Is Poland preparing to deport 50,000 Ukrainians? How fake videos exploit a real dispute

Publication date: 2026-07-13

Claim

Videos designed to look like reports by established media circulated on social platforms and anonymous Telegram channels. One claimed that Poland was preparing to deport 50,000 Ukrainians because relations with Ukraine had deteriorated. Other clips attributed inflammatory statements to politicians, historians and international organisations that they did not make.

Verdict

False / manipulated. We found no evidence that Poland is preparing to deport 50,000 Ukrainians. The claim did not appear on the official channels of Euronews, whose visual identity one clip imitated. Several checks connect this set of posts to the Matryoshka operation, which copies trusted media styles, adds invented quotes and reuses old or unrelated footage. A real and painful Polish-Ukrainian dispute does exist. The fakes did not create it, but exploit it to deepen distrust.

In brief

• The claim that Poland is preparing to deport 50,000 Ukrainians is not supported by an official decision or a Euronews report.

• The fake video used third-party footage of separate incidents, which does not prove a mass deportation campaign.

• Other clips attributed invented threats and statements to Ukrainian, Polish and European figures, as well as established media and research organisations.

• The real dispute concerns the naming of a Ukrainian military unit after figures associated with the UPA and the memory of the Volyn massacres.

• A real dispute does not make fabricated videos authentic. A plausible context can make a false story easier to accept.

• Open evidence does not establish the campaign's real reach because view counts may have been artificially inflated.

Why this matters

Poland remains one of Ukraine's key partners and hosts a large Ukrainian community. At the same time, the memory of the Volyn massacres carries strong emotions in both countries. In this setting, a fabricated claim about mass deportations can quickly affect people's sense of safety, create fear and increase hostility.

The campaign's method is harmful because it combines verifiable events with invented details. A user sees a real diplomatic dispute, familiar media styling and news-like footage, then may accept the false claim as the next development in a genuine story.

What we checked

We reviewed reporting by the Kyiv Independent, TVP World and Ukrinform on the group of videos, checked whether the claimed Euronews report existed, examined the described Matryoshka method and compared the false stories with independent coverage of the real Polish-Ukrainian dispute.

We separated three questions:

• Is there a real dispute between Poland and Ukraine?

• Did the named media and organisations publish the statements shown in the clips?

• Is there public evidence that Poland is preparing to deport 50,000 Ukrainians?

The answers are different. The dispute is real. The checked quotes and reports are unsupported. Evidence of a mass deportation plan is absent.

Evidence

1. The 50,000 deportations report does not appear on Euronews

Ukrinform checked a video presented as a Euronews report. It claimed that Poland was preparing to deport 50,000 Ukrainians amid the diplomatic conflict.

The check found no such report on the Euronews website or its official social accounts. The video was assembled from photographs and footage available online about separate incidents. Isolated incidents do not establish a planned mass campaign.

A measure of this scale would normally leave several public traces: an official decision, a legal act, a statement by Polish authorities and independent reports from multiple newsrooms. None appeared in the sources reviewed for this article.

2. Related clips imitated established media and organisations

The Kyiv Independent reported on Matryoshka posts identified by the Antibot4Navalny monitoring group. The videos used the identities of Euronews, Der Spiegel and the Institute for the Study of War, but the attributed materials did not match their real publications.

The invented claims included a call to bar Ukraine's president from Holocaust commemorations, a story that Estonian officials were returning Polish awards in solidarity with Ukraine, and an allegation that Polish fighters were being killed by Ukrainian comrades.

TVP World, citing the Bot Blocker project and the Vot Tak newsroom, also described fabricated threats, invented comments by foreign officials and false reports about new Ukrainian units. The media and organisations named in those posts did not publish the alleged reports.

3. Old footage was presented as new events

Another clip purported to show Polish border guards displaying UPA symbols at the border. Ukrinform found that the manipulation most likely reused footage from a 2025 memorial ceremony near Domostawa. The event did not take place at the Polish-Ukrainian border, and no authority confirmed the alleged border incident.

A separate video presented old football footage as a current event. The relevant football season was on a break when the claim circulated, while the original footage came from the previous season.

Reusing old footage is not automatically deceptive. Changing its date, location and circumstances turns it into false evidence.

4. A real diplomatic dispute gives the fakes a plausible background

The Guardian and other open sources documented the genuine dispute over naming a Ukrainian military unit after figures linked to the UPA. In Poland, the UPA is primarily associated with mass killings of Polish civilians in Volyn. In Ukraine, it is often associated with the fight for independence against Soviet rule.

The dispute led to strong public statements and decisions concerning state honours. These are verifiable events. They do not establish that Poland decided to deport 50,000 Ukrainians, or that the quotations in viral clips are genuine.

A responsible check must preserve both facts: the historical dispute should not be minimised, and its existence should not replace evidence for new sensational claims.

5. View counts do not establish real impact

TVP World reported more than 135,000 combined views for several posts. The Kyiv Independent said individual posts averaged around 30,000 views. Researchers also warned that Matryoshka can inflate engagement figures.

It is therefore not possible to say with confidence how many people encountered the material without automated promotion or how many believed it. The fake-video distribution method is documented. Its actual influence remains uncertain.

What remains unknown

• Who created each video and controlled each account.

• What share of views came from real users.

• How many people believed the claims or changed their attitudes toward Ukrainians or Poles.

• Which platforms removed the material and what enforcement they applied to related accounts.

• Whether official technical evidence will connect all posts to one operator with greater confidence.

Conclusion

The claim that Poland is preparing to deport 50,000 Ukrainians is unsupported. The video presented as a Euronews report is fabricated. Other posts in the same cluster also used invented quotations, copied media styling and old footage.

Poland and Ukraine do face a serious dispute over historical memory. That real conflict does not confirm invented events. Combining an authentic emotional background with fake media products is the campaign's main technique.

Sources

• Ukrinform: [Russian Propaganda Circulates Fake Stories and Old Videos About Ukraine and Poland](https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-factcheck/4139351-russian-propaganda-circulates-fake-stories-and-old-videos-about-ukraine-and-poland.html)

• Kyiv Independent: [Fact check: Russian disinformation takes aim at Poland-Ukraine rift](https://kyivindependent.com/fact-check-russian-disinformation-takes-aim-at-poland-ukraine-rift)

• TVP World: [Russian disinformation network stokes Ukraine-Poland tensions](https://tvpworld.com/93983591/russian-disinformation-network-spreads-fake-videos-to-fuel-poland-ukraine-tensions)

• The Guardian: [Volodymyr Zelenskyy to skip postwar conference amid tensions with Poland](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/23/volodymyr-zelenskyy-skip-postwar-conference-tensions-with-poland)

Corrections and updates

There are no corrections at the time of publication. This article will be updated if Polish authorities, platforms or independent researchers publish new verifiable information about the origin of the videos, enforcement against the network or the campaign's real reach.