By: Sanyukta Dharmadhikari
December 9 2022
False: Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia is ready to provide Poland with the best air defense systems against Ukraine.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
There is no evidence of Medvedev stating Russia's support of Poland against Ukraine. The viral screenshot of the tweet has been digitally manipulated.
Claim ID d6a9bc9a
Context
On November 15, a missile landed in Przewodow, a village in Poland around 6K from Ukraine's border, killing two farm workers in an explosion. On November 16, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the explosion might have been caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile that had been fired in response to missile attacks by Russia. A day later, on November 17, a screenshot appeared on social media that showed former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev tweeting, "Russia is ready to supply Poland with the best defense systems to prevent further aggression from Ukraine (sic)." This screenshot went viral on social media over the next few days with an incorrect assertion implying that the purported tweet was retweeted over 10,000 times on Twitter and had over 65,000 likes.
In Fact
A closer look at the screenshot shows three indications that the tweet has been digitally manipulated. Firstly, the word "aggression" has been misspelled. It is uncommon for government officials to have spelling mistakes in official tweets. Secondly, the time code next to the handle of the former Russian President says "17h". This format is usually found on Facebook posts and not Twitter — Twitter time codes are usually mentioned below the tweet's text. Thirdly, the spacing between the text of the tweet and the font on the screenshot differs from the formatting usually seen on Twitter.
We also found no evidence that Medvedev tweeted or posted this on Facebook. A search on his social media profile and a web search for news reports on his statement also does not offer any evidence that he made such a statement. In actuality, Medvedev tweeted about the November 15 incident saying, "The incident with the Ukrainian-alleged 'missile strike' on a Polish farm proves just one thing: waging a hybrid war against Russia, the West moves closer to the world war."
After the missile strike killed two people, Poland termed this incident an "unfortunate accident" and did not make any statement on procuring arms from Russia. Poland also stepped up security along the border with Ukraine and asked Russia to stop its aggression into Ukraine. According to Reuters, Polish President Andrzej Duda told the media that the missile was a part of Ukraine's defenses against Russian bombardment and appeared to have "unfortunately" fallen on Polish territory. He has also supported an investigation into the incident.
Moreover, Poland has opposed Russia in the ongoing war and has expressed support for Ukraine.
Verdict
There is no evidence that this statement was tweeted from Medvedev's Twitter handle. Moreover, the screenshot appears to have been digitally altered. As a result, we mark this claim as false.