By Olha Hembik | 2025-03-03

WARSAW -- Three years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poles are still standing with their besieged neighbor.

On the third anniversary of the invasion, 7,000 people gathered at the "Thank you, Ukraine!" demonstration in Warsaw holding Ukrainian and Polish flags.

Viktoria Pohrebniak, 29, of Warsaw danced with a four-year-old girl in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Warsaw February 24, the anniversary of the start of the invasion.

She held a heart-shaped placard decorated with drawings of the Polish and Ukrainian flags and the word "Together" in Polish.

"This is my niece Darusya. She comes from a Ukrainian-Polish family. She was born in Poland and strongly supports Ukraine," Pohrebniak told Kontur.

Pohrebniak is originally from Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine, but has been living in Poland for 10 years and has Polish citizenship.

"We're here to show how important it is to support Ukraine. Poland really appreciates what Ukraine is doing to ensure that the whole world lives in calm and peace," she said.

The Polish NGOs Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet, Akcja Demokracja, Asymetryści and Komitet Obrony Demokracji organized the event along with the Euromaidan-Warsaw group.

The goal of the demonstration was to thank Ukraine for its fight and to show that the two peoples stand together, according to the organizers.

Poles, Ukrainian refugees and members of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland all took part.

More than 998,000 Ukrainian refugees were living in Poland as of January 14, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office.

'Putin, get back beyond the Don'

More than 1,020 events in 662 cities in 78 countries took place to mark the anniversary, according to media reports.

In Warsaw, demonstrators carried signs with messages written in Ukrainian, Polish and English: "Russia is a terrorist state," "Free Azov," "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin, get back beyond the Don!," "We stand with Ukraine" and "Light will always conquer darkness."

Many participants held photos of fallen troops and civilians and of destroyed buildings and cities.

Hanna Krzemińska, 70, of Warsaw held a sign reading "Putin is a murderer" in Polish and showing drawings of mangled children's items.

She leaned on crutches but had difficulty standing, and from time to time, she sat down on a low barrier next to the embassy.

"I'm not tired. If a soldier who is in a trench and coming under enemy fire isn't tired, I have no right to be tired either," she told Kontur.

Michał and Natalia, who withheld their surname, are a mixed-nationality couple who met in Warsaw after Russia invaded Ukraine. Michał, who is Polish, is active in Euromaidan-Warsaw.

Michał started the day with the "Wake up the Russian diplomats" protest at 6am, when he and other activists went to the building where Russian diplomats live, unfurled a banner reading "Russia is a terrorist state" and played sounds of air sirens and explosions.

"We're here to counter the assertions that Europe is sick of the Ukrainians. The majority of those stories were thought up in Moscow," he told Kontur.

Over a 1,000 days of 'heroism'

"Thank you, Ukraine, for 1,095 days of unprecedented heroism, courage and devotion," Kajetan Jan Wróblewski, an activist and coordinator of the Asymetryści foundation who has been working on refugee issues for more than 20 years, said in an address to the demonstrators.

"Thank you for defending not only your land and people but also Poland, Europe and the free world," Wróblewski said.

"If the world remains standing, it is only thanks to you."

"We Poles understand that there is no free Poland without a free Ukraine," Monika Andruszewska, a Polish war correspondent who has been living in Ukraine since 2013, said in a speech in Ukrainian.

Andruszewska is documenting Russia's war crimes for the Raphael Lemkin Center for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine, which the Polish Culture Ministry's Pilecki Institute established. She also publicizes the plight of Ukrainian prisoners of war, as a way of generating pressure for their release.

The demonstrators then marched with their flags to the Sejm, the lower house of Poland's parliament, where member of parliament Piotr Kandyba and Polish activists met them.

The day before, Kandyba had visited liberated Ukrainian cities near the front line.

"I've seen what war is, and I know how you're suffering. I'm very grateful to your men, your sons, your parents, your women for fighting so bravely. They're fighting for a free Europe and for our country," Kandyba said, speaking to the Ukrainians in the crowd.