On September 18, citing Polish reports, Russian and pro-Russian media falsely reported that Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had commented on the “illegal” annexation of Galicia to Ukraine in 1939. (Galicia is the historical name of the region that includes several oblasts in modern western Ukraine.) The Prime Minister allegedly made the statement during a ceremony commemorating the victims of totalitarianism in Bykovnia.
This story was then picked up by RT, Russkaya Vesna, Antimaidan, Politnavigator, S-narodom, Novorossia News, golos-dnr.com, DNR24, and others.
The Polish news site Kresy.pl was given as the initial source, as was Polish Radio.
However, both Polish sites report no such comments by Yatsenyuk. Instead, the Prime Minister made a general statement on the damage imposed by totalitarian states on Ukraine and Poland, and condemned the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact for facilitating the outbreak of the Second World War. But he said nothing about a change in the territory of Ukraine.
According to the press office of the Cabinet of Ministers, Yatsenyuk said: “Nazis and Bolsheviks-Communists separated our countries and tortured our nations. Nazis and Soviets staged a joint parade in Brest. Behind our backs the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was signed. And it caused the Second World War – to give up somebody else’s interests in order to keep its own.”
