War in Ukraine, information war. Year since the Russian invasion

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine rapidly revealed the scale of the Kremlin propaganda in Poland. The sowing of fear and uncertainty became the basic method of breaking unity in Polish society. The awakening of resentment towards refugees was expected to make tensions against national and cultural backgrounds. Their aim was to divert attention from the conflict beyond the east border and focus attention on interior problems. Topics related to Russian propaganda were rapidly picked up by people disseminating content related to conspiracy theories on the Polish Internet.

This subject has been discussed more broadly in our report August 2022. Read more besides in development prepared by specialists from the Polish-Japanese Academy of Computer Technology.

Today is simply a year since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the anniversary of the outbreak of the war, we will discuss various narratives from individual areas related to misinformation around the war in Ukraine. We will focus on those who gained peculiar popularity in Poland. We hope that they will aid you to identify specified narratives more easy in the future.

Anti-refugee narratives

The dominant message in the Polish disinformation region in 2022 was anti-refugee rhetoric. It was to origin resentment towards Ukrainians fleeing from invasion. It is peculiarly desirable by Russian centres of influence, as it destroys empathy and the desire to aid not only refugees, but besides Ukraine as such. As we mentioned earlier, it is besides intended to make divisions and antagonisms within the Polish society, which will not pay attention to the situation in the neighbour.

Among the topics concerning refugees we can distinguish, among another things, claims about the preference of Ukrainians towards Poles. War refugees are to receive advanced benefits and another privileges, thus pushing Poles into the function of second-class citizens. This is not actual due to the fact that Ukrainians receive a number of benefits, but they are the same, or in any cases even limited to those received by Poles. Granting the PESEL number to Ukrainians was expected to give full civilian rights in Poland. This false message was verified in 1 of ours. Articles. As 1 of the First We've described besides the case of fabricated information about the expulsion of Polish children from oncological hospitals and replacing them with Ukrainian ones.

No, Polish children are not expelled from oncology hospitals to release children from Ukraine

Narrations intended to hit refugees were not limited to these issues. They were besides to origin fear of the Ukrainians, including by accusing them of serious crimes they did not commit. We described 2 specified matters in our articles from May and July the erstwhile year. They were besides to be very demanding towards Poles, demanding more and more privileges. At the beginning of the war, information about the alleged dominance of non-European origins among refugees was a very popular topic. This group was to be dominated by men of age alternatively than women with children. These false narratives have led, among another things, to a wave of force in Przemyśl. The full case, along with its connections to the Cremaceous propaganda, is described in our text.

Allegedly, the war itself was besides to be profitable for Ukraine, and armed action was not as intense as the media put it. specified narratives were designed to reduce empathy levels, and frequently to make the Ukrainians jealous. Among the narratives related to this subject we will find those who accuse refugees of being economical immigrants, who do not escape the war at all, and who just want to collect benefits and feed on the work of Poles. We took a closer look at these issues. Here.. However, they did not have much to do with reality. We discussed besides the fact that many refugees preferred to leave their country alternatively than decision to western Ukraine. In the eyes of conspiracy theorists, this behaviour of the Ukrainians was to be very suspicious. We introduced and why many cars were brought into a war-torn country during the first months of the war, and contrary to circulating claims, this had nothing to do with Ukrainians becoming rich in conflict.

Ukraine and Nazism

One of the basic narratives to justify the Russian invasion was accusing Ukrainians of confessing the Nazi ideology. This was frequently linked to the flagism and, above all, the Volyn massacre. Ukraine was portrayed as a corrupt and totalitarian country. specified content is intended to affect Polish society in order to discourage both humanitarian and military aid. They are primarily meant to make fear and show Ukraine as a dangerous and Nazi country.

The main method is the usage of historical animosities for this purpose, especially the Volhynia Rzezi. The utmost environments behind our east border, mainly related to Ukrainian nationalism, are besides present as a threat. Their activity and impact on the situation are greatly exaggerated and exaggerated to make fear.

Among the evidence to attest about the confession of the Nazi ideology was the claim that Walery Załużny wore a swastika bracelet. As we proved in ours articleIt wasn't true. Another example of anti-Ukrainian disinformation was the claim that Zelenski gave the U.S. legislature a flag with an SS symbol, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly usage Nazi symbols to identify their vehicles. We both described these issues in our texts from September and December 2022. In both cases, they aimed to rise negative feelings towards Ukrainians.

Impacting the political leadership of Ukraine and presenting it as corrupt and incompetent is besides part of these narratives. 1 example may be false accusations on the usage of cocaine by president Zelenski.

