On May 16, 2023, Russian propaganda media outlet MK.Ru published an article, stating that the explosion caused by the Russian missile attack in the Khmelnytsky region of Ukraine caused an increase in the radiation levels in Poland. The same informaion was also published by other Russian-language media outlets, including osnmedia.ru, news22.ru, adi19.ru, news.ru, dzen.ru, and riamo.ru.
The articles claim that on May 15, a sharp – 6-7 times increase in the level of bismuth was recorded by the measuring instruments in Lublin, Poland. The article refers to the Telegram Channel of Kremlin propagandist political scientist Yakov Kedmi, arguing that Polish residents think the radiation threat is coming from Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi region.
The claim that the explosion in the Khmelnytsky region of Ukraine caused an increase in the radiation levels in Poland is manipulative. According to Poland’s National Atomic Energy Agency, the temporary rise in bismuth levels is the result of natural conditions and is not anyhow related to the explosion in Ukraine.
In a statement released on May 17, Poland’s National Atomic Energy Agency denied the disseminated claim, stressing that the radiation level in the country remains stable. According to the statement, this is a standard situation that does not threaten human health, life, or the environment. The agency also urged people to be wary of disinformation.
The claim was also verified by the Polish fact-checking platform Fakenews.pl. They compared bismuth readings for September 2022 and May 2023. The analysis showed that in September 2022, the bismuth level was, in fact, higher.
The bismuth level in Lublin,September 2022 Source: UMCS
According to Prof. Paweł Moskal, the effect of poisoning caused by nuclear radiation depends on the strength of the specific immune system. Therefore, it is not possible to unambiguously determine the universal lethal dose. Instead, the dose is being determined only after half of the population dies within 30 days. In humans, it is about 3.5 Sievert (Sv) is a unit that expresses the amount of radiation energy absorbed by living tissue in relation to the biological effects of radiation. The radiation level measured in Lublin on May 15 was 0.66 µSv/h, so it was significantly below the anomalous threshold and more than 5 million times below the life-threatening dose.
The administration of the Khmelnytskyi region stated on May 13 that 21 people were injured as a result of a Russian drone attack on the region overnight.
Russia launched 21 Iranian-made Kamikaze “Shahid” drones to attack Ukrainian cities at night on May 13. According to the information released by the Air Force of Ukraine, the military managed to shoot down 17 of them, but four penetrated the defenses and hit the Khmelnytskyi region, resulting in an explosion.
About the Source
Political scientist Yaakov Kedmi appears in the “Putin List” prepared by Free Russia as a person who cooperates with Putin’s regime and is involved in the propaganda of Russian TV channels. Since the beginning of the 2010s, Kedmi has become a frequent guest of Russian TV channels, especially Россия 1 and ITON.TV.
Kedmi regularly criticizes Ukraine and constantly accuses it of anti-Semitism and collaboration with Nazism. In addition, Kedmi also justifies Russia’s actions in Syria. Kedmi is a reliable source for Russian propaganda not only in Russia per se, but also outside its borders. For example, Sputnik, one of the main Russian propaganda platforms, uses Kedmi’s figure to legitimize different opinions in Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. In 2023 the Council of the European Union imposed personal sanctions against him for conducting Russian propaganda.
For more details on Yaakov Kedmi, see the article of “Myth Detector:”
Asli Ismayilzadе
Myth Detector Laboratory
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