Did the Polish weekly Myśl Polska disclose the number of Polish mercenaries lost in the Ukraine-Russia conflict? No, that's not true: No such article has ever been published. Mateusz Piskorski, from the editorial board of the magazine, denied that Myśl Polska ever reported on that, asking to check on the source of this alleged piece of information.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok by planet.404 on August 21, 2023. The text under the video (translated from Russian into English by Lead Stories staff) reads:
Periodical Myśl Polska announced Polish 'volunteers' losses and they are, honestly, scary. The country is short of over 10,000 soldiers. #Belarus#Russia#Ukraine#Poland#myslimpack
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Aug 23 08:28:09 2023 UTC)
In a post on Telegram, Mateusz Piskorski, from Myśl Polska, on August 21, 2023, wrote:
The material that is allegedly quoted does not exist. [...] We have no information about the number of Polish dead mercenaries. Our government does not comment on their presence in Ukraine. And we don't talk or write about things we can't verify.
Government Plenipotentiary for Security of the Information Space of the Republic of Poland Stanisław Żaryn denied the alleged participation of Polish mercenaries in the war in Ukraine calling it Russian propaganda, and underlined there was no relation with the Polish Volunteer Corps. He posted the following on X (formerly Twitter):
The Polish Volunteer Corps described in the media is in no way associated with the Polish Armed Forces or any Polish institution. The activities of Polish volunteers supporting Ukraine in the fight against Russia should not be identified with the authorities of the Republic of Poland.
The official account of the Government Center for Security of Poland on X has warned against Russian disinformation with the aim of discrediting Poland's and NATO's participation in the military operation in Ukraine, urging people to verify information in order not to be manipulated.
