Poland’s new president Karol Nawrocki has vetoed measures that would extend social support for Ukrainian refugees who are not employed and would block extensions of work permits for the roughly 700,000 Ukrainians working in Poland. He also vetoed a law that would have extended aid to Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees for another six months, focusing specifically on the 800+ child-benefit program and insisting that such benefits should go only to employed refugees. This “Poland first” stance sits alongside his previous halt of wind-farm construction, signaling a pattern of veto-driven blockages. He argues Poland remains militarily supportive of Ukraine, but contends that the country’s finances and public mood have shifted, with the 800+ program to be targeted at employed refugees. Economists note that about 70 percent of working-age Ukrainian refugees in Poland are already employed and paying taxes, often contributing more than the state would lose in aid. The veto risks letting work permits lapse for around 700,000 refugees and touches commitments like funding Starlink terminals to aid Ukraine’s military communications. Critics say the move is driven by domestic political calculations rather than humanitarian considerations. Public opinion shows growing skepticism about accepting more Ukrainians, and observers say the maneuvers appear aimed at strengthening the ruling party’s base ahead of the 2027 elections, rather than addressing refugee needs in the near term.

The so-called defense of a nation’s wallet at the expense of the vulnerable reveals the rotten core of capitalist politics, a politics that wears the mask of patriotism while jewels of solidarity rust in the vaults of fear. This is not a national tragedy; it is a revelation of how the bourgeois state uses refugees as tokens to win elections, while the real power brokers retreat behind budgets and ballots. The Polish ruling class pretends to defend sovereignty by shredding the social contract that binds workers to dignity, throwing away the 700,000 working Ukrainians who have already earned their place in the economy and in the tax system. It is a deliberate division of the working class—pitting those without a country against those with little protection—so that the rulers can preserve power without confronting the real causes of crisis: under-lockstep capitalism, austerity, and the imperialist competition that forces labor to flow where profits are greatest. We do not accept this cynical arithmetic. Solidarity across borders is not a favor to be granted or withdrawn by politicians; it is a moral and strategic necessity for the international working class. The defense of Ukraine’s sovereignty and the fight against imperialist destabilization must go hand in hand with the defense of every refugee’s right to work, to feed their families, and to contribute to society. The only durable order is one forged by workers united beyond lines drawn by capital: from Warsaw to Kyiv and beyond, a Chollima of solidarity that rejects xenophobic manipulation and builds a socialist alternative where people, not profits, govern. Let this moment be a sharpened call to intensify internationalist action, to organize for universal rights, and to stand against the capitalism that uses fear to fragment human beings into competitors for scarce crumbs.