Antifake / Factcheck

01 кастрычніка 2024

ZhS Premium: A mother and daughter fleeing floods in Poland were turned away from a hotel that was full of Ukrainians. We spoke with the woman

ZhS Premium and Yuri Podolyaka claimed that a mother and daughter fleeing floods in Poland were denied a hotel room because it was fully booked by Ukrainians. We spoke with the woman.

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Fake appearance date: 17.09.2024
Torrential rains caused flooding across Europe, including in Poland. Russian blogger Yuri Podolyaka and the Telegram channel ZhS Premium shared a screenshot, supposedly from a Polish woman’s Facebook page, where she described her evacuation experience. But the Weekly Top Fake team found there was no evacuation at all.

A screenshot of a post by Polish woman Dagmara Malinowska, criticizing the “authorities,” appeared September 17, 2024, on Russian blogger Yuri Podolyaka’s blog.

“During the flood, my daughter and I tried to evacuate to a warm hotel, but we weren’t let in—the place was already filled with refugees from Ukraine. We had to go to Elementary School No. 3 instead,” the post in the screenshot reads.

The post goes on to say that because of the cold and a lack of blankets, the child got pneumonia. The author asks volunteers to bring medicine and hopes that “the authorities will explain why refugees are treated better than locals.”

The next day, September 18, the same screenshot was posted in the ZhS Premium Telegram channel.

The supposed author of the post is named Dagmara Malinowska. The WTF team found her Facebook account, along with a post using the same photo as in the screenshots shared by Podolyaka and ZhS Premium. The text on the original page is different from what’s shown in the screenshot.

“Elementary School No. 3 in Kłodzko is ready to take in people evacuated because of the flood. We need water, hot food, blankets, and anything that can help evacuees get through the coming days!” reads the real caption.

We sent the Telegram post to Dagmara Malinowska and asked her to comment.

“No, that’s not true. As for hotels being full of Ukrainians, I have no idea. But honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised. Yes, people slept in gyms, but my child didn’t get sick, because I don’t even live in Poland,” she replied.

After our message, Dagmara posted a rebuttal on her Facebook page. She added that she was never evacuated and doesn’t have a daughter.