On 5 July 2026, the Ukrainian news agency Ukrainska Pravda [Ukrainian Truth] published an article blasting the Russian government’s Federal Security Service (FSB) for spreading faked “declassified” documents in a massive campaign to undermine the growing strategic partnership between and Poland.
This is certainly not the first time such claims have been made. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), in its periodical Razvedchik [Intelligence Officer], routinely publishes recently “declassified” cables that it claims they have been authorized to release to the public. The documents are clearly faked, and contain explosive misinformation about the backstabbing activities that Ukraine is engaged in with its allies in Ukraine’s fight against the Russian Federation. It’s laughable, but it’s an essential part of Russia’s “information operations,” propaganda machinery that dates back to Imperial times, and which Russia is among the best in the world at manufacturing and exploiting.
The following is our translation of the Ukrainska Pravda article. We’ve also taken the liberty of translating the material in one of the graphics that provides an example of the propaganda campaign’s efforts, a social media post by RT, one of Russia’s largest (state-run) propaganda outlets.
It is worth noting that one reader of the article was quick to point out that, if the assertion of the war crime noted in the Russian reporting is true, that “The Katyn massacre was the mass killing of more than 21,000 Polish prisoners of war and other detainees, carried out in the spring of 1940 by officers of the Soviet NKVD on the direct orders of Soviet leadership. Mass graves were first discovered in the Katyn Forest (Smolensk region) in 1943.” Take that, Russia.
You can follow along and rate our translation by reading the original article here.
The Russian FSB has launched a disinformation campaign featuring fake documents regarding the Volhynia tragedy – CCD [Center for Countering Disinformation]
5 July 2026
The Russian Federal Security Service has moved to the active phase of a special operation aimed at undermining the strategic partnership between Ukraine and Poland by circulating allegedly archival “documents” regarding the Volhynia tragedy.
Source: Andriy Kovalenko, Head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine
Details: The Kremlin has launched an information attack, utilizing state media to disseminate fake news in an attempt to artificially revive historical disputes between Ukraine and Poland at a critical moment for both states.
Plain language: FSB officers are planning to release fabricated documents regarding events from World War II, specifically the Volhynia tragedy of July 5, in an attempt to undermine Ukrainian-Polish relations. Russian state media are expected to disseminate this story.
FSB Director Aleksandr Bortnikov is currently personally overseeing Russian information operations aimed at driving a wedge between Poland and Ukraine.
Details: On the night of July 5, the enemy propaganda outlet Russia Today published a report citing allegedly “declassified” FSB files. The article accused Dmytro Kliachkivsky, a UPA [Ukrainian Insurgent Army] commander, of murdering 11 Catholic priests and nearly two thousand Poles in Volodymyr-Volynskyi in early summer 1943.
Russian propaganda deliberately employs manipulative terminology to provoke a sharp emotional reaction within Polish society. Predictably, Russians have intentionally labeled the events of the Volhynia tragedy a “massacre,” playing on the traumas of the past.
The enemy cynically exploits painful historical issues in an attempt to artificially stoke hostility between Ukraine and Poland.
“The goal of this FSB special operation is to destroy the strategic partnership by manipulating the past,” the Center for Countering Disinformation stressed.
What preceded this:
- The Center for Countering Disinformation under the NSDC [(Ukrainian) National Security and Defense Council] had previously warned that Russian intelligence services had ramped up a network of bot farms within the Polish segment of social media and were planning provocations in Ukraine using Polish iconography.
- On July 2, the Security Service of Ukraine, in cooperation with Polish law enforcement agencies, exposed a network of 11 individuals who organized anti-Ukrainian rallies in Poland using Russian funding.
- On July 3, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced serious warnings from NATO allies regarding preparations for Russian armed provocations directly on Polish territory.
- On July 4, the Center for Countering Disinformation warned that Russian special services were preparing provocations involving fabricated “documents” regarding the events of the Volhynia tragedy during World War II.
Translation © 2026 by Michael Estes and TranslatingHistory.org
Translating History 