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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.
President Karol Nawrocki has submitted a bill to parliament intended to replace one that he vetoed yesterday, which would have extended support for Ukrainian refugees.
His legislation would make benefits conditional on refugees being employed. It also seeks to criminalise propagating the ideology of historical Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera and to toughen penalties for illegally crossing the Polish border.
The head of Nawrocki’s office has also told the government that approving the presidential bill would ensure continued funding from Poland for Starlink satellite internet systems in Ukraine, which had been threatened by Nawrocki’s veto.
President @NawrockiKn has vetoed three more bills passed by the government’s majority in parliament, including one on extending support for Ukrainian refugees.
Nawrocki says that he wants benefits for refugees to be conditional upon them being employed https://t.co/VvHVCZELYP
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 25, 2025
On Monday, the president, who is aligned with the right-wing opposition, announced that he was vetoing a government-backed bill to extend support for Ukrainian refugees until March 2026. He argued that it gave “privileged” treatment to foreign nationals and he pledged to submit his own, tougher alternative.
Nawrocki’s veto was condemned by government figures, including foreign minister Radosław Sikorski, who said that “Putin’s propagandists are delighted with the decisions to limit aid for Ukraine and Ukrainians”.
Meanwhile, digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski noted that blocking the bill would also result in cutting off Poland’s funding for Ukrainian Starlinks and secure storage of Ukrainian administrative data.
Poland has provided Ukraine with around 25,000 Starlink devices and spends around $50 million a year on maintaining them. The Ukrainian digital transformation ministry announced on Monday that it was in talks with Poland about continued financing for the system in the wake of Nawrocki’s veto.
However, the head of Nawrocki’s chancellery, Zbigniew Bogucki, accused Gawkowski of spreading disinformation about the funding for Starlinks.
“President Nawrocki’s veto does NOT disconnect Ukraine from Starlink” because “the bill submitted to parliament by the president maintains the [current] state of affairs” regarding the fund, he wrote.
Panie Wicepremierze @KGawkowski, powinien Pan walczyć z manipulacją i dezinformacją w sieci, a nie je tworzyć.
Weto Pana Prezydenta @NawrockiKn NIE wyłącza Internetu Starlink Ukrainie, ponieważ koszty tej łączności finansowane są w oparciu o zapisy obecnie obowiązującej ustawy, a…— Zbigniew Bogucki🇵🇱 (@BoguckiZbigniew) August 25, 2025
However, the presidential bill also includes a number of significant changes from the government’s legislation. It would make access to social benefits and healthcare available only for Ukrainians who work and pay social security contributions in Poland.
Nawrocki has argued that this is a change which has public support, and notes that it was even proposed by his main rival for the presidency, government-backed candidate Rafał Trzaskowski.
The president’s proposal is “fair, first and foremost, to Poles, but also fair to all Ukrainians who have honestly entered the Polish socio-economic system”, said Bogucki.
Conservative presidential candidate @NawrockiKn has pledged to submit a bill guaranteeing that “Poles cannot be treated worse in their own country than immigrants”.
He wants Polish citizens to be given priority over immigrants in healthcare and education https://t.co/9514SiM5Xe
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 9, 2025
Meanwhile, Nawrocki’s bill would also make promotion of the ideology of Bandera’s OUN-B organisation or its UPA military wing a criminal offence carrying a prison sentence of up to five years – the same as for promoting Nazism, communism or fascism.
The UPA was responsible for the massacre of around 100,000 ethnic Polish civilians during World War Two. The episode, which is regarded by Poland as a genocide, continues to cause tension between Warsaw and Kyiv.
The president also wants to increase the maximum jail term for illegally crossing the Polish border from three years to five and the period of residence required before being allowed to apply for Polish citizenship would be increased from three years to ten. Those measures apply to all foreigners, not just Ukrainians.
In order to pass, Nawrocki’s bill must now win approval in parliament, where the government has a majority. MPs can also seek to amend the legislation, though to become law the final version would have to be signed by the president.
Poland wants to deport 57 Ukrainians and six Belarusians involved in criminal behaviour at a concert in Warsaw on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian seen at the event holding a nationalist flag associated with the massacre of Poles during WW2 has apologisedhttps://t.co/aVKmaearVG
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 12, 2025
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: Mikołaj Bujak/KPRP
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.
