DISINFO: Polish soldiers opened fire to intimidate refugees on the Belarusian border
SUMMARY
A migrant filmed the moment in which soldiers, allegedly of Polish origin, fired their weapons in front of the refugees at the border between Poland and Belarus.
RESPONSE
The claim is false. The image, released by the Twitter account of the Spanish version of RT, clearly show that the soldier who fired his automatic weapon is from Belarus, as he is on the Belarusian side of the border, along with the group of migrants. This is also consistent with the allegations made by Polish authorities, who accused Belarusian guards of opening fire on the border for intimidatory purposes and even released a video filmed by Polish security forces showing a Belarusian official firing his arm.
By manipulating the facts, this disinformation story aims to spin the narrative about the Belarus-Poland border crisis in favour of Minsk, whose instrumentalisation of migrants for political purposes has been deemed unacceptable by the EU. To tackle these hybrid attacks, on 15 November 2021, the EU broadened the scope for sanctions to be able to target individuals and entities organising or contributing to activities by the Lukashenka regime that facilitate the illegal crossing of the EU's external borders.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as the claims that Poland is set to fight migrants with tanks and is searching for an excuse to close in on Belarus, that the West is responsible for the migration crisis on EU-Belarus borders, or that the EU adopts sanctions on Belarus to manage its own internal contradictions.
See our articles on the Belarus migrants situation here and here.