Former Polish presidential candidate Seb Ross posted a claim on social media alleging that “Americans killed a seven-year-old Russian girl in Luhansk”. As “evidence”, he attached a photograph of a girl.

This was reported by the Center for Strategic Communications.

In reality, the image used by Ross is a stock photo – it even retains the watermark of the photo bank. Therefore, his claim has no connection to real events.

Seb Ross is known for his pro-Russian views. He has previously stated that, if he became president of Poland, he would visit Moscow, and he has also questioned the need to criticize Russia. The politician has repeatedly spoken in favor of Poland leaving the European Union.

Ross published the fake about a “Russian girl killed by Americans” after reports that a seven-year-old girl, Amelia Grzesko, who held Polish citizenship, was killed as a result of a Russian shelling of Ternopil. It is likely that in this way he is trying to deflect responsibility from Russia for the deaths of children and create a false “mirror” narrative.

Russian propagandists are actively spreading a false claim that Poland has allegedly accused Ukraine of carrying out sabotage on the Warsaw-Lublin railway line. This disinformation narrative is aimed at discrediting Ukraine and escalating tensions in the strategically important partnership between Poland and Ukraine. The manipulation was debunked by fact-checkers at StopFake.

In reality, Poland’s leadership has clearly stated that Russia – not Ukraine – was behind the attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fully agreed with the Polish assessment and emphasized that “all the facts point to a Russian trace”. He also initiated the creation of a joint Polish-Ukrainian working group to more effectively counter Russian sabotage operations.

The use of citizens of third countries, including Ukraine, to carry out acts of sabotage in Europe is a standard practice of the hybrid warfare waged by the Kremlin. Disinformation claiming that Poland accused Ukraine is an outright lie aimed at sowing discord between allies. Both countries have clearly identified Russia as the sole organizer and beneficiary of this terrorist act.

Claims are circulating widely on Polish social media alleging that a Ukrainian woman working at a ZUS branch (Poland’s Social Insurance Institution) in Szczecin is deliberately delaying procedures for Polish citizens, while management supposedly ignores complaints. Fact-checkers from Demagog have explained why this claim is fake.

Fake stories about Ukrainians in Poland take various forms, and one of the recurring themes in this context concerns pension payments in Poland. In connection with this topic, claims have also emerged that a Ukrainian citizen is allegedly making it harder for Poles to access benefits, and posts spreading this narrative have quickly circulated across social media platforms.

For example, a video was published on TikTok – at the time of writing it had more than 12,000 likes – claiming that a Ukrainian woman working at the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) in Szczecin is deliberately delaying the processing of pension applications for Polish citizens. Despite numerous complaints, as stated in the recording, she allegedly continues to hold her position.

Other materials on the same topic quickly appeared on platforms such as X and Facebook. The comments are dominated by anti-Ukrainian sentiment. As users wrote (original spelling preserved): “Fire her, they shouldn’t work in such positions at all”, “A saboteur against the Polish nation”, “What is this, why are Ukrainians hired in government offices?”

ZUS responds to the false information about pension payments in Szczecin

ZUS issued an official response to the allegations of alleged sabotage by an employee. As emphasized in the statement, the time required to process applications depends on various factors, such as the complexity of a case or the need to obtain additional documents. According to the institution, these factors may extend processing times and have nothing to do with any “Ukrainian” employee. When asked whether the Ukrainian woman mentioned in the video actually works at the Szczecin branch of ZUS, the official answer was clear: “The information is false. There is no such employee”.

Thus, such fakes are being spread with the aim of fueling anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland.

In Polish social media, a video is being widely shared showing a group of Ukrainian soldiers near the district hospital in Stalowa Wola (Poland). This sparked a wave of outrage and speculation: some users and politicians claimed that the soldiers allegedly received medical care ahead of Polish patients, putting an extra burden on the local healthcare system. However, as Polish fact-checkers from Demagog found, this is a manipulation.

Social media users claimed that these men were “burdening” the Polish healthcare system or were being treated out of turn, forcing Poles to wait in queues. The topic was picked up by some Polish politicians, including Włodzimierz Skalik of the Confederation of the Polish Crown and Konrad Berkowicz from the New Hope party. Berkowicz, for example, stated: “Ukrainians are being hospitalized in our hospitals at the expense of Poles who are standing in queues. The case of Stalowa Wola is not an isolated incident; it is a symptom of a country that puts foreign interests above principles. We are not masters in Poland. We are giving up territory to foreigners in our own country”.

