Russian media outlets and Telegram channels are reporting that Svitlana Zinchuk, allegedly the head of the Union of Polish Language Teachers of Volyn Region, is distributing a map among students of the Polish Institute at Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University, which depicts a “hypothetical future region” as part of the Republic of Poland. The posts include an image of the map supposedly handed out to students, where Ukraine’s Volyn region is shown as part of Poland.
Propaganda publications claim that this is how the population is being prepared for Volyn’s separation from Ukraine.
This is false. Speaking to Ukrinform, Svitlana Sukharieva, Head of the Department of Polish Philology and Translation at the Faculty of Philology and Journalism of Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University and an employee of the Polish Institute, told Ukrinform that the Polish Institute is an institution coordinating Polish-Ukrainian scientific projects, which employs only three people.
“This is a fake — an extremely primitive one at that — because the Polish Institute doesn’t even have students or pupils. It’s not an educational institution but rather a small coordination office for Ukrainian-Polish academic projects, run by just three coordinators. Svitlana Zinchuk has no connection to it whatsoever. She has never participated in meetings at the Institute with either students or pupils. The author of this fake clearly doesn’t understand what they’re talking about. We do organize conferences and seminars with teachers and students, but Ms. Zinchuk is neither a scholar nor an educator — she couldn’t have participated and has never been affiliated with Lesya Ukrainka University in any capacity,” Sukharieva said.
The fake was also debunked by Svitlana Zinchiuk herself, who confirmed in a comment to the Russian-language Polish outlet Vot Tak that she has no connection to the university:
“At the moment, I don’t work with students at all. I used to work in a school, but I’m now retired. I’m no longer engaged in teaching. I chair the Union of Polish Language Teachers, support young people, and organize methodical conferences and meetings for teachers — but certainly not to provoke anything. We simply focus on improving our teaching methods,” Zinchuk said.
She stressed that the activities attributed to her by Russian propagandists are entirely made up.
This narrative is yet another example of Russian propaganda promoting the false idea that Ukraine is an artificially created country that should be divided among neighboring states. The Kremlin uses such disinformation to damage relations between Ukraine and Poland, often manipulating the topic of national minorities.
Previously, Russian propagandists spread a fake story about a supposed “survey” in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region, allegedly aimed at gauging support for the region’s accession to Hungary.
Andriy Olenin
Source: Russian fake news: Volyn is preparing to join Poland
