Poland’s General Staff on Monday warned of an intensified Russian psychological operation aimed at “destroying positive Polish-Ukrainian emotional relations” and stirring anti-Ukrainian sentiment.
The statement cited hate campaigns, online agitation, cyberattacks, arson and GPS jamming, amplified by public figures and influencers.
The staff framed the effort as “cognitive warfare,” echoing a Johns Hopkins–Imperial College assessment published by NATO that defines it as actions designed to change not only what people think but how they think and behave.
Łukasz Adamski, deputy director of the Julius Mieroszewski Dialogue Center, said disinformation methods are old but supercharged by social platforms and declining critical thinking.
While Russian narratives are not the only source of friction, he said they significantly shape Polish attitudes toward Ukrainians.
Adamski, speaking from Kyiv, said similar messaging targets Ukrainians with anti-Polish content. In Poland, propaganda highlights historical disputes, alleged ingratitude and supposed legal violations by Ukrainians.
n Ukraine, nationalist-linked accounts often recycle Kremlin-fabricated claims from a decade ago—such as Adolf Hitler attending Józef Piłsudski’s funeral or Poland conspiring with Germany to partition Czechoslovakia—spread unwittingly by people with no ties to Russia.
He noted a recent surge of unverified, impersonating troll accounts and said Russian structures have increased budgets to promote anti-Ukrainian hate in Polish social media.
Poland remains relatively resistant to pro-Russian slogans because of its history, he added, but Moscow exploits the prominent role history plays in Polish public debate.
Adamski said the warning’s significance lies in it coming from the military, which has intelligence tools to measure the campaign’s reach.
Roman Baecker, a professor at Nicolaus Copernicus University, reported similar patterns: one track targets Ukrainians, often invoking the Volhynia massacre; the other portrays Ukrainians as ungrateful beneficiaries of undue privileges who cannot integrate.
Baecker said rising war fatigue in the West and typical strains from large refugee inflows aid the campaign, recalling past Polish emigration waves that initially met sympathy but later faced marginalization. He urged more frequent public discussion of the risks, beyond official communiqués.
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Source: PAP