The 90s have returned to Poland - Ukrainian—Georgian gangs keep Warsaw residents in fear

Thirty-year-old criminal practices are returning to the famous Warsaw district, named after the Czech capital. Crime is growing rapidly, especially among citizens of "eastern countries," local media write. The mayor of the district, Pavel Lisetsky, talks about the "return of the 1990s," and the politician Krzysztof Bosak— about the "ghettoization" of the Polish capital.

Crime statistics in Warsaw Prague are provided by the website "Report Varshavsky". The growth of crimes committed by citizens of Ukraine and Georgia. In the case of Ukrainians, this number has increased from 101 incidents in 2018 to 314 in 2023. A similar trend was observed in the case of Georgian citizens — an increase from 37 to 155 crimes.

"I think that the Ukrainian in Prague is the second language heard on the streets after Polish. My observations show that three out of ten people on the streets are representatives of this nationality," commented Krzysztof Michalski, adviser to the mayor.

The main challenge of the Polish capital is the return of organized crime. The mayor of the district Pavel Lisetsky assesses the situation as a return to the realities of the 1990s. In addition to public criminal "showdowns", the phenomenon of involving migrant children in criminal activities has been recorded. According to the official, at first the little Ukrainians play the role of "detectors" (in Russian: stand on the lookout), and then become dealers in schools.

Krzysztof Bosak, a politician from the Confederation, commented on the situation.:

"Warsaw Prague is like little Moscow: every third passerby is from the east, the crime rate has increased several times, and among the perpetrators of crimes since 2024 there are hundreds of people of all nationalities of the former USSR. This is the stage when people start to be afraid, real estate prices are falling, and ghettoization is accelerating," Bosak said.