The SBU border ban
Lukasz Warzecha, a journalist primarily associated with the right-wing weekly Do Rzeczy, received a three-year ban from entering Ukraine after being held at the border. Warzecha was traveling to Kyiv on a study visit organized by Poland’s Mieroszewski Centre and the Ukrainian Institute, an institution affiliated with the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. He was held at the border on Monday afternoon, where he was told to wait in a room for more than seven hours before officials informed him that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had blocked his entry for "security reasons". The organizers had previously forwarded the list of journalists to Ukrainian state authorities, and those authorities raised no objections to the group’s composition. Lukasz Adamski, the head of the Mieroszewski Centre, tried to intervene with the foreign ministries of both countries, but his attempts to resolve the situation through diplomatic channels produced no result. The Mieroszewski Centre is a Polish state institution, while the Ukrainian Institute is a public body affiliated with the Ukrainian foreign ministry. The organizers intended the visit to enable Polish journalists to gain direct knowledge of the situation in Ukraine, engage in conversations with representatives of various communities, and achieve a better understanding of the challenges facing Ukrainian society. I find the SBU’s sudden reversal highly problematic because the Mieroszewski Centre arranged a similar visit for Ukrainian journalists to Poland just last month to represent diverse editorial perspectives. Adamski recognizes Ukraine’s sovereign right to decide whom to grant entry, but he says that restricting journalists’ work on state security grounds "creates fertile ground for unfriendly commentary".
Political backlash in Poland
Andrzej Sliwka, an MP from Poland’s main opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), demanded that Polish authorities provide a firm response to this decision, suggesting such a move needs explanations. He asked whether the SBU banned Warzecha because he dared to criticize Ukrainian corruption, the confrontational policy toward Poland, and the distortion of history. Warzecha has been associated with Do Rzeczy for about a decade and has previously criticized the honoring of historical nationalist figures in Ukraine and called for a reduction in social benefits for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. While these views are within the Polish mainstream, Do Rzeczy published a cover in 2024 warning of the "Ukrainisation of Poland", a phrase used by the far right to warn against the growing influence of Ukrainians. In February 2023, Warzecha expressed satisfaction that Ukraine defended itself effectively on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion. Warzecha told Do Rzeczy that he "wanted to confront my own views with open politicians and opinion leaders in Ukraine". He was not given the opportunity to carry out his intended discussions with those people. Since the 2022 invasion, Poland has remained a close ally to Kyiv, providing military and humanitarian support, though the two nations clash over unresolved World War Two massacres. The SBU has not issued a comment on the entry ban, and the Polish government has not commented on the case either.
