We know how Russia wants to divide Poles and Ukrainians. “Precise targeting”

The goal of Russian disinformation is to deflect responsibility. When last September Russian drones violated Polish airspace, the Russian disinformation machine tried to present Poland as the side escalating the conflict – says expert Dr. Hab. Wojciech Kotowicz from the University of Warmia and Mazury.

According to the scientist, the incident of September 9-10, 2025, when Russian drones violated Polish airspace as part of a massive attack on Ukraine, was a perfect example of how Russian disinformation works in real time, using each event as an opportunity to manipulate and distract attention from its own aggression.

– Within literally hours of confirming the violation of Polish airspace, Russian state media, troll farms and coordinated networks of bots in social media launched a massive disinformation campaign aimed at deflecting responsibility and presenting Poland as the side escalating the conflict – pointed out Dr. Hab. Wojciech Kotowicz, disinformation researcher, expert at the Institute of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Warsaw.

Russian propaganda immediately began building alternative narratives. – First one of them suggested that the drone could be Ukrainian, and that Poland and the West are deliberately presenting it as Russian to justify further escalation and drawing NATO into a direct conflict with Russia. This narrative was particularly cynical, considering that Russia was conducting a massive missile and drone attack on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure at the time, and the violation of Polish airspace was an obvious consequence of this aggression, the scientist noted.

Second the narrative – “equally absurd, but effectively disseminated” – suggested that even if the drone was Russian, its presence in Polish airspace was the result of a “technical error” or “accidental deviation from course”. And the Polish reaction – reported Dr. Hab. Kotowicz – involving monitoring the situation and increasing defense readiness, was, according to Russia, “hysterical” and “provocative” and its purpose was to “escalate tension.”

– Russian media portrayed Poland as an obsessively anti-Russian country that uses every opportunity, even an innocent technical incident, to fuel confrontation between Russia and NATO. Analyzing this incident in retrospect, we see that it was part of a broader pattern of Russian information strategy, the researcher noted.

As he described, every violation of Polish airspace, every incident on the border, every tension in Polish-Russian relations is immediately used by Russian propaganda to build a narrative about Poland as an “aggressor” and “provocateur”.

– The goal is not to convince all Poles to adopt a pro-Russian position. Russia realizes this is impossible. The aim is to create confusion, undermine trust in official sources of information, deepen political divisions and weaken Polish unity in the face of danger. If even a part of society begins to doubt the official version of events, if the public debate is dominated by arguments about what really happened instead of by a discussion about how to respond to Russian aggression, Russian disinformation achieves its goal, the expert explained.

According to him, Russian propaganda consistently builds the image of Poland as a Russophobic and non-sovereign state, which is only a tool in the hands of the US.

– The dominant narrative is Warsaw's alleged desire to annex western Ukraine, which is intended to divide Poles and Ukrainians. Another strong trend is the presentation of Poland as a country in a deep economic crisis, caused solely by aid to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. Historical topics are also used to build tensions in relations with neighbors and present Poland as a revisionist country, the researcher calculated.

He noted that all these narratives are precisely targeted at various audiences, from farmers, through entrepreneurs, to national circles.

– The goal is to completely discredit Poland as a leader in the Eastern European region and a reliable partner in NATO. Our research allowed us to identify these constant motifs of Russian propaganda and develop methods of unmasking them, the expert concluded.

The research project “The impact of Russian disinformation on shaping public opinion in Eastern European countries – analysis and counteraction strategies” was carried out at UWM last year. The grant for its implementation was granted by the Dialogue Center. Juliusz Mieroszewski.

Anna Mikołajczyk-Kłębek (PAP)

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