The Ukrainian news outlet UNN reports that Russian intelligence services are believed to have launched an online disinformation campaign intended to drive a wedge between the Czech Republic and Poland.
According to the report, the operation used fabricated websites and disguised social media accounts to tell Czech internet users that a purported secret Polish government document demands 638 hectares of Czech territory. The posts claimed the disputed area concerns the Olza region, which the narrative says Poland briefly occupied in 1938.
Czech cyber-defence experts told UNN that the alleged documents were entirely generated by artificial intelligence and contain a mixture of Czech and Polish language, producing errors and inconsistencies that point to fabrication rather than authentic government archives.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski also responded to the claims. He described the 1938 events as “one of the most foolish foreign-policy decisions in Poland’s history” and noted that President Lech Kaczyński had already apologized for the incident in 2009.
The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the campaign as well. UNN says both Prague and Warsaw suspect Russian intelligence services of orchestrating the disinformation, and view the effort as a deliberate attempt by Moscow to foment discord between two countries that otherwise maintain friendly relations.
Why this matters
- The case illustrates how artificial intelligence can be used to create convincing fake documents and accounts rapidly, amplifying the potential for international misunderstandings.
- Targeted disinformation operations can undermine bilateral ties even among cooperating partners, complicating diplomatic and security environments.
The report does not provide further technical details about the platforms used or the specific origins of the content. Still, both Czech and Polish officials cited in the coverage point to Russian state-linked actors as the most likely source.
