Svetlana says her daughter loved going to the new school in Poland.
"Even when we moved to another area, she didn't want to change schools."
"She liked it a lot. There was no bullying," the 31-year-old Ukrainian recalls.
Now the atmosphere at school, but also in Poland, has changed, she says.
"Two weeks ago, she came home and said, 'A boy told me today, 'Go back to Ukraine.'"
Svetlana was stunned.
She is one of many Ukrainians living in Poland who told the BBC that intolerance towards them has increased significantly in recent months.
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Many described experiencing abuse on public transport, bullying in schools and or receiving hateful comments online.
The presidential election campaign in Poland has further heightened tensions.
The day after Svetlana's daughter was told to return to Ukraine, the abuse became even worse.
“The girls from the upper class started complaining that he was speaking Ukrainian, then they pretended to fall to the ground shouting, ‘Rocket! Get down!’ and then they would laugh.
"She came home crying," says Svetlana.
A Russian missile had hit Svetlana's hometown in Ukraine a few days earlier, killing dozens of civilians, including children.
Her daughter was upset and traumatized.
Svetlana (not her real name) did not want to reveal her identity, fearing for herself and her family.
She showed us screenshots of messages she sent to school staff, complaining about how other children were treating her daughter.
She said she has noticed that attitudes toward Ukrainians are changing in other places as well.
"At work, many people say that Ukrainians come here and behave badly, while my Ukrainian friends say they want to go home because the Poles don't accept us."
"It's scary to live here now."
At least 2,5 million Ukrainians live in Poland, almost seven percent of Poland's total population, according to government data.
When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Poles showed sympathy.
"It was incredible."
"Every day people called and asked: 'How can we help?'" says activist Natalia Panchenko of the Warsaw-based foundation Let's stand with Ukraine.
"Some of them organized humanitarian actions or brought refugees here."
"They offered their homes, their food, everything they had, but their hearts too."
Three years later, Natalia says she believes that most Poles still support Ukraine.
But some don't.
Her organization has noticed a surge in negative comments online that began a few months ago.
"Then it moved from the internet to real life."
"Lately we've been seeing more and more situations like this, intolerance towards foreigners working in shops or hotels just because they speak with a Ukrainian accent," she says.
Many Ukrainian refugees are traumatized, he adds.
"These groups of women and children are in Poland because of the war, many of them have family members on the front lines, in captivity or dead, and that's the group of people that is being targeted."
Research shows that Poles' opinion of Ukrainians is indeed deteriorating.
According to a March 2025 CBOS poll, only 50 percent of Poles are in favor of accepting Ukrainian refugees, a seven-point drop in just four months.
Two years ago, more than 80 percent of Poles said they accepted Ukrainians.
About a million Ukrainians have been officially registered since the beginning of the invasion, and Poland spends 4,2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on Ukrainian refugees.
Ukraine has become a hot political issue in the presidential election campaign in Poland.
The far-right Slavomir Menzen, currently third in the polls, is anti-Ukrainian and supports the "agreement" with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In second place is conservative Karol Nawrocki, who opposes Ukraine's membership in the European Union and NATO and financial aid for refugees, but supports efforts to establish peace.
Rafal Tchaskovski from Prime Minister Donald Tusk's coalition is the only one with a pro-Ukrainian orientation, although even he has said he will cut social assistance for Ukrainians.
Tchaskovsky refrained from expressing pro-Ukrainian views in order to attract voters in the elections, says political analyst Marcin Zaborowski.
"He is responding to changing public attitudes."
"The initial enthusiasm for supporting war victims is fading, negative feelings are prevailing, and it's not a very pleasant issue for him."
Another far-right candidate, Grzegorz Braun, is under police investigation for removing a Ukrainian flag from the city hall building during a campaign rally in April.
Braun, who has just three percent in the polls, regularly protests against what he calls the "Ukrainization of Poland."
Last week, the Polish government warned of an "incredible attempt" by Russia to interfere in Polish elections by spreading "false information among Polish citizens on the internet."
Moscow denies all allegations of election interference.
Michal Marek, who heads an NGO monitoring disinformation and propaganda in Poland, talks about examples of anti-Ukrainian attitudes spreading on social media.
"The main narratives are that Ukrainians are stealing money from the Polish budget, that Ukrainians don't respect us, that they want to rob and kill us, and that they are responsible for the war," he says.
"This information starts on Russian Telegram channels, and then the same photos and the same text are just translated using Google Translate and transmitted in Poland."
Marek directly links such disinformation to the rise of anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland and says that an increasing number of Poles are falling under the influence of this propaganda.
"But we will see the effect only after the elections - what percentage of Poles want to vote for pro-Russian candidates."
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