The Łódź-Górna District Prosecutor’s Office has initiated an investigation into the public insult of the President of the Republic of Poland during a television program. The case concerns an incident from August 2025, when a Ukrainian columnist insulted Karol Nawrocki on air, calling him a “pachan.” “That is a term used in Russian prisons to refer to a criminal leader,” Witalii Mazurenko explained on camera.
During the program Gozdyra’s Debate, broadcast on Polsat News on 26 August 2025, Ukrainian journalist Witalii Mazurenko, who holds Polish citizenship, used scandalous language to comment on President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to veto a bill providing financial assistance to Ukrainian citizens.
“The rhetoric and behavior of Mr. Nawrocki are not presidential behavior; they are the behavior of a “pachan”. That is how a criminal leader is described in Russian prisons,”
he said on the program.
His statement was immediately addressed by the program’s host. Agnieszka Gozdyra expressed her objection to the tone of the remark. Despite criticism and several attempts at intervention by the host, Mazurenko did not retract his opinion during the broadcast. He did so only after the program ended. The consequences of his words included former editorial offices and academic institutions with which he had previously cooperated distancing themselves from him.
Prosecutor’s office launches an investigation
The offensive remarks prompted reports to be filed with the prosecutor’s office in the case. The Head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, Zbigniew Bogucki, assessed that the prosecutor’s office should take up the matter ex officio, as it concerns a public insult of the head of state.
Paweł Kryszczak of the Border Defense Movement published a letter from the Łódź-Górna District Prosecutor’s Office in Łódź, which clearly indicates that the unit initiated the investigation on 15 December 2025.