Such claims quickly gained traction, but they are based on assumptions rather than facts and resemble Russian narratives aimed at polarizing society.

Official responses

Poland’s Ministry of National Defence (MON) and the head of Stalowa Wola county, Janusz Zarzeczny, quickly responded to the rumors. In a statement posted on X on November 3, 2025, MON emphasized that there are no laws or regulations in Poland that give Ukrainian soldiers priority in medical care over Polish patients: “There are no legal provisions in Poland that guarantee medical treatment in hospitals for Ukrainian soldiers instead of Polish patients. This attempt at manipulation fits the Russian narrative aimed at stirring negative emotions and polarizing Polish and Western society,” the official statement said.

According to Janusz Zarzeczny in an interview with Wirtualna Polska, the soldiers were undergoing scheduled screening tests as part of training at a nearby training ground in Lipy. These procedures were not financed by the National Health Fund (NFZ) but were provided on a commercial basis, with the costs covered by the Ministry of National Defence. “These are invoices amounting to hundreds of thousands of zlotys. This is additional income for the hospital,” Zarzeczny explained.

The hospital does not serve only Ukrainian soldiers. In a specially separated part of the building, similar tests are carried out for soldiers from Slovakia, Norway, and France who are also training in the region. This is standard practice for foreign units and does not affect queues for local residents.

The level of health insurance contributions and the cost of treatment for Ukrainians in Poland

In the context of the debate on Ukrainians’ access to Poland’s healthcare system, it is worth noting that according to available data, in 2024 the treatment of people from Ukraine cost 2.24 billion zlotys, compared to 1.95 billion zlotys the year before. Revenue from health insurance contributions paid by Ukrainian citizens to the National Health Fund (NFZ) amounted to 3.8 billion zlotys and 3.1 billion zlotys in those years, respectively.

This means that health insurance contributions paid by Ukrainians exceed the costs of their medical treatment in Poland. In 2024, the surplus amounted to 1.56 billion zlotys, and in 2023 to 1.15 billion zlotys.

This story is a typical fake that exploits emotions and national prejudices. A video taken out of context is easy to misinterpret, while politicians and bots on social media amplify it for their own purposes. MON directly points to links with Russian narratives that seek to sow discord between Poland and Ukraine.

A video has circulated in the Russian-language segment of social media in which a woman allegedly from Ukraine complains about the contents of a package of Polish humanitarian aid. In the clip, the woman says she will “give the canned food to dogs” and expresses shock that the box supposedly did not contain “shrimp and alcohol as a gift”. StopFake reported on the spread of this fake.

Russian audiences quickly picked up the video, accusing Ukrainians of being “ungrateful” and even calling on Poles to “stage a Lviv-style massacre against refugees”.

In reality, the video is yet another fake. An audio track was added to the footage using artificial intelligence: the voice sounds unnatural and has intonations typical of synthetic speech. For example, the “Ukrainian woman” says the canned food is suitable only for dogs and wonders why there was not even “some miserable prosecco” in the package. Such linguistic mistakes immediately reveal the forgery.

Fake information is spreading on social media about the alleged detention of two Ukrainian refugees for involvement in a high-profile robbery at the Louvre that supposedly took place on October 19, 2025.

This was reported by StopFake.

Russian accounts are posting messages with photos of two men in handcuffs, claiming that they were responsible for stealing nine valuable items from the so-called Napoleon collection. However, these images have nothing to do with the investigation by French police.

The photos show two Ukrainian citizens who were detained by Polish law enforcement on the night of October 9–10 in the town of Opole Lubelskie. The men were intoxicated and attempted to steal a tractor from a private yard. This is confirmed not only by accompanying reports in Polish media, but also by the police uniforms – the images clearly show the word “POLICJA”, indicating that it was the Polish police, not the French authorities.

French police, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, the French Ministry of Culture, and leading global news agencies have not reported the detention of Ukrainian citizens in connection with any robbery at the Louvre.

Disinformation experts note that this fake story is being actively spread through pro-Russian Telegram channels and other resources linked to Russian propaganda. Such campaigns are part of a systematic effort to discredit Ukrainian refugees abroad and to create a negative image of Ukrainians in EU countries. Their goal is to provoke distrust and hostility among local populations, thereby increasing social tensions.

