Attack on Ukrainian woman on flight from Tenerife to Warsaw – suspect detained on Targówek
A 46-year-old man verbally abused a Ukrainian woman on board an aircraft landing at Okęcie and assaulted a Polish man who came to her defence. Police detained the suspect on Warsaw's Targówek district.
Activist Natalia Panczenko on attack on Ukrainian woman on plane: "I was terrified"
"When I saw that footage, I really was terrified" – Polish-Ukrainian activist Natalia Panczenko commented on the high-profile incident that occurred on board an aircraft landing on 2 September at Warsaw's Chopin Airport in an interview with polsatnews.pl. The flight operated the connection from Tenerife to the capital.
Course of events
The altercation broke out as passengers were getting up from their seats after landing and heading towards the exit. A Ukrainian woman named Larysa – who does not live in Poland on a daily basis and was merely returning from a trip – described the sequence of events later on social media.
According to her account, one of the female passengers travelling with a child felt offended that Larysa and her companion had passed through the cabin without waiting for her. The woman reportedly said something to a man sitting next to her, who decided to "intervene". Directed at the Ukrainian women were vulgar remarks and slurs of a xenophobic nature.
When one of them pointed out to the man that he should not speak like that, he only became more enraged and stated that since she was in Poland, she should speak to him in Polish. The women initially did not respond to the provocations, but the aggressor did not back down.
Pole stood up in defence of the women – and got beaten
The vulgar behaviour of the man prompted a reaction from another passenger – a Polish man who tried to calm the aggressor down. The man then directed his aggression towards him as well, threatening to beat him. The threat was not empty. "Just before getting off the plane, that man really did attack the Pole who stood in our defence. There was a fight. All of this happened in front of his small daughter, who was about seven or eight years old," the Ukrainian woman wrote.
Panczenko praised the stance of the intervening Pole. "There was also another Pole who did not look away. He stood up in defence of that woman, protected her and effectively took all the aggression upon himself," the activist said in an interview with polsatnews.pl, assuring that it is from such people that the majority of society is made.
Police detained suspect on Targówek
Polsatnews.pl established that the man responsible for the disturbance was detained by Warsaw officers. Karolina Gałecka, spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, stated that despite the absence of a formal complaint about a possible crime, criminal investigators from the airport police station immediately took up the matter. "Intensive action by police officers led to the swift establishment of his identity. Today, after 15:00, the man was detained in the Warsaw Targówek area. Authorities are investigating the matter," Gałecka said.
Panczenko: Ukrainians feel increasingly unsafe in Poland
The activist stressed that such incidents are occurring increasingly often. "I have lived in Poland for most of my life, I am part of Polish society and I simply felt enormous shame that this woman experienced something like this here. Especially since we are talking about a woman from Ukraine who lives daily in a country being bombed by Russia," Panczenko said.
She added that the victim had only gone away for a few days of rest and, returning through Poland to her home, encountered such aggression.
Panczenko also spoke about a broader trend. "I increasingly talk to Ukrainians who say they are beginning to feel less safe in Poland. I also know stories of people who have decided to leave Poland for other countries. And I am not only talking about refugees who arrived here after 2022," the activist explained.
She pointed out that the problem also concerns people who have lived in Poland for over a decade and Polish-Ukrainian families. "Very often the concerns relate to children. Parents worry that their child might be treated worse because they are Ukrainian, have a Ukrainian surname or speak Ukrainian," she said.
Panczenko stressed that this trend needs to be stopped. "Poland could lose people who work here, run businesses, pay taxes, raise children and for years have treated this country as their home. And above all, we could lose something that Poles and Ukrainians have built together over recent years – mutual trust," she concluded.
Source: Google News PL