By Olha Hembik | 2025-07-02

WARSAW -- A Polish medic drags a wounded Ukrainian soldier to safety. Hours later, a volunteer convoy from Poland unloads tourniquets and thermal scopes near the front. From battlefields to border towns, Polish citizens are stepping into the war to help.

At the Ukrainian House Foundation in Warsaw, staff track the names of Polish paramedics working near combat zones and volunteers driving hundreds of kilometers to deliver supplies to areas often missed by aid groups.

"The majority of the Polish citizens I've talked to understand the decision to volunteer in the war against Russia," said Oleksandr Pestrikov, an analyst at the foundation.

Many Poles are responding to a shared threat through concrete action, he told Kontur. Since the full-scale invasion began, at least 19 Polish citizens, mostly volunteer fighters and aid workers, have died, according to preliminary data.

Paying a steep price

Krzysztof Gorzelak, a Polish journalist and founder of the Nasze Kielce news site, was killed May 30 fighting in Ukraine, where he had served in the Ukrainian army for two years.

News of his death prompted an emotional tribute from Maciej Bursztein, a city councillor in Kielce.

"Yesterday . . . I got a message: 'Gorzelak died on the front.' I broke into a sweat, and my eyes glazed over," Bursztein wrote on Facebook on June 1. He described Gorzelak as "a very patient and inquisitive journalist" and "a resilient person who was both an inspiration and a motivation."

"He could have gone in far different directions," Bursztein added, "but for his whole life he demonstrated that life has meaning only when we want to change the world around us for the better, when we fight evil for the sake of good."

The loss of volunteers like Gorzelak weighs heavily, said Pestrikov.

"Poles sometimes pay the ultimate price, as Krzysztof did," he said.

The death of every Polish volunteer "is hard to bear for all the engaged Ukrainians in Poland," he added.

Fight now, or fall later

The first Pole killed defending Ukraine was Tomasz Walentek, a mixed martial arts fighter and volunteer with Ukraine's International Legion, who went by the call sign Maverick. He died July 17, 2022, during an artillery strike near Izyum, Kharkiv province, while evacuating wounded fighters.

Walentek, 37, was among the first Polish volunteers to join the International Legion, created just months earlier in response to Ukraine's appeal for help. His death became a symbol of the early sacrifices made by foreign fighters supporting Ukraine's defense.

Daniel Sztyber, 35, died on November 25, 2022, after stepping on a mine in Luhansk province. He started helping Ukrainians at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, aiding refugees at the Polish border and later evacuating civilians from front-line towns.

He later traveled to Ukraine, where he helped evacuate civilians from front-line towns.

His grave bears tributes from fellow fighters, including Ukrainians, and a Ukrainian doll rests on his tombstone.

"Daniel never told us exactly what he was doing in Ukraine. There's a lot he kept back. . . . We opposed it, but Daniel was dead set on doing what he planned to do. He said to my wife, 'Mom, if I don't fight there, the Russians will come here,'" said Daniel's father, Mirosław Sztyber.

Pestrikov said he hopes the Polish government will take "a clearer position on volunteer fighters." He pointed to a 2022 bill that would have granted amnesty to Poles serving in Ukraine without prior authorization from the Polish military.

"For reasons that are unclear, the law wasn't passed then," he said. "Now there's a new bill, and we're hoping it gets passed."

Passport doesn't matter

A "cocktail of motivations" drives Poles to risk their lives in Ukraine, said Damian Duda, a paramedic and director of W międzyczasie, a group of Polish battlefield medics.

His team provides first aid under fire and evacuates wounded soldiers to front-line hospitals.

"Some come for the experience, and some come to see what this war is all about. But of course there are also plenty of those who have altruistic motives and are willing to just help," Duda told Kontur.

He has worked on the front since 2014, repeatedly risking his life to assist those wounded in shelling.

"I can say personally that my motivation has changed over the years. Now my top motivation is concern for my people and my friends," Duda said, adding that it is important for him to serve alongside the medics he leads.

"We work for free, and we understand that we could lose our lives here."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Duda the Order of Merit, 3rd class, in 2023.

Patryk Jaracz, a documentary photographer, left a well-paying job in Poland and has lived in Ukraine since 2022 to document the war and Russian war crimes.

"I feel like I'm doing something very important, and that gives me the strength to accomplish my goal," Jaracz told Kontur. His work includes images from the front lines, destroyed cities, civilian victims and portraits of soldiers.

Jaracz said he hopes to stay in Ukraine after the war to compile a chronological account.

"This is the most significant experience not just of my life but of an entire generation," he said.

He documented life in Kyiv in 2022, which he described as having "turned into a nightmare." His work also includes portraits of four young fighters from the Bratstvo (Brotherhood) battalion -- Maksym Mykhailov, Yurii Horovets, Taras Karpiuk and Bohdan Liagov -- who died on December 25, 2022, during a sabotage mission behind enemy lines.

Jaracz recalled a conversation with Liagov before his death.

"Even if I die, it would have been much worse to let my children live in a subjugated Ukraine," Liagov told him. "I feel a responsibility to defend my country and future generations." He was 19.

Polish volunteers who die in Ukraine are honored as heroes, said Duda.

"It doesn't matter what passport you have. What matters is what's in your heart and what values move you," he said.