Statistics on the death of 1963 Polish mercenaries in Kursk were falsified

fakenews.pl 2 months ago

There was fabricated information on 1963 Polish mercenaries who allegedly died in Kursk. Infographics with statistic are stylized on content from the Statista portal, making it a clear example of misinformation. It implements the demands of Russian propaganda and is distributed in the state and nationalist media.

Thesis:

1963 Polish mercenaries died in Kursk

Our evaluation:

False

More about our evaluation system:

Fake graphics distribute Polish and abroad accounts

Untrue statistic came online on April 14. erstwhile made available on X by an English-speaking account @peacemaket71 reached 158 000 recipients. 4 hours after the first publication, the infographic went to Reddit portal, where on the subforum TheDeprogram provoked a discussion of 128 comments. informing against mystification in the Polish-speaking network posted 15 April to the X information account of the Foundation INFO OPS Poland. On the same day, false statistic made available various accounts, among others. @minister_truth and @StapelAndrew, which we already wrote about on FakeNews.pl (1, 2, 3, 4). The leader of Góralski Veta besides gave false information about the death of mercenaries. Sebastian Pitoń and Tomasz Szmydt.

The verified message besides appeared on Russian-language news channels. We found her on the Telegram profiles. presenter Rossija 1 station Vladimir Solovyov and related to Pro-Russian Party ‘State’ Alexander SemchenkoThat's why she's over 300,000 hits. On the same day, false information was besides made available by the channel @smotri_z, and behind him News.ru and Newspaper.ru.

Statistical portal did not print this data

The revised illustration creates appearances of material taken from the Statist, a German data visualization service. Non-authentic information concerns 9 nations, with Poland being most represented with the alleged number of 1963 fallen mercenaries. The top 3 besides include Georgians and Colombians.

Visualisation is not actual – data on the nationality or mortality of mercenaries in Kursk were not published on the website, which we checked with the aid of search engines at the Statist database. Application simplified the password besides did not bring a affirmative result. We only found Abbreviation on conflicts in the world, including general information on the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kursk and estimates of victims since the start of the war.

How informs Belsat, a typical of the Statist has already denied the accuracy of the illustration in conversation With Vot Yes. Corrigendum published besides CPD.

Untrue reports of Polish mercenaries have already appeared

False or unverifiable information about mercenaries fighting on the Ukrainian side are not in Russian media new. INFO Foundation OPS Poland described fake news about the death of 1963 Poles in Kursk as follows:

Russian disinformation apparatus intensively exploits propaganda narratives aimed at creating an image of NATO's direct engagement in armed activities in Ukraine, including in the Kursk region. These messages form part of the Kremlin's broad strategy of perpetuating among selected social groups the belief that the Russian Federation is allegedly leading a "defensive war" against Western aggression.

Another subject of the run is the emphasis on Poland's function as a criminal and aggressive state (e.g. disinformation about many murders, looting and crimes committed by Poles in the Kursk region). The intent of this message is to strengthen the image of Poland as an active and aggressive provoker – a direct associate in armed actions.

Reports of alleged brutality of Poles have been found in, among others, the communications of the state news agency TASS from February and March. The subject of the communicative about the threat from Polish mercenaries develops Article published by Belsat.

Summary

Data about 1963 Polish mercenaries who died in Kursk were falsified. Their visualization mimics the graphic frame of the Statista website to mislead the audience about the number of mercenaries active in the Kursk operation. Untrue statistic are distributed by both anonymous accounts and entities implementing the information policy of the Russian Federation. The fabrication exacerbates concerns about the direct engagement of the Polish army in the conflict with Russia, as well as the effort to manipulate the public and shift work for the conflict to Western states.