In Poland, “Person of the year” title goes to all citizens helping Ukrainians

Poland’s popular weekly Wprost has named all Poles who help refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine as the country’s “most influential person” in 2022.

The leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jaroslaw Kaczyński, and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki are also among the top three among the 50 most influential Poles, Ukrinform reports.

As Wprost’s editorial office of explained, the whole world wrote about the incredible Polish aid to Ukrainians.

"Poland was able to help thousands of refugees from Ukraine mainly thanks to ordinary Poles. No special laws were needed in this regard. Therefore, the most influential Poles became those who helped and continue to help refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. That is, those thanks to whom the system did not collapse, enabling Poland to support the people who fled from the barbarism of the Russians," the publication emphasizes.

As the weekly notes, this war "allowed the Poles to find a Person in themselves", it also showed the growing influence of individual figures on the Polish political scene. Wprost notes that in this year’s list, minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak ranked high, entering the top 10 against last year’s 24th spot. The list of the 50 most influential Poles this year also included Polish generals Waldemar Skzypczak and Roman Polko, who comment daily in the Polish media on the operational situation on Ukrainian battlefields, as well as publicist Slawomir Sierakowski, organizer of a fundraising campaign to purchase a Bayraktar strike drone for Ukraine.

As reported, there may be approximately 3-3.5 million Ukrainians staying in Poland at the moment, of which 1-1.2 million arrived after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24.