Delegitimising European defence through the label of a “mythical threat”

What it claims

Support for Ukraine and European defence spending are portrayed as consequences of a “mythical Russian threat”, while Ukraine is cast as a Western tool for pressuring Russia. Russian assurances concerning Europe are presented as proof that security assessments amount only to scaremongering. Memory of the siege of Leningrad is stretched into accusations that the EU is “rehabilitating Nazism” and reviving a “drive to the East”.

Target audience

Examples (paraphrased)

We paraphrase rather than quote: propaganda's exact wording is built to spread, so we carry the claim and not the craft. Each example cites the post it came from.

• European governments use an invented Russian threat to increase military spending and supplies for Ukraine.

  Russian Embassy in Poland (Telegram), 8 Sept 2026

  t.me/rusembpol/1829

• The EU is returning to a “drive to the East” and supporting a Nazi-like regime in Ukraine.

  Russian Embassy in Poland (Telegram), 8 Sept 2026

  t.me/rusembpol/1818

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Goal

To encourage Poles with low trust in institutions and parts of progressive audiences to doubt the need to support Ukraine and European defence spending by portraying them as the result of an artificially created threat.

Techniques used

• Causal OversimplificationSupport for Ukraine and European defence spending are reduced to a supposedly invented fear of Russia, without considering other grounds for these decisions.
• Loaded LanguageSecurity assessments are labelled a “mythical threat”, while European policy is linked to “rehabilitating Nazism” and a “drive to the East”.

The real grievance it exploits

The narrative exploits Poles’ concerns about the country’s security, the risk of a wider war, and the costs of defence and support for Ukraine.

How to counter

• Technique exposure: A denial of aggressive intentions is not, by itself, an assessment of the security situation. Notice when such assurances are used to label risk assessments a “myth” without evidence.
• Prebunk: During debates on security, defence spending or aid to Ukraine, claims that the threat has been invented may reappear. It is useful to separate such political labels from verifiable grounds and specific decisions.

Sources (all time)

• Russian Embassy in Poland (Telegram)Tier 2366 subscribers
  7 posts · 8–16 Sept 2026

  • 16 Sept · t.me/rusembpol/1871
  • 15 Sept · t.me/rusembpol/1861
  • 12 Sept · t.me/rusembpol/1842
  • 12 Sept · Archived copy
  • 8 Sept · t.me/rusembpol/1830
  • 8 Sept · t.me/rusembpol/1829
  • 8 Sept · t.me/rusembpol/1818
• Układ Warszawski (ex-News Front Polska)Tier 36,943 subscribers
  1 post · 15 Sept 2026

  • 15 Sept · t.me/uklad_warszawski/35469