For years, the Russian government and other Kremlin actors have been spreading information alleging that Poland is “planning the annexation of western Ukraine”. This narrative has been mainly fuelled since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine after Poland declared its strong support for Ukraine. The Kremlin is trying to reinforce the belief that Poland is using the war for its own purposes, and in exchange for the aid provided to Ukraine, it is, de facto, “asking” for the territory of western Ukraine – which was part of the Second Polish Republic.
From this point of view, Georgia is no exception. For example, some Georgian pro-Russian media outlets claim that Poland wants to annex five regions of western Ukraine: the Volhynia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Tarnopol and Rivne oblasts.
The most popular disinformation narratives regarding the annexation of Ukraine by Poland are:
- Poland “intends to break Ukraine into pieces” and share it with Russia, Hungary and Romania;
- Poland “is planning to send” troops to Kyiv;
- the Polish government no longer holds secret that it “intends to occupy” Ukraine – Andrzej Duda’s confession;
- Zelenskyy “promised the Polish president” the lands of western Ukraine in exchange for help and guarantees;
- the law on granting special status to Poles living in Ukraine “endangers Ukraine’s sovereignty”;
- Poland “planned a referendum” on the annexation of Lviv.
As “evidence” confirming “Warsaw’s plans to occupy Ukraine”, the Russian media reported information about a fake weather forecast allegedly broadcast on TVP1. According to Russian media, the Lviv region has been placed on the map of Poland. The weather forecast was accompanied by the TVP1 logo. As a result of the verification, it was found that the photo was fabricated and was not broadcast by the Polish public broadcaster. This is indicated by several factors: 1) this presenter does not work for TVP1. This is Joanna Wysocka, a Radio Maryja journalist; 2) the Polish names of cities and countries on the map are written incorrectly.
In the case of the Polish intervention in Ukraine in April 2023, information was also spread that a Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian military corps was being formed, which would participate in combat operations in Ukraine. In this case, fake text messages were sent out on behalf of the Polish Ministry of Defence as if they were inviting Polish citizens to join this military corps. On April 18, the Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian brigade denied the information on its Facebook and Twitter pages. This unit has been operating since the autumn of 2015 and currently does not recruit any volunteers.
The aforementioned narratives were actively shared by some Georgian Facebook users. The scale of the disinformation campaign was limited and did not appear in mainstream media.
Author: dr Grigol Julukhidze
Public task financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland within thegrant comp etition “Public Diplomacy 2023”
Fot: Natanael Ginting/Shutterstock.com