW, Poland (AP) In the early months of 2022, as Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, millions of Ukrainians mostly women and children fled to Poland, where they were met with an extraordinary outpouring of sympathy. Ukrainian flags appeared in windows. Polish volunteers rushed to the border with food, diapers, SIM cards. Some opened their homes to complete strangers.

In the face of calamity, Poland became not just a logistical lifeline for Ukraine, but a paragon of human solidarity.

Three years later, Poland remains one of Ukraines staunchest allies a hub for Western arms deliveries and a vocal defender of Kyivs interests. But at home, the tone toward Ukrainians has shifted.

Nearly a million Ukrainian refugees remain in Poland, with roughly 2 million Ukrainian citizens overall in the nation of 38 million people. Many of them arrived before the war as economic migrants.

As Poland heads into a presidential election on May 18, with a second round expected June 1, the growing fatigue with helping Ukrainians has become so noticeable that some of the candidates have judged that they can win more votes by vowing less help for Ukrainians.

The mood of Polish society has changed towards Ukrainian war refugees, said Piotr D00ugosz, a professor of sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow who has carried out research on the views toward Ukrainians across central Europe.

He cited a survey by the Public Opinion Research Center in Warsaw that showed support for helping Ukrainians falling from 94% at the start of Russias full-scale invasion in February 2022 to 57% in December 2024.

Many other studies confirm the change in mood, he said. At the same time, it should be remembered that helping refugees after the outbreak of the war was a natural moral reflex, that one should help a neighbor in need. All the more so because Poles remember the crimes committed by Russians against Poles during and after two world wars.

Candidates adjust to anti-Ukrainian sentiment

Among those to transform the shift in mood into campaign politics is conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki, a historian and head of the Institute of National Remembrance who is the Law and Justice partys chosen candidate and one of the frontrunners.

Law and Justice, still in government in 2022, led the humanitarian response to the crisis along with President Andrzej Duda, a conservative backed by the party who traveled to Kyiv during the war.

As Nawrocki seeks to succeed Duda, he is showing ambivalence toward Ukrainians, stressing the need to defend Polish interests above all else.

Duda and Law and Justice have long admired Donald Trump, and Nawrocki who was welcomed at the White House by Trump on May 1 has at times used language that echoes the American presidents.

Ukraine does not treat us as a partner. It behaves in an indecent and ungrateful way in many respects, Nawrocki said in January.

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys tense visit to the Oval Office in February, Nawrocki declared the Ukrainian leader needed to rethink his behavior toward allies.

Last month Nawrocki vowed that if he wins, he will introduce legislation that would prioritize Polish citizens over Ukrainians when there are waits for medical services or schools.

Polish citizens must have priority, Nawrocki said in a campaign video. Poland first. Poles first.

Further to the right, candidate S00awomir Mentzen and his Confederation party have gone beyond that. He has blamed Ukrainians for overburdened schools, inflated housing prices, and accusing them of taking advantage of Polish generosity.

At an April 30 rally of a far-right candidate, Grzegorz Braun, his supporters climbed up to a balcony on city hall in Bia00a Podlaska and pulled down a Ukrainian flag that had been hanging there since February 2022 as an expression of solidarity.

The political center is adjusting too.

Rafa00 Trzaskowski, the liberal-minded mayor of Warsaw from Prime Minister Donald Tusks centrist party who welcomed Ukrainians to his city in 2022, proposed in January that only Ukrainian refugees who work, live and pay taxes in Poland be granted access to the popular 800+ child benefit 800 zlotys ($210) per month per child.

The requirements were already tightened recently, and some refugee advocates described it as a concession to far-right narratives.

Ukrainians say theyre helping Poland, too

Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar disputes claims that Ukrainians are taking more than they give. About 35,000 receive support without working, he said, but what they receive is only a fraction of what Ukrainians contribute in taxes. He noted that some 70,000 Ukrainian-run businesses now operate in Poland.

Ukrainians are helping the Polish economy to develop, he told The Associated Press.

