Ukrainian kills priest, wounds four at Polish abbey

Polish law enforcement officers work at the site of a knife attack in Jaroslaw, eastern Poland on September 24, 2026. [AFP]

A Ukrainian man was arrested Thursday for killing a priest and wounding four others with a knife at a Catholic abbey in Poland in an attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky branded "evil" and "horrific".

Police said the 31-year-old went on a stabbing spree at the 17th-century abbey in Jaroslaw, some 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

Lighting candles and praying in front of the abbey's gates, locals -- many of whom told AFP they knew the deceased priest -- described an atmosphere of sadness and fear following the attack.

"For such a small town, this is a heavy blow," Agnieszka Birek, a 41-year-old resident who knew the priest, told AFP

"I don't feel danger as much as a deep sadness."

Memorial masses and rosaries were organised in the evening, attended by over a hundred residents, according to AFP journalists on site.

Poland, a close ally of neighbouring Ukraine, has taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion -- with some social tensions erupting in recent months.

"There was definitely a lot of hate speech," Mateusz, a high school student from Jaroslaw, told AFP.

Police in the southeastern Podkarpackie region said earlier in a statement that "at around 9:30 am (0730 GMT), the police received a report that a Ukrainian national had attacked men with a knife on the grounds of Jaroslaw Abbey on Benedyktynska Street in Jaroslaw".

All the wounded were taken to hospital, some with serious wounds, it added.

Prosecutors said the man had entered Poland from Germany and was headed for the Ukraine border, but instead went to the abbey, where he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and attacked clergy and worshippers.

Police said he had attacked four men and a woman. They told AFP one person had died but did not confirm the identity.

Polish media identified the man who died as a priest.

- 'Horrific crime' -

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the "murderer" would be "punished with the full severity of Polish law".

Zelensky said: "The perpetrator of this evil must bear full responsibility in accordance with the law" and called the attack a "horrific crime".

"We are shaken by this evil," he added. "Justice must be done."

The local Gazeta Jaroslawska newspaper published images of fire engines and police outside the monastery, with its entrance cordoned off.

Stabbings -- especially at religious sites -- are extremely rare in Poland, one of Europe's most Catholic countries.

"I came for the holy mass," a woman, told Polish TV station TVN.

"A man aged around 30 struck the priest in the neck artery. The priest fell to the ground," she said.

Another witness told Polish media that the attacker had also stabbed a priest in a confessional.

TVN quoted a nun, Barbara Dendor, as saying the clergy could not "get our heads around what has happened today.

"It is a place that I believed was safe," she added.

Jaroslaw Mayor Marcin Nazarewicz told AFP that following the attack, psychologists arrived to provide support to both witnesses and others who were present in the vicinity.

- Makeshift memorial -

By Thursday evening, flowers and candles were left outside at a makeshift memorial.

Prosecutor Bozena Harasz-Woloszyn said the authorities had so far no information on the man's motives.

Doctors will assess the man's state and whether he was under the influence of alcohol, she added.

Poland has said that Russian-orchestrated sabotage is on the rise in the NATO country, during a fifth year of war in Ukraine.

The NATO and EU member state along the alliance's eastern flank has become the main hub for transporting Western military and humanitarian support to Kyiv.

Earlier this month, Tusk warned that intensifying Russian attacks in Ukraine in the coming weeks could affect Poland.

Nazarewicz said he held a meeting with the country crisis management team, in order to "work with and talk to" young Ukrainians in Jaroslaw in the wake of the attack.

While "the immediate danger was neutralised," authorities are now "considering what consequences this event may have in the next few days," he said.