Surge of Anti-Ukrainian Disinformation Detected on Polish Facebook

Polish Facebook flooded with false claims about “dangerous” Ukrainian products, officials warn

A coordinated wave of anti-Ukrainian disinformation has emerged across Polish Facebook, with posts urging users to boycott all Ukrainian-made products based on fabricated safety concerns, according to Ukrainian security officials.

The Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD), operating under Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, identified a pattern of manipulative social media posts targeting products with the barcode prefix 482, which identifies goods manufactured in Ukraine. These posts falsely claim that “all Ukrainian products are contaminated” and should be avoided by Polish consumers.

“Such fakes prey on real cases when individual batches of products—not necessarily from Ukraine—do not meet quality standards,” the CCD explained in a statement. “But propagandists deliberately generalize isolated incidents to create a false impression of ‘total danger’ to Ukrainian products.”

Security experts note that this disinformation campaign exploits the standard practice of Polish regulatory institutions, which regularly publish warnings about specific products that fail to meet safety or quality standards, regardless of their country of origin. By taking these isolated incidents and presenting them as evidence of widespread issues with Ukrainian goods, disinformation operators create a distorted narrative designed to damage Ukraine’s economic interests in the Polish market.

The timing and nature of these campaigns suggest coordinated action rather than organic consumer concerns. According to the CCD, the Polish General Staff has reported intensive information-psychological operations targeting Ukraine, indicating that these social media posts are part of a broader strategy.

“The manipulation with the 482 code is part of an anti-Ukrainian campaign that has intensified in Poland since the start of the full-scale war,” the CCD statement continued. “Its aim is to undermine trust between Ukrainians and Poles, sow hostility between the two peoples, and increase pressure on Warsaw’s political decisions to support Ukraine.”

The campaign comes at a particularly sensitive time for Polish-Ukrainian relations, which have occasionally been strained by historical disputes and economic tensions even as Poland remains one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters in its defense against Russia’s invasion.

Trade relations between the two neighboring countries have become increasingly important for Ukraine’s economy during wartime, with Poland serving as both a crucial market for Ukrainian exports and a vital transit corridor for Ukrainian goods heading to other European markets. Any successful effort to reduce Polish consumer confidence in Ukrainian products could have significant economic consequences.

Security analysts have linked these disinformation tactics directly to Russia’s broader information warfare strategy. “This fully aligns with the Kremlin’s information policy aims in Poland,” the CCD noted, suggesting that the campaign’s ultimate goal is to fracture the solidarity between Ukraine and its key European ally.

This is not an isolated incident in the region. In a related development, Ukrinform reported that a church in Sweden recently issued warnings against cooperation with Belarusian nuns due to alleged connections to Russian military intelligence (GRU) and the Moscow Patriarchate, highlighting the breadth of Russia-linked influence operations across Europe.

Polish consumer protection agencies have not issued any general warnings about Ukrainian products, and experts encourage consumers to rely on official regulatory announcements rather than unverified social media posts when making purchasing decisions.

As the war in Ukraine approaches its third year, these information campaigns demonstrate how economic and social relationships across Europe remain battlefield extensions in Russia’s hybrid warfare strategy.