Ma00gorzata Bonikowska, president of the Center for International Relations, said that it is normal for tensions to emerge when large numbers of people from different cultures suddenly live and work side-by-side. And Poles, she added, often find Ukrainians pushy or entitled, and that rubs them the wrong way. But there is still very stable support for helping Ukraine. We truly believe Ukrainians are Europeans, they are like our brothers.

Rafal Pankowski, a sociologist who heads Never Again, a group that fights xenophobia, has tracked anti-Ukrainian sentiment from the start of the full-scale war. At first, the far right was very isolated in its anti-Ukrainian opinions, he said.

What is happening this year is harvest time for all those anti-Ukrainian propagandists, and now it goes beyond the far right, he said.

Kateryna, a 33-year-old Ukrainian who has lived in Poland for years, has seen the change up close. In 2022, strangers often greeted her with sympathetic looks and with the words Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine).

But then last fall, a man on a tram cursed her for reading a Ukrainian book. This spring, outside a social security office, another man shoved her and screamed, No one wants you here.

She asked that her last name not be used because she works as a manager in a company that would require to have clearance to be identified publicly.

Her parents remain in Ukraine, and her brother serves in the army. Like many in the region, she believes Ukrainian resistance is keeping Poland safe by holding the Russians at bay.

Tensions now, she worries, only serve Moscow. We must stick together, she said.

波兰华沙（美联社） - 2022年初，当俄罗斯对乌克兰发动全面入侵时，数百万乌克兰人，其中主要是妇女和儿童，逃离至波兰，他们在这里感受到了前所未有的同情和支持。乌克兰国旗在窗户上飘扬。波兰志愿者们带着食物、尿布和SIM卡奔赴边境。一些人还向完全陌生的人敞开家门。

在灾难面前，波兰不仅是乌克兰的物流生命线，更是人类团结的典范。

三年后，波兰依然是乌克兰最坚定的盟友之一，是西方武器输送的集散地，也是基辅利益的有力捍卫者。然而在国内，对乌克兰人的态度已经发生了转变。

在波兰，近百万乌克兰难民仍滞留于此，而在这个3800万人口的国家中，总共有约200万乌克兰公民。其中许多人是在战争爆发前作为经济移民到来的。

波兰即将在5月18日举行总统大选，预计第二轮将在6月1日进行。在帮助乌克兰的问题上日益显现的疲劳感已经变得如此明显，以至于一些候选人认为，他们可以通过承诺为乌克兰提供更少的帮助来赢得更多的选票。

波兰克拉科夫雅盖隆大学的社会学教授皮奥特·杜格绍斯（Piotr Długosz）表示，波兰社会对乌克兰难民的态度已经发生了变化。他曾在中欧各地对乌克兰人的看法进行了研究。

他引用了华沙的民意研究中心进行的一项调查，该调查显示，自2022年2月俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰开始，对帮助乌克兰人的支持率从94%下降到2024年12月的57%。

他表示，许多其他研究也证实了情绪的变化。同时，我们应该记住，在战争爆发后帮助难民是一种自然的道德反应，即应该帮助有需要的邻居。波兰人尤其记忆深刻的是，在两次世界大战期间及之后，俄罗斯对波兰人犯下的罪行。

候选人调整策略以应对反乌克兰情绪

在将这种情绪的转变转化为竞选政治的人中，保守派候选人卡罗尔·纳夫罗茨基（Karol Nawrocki）是其中之一。他是国家记忆研究所的所长，也是法律与公正党选定的候选人，并位列领先者之一。

在2022年仍然执政的波兰法律与公正党（Law and Justice Party）与保守派总统安德烈·杜达（Andrzej Duda）共同领导了这场人道主义危机应对工作，该总统得到了该党派的支持，并在战争期间前往基辅。

纳沃茨基在试图接替杜达时，对乌克兰持矛盾态度，强调首要任务是捍卫波兰的利益。

杜达（Duda）以及法律与公正党（Law and Justice）长期以来一直崇拜唐纳德·特朗普，而纳沃克奇（Nawrocki）――他于5月1日受到特朗普在白宫的欢迎――有时会使用与美国总统相呼应的语言。

