Ukrainian ambassador condemns Polish politician’s “arrogant and unacceptable” criticism of Zelensky

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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.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland has accused a Polish opposition politician of “repeating Russian narratives” after he called Volodymyr Zelensky a “fool” and said that “Ukraine is not capable of being independent” without American support.

Przemysław Czarnek, who served as education minister from 2020 to 2023 and is a prominent figure in the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party, was asked on Sunday about Zelensky’s confrontation with Donald Trump at the White House on Friday.

“Someone like the president of Ukraine, going to Washington, asking for further help, without which Ukraine cannot be independent, should be aware of where he is going and should behave like everyone else,” said Czarnek

“Can you imagine the president of Poland going to America and saying: ‘I demand more American troops, because if not, America will be in danger.’ [He would be] a fool, right? And that is how, unfortunately, the president of Ukraine behaved…He behaved absolutely irresponsibly.”

In response, Ukraine’s ambassador, Vasyl Bodnar, wrote in Polish on social media that Czarnek’s comments were “arrogant and unacceptable”.

“Undermining the independence of our country is a deliberate attack on the security of Poland and Europe,” he continued. “This is…the rhetoric of the Russian aggressor.”

In a longer post in Ukrainian, Bodnar added that Czarnek’s remarks “contradict Poland’s official position, the spirit of strategic partnership and solidarity, but repeat the narratives of the Russian aggressor”.

The ambassador declared that “Ukraine was, is and will be a sovereign state capable of defending its independence”.

Czarnek himself then reacted to Bodnar’s post on social media, accusing the Ukrainian ambassador of “twisting my words”.

“I have repeated and I [again] repeat that Ukraine must be free and independent, but it will not be so without the help of the United States and Poland,” wrote Czarnek. “And when you get help from someone, normal culture requires showing gratitude.”

“Understanding these simple things is necessary for further cooperation between Ukraine, Poland and the US. Lack of understanding may indicate that you are representing Russian interests.”

Czarnek’s remarks echo other responses within PiS to Zelensky’s confrontation with Trump on Friday. PiS has long been supportive of Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression. But it is also ideologically aligned with Trump and enjoyed close relations with his first administration.

Many PiS figures have argued that Zelensky should have shown more respect towards Trump during his visit to the White House.

They have also criticised Zelensky for saying during that meeting that Ukraine has been “alone from the very beginning of the war” despite all the support Kyiv received from Poland and other allies.

“Zelensky, unprovoked by anyone, began to attack the hosts in the White House,” said Patryk Jaki, a PiS MEP, quoted by the Rzeczpospolita daily. “This is the height of impudence, which we have already seen, which we know, as Poles who helped him so much. Unfortunately, this man is very damaging to the cause.”

Meanwhile, on Sunday, PiS’s candidate in the upcoming presidential elections, Karol Nawrocki, used a major policy speech to accuse Ukraine of treating Poland “indecently”. In an interview with broadcaster Radio Zet on Monday, Nawrocki repeated that claim.

“President Zelensky said that Ukraine was left alone at the beginning of the war, which means that he did not appreciate the great efforts of the Poles,” he added. “This is not how you build the security of your country.”

By contrast, Poland’s ruling coalition has expressed strong support for Zelensky since Friday’s meeting with Trump. On Sunday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk reiterated Poland’s continued support for Ukraine and also called for Europe to move towards “defence independence”.

However, PiS argues that such an approach is dangerous as it threatens relations with the US, which is Poland’s most important security partner.

Recent weeks have seen other cases in which Ukrainian officials have criticised the rhetoric of right-wing Polish politicians towards Ukraine.

In January, Zelensky himself accused Nawrocki of making “manipulative” and “unacceptable” claims that “contribute to the hostile efforts” by Russia to “destroy Ukrainian-Polish friendship and mutual understanding”.

Last week, the mayor of Lviv called Sławomir Mentzen, the presidential candidate of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party, a “pro-Russian politician with a Polish passport”.

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: MEN (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 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.