Telegrams channels that distribute pro -Russian propaganda in Poland

In the clearing in the forest, two people stand behind a number of wooden pillars that have images of faces that are held on top.

Portraits include US President Donald Trump, Vice President J. D. Vens and billionaire Elon Musk. The US flag hangs in front of them.

Men wear camouflage clothing with blue marks – a color that often wears Ukrainian soldiers to identify them on the battlefield.

“We don’t need allies like you,” says one of the men in Ukraine when he set fire to the flag and portraits.

But this video that is shared with thousands of subscribers from Polish-language telegram has been staged. Uniforms are common camouflage, easily purchased on the Internet, while Ukrainian words are very wrong and speak with a strong Russian accent.

He shared on the Polska Grupa Informiajna telegraph channel, one of the 22 Polish channels, with more than 150,000 subscribers between them, which is defined as a division of different forms of misinformation and propaganda.

The telegram is widely used in Poland, but experts say that false messages among extremist groups are enhanced, and then extend to other platforms that are greater.

22 channels largely represent themselves as Polish news and information services. Two claim to be “impartial” and one promises “objective” news. One channel views itself as offering “reliable and proven information hidden from the public” and the other – the slogan “We are where the truth needs”.

Most often quote or repeat content from Russian state media such as RT and Sputnik, which were banned in the European Union for manipulating information and propaganda. Poland is a member of the EU.

Channels often quote or associate with figures and supporters of the Russian regime. President Vladimir Putin, Deputy Head of the National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova, Russian propaganda leading Vladimir Salaviov and pro-Russian military commentators known as “Z-Bloggers”.

Some messages on these channels include direct false information. For example, the image posted by UKR leaks_PL shows the figures in military clothing, applying fake blood to people, and signed “How” Buch Victims “were prepared, which means that the well -documented killings of hundreds of Ukrainians did not take place in 2022.

Some channels often call Ukrainian leaders and soldiers as “Nazis”. In one post, InfodefensePoland called the government in Kiev a “Nazi regime”, saying that it was “controlled by the United States” and others in the West.

Often the mixture of valid and false information is spread, or the channels are omitted with important information to create a deceptive impression. For example, on June 17, Russia carried out its deadly attack on Kiev in the month, striking residential buildings and, according to the Ukrainian authorities, killed at least 28 people.

More than half of the channels completely ignored the incident, some of them instead of emphasizing the progress of the Russian army in Ukraine. Several others, repeating the Kremlin stories, accused Ukraine of victims, saying that Russia’s attacks were only sent to military places.

Analyzing the telegram data, the BBC found that many channels appeared during a complete invasion of Russia in Ukraine in 2022.

At least three originally published in Russian before being restored as Polish.

Telegram data indicate that most of the 22 channels often quote, repatriate or mention each other. In 2022 and 2023, this included the sharing lists described as “Good Polish Sources of Telegram” and calling for followers to subscribe.

Poland was a decisive player in the alliance of countries that support Ukraine after the invasion of Russia, which leads in the first months in sending military assistance and equipment.

You want to avoid the goal of Russian aggression, Poland is becoming an increasingly well -known defense partner in the European Union and NATO, and since 2022 has accepted about one million Ukrainian refugees.

Since 2022, Russian misinformation and influence on operations became a “consistent element of the Polish digital infosphere,” says Alexy Shimkevich from the Polish organization of Demagog facts.

He says Telegram functions as a “starting point”.

“False or manipulative claims are placed first – then they apply to large platforms, such as X., and then with X, this, for example, goes for discussions in Facebook groups.”

According to Mr. Shimkevich, these pro-Russian telegrams are aimed at preventing Ukraine support, polarizing public opinion and leading to a wedge between Polish and Ukrainian societies.

He says Poland shows signs of fatigue against refugees, partly conditioned by anti-Ukrainian propaganda, he says.

Some reports that spread on channels open pro-Russian or anti-Ukraine, but others are thinner.

For example, some recent reports suggest that increasing military expenses in EU countries that seek to resist what they see as a threat from Russia, it causes citizens – including Poles – to poverty.

Other common stories use unjustified generalizations about Ukrainian refugees, reflecting them as aggressive, violating laws and runoff in the host countries.

Mr. Shimkevich says that such “playing real fears”, entering the existing economic and cultural anxiety in Polish society.

Philip Glavach, Senior Analyst of the National Scientific and Research Institute NASK in Warsaw, says there is a “strong historical resentment in Russia” in the Soviet sphere of influence for decades.

This may mean that “clear pro -Russian messages does not work”, and pro -Russian actors sometimes “push procramlin stories together with extreme content, conspiracy theories, etc.”.

He says Telegram is the “ideal platform” for this, explaining that it has a non-non-governmental influence among the right-wing communities and conspiracy theorists.

While the identities behind the majority of the channels remain unclear, experts say there are signs of ties with Russia or its ally of Belarus. According to Mr. Glavach, the time of the publishing times of many channels suggests that they go on the schedule of placement based on the change agreed with the working time of Moscow.

UKR leak_PL is part of a wide group of ukr – multilingual network of telegram channels and related platforms, led by Vasily Prazar, a former Ukrainian security officer who switched to the parties to cooperate with Russia.

InfodefensePoland belongs to the Infodefense group, which works in more than 30 languages, and related to Yury Podolyaka, contradictory blogger, originally from Ukraine. He is now in Russia and has been sentenced to part -time Ukrainian courts for cooperation with Moscow.

The channel told the BBC that there were more than 500 volunteers worldwide. “There are many people who support Russia in the world. They help us. Yuri Podoliak is one of them,” the statement reads.

Another channel, Pravda Pl, is part of the Pravda Group, a large international prokremlin news websites and social media pages.

The French State Agency for the fight against misinformation, Viginum, says it is connected with the Russian IT firm based in Russian Crimea.

According to NewsGuard, a company that evaluates news and information sites for reliability – Pravda distributes content so widely that AI Chatbot “infects” the answers.

NewsGuard checked 10 chat with a sample of false stories that split into Pravda. It states that they sometimes repeated or referred to misinformation, and at other times they question.

PRAVDA and UKR_LAKS did not respond to BBC requests for comment.

Polska Grupa Informacyjna, a channel that shared videos with US portraits burning, shares a mixture of content, including some that give the Ukrainian perspective. It told the BBC that it was an “independent news channel” and its “main principle is impartiality”, strongly rejected by the statements that he was promoting procramlin stories.

It states that the content on the channel may be distributed “as an example of contradictory material that circulates on the Internet, without any approval and evaluation by editorial staff.” The material can be removed or corrected if it is invalid, he added.

Mr. Szymkiewicz says that the spread of pro-Russian misinformation on the telegram is that the contents from the state media sources such as RT and Sputnik are allowed to remain in the media-language landscape, often reaching a wide audience.

“This content is often false, manipulated or open,” he says.

He adds that anti-Ukrainian positions “legitimize and enshrine the prospects and stories of the Russian regime in Polish public discourse.”

BBC World Service launches a new language service on Tuesday, BBC News Polska. This is the first new language service from the BBC since March 2018, which brings our impartial and trusted global journalism, including the original report from all over Europe to the Polish audience. This is the first BBC language service that uses AI translation technology – the whole translation has human editorial supervision and clearly marked.