On March 18, in the Polish city of Kielce, a conference “Does war threaten us?” (Czy grozi nam wojna?) was held. The event was broadcast live on YouTube, and the speakers were those who have been spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the Polish information space for a long time. Specialists of the Polish project Demagog highlighted the most important anti-Ukrainian messages from the conference.

1 Yanukovych was stripped of power in an anti-democratic way

One of the speakers noted that allegedly the ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych was deprived of power contrary to the principles of democracy, and one should not call him a usurper or a dictator. To prove his thesis, he says that in 2010 Yanukovych was elected in elections that were held “according to all democratic standards”.

Propagandists thus again want to discredit Euromaidan and its influence on Ukrainian society. Like, this is a coup d'etat, which was organized by Washington to bring Ukraine to the brink. However, one of the reasons for the start of Euromaidan was the laws and decisions of Yanukovych, which went against public opinion, and protest is an important element of democratic processes in Europe, especially in Ukraine.

2. Ukraine will no longer return Crimea, and Kyiv started the war in Donbas

At the conference, the opinion was also voiced that the future of Ukraine was supposedly very vague, and the Russians made sure that Crimea remained “in their hands”.

Thus, propagandists want to legitimize and justify the illegal actions of Russia. Like, why does Ukraine need Crimea if it itself is falling apart? However, it was Russia that destabilized the region with its actions and illegally annexed Crimea and other temporarily occupied territories. It was Russia that also started the war in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, hiding behind the “protection of the Russian-speaking population” of these regions.

3. Kyiv regime forbids Ukrainians to speak Russian

The speakers of the event argued that Ukrainians from Donbas are afraid that “they are forced to learn a new language, that children will now speak Ukrainian ... They want a referendum”.

Through this message, propagandists want to demonize the Ukrainian authorities and justify Russia's crimes by “protecting the Russian-speaking population”. However, in addition to the fact that the Ukrainian language has always been the only state language, and Ukrainian legislation does not impose restrictions on the language of everyday communication, Russia arranges air attacks mainly on cities and regions where the use of the Russian language is common.

4. Everyone was silent when Ukraine bombed Donbas for 8 years

At the conference, one could also hear that “for 8 years, people living in the Donbas were often bombed, fired upon, and no one somehow wept over the fate of those children who died in schools…”. They say that this did not bother anyone in Ukraine and Poland, and Kyiv fired at these people.

This message is a classic example of Russian disinformation. Thus, the propagandists want to justify the crimes of the Russians. It seems that a full-scale war against Ukraine is revenge for the suffering of the inhabitants of Donbas. However, it was not Ukraine, but Russia that started hostilities there in 2014 and is ruthlessly destroying the territory of the region.

5. The war against Ukraine is part of a major plan of the world government, and very soon Ukraine and Poland will turn into “Ukropolin”.

The speakers of the event said that the war was started in order for Europe to start building “New Jerusalem, Heavenly Jerusalem, Crimean California, New Khazaria, Ukropolin”. Moreover, as proof of these words, they claim that the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, has already stated that Poland and Ukraine will allegedly unite into one state.

In this case, the propagandists turn to the now popular conspiracy theories to shift the responsibility for the crimes of the Russians to someone else. Like, these are all the tricks of the world government, and we are all just hostages of political games. In the answer above, one can also see anti-Semitic overtones: according to conspiracy theorists, the world government consists of Jews and in this way they take revenge for all the bad things that happened to them before. However, if to talk about Duda’s speech, which the speakers refer to, it is about the speech of May 3, 2022, where, within the full context, one can understand that the Polish president is talking about the amount of assistance to Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees. Moreover, in this speech, he even emphasizes that Poland will help “the restoration of Ukraine: strong, sovereign, independent”.