False: A letter proves that the General Commander of the Polish Armed Forces ordered troops to invade western Ukraine.

By: Ankita Kulkarni
May 13 2022

Share Article:

The General Command of the Polish Armed Forces has clarified that the order being circulated on social media is fake.What's going on: A post shared on social media claims that the Polish government has issued an official order asking their armed forces to be prepared to advance into western Ukraine. It is accompanied by a copy of the alleged order with signatories attached. However, the copy of the supposed order has been digitally altered. After examining similar posts on Twitter, we found a reply by the General Command of the Polish Armed Forces, calling the order false: "A fake order has been circulating on various media with baseless claims." It added that "the whole document is fabricated," and urged people "not to share such fake news." We also found a tweet by the spokesperson of the Minister-Special Services Coordinator, Stanisław Żaryn, reiterating that the letter is a "fake order" circulated as propaganda against Poland. He explains in a Twitter thread that Russian media created a "digitally altered order copy to legitimize insinuations about Polish plans to attack western UA." He also alleged that "Russia is carrying out a coordinated information operation against Poland." Additionally, a report on March 18, 2022, by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that Poland had welcomed more than two million refugees from Ukraine in the three weeks since the Russian invasion. Christine Goyer, the UNHCR's Representative in Poland, added, "This has been a tremendous effort from the people, local communities, municipalities, and government of Poland to receive and host new arrivals." Since Poland has been supporting Ukraine in taking refugees, and Polish authorities have clarified that the letter stating the order is fake, we mark the claim as false.