纳乌罗基在1月表示，乌克兰并没有将我们视为伙伴，它在许多方面都表现得非常不体面和忘恩负义。

在乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽伦斯基（Volodymyr Zelenskyy）二月份紧张访问白宫后，纳沃克奇（Nawrocki）表示，乌克兰领导人需要“重新考虑”其对盟友的行为。

上个月，纳夫罗茨基（Nawrocki）发誓说，如果他获胜，他将出台立法，以确保在医疗服务和学校等资源短缺时，波兰公民将优先于乌克兰公民获得这些资源。

在竞选视频中，纳沃尔茨基（Nawrocki）表示：“波兰公民必须优先，波兰第一，波兰人第一。”

在更偏右的立场，候选人Sawomir Mentzen和他的联邦党已经超出了这一点。他指责乌克兰人给学校带来过重负担、推高房价，并指责他们利用波兰人的慷慨。

在4月30日一名极右翼候选人Grzegorz Braun的集会上，他的支持者们爬上了比亚韦斯托克市政厅的阳台，并取下了一面自2022年2月以来一直挂在那里的乌克兰国旗，以此表达团结。

政治中心也在进行调整。

2022年，华沙市长拉法尔·特拉斯科夫斯基（Rafa�0�0 Trzaskowski）作为时任总理唐纳德·图斯克（Donald Tusk）所在的中派政党派出的心怀自由理念的市长，曾欢迎乌克兰人来到他的城市。他于1月份提出，只有那些在波兰‘工作、居住和缴税’的乌克兰难民才能获得每月每名儿童800兹罗提（$210）的受欢迎的‘800+儿童福利’。

最近，这些要求已经收紧了，一些难民支持者称其为对极右翼叙事的妥协。

乌克兰人表示他们也在帮助波兰

乌克兰驻波兰大使瓦西尔·博德纳（Vasyl Bodnar）反驳了乌克兰人拿得比给得多的说法。他表示，约有35,000人没有工作但获得了支持，但他们所获得的是乌克兰人纳税贡献的一小部分。他指出，目前波兰有约70,000家由乌克兰人经营的商业活动正在运营。

他向美联社表示，乌克兰人正在帮助波兰经济发展。

国际关系中心主席马尔戈扎塔·波尼科夫斯卡（Małgorzata Bonikowska）表示，当来自不同文化的大量人群突然一起生活和工作时，出现紧张局势是正常现象。她补充说，波兰人常常觉得乌克兰人很爱出风头或自视甚高，这让他们感到不舒服。「但波兰人仍然非常坚定地支持帮助乌克兰。我们确实相信乌克兰人是欧洲人，他们就像我们的兄弟一样。」

社会学家拉法尔·潘科夫斯基（Rafal Pankowski）领导着一个名为“永不再次”（Never Again）的团体，该团体致力于打击排外主义，他自全面战争开始以来就一直在追踪反乌克兰情绪。他表示，最初，极右翼在他们的反乌克兰意见中非常孤立。

他表示，今年发生的事情，是那些反乌克兰宣传者的收获季节，而且已经超出了极右翼的范畴。

现年33岁的乌克兰人卡特琳娜在波兰居住了多年，她亲眼见证了这一切变化。2022年，陌生人经常用同情的目光和“Slava Ukraini”（乌克兰万岁）的话语向她问好。

然而去年秋天，一个在电车上的人因为她在读乌克兰语的书而对她破口大骂。今年春天，在社保局外，另一个男人推搡她并大叫道：‘这里没人想要你。’”

她要求不使用她的姓氏，因为她是一家公司的经理，该公司在公开身份时需要获得许可。

她的父母仍在乌克兰，她的哥哥在军队服役。和该地区许多人一样，她认为乌克兰的抵抗正在通过阻挡俄罗斯来保护波兰的安全。

她担心，目前的紧张局势只是为莫斯科服务。她说：“我们必须团结一致。”