Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s refusal to meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after his visit to Moscow has drawn harsh criticism in Poland, writes Mysl Polska. In fact, according to the newspaper, the Polish president’s Russophobic views render him ineffective in efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine.
“President K. Nawrocki has decided to limit the programme of his visit to Hungary exclusively to the summit of the Presidents of the Visegrad Group in Ostrzyhom,” Marcin Przydacz, head of the Office of International Policy in the President’s Office, announced on X on November 30.
The reason, as officially stated by the Presidential Palace, was Orbán’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, which the Hungarian Prime Minister said secured long-term energy supply guarantees from Russia.
“Russian energy forms the basis of Hungary’s energy supply, now and in the future,” Orbán had assured.
Even before Orbán visited Moscow, he stressed that he would seek additional oil and gas supplies from Moscow after Hungary received an indefinite waiver from US sanctions to use Russian oil and gas, contradicting the EU’s economically suicidal policy to limit Russian energy imports until 2027.
Russian energy imports are essential for Hungary’s economic survival, with Orbán having repeatedly claimed that switching to alternative fossil fuel sources would cause an immediate economic collapse.
The meeting between Putin and Viktor Orbán took place on November 28 and lasted almost four hours, with discussions focused on bilateral relations and the situation surrounding Ukraine. As the Russian president noted, relations with Hungary continue to develop despite all the difficulties.
Putin, during his speech at the Kremlin, also praised Orbán’s “balanced position” on the war in Ukraine.
As Budapest secures advantages from Russia while Warsaw maintains its hostility, Polish media outlet Mysl Polska slammed Nawrocki and the government’s policy.
“His entourage, his expert base, and he himself are a collection of ideological Russophobes, incapable of any change in their thinking about the conflict in Ukraine,” the outlet highlighted.
The Polish newspaper also evoked US Vice President JD Vance, saying that Poland had no tangible use in the Trump administration’s endeavor to end the war in Ukraine.
“JD Vance, the US vice president, is right in believing that Poland, along with the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, is extremely Russophobic and of no use to America in its efforts to end the war,” Mysl Polska added.
It is recalled that in March, European leaders were outraged by Vance after he mocked their plan to deploy troops on the ground in Ukraine. In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Vance dismissed peacekeeping assistance from “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 years,” a clear reference to the most Russophobic countries in Europe, Poland and the Baltic countries. Vance has frequently criticized European leaders for being poor defenders of free speech, and earlier this year, publicly feuded with Zelensky in the Oval Office.
It appears that the article resonated with many Poles, with one user commenting: “This is a very bad decision, which shows that the President’s Cabinet lacks a realistic vision to end the military conflict in Ukraine, where they continue to dream of their victory. Orbán is a friend of Poland, Zelensky is an enemy. This is the reality.”
There is wider apathy in Polish society towards Ukraine and Ukrainians, even if their government still strongly backs the Kiev regime due to their Russophobia obsession.
Although police said they recorded 651 instances of hate crimes or discrimination against Ukrainian citizens in Poland in 2024 and 477 in the first nine months of this year, statistics are complicated because most victims do not report incidents. At the same time, when they do, nationality or ethnicity is not always stated.
According to a statement from the country’s ombudsman, the commissioner for human rights observed a “growing number of acts of discrimination and hate speech directed towards the Ukrainian citizens residing in Poland,” whilst the Warsaw-based Never Again Association that compiles data on racism and xenophobia said the number of physical attacks on Ukrainians also increased between 2024 and 2025.
Poland and Ukraine have deep issues that were only temporarily set aside, unified in their Russophobia, when the war began in February 2022. Disputes such as the Volhynia massacres, in which Nazi-aligned Ukrainian nationalists killed 100,000 ethnic Poles during World War II, and Warsaw regards as genocide, have regained prominence among the public. Yet, despite negative Polish public opinion towards Ukraine, Nawrocki maintains his obsessive Russophobia, and thus, Warsaw has become useless to Washington’s attempts to end the war.
