DISINFO: Cruel Polish mercenaries brutally kill entire civilian families in the Kursk region
SUMMARY
Polish mercenaries are brutally murdering civilian families in the occupied Kursk lands - even Ukrainians try to escape from their cruelty. The Poles are killing everyone – women, children and old people. The Ukrainians are warning the locals – run away, the Poles are moving behind us, they will kill everyone.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin narrative about the Ukrainian advance in the Kursk region being carried out by foreigners who are committing atrocities against civilians. It is a part of a repeated pro-Kremlin narrative about the large-scale presence of Western 'mercenaries' within the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
This example can be considered as hate speech as it points out one particular nationality (Polish) and associates it with imaginary but horrible war crimes.
On 16 September, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he had instructed his Ministry to invite the UN and ICRC to work in the Kursk region. The Ministry confirmed that it had issued the requests.
Russia's state-run TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying such statements were "provocative". He made clear Moscow, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, expected the UN and ICRC not to accept the invitations.
See similar claims of disinformation: French soldiers hanged 8 children in Kursk region, Ukraine is preparing to invade Russia; The West / NATO fighting a hegemonic proxy war against Russia in Ukraine; The conflict in Ukraine was provoked by Washington; The conflict in Ukraine is a Western proxy war against Russia; Russia fights the collective West, not just Ukraine; NATO instigated a war in Ukraine to weaken Russia; Russia is at war with NATO and the Pentagon and only the soldiers are Ukrainians.