Coordinated disinformation campaign targets Czech-Polish relations with fake border claims

Multi-platform cyber operation

A coordinated cyber operation targeted bilateral relations between Poland and the Czech Republic by circulating fabricated territorial claims and stoking public fear. Attackers breached the website of Polish regional broadcaster Radio PiK and local news portal tcz.pl to publish fabricated reports claiming Poland intended to seize Czech border territory. CyberDefence24 uncovered that the false reports cited an artificial intelligence generated letter attributed to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs that demanded the return of more than 600 hectares. The document was written in Czech with only the final two words in Polish. Perpetrators also created a cloned version of Czech public radio website iROZHLAS, publishing false claims that Czech border residents were selling their homes in panic.

The perpetrators' method of operation corresponds to methods known to be used by the Russian side. At this stage, the originator of the incident has not been unambiguously determined.

Social media manipulation and fake protests

The campaign used fabricated social media personas and automated assets to fabricate grassroots unrest in the border area of Cieszyn Silesia. A fake Facebook profile named Adam Sikora used artificial intelligence generated portrait images to promote a demonstration in the town of Třinec under the slogan that Cieszyn Silesia is Czech. The posts misused the official logo of Czech trade union KOVO and circulated images of a non-existent house in Ropica to claim locals feared Polish expansion. Třinec city councilor Pavla Golasowská confirmed to Seznam Zprávy that no demonstration was registered. The operation also ran paid Facebook advertisements across multiple days and set up impersonation profiles of the Czech Ambassador to Poland and a Polish deputy foreign minister.

Diplomatic response from Prague and Warsaw

The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs published three infographics on social media platform X to reject the false reports of Polish territorial demands. The ministry clarified the historical background of the 368-hectare territorial debt from 1958 and confirmed that both governments are resolving the matter cooperatively. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk published a message in Czech featuring animation characters Reksio and Krteček, affirming that Poland and Czechia are genuine friends. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski publicly condemned the campaign, referencing Poland's 1938 entry into Zaolzie and the public apology delivered by President Lech Kaczyński at Westerplatte in 2009.

Let us not be divided. The annexation of Zaolzie was one of the stupidest decisions in the history of Polish foreign policy, but I hope that our Czech brothers remember that Poland, in the person of President Lech Kaczyński at Westerplatte in 2009, publicly apologised for it.

Origins of the border debt and hybrid tactics

The disinformation operation distorted long-standing discussions concerning 368 hectares of land. Under a 1958 treaty between Czechoslovakia and Poland, the mutual frontier was straightened by 80 kilometres, resulting in a territorial difference in Poland's favour. Negotiations over the debt have continued since 1992 between two nations that now share open Schengen borders and where roughly 30,000 ethnic Poles reside in Czech Zaolzie. In February 2026, Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka and Sikorski met to discuss resolving the debt through cross-border environmental cooperation.

It will not be any territorial or financial compensation, but rather we are talking about resolving this dispute through a joint project in the area of flood protection.

Bohumil Kartous, spokesperson for the Czech Elves civic group, stated that the campaign used typical Russian hybrid tactics by taking a minor territorial dispute and amplifying it to generate panic. Kartous noted that the effort aimed to create divisions within the pro-Ukrainian coalition in NATO and the European Union ahead of upcoming Czech municipal and Senate elections.