Zelensky condemns knife attack by Ukrainian at Polish abbey that left priest dead and others injured

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his horror at an “evil” knife attack carried out today by a Ukrainian man at a Catholic abbey in Poland, which left one priest dead and others seriously injured.

The incident has caused shock in Poland, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledging that the perpetrator, who is in police custody, will face the “full severity of Polish law”.

The attack took place on Thursday morning on the grounds of a Benedictine abbey in the town of Jarosław in southeast Poland. Local police reported that a 31-year-old Ukrainian man had stabbed four male victims and one female. Three were members of the clergy and two laypeople.

Authorities later confirmed that one of the men, a priest, had died of his injuries in hospital and that two others were in serious condition. The cathedral in the nearby city of Rzeszów named the deceased as Stanisław Zbojnowicz.

The superior of the Benedictine Sisters Monastery, Barbara Dendor, told news website Interia that Zbojnowicz had been in a confessional when the attack began. He had rushed out to attempt to close the gates and protect other people, but was stabbed by the assailant before he could do so.

In its initial social media post announcing Zbojnowicz’s death, the cathedral also said that a second priest, Marek Pieńkowski, had died. However, a few minutes later it deleted that claim, blaming the “enormous information chaos surrounding today’s tragic event”.

On Thursday afternoon, prosecutors revealed that the suspect, who has not been named, had entered Poland from Germany in the early hours of Thursday and “was heading to the border crossing [with Ukraine] in Korczowa”, which is around 30km (18.6 miles) from Jarosław.

However, he ultimately did not cross the border and, for unknown reasons, ended up in Jarosław, where he entered the grounds of the abbey and began his attack, using a knife taken from the kitchen.

Prosecutors said that doctors would assess the suspect’s condition before he was interrogated. Blood samples were also taken to be tested for the presence of narcotics and alcohol.

The motive for the attack remains unknown. Dendor told news website Wirtualna Polska that the perpetrator was unknown to them. “He looked like a madman, in shorts and a T-shirt, even though it was cold today,” she said.

Wirtualna Polska reports, based on the accounts of unnamed witnesses, that the Ukrainian man had earlier in the day knocked on the gates of the abbey and asked for financial assistance.

However, he was turned away due to the suspicion that he was drunk or under the influence of drugs and was asked to come back later. That is standard practice for places that offer aid, reports the news service.

The man “flew into a rage when he didn’t get help and allegedly threatened priests”, said one of the unnamed sources.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed his sympathy for the loved ones of the victims of the attack and pledged that the perpetrator “will be punished with the full severity of Polish law”.

President Karol Nawrocki likewise expressed his condolences and called on the authorities to “quickly and thoroughly clarify all the circumstances of this tragedy”.

Later on Thursday afternoon, Zelensky also extended his condolences in a social media post published in Polish. “We are shocked by this evil,” he wrote. “The perpetrator of this evil must bear full responsibility in accordance with the applicable law.”

Earlier, the Ukrainian embassy in Warsaw had “condemned the brutal attack” in Jarosław. However, it also appealed for people “not to allow pain to turn into hatred or further violence”, saying that “accountability for the crime must be based solely on the law”.

Polish-Ukrainian relations have been tense in recent months, amid rising anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland and anger at Zelensky’s decision to name a military unit after a group that led massacres of Poles during World War Two. There has been a rise in reported hate crimes against Ukrainians in Poland this year.

Marcin Piotrowski, a board member of the Folkowisko Foundation, which provides aid to Ukrainian refugees, told newspaper Rzeczpospolita today that the tragedy in Jarosław was already being exploited on social media. He expressed fear that “we are almost on the verge of lynchings”.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Patryk Ogorzalek / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.