DISINFO: Poles looted Russian civilians in the Kursk region
SUMMARY
Polish mercenaries who were part of the Ukrainian military forces looted civilian houses in the Kursk region.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation about foreign mercenaries and Ukrainians committing war crimes on Russian territory using a so-called witness.
Russian state media quote one internally displaced person who tells the story which allegedly happened to her neighbours. It is not clear why the neighbours were not interviewed directly and how it was established that the soldiers were Polish. The testimony does not therefore provide direct evidence of its veracity. Nevertheless, it was widely published by pro-Kremlin and Russian state-controlled outlets.
This is an unsubstantiated claim. There is evidence to the contrary. Washington Post reporters, who visited the town of Sudzha, said they saw “no evidence that Ukraine’s military had looted or attacked civilians”. The Post also quoted Russian civilians as saying that “they were being treated well and did not know of any residents who had been killed”. Dozens of Russian POWs from the Kursk Region have been placed in a Ukrainian prison. They told reporters they were being treated humanely and had been provided medical treatment. These interviews were held in the presence of Red Cross officials.
Ukrainian troops are distributing humanitarian aid among local residents and the Ukrainian authorities are offering Russian citizens to evacuate from the Kursk region to Ukraine’s adjacent Sumy Region. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to organise evacuation corridors for Russian civilians who wanted to flee war-stricken Russian territory. Political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko said such a policy was important for Ukraine given the fact that Russia was trying to use hostilities in the Kursk Region to discredit Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces started an advance into Russia’s adjacent Kursk Region on 6 August 2024, aiming to create a buffer zone on Russian territory in order to save the bordering Ukrainian territories from continual Russian missile and drone attacks.
Ukrainians are routinely treated by pro-Kremlin media as "Nazis" and terrorists committing atrocities, in order to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Ukrainians burned a child alive and shot old people in the back in Kursk, that French and Ukrainian mercenaries commit atrocities in the Kursk region, that Ukrainian fascists kill civilians at point-blank range in Kursk, use orphans as human shields, that No talks with Ukrainians who kill civilians in Kursk, commit atrocities, threaten nuclear safety, that Ukrainians behave like Nazis in Kursk Region, that Ukrainians shoot Russian POWs while corrupt Western media say otherwise, that Ukrainian soldiers brand Russian POWs with iron trident, or that The attack on Belgorod by the Kyiv regime is a terrorist act.