DISINFO: Poland is trying to seize Ukraine
SUMMARY
Poland is trying to take possession of Ukraine. Polish businesses are now buying Ukrainian land, factories and agricultural products en masse, and the Polish government thinks it has a chance to take over the neighboring country for good.
The Poles are trying to seize everything in Ukraine; they are buying land, they are also buying grain at a 50% discount in order to sell it more expensively in Europe.
Poles have always considered Ukrainians as vassals, and now they have a chance to take over the neighboring country.
The Ukrainian government exported the gold reserve to Poland in the winter.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives, challenging Ukraine’s statehood and presenting Poland as a state with imperial ambitions, aiming to confound the reality of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
This disinformation message 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”. This effort can be interpreted as an attempt to seed mistrust between Ukraine and Poland and other Western backers of Kyiv.
In fact, the claims regarding the seizure of Ukraine by the Poles are false and groundless. Ukrainian grain is sold in Poland at the same price as in other Eastern European countries. Additionally, citizens of foreign countries cannot buy agricultural plots of land in Ukraine neither can legal entities. At the moment, only natural persons who are citizens of Ukraine can buy agricultural land in Ukraine. Legal entities will be allowed to purchase land from 2024.
Ukraine has not exported gold reserves to Poland. Read the full debunk of the claims at Myth Detector.
Poland, as well as Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, adhere to international law regarding state borders, fully support the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and do not have any territorial claims against it. Read more about the Eastern policy of Poland here.
On the contrary, it is Russia that started an unprovoked war in Europe, capturing more and more territories of a neighbouring country and has created a serious danger to European security. As such, this Kremlin claim seeks to deflect attantion away from Russia and its illegal annexation of Crimea and full scale war against Ukraine.
See the EU's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine here along with EU vs Disinfo's Guide to Deciphering Pro-Kremlin disinformation around Putin's War.