Messages are circulating on social media (Facebook and TikTok) about an alleged triple murder in Kraków that was supposedly committed by a Ukrainian. This information quickly gained traction online, sparking a wave of outrage and speculation. However, the Kraków police officially denied these claims, calling them fake. Fact-checkers from Demagog investigated how this disinformation originated.

What happened?

A video circulated on social media showing ambulances with sirens on driving through an intersection near the Galeria Krakowska shopping center. The authors of the posts claimed that on October 11, 2025, a triple murder had allegedly taken place in Kraków and that it was committed by a Ukrainian citizen. The messages said that a man with a semi-automatic pistol attacked a group of people, killing a 21-year-old man and two 19-year-old women. The perpetrator was allegedly arrested and charged with murder with particular cruelty.

A TikTok video on this topic garnered nearly 100,000 reactions, 900 comments, and more than 43,000 shares. In the comments, users expressed outrage, with some even blaming the Ukrainian community and referring to historical narratives and stereotypes. For example, one comment read: “A small Volhynia is slowly beginning”, while another claimed that “they will release him and he will disappear for a while like a grenade. Our governments have been based on Bandera since 1945, and to this day the parliamentary majority are Bandera scum!”

Police response

The Kraków Police Headquarters quickly responded to the spread of these rumors. On its official Facebook page, the police published a statement categorically denying the information about the murder:

“ATTENTION! Check the facts – information about a murder in Kraków is FAKE NEWS! A rumor is spreading online about an alleged triple murder in Kraków committed by a person of Ukrainian nationality. We categorically deny this information! No such incident occurred either in Kraków or in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship”.

The police urged citizens not to trust unverified sources, to check information through official channels, and to refrain from spreading fake news.

Why does this matter?

This case is an example of how disinformation can quickly spread on social media, causing panic and hostility. False reports about crimes, especially those allegedly involving foreigners, can reinforce stereotypes and provoke discrimination. According to a report by the Public Opinion Research Center (CBOS), in 2025, 38% of Poles expressed antipathy toward Ukrainians – 8% more than in 2024 and 21% more than in 2023.

The story about a “triple murder” in Kraków is a fake that was not confirmed by any official sources.

Russian propagandist outlets are spreading another fake, claiming that “Polish mercenaries” are fighting against Russia in Ukraine and allegedly using drugs that allow them “not to sleep or eat for up to two weeks”. The only source of this information is the words of a person presented by propagandists as a Russian serviceman, without any additional evidence or confirmation. This fake has been debunked by specialists from the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD).

Example of a propagandist injection (translation from Russian):

“Polish mercenaries of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are fighting under the influence of drugs! Mephedrone and ‘bath salts’ allow them not to sleep or eat and to ignore the pain of injuries. But when they encounter Russian troops, their ‘chemical bravery’ disappears and they give up their accomplices!”

Such statements are not only unfounded but also absurd. They are intended to sow distrust toward Ukrainian forces and their allies, as well as to reinforce an internal Russian narrative about the “moral superiority” of the Russian army.

Why is this not true?

This fake is part of a systematic Kremlin campaign aimed at discrediting Ukraine’s Defense Forces and foreign volunteers who support the country. Russian propaganda seeks to portray foreign fighters as “mercenaries” and “drug addicts” in order to create the image of a war “against the entire West” for its pro-Russian audience.

In mid-September, a video was actively circulated on Polish social media that allegedly described an incident in which Ukrainian soldiers, referred to as “Banderites”, supposedly beat Polish soldiers at the Polish-Ukrainian border while returning from training. Polish fact-checkers from Demagog have debunked this fake.

Origin of the fake

A video claiming that Ukrainian citizens dressed in Polish military uniforms beat Polish soldiers was spread on Facebook and TikTok. The post stated that one of the soldiers was allegedly hospitalized in serious condition. The video gained significant traction: one repost was viewed more than 150,000 times, while another post received over 6,000 reactions and 600 comments on Facebook. Some comments contained hate speech and doubts about government transparency, for example: “So why is the government hiding this?”, “This is a damn scandal”, “It’s a pity to shoot cattle”.

Official rebuttal

Poland’s Ministry of National Defence (MON) officially denied this information in a post on the X platform:

“Information appearing online claiming that Polish soldiers were beaten by Ukrainian citizens at the Polish-Ukrainian border is a complete fake. No such incident occurred. This is a classic example of disinformation aimed at stirring emotions. Before sharing a post or comment, check the source. Use only reliable and official information. Disinformation works only when we allow ourselves to be deceived by it. Do not spread lies.”

