Like the Baltic states, Poland is also frequently mentioned in the propaganda media of Russia and Belarus. We have already written on the Delphi portal that, contrary to the insults of the Kremlin, Poland has no plans to invade Ukraine. But now the pro-Kremlin media are spreading the news that a cemetery has been created in Poland for “Polish mercenaries” who may have died in battles in Ukraine. Portal “Delphi” explains that this is a lie: Polish mercenaries do not fight in Ukraine.
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The screenshot shows a snippet of a video posted on the Youtube account of the Belarusian government-controlled media ‘Radio Belarus’. He explains that a separate cemetery has been created in Poland for Polish mercenaries killed in the Donbass. In addition, during these ten months of war, 1.2 thousand Polish pilots died in Ukraine. The number of wounded also reached several thousand people. The Delphi portal concludes that the video material is misleading.
First of all, the Poles are not at war in Ukraine. The Polish Army is part of NATO. Since the alliance has not decided to get directly involved in the war, neither is the Polish army. Polish mercenaries also do not participate in this war. According to the definition of the Geneva Convention, a mercenary does not serve in the armed forces of any of the parties involved, but participates in the conflict for profit. As you know, many foreigners, including Poles, joined the International Territorial Defense Legion of Ukraine. However, they have the status of a fighter, so these people cannot be called mercenaries.
Several Polish news portals are listed as sources of the misleading video material. However, these “media” are busy spreading disinformation. For example, the information that Poland is planning to build American-style cemeteries in which Poles fighting in Ukraine will be buried en masse is taken from the Polish portal “Independent Political Newspaper” (Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny). This portal often distorts and reposts news out of context on other portals.
For example, materials on the cemeteries of Polish soldiers are republished by the publication “Eastern Newspaper” (Dziennik Wschodni), in which the author of the article quotes the representative of the Polish government, Piotr Miller. He was interviewed on the channel “TVN24”, whose journalist conducted the interview biasedly, with the aim of convincing listeners of the truth of his ideas, writes the portal “Delfi.lt”.
It is also unclear where the data on the 1,200 Polish citizens allegedly killed in the Ukrainian war came from. The Polish side has not published such information and it cannot be found in any official source or reliable media.
Thus, the video is a compilation of information from various pro-Russian and biased media to mislead about the presence of Polish soldiers in Ukraine and to alarm the public.
