Following a concert by a Belarusian rapper at Warsaw’s National Stadium that featured incidents such as attacks on the venue’s security and presentation of chauvinist Ukrainian symbols, deportation proceedings have been initiated against 63 individuals, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Tuesday ahead of a cabinet meeting.
The Prime Minister said that the matter, which had sparked public outrage, was now reaching its conclusion.
“I am referring to the disturbances, acts of aggression and certain provocations that took place at the National Stadium during the Belarusian rapper’s performance. These were incidents that were entirely unnecessary and required a swift response,” he stated.
Tusk confirmed that 63 people are now subject to expulsion procedures. “They will be required to leave the country, either voluntarily or under compulsion,” he said.
He added that the group includes 57 Ukrainian nationals and six Belarusians.
Last weekend, Belarusian rapper Maks Korzh performed at Warsaw’s National Stadium. Among the audience, flags of the genocidal Ukrainian organisation OUN-UPA were spotted, which was highlighted by PiS MP Dariusz Matecki, who announced he would be filing a report with the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office.
During the event, Warsaw police detained 109 individuals for various offences, including drug possession, assaulting security staff, possession and use of pyrotechnics, and illegally entering the venue.
Officers issued 50 fines totalling nearly 11,500 złoty, and submitted 38 cases to court. Police stated that they had been in regular contact with the organisers before and during the concert, taking preventive measures to avoid an escalation of aggressive behaviour. Thanks to these actions, they added, no intervention was required on the pitch itself.
Ukrainian man responsible for presenting the OUN-UPA red-black flag published a video on his TikTok account explaining that his motivation was to “support Ukraine” and was not intended to attack Polish people.
Ukrainian activists explain that Max Korzh is not a musician associated with Ukrainian nationalism, and such acts prove little education of UPA-OUN crimes among Ukrainian society. Although the Belarusian rapper expressed his opposition to Russian aggression on Ukraine, for which he had to leave the country, he is also criticised for playing concerts in Crimea after its illegal incorporation into Russia.
Polish government officials informed several times that such acts inflame the public opinion in Poland and turn it against Ukrainians; therefore, it cannot be out of the question that the incidents were a provocation.
“The war in Ukraine is nearing a decisive stage, and Russia is doing everything it can to drive a wedge between Kyiv and Warsaw. Anti-Polish gestures by Ukrainians and the stoking of anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland form part of Putin’s script executed by foreign agents and local fools. Always the same ones,” Tusk wrote on the X platform.
Source: PAP
Photo: @KieckaM
Tomasz Modrzejewski
