Rzeczpospolita, citing analyses of experts and statements of the authorities, describes the increase of Russian misinformation aimed at Poles. The Kremlin uses the Warsaw dispute with Kiev about the Volyn massacre. The conclusion is hard: memory of victims must be defended, but it must not be given to Moscow as a tool of war.
The Kremlin hits a painful place
Rzeczpospolita describes a clear increase in Russian disinformation activities addressed to Poles. According to the newspaper's study and cited analyses, the Kremlin uses tensions between Warsaw and Kiev regarding the Volyn crime to deepen distrust of Ukraine and weaken 1 of its most crucial allies in Europe.
It's not a random subject. Volyn remains a wound in the Polish national memory. Victims deserve truth, exhumations, prayer, names and worthy graves. Russia knows cynically that this is where Polish emotions are strongest.
Truth cannot be Russian ammunition
The biggest mistake would be to draw the conclusion from the Russian operation that Poles should stay silent about Volyn. Nope. Silence would be a triumph for false correctness and forgo your own history. Equally dangerous, however, is the duplication of materials pushed by the Kremlin without checking the source.
The Polish business requires 2 things at once: a hard memory policy towards Kiev and opposition to Russian manipulations. That's not a contradiction. It's realism. Moscow does not defend Polish victims. Moscow uses their memory to break up the community of states that defy Russian imperialism.
Poland Response
Warsaw should consistently request the exhumation, commemoration and fact of the CNS-UPA. It should besides communicate clearly to citizens, which materials are false, who distributes them and what their intent is. The state cannot give the field to external emotions.
For Poles, the stake is specific: memory of ancestors, border safety and informational resistance. A mature nation does not let a abroad ministry to choose him erstwhile to be outraged and whom. Volyn is simply a Polish matter. That is why it cannot become a Russian tool.
Source: Rzeczpospolita, gov.pl, PAP