As Demagog experts emphasize, such fakes are part of a coordinated campaign aimed at fueling anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland. By spreading false information or sensational content that provokes strong emotions without verified facts, manipulators seek to sow distrust and hostility between nations.

Propagandists are spreading a story on anonymous Telegram channels about a ‘Ukrainian waiter’ at a Polish restaurant who allegedly added his semen to customers' dishes. It is claimed that this was reported by the leading Polish publication Rzeczpospolita. However, this is a fake.

Experts from the publication Farwater.Skhid have drawn attention to the issue. They discovered that propagandists used a manipulated screenshot, supposedly taken from the publication. The falsification involved altering the headline, section, and illustrations, though stock images were retained in the photo. The unnatural structure of the categorization and the use of stock images prove the manipulation. The analysis also shows that this information was spread exclusively through propagandist Telegram channels and is absent from the pages of Rzeczpospolita.

The main goal of this disinformation is to discredit Ukrainian refugees by creating the impression that they are immoral and dangerous. This is aimed at reducing support for Ukrainians in Poland, provoking public outrage, and undermining trust in policies of openness towards migrants. Propagandists also seek to divide Polish-Ukrainian relations, as such provocative stories emotionally impact the audience. These actions are yet another example of Russia's informational aggression aimed at destabilizing societies that support Ukraine.

Pro-Russian sources have been circulating a screenshot supposedly from the website of the Polish Ministry of Digitalization, dated December 9, 2024, listing the most popular male names in the country. According to the screenshot, the top three names are Taras, Bohdan, and Stepan. The propagandists suggest that this indicates Ukrainian refugees are giving birth in Poland more frequently than Polish women.

However, this is a blatant falsehood, as reported by VoxCheck. There are no publications on the official website of the Polish Ministry of Digitalization regarding a list of the most popular male names for December 9, 2024. The last time the ministry published such a list was on August 6, 2024. At that time, the top three male names were Nikodem, Jan, and Aleksander. Additionally, the names Stepan, Taras, and Bohdan were not included in the ranking.

The Ministry of Digitalization of Poland has officially debunked the claim that Stepan, Taras, and Bohdan were the most popular names in Poland in 2024.

Earlier, we also debunked a Russian myth about Warsaw's alleged plans to annex western Ukraine.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading manipulative information that since the start of the full-scale invasion, “Polish transplantologists are breaking records” allegedly due to the use of organs from killed Ukrainian soldiers.

“2024 was a record year for Polish transplantology. 2,197 organs were transplanted, which is a historic result on a national scale”, the propagandists write.

However, the information was manipulated, and this is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation. Propagandists deliberately link the statistics of the increase in the number of organ transplants in Poland with the beginning of a full-scale invasion. Thus, they confirm the theory of “black transplantology”, according to which the bodies of deceased Ukrainian soldiers from the front line are sent to Poland for “selling organs”.

Black transplantology in Ukraine is a conspiracy theory that the Russians have been developing for decades. The constant return to the topic indicates its importance for Russia. These messages are promoted to both domestic and international audiences. However, their refutation in foreign and Ukrainian media prevents the campaign from having the desired impact for the propagandists. Among the goals pursued by Russian propaganda within the framework of this topic are discrediting the military-political leadership of Ukraine and reducing trust in it, creating a negative image of the state in the eyes of the international community, and justifying Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The head of the Polish National Security Bureau, Jacek Siewiera, said in an interview with Polskie Radio that Poland currently has no plans to send peacekeepers to Ukraine. One of the reasons for this decision is the desire not to contribute to the spread of Russian disinformation about Warsaw's alleged plans to annex the western regions of Ukraine. This is reported by the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security.

“This narrative that Poland is allegedly interested in seizing western Ukraine has been used for years, but since the start of a full-scale war it has been further intensified. If our troops are involved, it will receive additional fuel”, Siewiera noted.

At the same time, he suggested that the possibility of sending European peacekeepers to Ukraine remains potentially discussable in the future. However, for Moscow, this is an undesirable scenario, which is why Russian propaganda is intensifying the information war, trying to “mine” the public space with fabricated fakes.

