False information is circulating in the Polish segment of social media claiming that the Polish government has supposedly “secretly” decided to abolish border checks for trains arriving from Ukraine, thereby making it easier for Ukrainian citizens to enter the country. These claims are misleading.

The changes in question concern only the organization of border and customs procedures on the Ukrainian side of the border. On the Polish side, all border control procedures remain completely unchanged. The manipulation was analyzed by fact-checkers from Demagog.

In posts that gained significant traction, particularly through content shared by Krzysztof Woźniak, it was claimed that the Polish government was “further simplifying” entry procedures for Ukrainians while concealing this information from its own citizens. As supposed evidence, the posts cited a news report stating that “Ukrainians will enter Poland more quickly”, referring to a statement by the Ukrainian prime minister. The author of the false claim linked this alleged simplification to concerns about rising crime among Ukrainians in Poland.

The popular post received more than 2,500 reactions and around 1,000 shares. Among the hundreds of comments, negative remarks about the Polish authorities predominated, including statements such as: “Why haven’t Poles taken to the streets and overthrown the Law and Justice party yet?”, “Oh God, I’m going crazy. Instead of closing the border, they’re making it even easier to cross. A scandal. This anti-Polish government is destroying our country”, “Keep voting for the smiling ones”, and “The government should resign”.

No changes on the Polish side

On 26 November, Yuliia Svyrydenko published a message on Telegram stating that border and customs controls on the Kyiv-Przemyśl and Kyiv-Chełm railway routes would be conducted while the train was in motion rather than during stops near the border. At the end of the post, she thanked Ukraine’s Ministry of Development, Ukrzaliznytsia, and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine for their coordination. Notably, no Polish institutions were mentioned.

To clarify the situation, fact-checkers from Demagog contacted Poland’s Ministry of the Interior and Administration of Poland and the Polish Border Guard to ask whether the announced changes also applied to the Polish side. Both institutions confirmed that no changes had been introduced to the procedures for checking passengers arriving by train from Ukraine.

In a comment provided to Demagog on 8 December 2025, the Department of Social Communication of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration stated:

“All persons entering our territory by train from Ukraine undergo full border and customs control. Their identities are verified on the basis of travel documents and checked against relevant databases. The National Revenue Administration (KAS) also carries out its own customs procedures”.

The Polish Border Guard likewise confirmed that the Polish side has not abandoned the inspections conducted when trains stop at the border.

Conclusion

The claim that Poland is supposedly “secretly” making it easier for Ukrainians to enter the country by abolishing railway border controls is false. The changes concern only the internal organization of control procedures on the Ukrainian side. No changes have been introduced to Poland’s border-crossing rules, and passengers continue to undergo full border and customs checks during stops on Polish territory.

On social media, particularly among Russian- and Georgian-language Facebook accounts, fabricated photographs have been circulating that supposedly show Andriy Yermak in military uniform on the front line. These images are fake and were generated using artificial intelligence (AI).

No Ukrainian or Western media outlet has published verified photographs of Yermak from the battlefield. The spread of the AI-generated images was documented by Georgian fact-checkers from MythDetector.

Between 1 and 4 December, Russian- and Georgian-language Facebook accounts circulated fabricated photographs of former Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak. In one image, he is depicted wearing a military uniform and standing in front of a Ukrainian tank. In another, he appears in an artificially created trench surrounded by several cameras.

In the second image, Andriy Yermak is shown posing in front of a tank while wearing a military vest. The vest appears unnaturally fused with the uniform, as if the two were a single object, making it difficult to distinguish between them.

In addition to visual analysis, fact-checkers from Myth Detector examined the images using an AI-detection tool. The service Hive Moderation classified all of the photographs as AI-generated with a high degree of probability (around 90%).

The circulation of these fabricated photographs appears intended to reinforce Yermak’s statement about his plans to join the military, creating the impression that his supposed “trip to the front line” had already taken place and was merely a staged public-relations exercise.

However, neither Ukrainian nor international media outlets have published any information or photographic evidence indicating that Andriy Yermak has already arrived at the front line to participate in combat operations.

Popular travel blogger Kurt Caz, known for his “poverty tourism” content, used generative artificial intelligence to create a misleading and overtly racist thumbnail for one of his YouTube videos. The purpose of the fabrication was to portray a district of London as a dangerous place allegedly “terrorized” by non-white residents and immigrants, thereby fueling anti-immigrant sentiment among his millions of followers. The fake was exposed by journalists from Futurism.com.

South African influencer Kurt Caz, who has around 4 million subscribers on YouTube, published a 36-minute video titled “Avoid This Place in London”, filmed in the London borough of Croydon, where 36.2% of residents are immigrants.

While the video itself contained familiar racist insinuations about crime and immigration – describing non-white people who were simply going about their daily lives as “interesting characters” – the main manipulation was embedded in its thumbnail.

The thumbnail used by Caz featured:

However, as viewers pointed out, the actual frame from the video differed dramatically from the thumbnail:

This significant discrepancy is a clear indication that the image was altered using generative AI to artificially add elements that reinforced the influencer’s racist narrative: replacing English-language signs with Arabic ones and transforming a smiling passer-by into a sinister-looking figure wearing a balaclava.

The case fits into a broader trend of using accessible AI tools to create anti-immigrant propaganda content in the United Kingdom. Such fabricated images have become a tool for far-right propagandists seeking to stir hostility and fear, while AI enables the rapid creation and dissemination of these falsehoods to millions of users with minimal effort.