The post claims with no basis in fact that the Poles “are preparing for direct battle” against the Russians, while the latter are “ready and waiting”, suggesting that Poland would attack first. To support the claim, the post shares footage of а convoy of trucks transporting tanks, thereby leaving the impression that the Poles will attack the Russians with them. Russian media, however, have a different interpretation of the footage – Poland is sending the tanks to Ukraine as military assistance, which is already established practice. Briefly, everyone is interpreting the footage in their own way and it is not known exactly where or when the footage was recorded. No relevant global media is showing the footage that is mainly circulating on dubious Telegram channels from Russia, writes Truthmeter.mk.
Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we republish the text in full below:
A post on the social network Facebook claims the following:
Poland this and that. They are getting ready for a direct battle with Russia with certain death after the first few hours of action… The Russians know, see, hear, wait ready.
A short video is shared with the post showing a convoy of trucks transporting tanks.
Firstly, this post on Facebook is illustrated with the wrong flag. Instead of the Polish (white on top and red on the bottom), the flag of Indonesia or Monaco (red on top and white on the bottom) is displayed. However, that is the most insignificant problem in this disputable post.
Unsubstantiated by any source, the post claims that the Poles “are preparing for direct battle” against the Russians, while the latter are “ready and waiting”, suggesting that Poland would attack first. The argumentation of the post is footage of а convoy of trucks transporting tanks, thereby leaving the impression that the Poles will attack the Russians with them.
The post’s author (who might not be its author, but could have taken it and translated it from a Serbian source such as this one here) seems to be pro-Russian. But they don’t know that Russian media interpreted the footage differently – Poland is sending those tanks as military aid to Ukraine, which is already established practice. That is the way the clip has been interpreted by the official gazette of the Russian government, Российская газета (Rosiskaya Gazeta). Like all governmental newspapers in Russia, the paper is popular for its notorious propaganda, but even this medium did not go that far to claim that the footage was showing the Poles preparing for some kind of attack on the Russians. In that sense, the author of the post we are fact-checking turned out a bigger Putin-propaganda fanatic than the Putin propagandists themselves.
In actual fact, everyone is interpreting the footage in their own way and it is not known exactly where or when the footage was recorded. No reputable global media outlet is showing the footage, which is primarily circulating on dubious Russian Telegram channels and was originally sourced by Российская газета. The fact that the government of a superpower is relying on some Telegram channels talks about plain lack of professionalism.
The author of the post claims that “The Russians know, see, hear”, but they neither know, nor see, nor hear if their governmental media outlets stooped so low to depend on Telegram. Where in this story is the famous Russian intelligence? In this case, we are not talking about revealing some military secret, just a plain convoy moving openly on the motorway, with no camouflage. Did that demand additional efforts on the part of the Russians to see it? The footage could have been made by some amateur from Poland who shared it online and that’s how it reached the Russians. That, however, is an assumption because we have no data on the primary source of this footage.
Because the post mentions Poland, one acquires the impression that the footage was made there, and several foreign accounts on social networks describe it as being recorded in Poland. Some of them have identified the tank model as the Polish PT-91 Twardy, which might prove that the footage was made in Poland. But, be it as it may, the footage is not as important as the message published by the author trying to “make belief” with the help of the clip.
Poland is indeed preparing for a potential clash with the Russians, but not in terms of attacking them, but to defend itself from their attack (information: here, here, here, here, and here). Although some Polish politicians do not rule out the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, there are no indications that the implementation of that idea has commenced.
Nevertheless, fake news is quickly spreading. For example, recently Truthmeter debunked the news that France sent its troops to Ukraine. NATO member states, however, are not determined to get directly and actively involved in the conflict, which is most probably due to the nuclear fright. Such restraint and caution have been ongoing for 10 years, ever since the beginning of the invasion in Crimea, or even for decades, ever since the moment when Moscow became a nuclear power during the Cold War. Although the West is pondering the idea of sending troops to Ukraine, restraint and caution are predominant.
Of course, things might change in the future, but judging from the current predicament, there is no evidence, nor indications that the Poles are preparing to attack the Russians. Taking all the above-noted into consideration, the fact-checked post is assessed as untrue.