Gold and cocaine. False Cremol narratives about drug addicts ruling Ukraine

The subject of the Volynian and Ukrainian flagism is an highly delicate issue in Polish-Ukrainian relations, which is why Russian propaganda is very keen to usage it. It stimulates the negative attitudes of many Poles, creating animosities between both nations. The hard subject of seeing Bandera among Ukrainians is described in our analysis, trying to make the most of this issue objectively. In order to deepen the animosity within Polish society, the authorities of our country are besides accused of worshiping Bandera and paying tribute to UPA fighters, which has nothing to do with reality, which we wrote about Here.. The false communicative besides referred to the alleged relation between Andrzej Duda and 1 of the UPA members. Russian propaganda based These accusations only and only at the convergence of names.

We did our best, too. present, why it is so crucial for the Kremlin propaganda to present Ukraine as a standing of Nazism. This has a peculiar connection with the past of the war between the USSR and the 3rd Reich, which has marked the russian Union's peoples deeply.

Justification of Invasion

In the Polish social space, the Russian invasion was besides tried to justify many times. Kremlin's influence centers utilized their own channels for this, as well as spreading disinformation in social media. This aimed at warming the image of Russia and showing that the war in Ukraine was being waged for the right purpose. Ukraine is portrayed by Moscow as threatening its neighbours and itself a provocative war, and Putin as the 1 who acted in self-defense.

Among the above narratives in the course of our activities we have distinguished and We've described alleged rescue of children imprisoned in Ukraine. Putin was portrayed as a hero who saves innocents from human traffickers. However, the full situation has nothing to do with reality and there is no evidence to support this hypothesis. We can besides item another narratives that depict Ukraine as a provocation, forcing Russia to intervene.

In the first weeks of the war, the Cremovian propaganda besides claimed that it did not attack civilian targets. The Russian Army was to destruct only military centers to force the authoritarian (according to Moscow narratives) Kiev authorities to flee and lead the regulation of law in Ukraine. This narrative, like many others, was unconfirmed in reality due to the fact that the Russians had been attacking civilian targets since the beginning of the war, as we have written about. Here..

This trend continued as further Russian missiles fell on Ukrainian cities. The Kremlin either tried to justify acts of terror, claiming that the attack of targets was justified, or straight blamed the Ukrainians, who were to fire on their own citizens under provocation. specified narratives were identified and described after the attacks in Kramatorsk, Lviv, Silica. and Vineyards. They all had 1 common feature — based on manipulation and falsified evidence.

Ukrainians were besides accused of war crimes. In 1 of the Articles We refuted the thesis posed by Adrien Bocquet, a erstwhile French soldier who allegedly witnessed them. The Kremlin's propaganda besides actively attempted to dismiss accusations of the Bucza massacre. Through many means of influence in the media or social networks, she sought to blame the Ukrainians or accuse them of staging the crime. We've decided Deal with these statements that were incapable to last the collision with reality.

Adrien Bocquet about alleged Ukrainian war crimes. Analysis

Counterfeiting sanctions and blaming the West for conflict

In addition to generating social antagonisms and resentment towards Ukraine's Russian propaganda besides focuses on undermining the unity of Western societies. The intent of these narratives is to make pressures on the public to alleviate sanctions. It is besides about creating the impression that NATO has provoked Ukraine to war and posed a threat to Russia, so the invasion was only an act of self-defense.

Narrations were to partially scare European societies, including Poland, that Ukraine's assistance could end in escalation of the conflict. Their aim was besides to undermine the legitimacy of the sanctions which, according to the Kremlin's propaganda, were to harm more members of the European Union than Russia. Western citizens were to frost into winter and go bankrupt due to fuel and gas prices. As time has shown, price increases have occurred, but the situation has been far and far from critical.

War in Ukraine and conspiracy theories

Finally, we wanted to draw attention to conspiracy theories that revolved around the war in Ukraine. In a large part, they question the strength of war and even consider the full invasion a hoax. It's hard to tell if these narratives are desirable by the creamy propaganda. The exception is the conspiracy explanation about laboratories in Ukraine producing biological weapons. It is simply a direct justification for Russian aggression and was sold by media related to Moscow and the centres of power in the Kremlin. We discussed it more in our text. As you can imagine, it had no cover in the facts.

Other content is alternatively an expression of general distrust of those disseminating content related to conspiracy theories to any authoritative information. Among them is the crucial function of anti-Semitism. Thus, 1 of the main conspiracy theories circulating during the first months of the conflict afraid so - called heavenly Jerusalem. According to her, Jews were to be behind the outbreak of war due to the fact that they wanted to make a fresh state for themselves in Ukraine. Of course, there is no evidence to support specified a hypothesis, as we wrote more about in our article.

Summary

As can be seen from the above examples, misinformation has been ubiquitous since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. She was featured in various subjects and was mostly shaped by propaganda centers in the Kremlin. Polish supporters of conspiracy theories are located in the central part of Russian disinformation. In addition to creating their own content, they are very happy to replicate those generated in Moscow. Their activity in social media is dynamic and reaches huge. Therefore, recipients in Poland should be peculiarly delicate to this kind of content, as they pose a direct threat to the safety of our country.