Lost in translation by SB: How Polish city apartments became housing without bathrooms

Belarus Segodnya reporter Alena Krasovskaya wrote about how ordinary European Union citizens are becoming impoverished and sinking to the very bottom due to "rampant militarization and Ukraine's growing financial demands" in an article published October 3, 2025. As an example, she cited Poland, where housing conditions are allegedly worse than in Belarus.

"Nearly 800,000 apartments in Poland still do not have a toilet, 400,000 lack running water, and about 1 million have no bathroom. Let's reiterate: We are talking about apartments, not some remote village huts. Although today in Belarus, no one builds even private homes without an indoor bathroom. Belarusians can afford this, but Poles do not always have even minimal amenities in their apartments. And this is in a modern European country ..." Krasovskaya wrote.

The author apparently translated the Polish word mieszkanie as apartment. Poland's Central Statistical Office defines it as any residential unit. According to Polish statistics, the country's entire housing stock totals 16 million residential units. This includes both apartments in multi-unit buildings and single-family homes in remote villages.

Krasovskaya also erred in comparing the availability of amenities in the two countries. In Poland, 2.2% of residential units lack running water, 4.7% lack a toilet and 6.1% lack a bathroom. In Belarus, the total housing stock comprises approximately 4.08 million units. According to the 2019 census, nearly 7.9% of them lacked running water. In percentage terms, this is 3.5 times higher than in Poland. 13.9% of housing in Belarus lacked indoor plumbing and a bath or shower, which is twice as high in percentage terms as its neighbors.