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Antifake / Factcheck

25 November 2022

Fake news of the week: Belarusian media report that Ukrainians were killed in a missile attack in Poland

It's counting on Telegram readers being too lazy to read the original source

When creating fakes about the war in Ukraine, Belarusian and Russian state media often refer to actual authoritative publications. The authors of the “BEREZINA” Telegram channel did the same. They wrote that the Polish publication “Dziennik Wschodni” learned that those killed in the missile attack in Poland were Ukrainians. Here is what the Telegram channel’s authors wrote:

"It seems that the commander-in-chief will not get away with only hysterics from a "Russian" missile strike on a NATO country! The Polish media say that the tractor driver and the storekeeper killed by a Ukrainian missile were Ukrainian migrants".

There is even a link in the post to the “Dziennik Wschodni” article. But, of course, there is nothing of the kind in this article. It's counting on Telegram readers being too lazy to read the original source.

And on Polish TV the municipality secretary said that he knew one of the dead before the army, they served in the same unit. According to other accounts, one of the dead had been living there for 40 years.

It does not look like he could have been a Ukrainian migrant. Especially as no one except the “BEREZINA” Telegram-channel has such information.

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