The news was spread on social networks, in particular on the propaganda Telegram channel Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny, citing the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform. The fake news states that 500 volunteers have been recruited for the Ukrainian Legion, which is being formed in Poland, but there is not a single Ukrainian among them.

“Ukraine needs to quickly gather enough people to form a battalion. Ukraine is doing everything to recruit foreigners to fight”, the propaganda correspondence said.

However, the fake news repeated the context of the news. In fact, the point is that as of early November, more than 500 applications from 30 countries had been submitted to the Ukrainian Legion, a military unit that is currently being formed in Poland among Ukrainian volunteers living abroad. In fact, the decision to create the Ukrainian Legion, which will be prepared with the assistance and support of the Polish Ministry of Defense, was announced following the signing of a security agreement between Ukraine and Poland on July 8 in Warsaw.

That is, only Ukrainian volunteers living abroad are signing up for this unit. There is no talk of any “recruitment of foreigners”.

Russian propaganda systematically feeds the narrative that professional military personnel from other countries are fighting in Ukraine — so-called foreign mercenaries.  In this way, Russian propaganda also tries to justify the failures of the Russian army. They say that they are not fighting weak Ukrainians, but “specially trained NATO soldiers” or Americans. Moreover, Russian propaganda throws in such fakes to show that there is no one left to fight in Ukraine and they are recruiting “anyone in sight”.

By the way, in our Newspeak column we reported that it is Russia that is recruiting mercenaries, in particular Wagner representatives. This is essentially a terrorist organization within the Russian army.

Let us recall that Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny is a fake resource created solely to spread propaganda messages that are beneficial to Russia.

Read also: The lie that Polish media reports about half a million fallen Ukrainian soldiers.