Russian media are busy disseminating a fake story claiming that Poland’s ambassador to Kyiv Jan Piekło wants a Yugoslavian scenario for Ukraine and calls on the United States to help towards that end.
In an article menacingly entitled “Warsaw is ready to divide the Ukrainian pie,” Russian site Ukraina.ru, a prolific disseminator of disinformation and fakes, claims that Ambassador Jan Piekło has proposed to the US that a Yugoslavian scenario be implemented in Ukraine. The European Union is unable to deal with this crisis, so the US must step up, Piekło allegedly said.
The truth is a far cry from Ukraina.ru’s claim and as usual has to do with Russian media manipulation and phrases taken out of context.
Ambassador Piekło in an interview with the Ukrainian weekly Fokus expressed the view that the Minsk and Normandy formats dealing with the conflict in Donbas are not working and other solutions should be considered. Piekło points out that the war in Yugoslavia only ended with the intervention of both NATO and the US. However, the inclusion of NATO in the Donbas conflict resolution could lead to an even greater confrontation, Piekło says and points out that without the US, it will be very difficult to achieve peace in Donbas.
Ukraina.ru draws a completely false conclusion from Piekło’s words and announces that the Polish ambassador aims to divide Ukraine following the Yugoslavian pattern. Piekło, a one-time war correspondent in former Yugoslavia should know that without the US and NATO there never would have been a war in Yugoslavia Ukraina.ru declares disingenuously and concludes that Piekło wants Ukraine to be carved up.
Ukraina.ru fails to mention that Pieklo points out that Russia was an informal side in the Yugoslav war and that the initial leader of the Russian separatists in Donbas was Igor Girkin, or Strelkov as he called himself, who participated in the war in Bosnia Herzegovina and was an adviser to Serbian generals Ratko Mladić and Radovan Karadžić.
The goal of such stories as this Ukraina.ru piece is to present Poland as an aggressive neighbor who, together with foreign imperialists wants to carve up Ukraine. False analogies, false conclusions and linguistic manipulation aim to convince that in order to survive, Ukraine must remain in Russia’s sphere of influence.
