DISINFO: 20 thousand Polish soldiers fight in Ukraine – 2500 have been killed already
SUMMARY
20 000 Polish soldiers are fighting on the side of Ukraine, and about 2.5 thousand of them died and were buried in Poland. These soldiers died in Ukraine, not in their homeland.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative, presenting Poland as a state with aggressive anti-Ukrainian plans, aiming to obfuscate the reality of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
There is no evidence to substantiate the claim. There is a limited number of Polish citizens who have joined the official Ukrainian Army units as volunteers, far from the “tens of thousands” Polish soldiers fighting in Ukraine and “thousands” Polish casualties claimed in this piece.
Pro-Kremlin media has made similar claims in the past in attempts to substantiate a disinformation narrative that Russia was fighting NATO in Ukraine.
The disinformation message about Poland’s aggressive plans towards Ukraine has adopted several different and sometimes contradictory forms, including allegations that Poland wants either to create a puppet proxy-state in Western Ukraine or the annexation of these territories or that it is actually President Zelenskyy who wants to cede this land due to his “Polish origin”.
See earlier disinformation cases alleging that Over 1,200 Polish mercenaries died in Ukraine, thousands are wounded; Polish and Lithuanian mercenaries return to Donbas and Ukrainian Army deploys NATO-equipped Polish mercenaries to Donbas.