Central Europe Has Compassion Fatigue

Nearly four years of hosting Ukrainian refugees is fueling a resentful backlash.

A dozen people, including children, stand on the side of a road under a blue sign with the Polish and EU flags. October 28, 2025, 1:34 PM Comment icon View Comments ( )

KRAKOW, Poland—When Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, millions of Ukrainians fleeing their homeland were welcomed across Central Europe with overwhelming sympathy and kindness. In the war’s first weeks, eight million people spilled over the border into Poland and Germany, and hundreds of thousands more across the rest of Central Europe and beyond. Ordinary citizens with no ties to Ukraine waited on train platforms with cardboard signs in Google-translated Ukr

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