Russian propaganda spreads disinformation about possible Polish plans to annex western Ukraine to achieve several goals. It creates the impression that Poland has hidden geopolitical interests in Ukraine, which could cause tension between the countries. The spread of such messages is intended to sow doubts about the sincerity of European countries' support for Ukraine. These messages are designed to turn Ukrainians against Poland and split the unity of the West.

Russian propagandists are spreading information on social networks that Ukrainian children are allegedly beaten in Polish schools for speaking Ukrainian. As proof, they show screenshots of falsified Google reviews. However, in reality, these “reviews” are falsified, and in the original texts they complained about completely different things, in particular, repairs or the quality of teaching.

VoxCheck writes about this. Its experts found out that although some cases of aggression towards Ukrainian students in Poland were recorded, Polish human rights activists point out that these are more isolated incidents than systematic discrimination. Previously, Russian propaganda tried to spread hostility between Ukrainians and Poles, claiming that Poles bribe schools so that their children do not study with Ukrainians, or that during the flood, Ukrainian refugees are placed in hotels, and Poles in camps.

The aim of spreading this disinformation is to incite hostility between Ukrainians and Poles, as well as to undermine trust between allies in Europe. Russian propaganda attempts to sow distrust towards Poland as a country that provides shelter to Ukrainian refugees, creating an image of Poland as a “hostile” environment for Ukrainians. This tactic is aimed at reducing support for Ukraine in Polish society and devaluing the partnership between Ukraine and the West.

Russian Telegram channels are spreading information that Ukrainian children are allegedly beaten in Polish schools for speaking their native language. As proof of this, the propagandists add screenshots of corresponding reviews from Ukrainian parents whose children study in Polish schools.

In fact, this is a fake. The screenshots are fake, the VoxCheck project reports. Yes, the original reviews were replaced, because they talked about things unrelated to the language issue. For example, there were reviews about school renovations, the quality of teaching, and others. VoxCheck journalists did manage to find one complaint about cruel treatment of refugees from Ukraine, but it was published a year ago.

It should be noted that cases of aggression towards students from Ukraine in Poland do indeed occur.

Russian propaganda continues to work to set Ukrainians and Poles at odds with each other.

Russian propaganda Telegram channels are distributing a screenshot of an alleged message on the page of the newly appointed Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar on the X social network. The publication states that the Poles are unworthy of the memory of their ancestors, who besieged Moscow four centuries ago. “Poland does not provide Kyiv with MiG-29, refuses to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukraine, considers Bandera a Nazi and a criminal”, Bodnar allegedly writes. In turn, the propagandists comment on this message as follows: “the new ambassador has begun work on a diplomatic scandal”.

In fact, this is a fake, the newly appointed Ukrainian ambassador to Poland did not publish this message. This is reported by the VoxCheck project. The screenshot distributed by propagandists is the same in all the messages where it appeared: the time of publication (“4 hours ago”), the number of views, preferences and distributions are the same. It is unlikely that these indicators would be identical in screenshots of different users. That is, different propaganda sources are distributing the same fake screenshot.

Bodnar has not yet started his duties as ambassador to Poland. President Zelenskyi signed a decree on his appointment on October 25, 2024, but some time will pass before he actually takes office. An ambassador begins his work from the moment his credentials are presented to the head of a foreign state, and copies of his credentials are also presented to representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the case of Poland, an official ceremony with the participation of President Andrzej Duda must take place, and only after that will Vasyl Bodnar take office. For example, almost half a year passed between the appointment of former Ukrainian ambassador to Poland Vasyl Zvarych and the inauguration ceremony.

For now, Bodnar is still working in his previous position as the Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey. This is evidenced by the diplomat's social networks and the Ukrainian embassy in Turkey. In particular, after signing the decree on the new appointment, he attended a book presentation in the rank of the Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey.

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.

Pro-Russian sources, citing the Polish publication Gazeta.pl, are spreading information that from November 20, 2024, paper hryvnias will allegedly be printed only in Poland. According to the propagandists, the reasons for this decision are power outages, a shortage of materials, and the expensive logistics of producing the national currency in Ukraine.

However, in reality, this is a fake, journalists from the StopFake project write. First of all, the gazeta.pl website did not disseminate the relevant information. In addition, the publication publishes materials exclusively in Polish (the fake material is in English), and does not create video content (the source of the fake is a fabricated video). In the end, neither the National Bank of Ukraine itself, nor any authoritative media published the relevant “news”.

By spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda is trying to undermine trust in the Ukrainian banking system. We have previously recorded disinformation concerning the National Bank of Ukraine. For example, we refuted information that cryptocurrency payments were banned in Ukraine.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels and social media users are spreading information that Poland has allegedly begun handing over to Ukraine citizens who “escaped from mobilization”. Russian propagandists claim that the first case occurred in October 2024, when Polish police detained a Ukrainian and sent him to the Ukrainian border under escort. However, this is fake.

The StopFake project mentioned it. Its experts found out that in fact this incident concerns not evasion of mobilization, but deportation due to violations of Polish laws, namely suspicions of assisting illegal migration. Official sources do not confirm the accusations of mobilization reasons for deportation.

The spread of fakes about the deportation of Ukrainians from EU countries, in particular Poland, is part of the disinformation campaign of Russian propaganda. In October 2024, no EU government introduced a policy of returning Ukrainian citizens through mobilization. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said that the deportation of Ukrainians of military age contradicts the Temporary Protection Directive, which regulates the status of refugees in the EU.

Russian propagandists used the flooding in Poland to create anti-Ukrainian sentiment and sow discord between Ukrainians and Poles. One of the main messages was that supporting Ukraine allegedly weakens Poland's ability to help its citizens. Propagandists spread information that Ukrainian refugees received more aid than the affected Poles, which caused negative emotions and fueled discontent. This is written by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

Examples of manipulations:

Accusations against Ukrainians of looting in areas evacuated due to flooding.

Using fake videos and data from other countries to exaggerate the scale of the disaster.

Manipulation of the numbers of dead and missing in order to distort the real state of affairs.

According to the PAP press agency, from September 13 to 25, 23,000 disinformation messages were recorded online, reaching around eight million users. The campaign also aimed to incite hostility, weaken the strategic alliance between Poland and Ukraine, and undermine unity in confronting Russian aggression. This is part of a broader information war aimed at isolating Ukraine on the international stage and reducing support among key partners. In response, the Polish authorities emphasize the continuation of comprehensive assistance to Ukraine in the fight against the aggressor.

Russian propagandists are spreading information about the demolition of a monument to UPA soldiers in the Polish village of Werkrata (Subcarpathian Voivodeship) with corresponding photos. However, this is manipulation. This is written by the Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. They found out that in fact this is old news from 2016.

Thus, propagandists try to create the impression that Poland does not support Ukraine, provoking tensions between the nations. Such information attacks are aimed at weakening Polish-Ukrainian relations and inciting national discord, which is part of the strategy of isolating Ukraine. However, Poland continues to support Ukraine in its fight for independence, despite these destructive messages.

Anonymous Telegram channels are discussing the reaction of the Ukrainian leadership to a previously published article by The Wall Street Journal, which states that the number of killed Ukrainian soldiers allegedly reaches 80 thousand, and the wounded - 400 thousand. At a meeting with journalists on September 20, 2024, Volodymyr Zelenskyi denied such information.

“80 thousand? That's a lie. The real figure is significantly lower than what was published. Significantly”, Zelenskyi said.

WSJ journalists also reported that it is difficult to determine the exact number of dead and wounded in the Russian-Ukrainian war, since Russia and Ukraine refuse to publish official estimates or publish ones that “many do not trust”. And they formed their figures based on unnamed sources familiar with the situation in Ukraine.

Russian propagandists used this information drive and spread reports that Polish journalists also decided to conduct their own assessment of the dead and came up with a figure of up to 500 thousand killed Ukrainian soldiers.

“The more Ukrainian soldiers, and especially those from the western regions of Ukraine, die, the easier it will be for Poland to take back what already belongs only to it,” the propagandists who allegedly commented on the “results” of the study on Polish radio reported.

But this is just a Russian fake. No major Polish media outlets have come out with such news - and even with the help of a reverse Google search - using the key phrase “500,000 wojskowych zabitych na Ukrainie” (500 thousand soldiers died in Ukraine) there are no similar publications.

As for the phrase on Polish radio, it was also made up, because there were no “results”  of the study. Moreover, the quote that the propagandists cite was only published in the segment of Russian and anonymous telegram channels. That is, official sources did not confirm this: and the quote itself is a set of Russian rhetoric about “Poland taking the western part of Ukraine”.

