Polish fake with Russian roots: Ukraine creating 'dirty bomb' under guise of building nuclear plant in Cherkasy region

A story has been published on the Polish-language website Niezalezny Dziennik Polityczny, in which a journalist named Jacek Tochman allegedly claims that Ukraine's energy strategy with a bet on nuclear energy and the completion of a nuclear power plant in the Cherkasy region is nothing more than a "cover" for the creation of a nuclear "dirty bomb."

Russian media outlets and Telegram channels began actively sharing this "sensational news story" online.

This is a fake. We have not found confirmation that a "journalist" named Jacek Tochman does not exist at all. He has no photo either on Niezalezny Dziennik Polityczny or on profiles on other sites where articles are allegedly published under his name. There are no real accounts under this name on social media.

This is not surprising, because Niezalezny Dziennik Polityczny is a fake site that has been spreading Russian propaganda since at least 2020. According to the Polish fact-checking project Oko.Press, most stories on the pseudo-news site were copied from other portals in order to create the impression of a full-fledged media outlet.

Almost all of the materials published on the news site are Russian propaganda and disinformation. The so-called editor-in-chief of the news site, Adam Kaminski, is a fake person. His photo on the website and on social media belongs to Lithuanian traumatologist Andrius Zukauskas. Polish media outlets also reported that most of the texts on this site were written in bad Polish using non-existent language structures.

The Russian fake narrative about "Ukraine creating a dirty bomb" or "exploding a nuclear power plant" is one of the most widespread in Russia and is often used as a justification for the invasion of the country. In this way, the aggressor tries to present Ukraine as a source of danger in the world.

That is why the Russians constantly "find" so-called "evidence" of the existence of the Ukrainian nuclear program or intentions to start it, intimidating the world with "Ukrainian terrorists" who are ready to detonate a so-called "dirty bomb" or carry out a "provocation" at the nuclear power plant. However, it is Russia that is a terrorist country that constantly uses nuclear blackmail to influence the West's decisions regarding Ukraine.

Ukrinform has already refuted fakes about the purchase of "weapons-grade uranium" by Ukrainian government officials in Niger, Ukraine's alleged plans to blow up the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and even French President Emmanuel Macron's "idea" to use nuclear weapons against Russian troops in Ukraine.

Earlier, Russia spread a fake about Ukraine's production of chemical weapons in Avdiivka.

Andriy Olenin