A newspaper with that name does not actually exist, and the interview is forged.
A screenshot of an interview with Russian war correspondent and propagandist Svetlana Pikta, allegedly published in the Polish newspaper Zapłocie, is being circulated by Russian sources. In it, she repeats typical pro-Kremlin narratives: in particular, she talks about the so-called murders of Donetsk children by Ukrainian Armed Forces. The propagandists note that many details were scrapped from final interview text, but the very fact of its publication is a great victory for Russia. The first screenshot was shared by Pikta herself on her Telegram channel and other propagandists picked up the news verbatim.
However, this interview is forged. We were unable to find any confirmation that the newspaper called Zapłocie exists; this is the name of a Polish village with a population of only 27 people, so it would be odd if such a tiny town had its own media. The screenshot of the interview itself was also shared exclusively by pro-Russian sources, and there is no mention of this conversation in any Polish media.
Svetlana Pikta is Russian by origin, but since 1999 she has lived in Donetsk, and then in Kyiv. She first became infamous in the media in 2017, when she publicly spoke out against donating funds and humanitarian aid for ATO fighters at the school where her children studied. Pikta then ended up Myrotvorets database. After some time, she moved to Russia, to the city of Yaroslavl, where she began working on television, giving numerous interviews to Russian media about «escaping Kyiv with five children» and complaining about low social benefits. Now she is apparently trying to spread propaganda narratives not only to the Russian, but also to the Polish audience.
Such fakes are designed to legitimize Russian propaganda as something worthy of attention for the Western audience. We have already refuted such disinformation in the article Fake: Putin Addressed Europe on the Croatian TV Channel.
