DISINFO: Poland plans to organise accession referendums in Ukraine’s Lviv and Volyn regions
SUMMARY
At present Poland is actively building political and military presence in the western Ukraine. The issuance of the Cards of the Pole in Lviv and Volyn regions has lately been accelerated multiple times. The situation is developing towards a referendum, which will show that most residents of the Lviv and Volyn regions are willing to join Poland. The US and UK will approve the results.
RESPONSE
A conspiracy about alleged Polish plans to annex parts of the western Ukraine through illegal referendums – an obvious attempt to legitimise the illegal annexation of the temporarily occupied territories in Ukraine that Russia has committed. It fits the recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Poland as a state with imperial ambitions, aiming to confound the reality of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
As our analysis explains, holding illegitimate referenda to justify blatant land-grabs is an old page from the Kremlin’s book on how to annex the territories of its neighbours. These so-called referenda, carried out by Russia in Ukraine’s regions, will have no international legal force and have already been condemned in the strongest terms by world leaders including António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, and EU High Representative Josep Borrell.
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.
The message about imperial Poland eyeing 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”.
When it comes to the sabotage at Nord Stream gas pipelines, as our analysis shows, the tactics to promote claims blaming ‘Anglo-Saxons’ and other manipulative claims resemble the spree of mis-explanations/ accusations surrounding the downing by missile of the Malaysian airliner MH-17 over Donbas in 2015.