Information about the dead is sensitive information that the Kremlin's minions are trying to speculate on, playing on the mood of Ukrainians. Due to the extremely inflated figures from the propagandists, it may seem that the war has no end and soon no one will be fighting. In general, such figures cannot be genuine; even the Ukrainian authorities can adjust some constant figures, for example, only deny the WSJ material, since it is currently impossible to establish the real number of dead during the active phase of the war.

Let us recall that in February of this year, the Ukrainian president reported the number of 31 thousand fallen Ukrainian soldiers over two years of the great war.

Propagandists claim that Warsaw allegedly has territorial claims on Western Ukraine. They say, if the Polish army enters Volyn, the Lukashenko regime will support the local population, since Belarusians will be next. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security writes about it.

They indicate that this message has been used by propagandists since the very beginning of the full-scale invasion. Poland has been a reliable ally of Ukraine since the beginning of the war, and there is no evidence to support its territorial claims. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Belarus has become a base for Russian attacks on Ukraine. In addition, the so-called allied relations between Moscow and Minsk are considered a “diplomatic occupation of Belarus”, since Putin actually controls both the power bloc and military structures in Belarus, which indicates the loss of its sovereignty.

This misinformation is being spread to create distrust and tension between Ukraine and Poland, two key allies in the fight against Russian aggression. Russia and Belarus use this message to weaken the support of Ukraine from Poland and other Western countries, which provide significant military, humanitarian and economic assistance. This fake is also trying to blow up internal unity in Ukraine. In addition, its dissemination aims to distract attention from the real role of Belarus in the war as an ally of Russia and a participant in the aggression against Ukraine. In a broader context, such fakes help to create an image of an external enemy for Belarusian society, amplifying the rhetoric of fear and mobilization around threats to sovereignty in order to justify Lukashenko's political actions and strengthen Belarus' dependence on Russia.

Russian Telegram channels and pro-Russian users of the social network X are distributing a video allegedly published by the BBC. The material says that Polish schoolchildren allegedly do not want to study together with Ukrainian children because of the latter’s “low academic performance and bad behavior”. In turn, Polish parents are even allegedly ready to bribe the directors of local schools just to protect their children from studying in mixed classes. However, this is fake.

The video clip being distributed online has nothing to do with the BBC, Ukrinform journalists report. There is no corresponding clip on the British Broadcasting Corporation's website or on its official social media pages.

Additionally, all BBC videos on YouTube Shorts recently contain information about when they were released. However, the fake video does not have a publication date.

Russian propaganda faked the video using photos and videos found on the Internet. Some of them do not even concern Ukraine. For example, the frame with which the video begins appeared online back in 2021 - it can be found on foreign websites.

It should also be noted that earlier the Russians distributed a fake video on behalf of the BBC, which concerned the “mass use of Nazi symbols” by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region. The audio track in that video matches the audio track present in the video about the negative attitude towards Ukrainian schoolchildren in Poland.

With this fake, propagandists are trying to sow discord between Ukrainians and Poles, as well as weaken relations between Ukraine and Poland. Earlier, we refuted the information that the Volyn tragedy will not be studied in Polish schools where Ukrainian children study.

A number of pro-Russian sources have spread the “news” that those evacuated as a result of the flood in Poland have nowhere to stay, because “all the places are occupied by Ukrainians”. As evidence, the propagandists cited a publication by an allegedly injured Polish woman named Dagmara Malynowska, who wanted to evacuate to a hotel with her child, but they were allegedly refused.

Therefore, the woman and her daughter were apparently forced to spend the night in a camp on the site of a school, where the child contracted pneumonia. Finally, as the Russians claim, Dagmara called on the authorities to check why Ukrainian refugees are provided better conditions than Polish citizens.

However, Russian propagandists have faked the publication. StopFake journalists found the original message by Dagmara Malinovskaya with such a photo. In the post, the woman did not write anything about Ukrainians who allegedly occupied all the places in the hotels. In fact, Dagmara published information that Primary School No. 3 was accepting evacuees and also needed humanitarian aid: water, warm food and blankets.

The Polish woman later personally refuted the Russian propaganda, stating that she had not written it. She also added that she had not been evacuated and that she did not have a daughter.

With this fake, the Russians want to spoil the attitude of Poles towards Ukrainian refugees and to quarrel with residents of neighboring countries. Earlier, we recorded a Russian message about “possible reduction of jobs for Polish teachers in favor of educators from Ukraine”.