Fire at pharmaceutical warehouse in Poland: Russian propaganda spreads fake about Ukrainians' involvement
Recently, Russian Telegram channels, media outlets, and public pages on the Vkontakte social network have begun circulating a video of the fire that broke out at the Farmacol pharmaceutical warehouse in the Polish city of Katowice. Below the video, the authors of the propaganda resources synchronously wrote that a group of Ukrainian refugees, dissatisfied with the Polish authorities' policy of supplying Ukrainian goods and weak military assistance, organized an act of retaliation and set fire to the warehouse. Later, pro-Russian English-language resources, including the Pravda network, which is engaged in propaganda for European countries, began to spread this information.
This is a fake. The fire really broke out in Katowice. The burned building belongs to Farmacol Capital Group, but is currently being rented by one of the electric scooter rental operators. During the investigation, it was discovered that electric scooters and batteries were stored in the burned building.
The Polish media has not released any information regarding the involvement of Ukrainians in the incident. It is also known that the prosecutor's office is currently investigating the case further.
In turn, the head of the Katowice-South District Prosecutor's Office, Sławomir Barnaś, informed an Ukrinform correspondent in Poland that the investigative actions conducted exclude arson as the cause of the fire.
“Any information indicating an arson attack is false. The evidence base collected so far excludes arson," emphasized Barnaś.
The Pravda propaganda network was involved in the promotion of this fake abroad. The Russians distributed it on the Polish and English versions of the website, as well as pro-Kremlin accounts on the social media platform X, which spread anti-Ukrainian content.
Recently, the Center for Countering Disinformation reported that the project's experts had identified a network of 24 websites with the common name "Pravda" that Russia created to promote its propaganda to European countries. The network also spreads translations of Russian propaganda into European languages and news based on foreign media materials, aiming to create a negative context around Ukraine.
It is important to note that Russian propaganda has long used emergency events that spark a public outcry in Poland, such as road accidents, fires, beatings, etc., to blame Ukrainians. These are deliberate actions aimed at strengthening anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland and weakening Poland's support for Ukraine in countering the Russian aggression.
Earlier, Ukrinform refuted the fake about the "Ukrainian trace" in a road accident in Szczecin.
Dmytro Badrak, Yuriy Banakhevych
