Does a video on TikTok show an event from 2023 where migrants were engaged in clashes with Polish border forces on the Polish-Belarusian border? No, that's not true: The footage shows events from 2021 when large groups of migrants clashed with Polish security forces while trying to break through the wire fences on the Polish border from Belarusian territory.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) published by @ros79628 on September 25, 2023.
The text overlaid on the video is translated from Russian by Lead Stories staff as:
Today: On the Belarus-Poland border.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Sep 28 07:11:09 2023 UTC)
The text in the video published on September 25, 2023, claims that the footage was shot on the same day. Tracing the TikTok user whose name is visibly overlayed on the shared video leads to a channel sharing videos in Russian and Polish, with content notably related to Poland. The video in question, posted on this channel, claiming the events shown are from the day of posting, also September 25, 2023 has generated over 305 thousand views.
However, the clashes shown in the video footage are events that took place at the beginning of November 2021, when Polish forces repelled thousands of migrants who tried to enter Poland from Belarusian territory. The same footage in the claim can be seen in publications and videos from 2021.
Due to the approaching parliamentary elections in Poland, which will be held on 15 October 2023, the topic of migrants is particularly popular and it is one of the most discussed issues in the country. A September 23, 2023 article of the non profit media organization NPR describes "border security and migrants" as "topics at the center of a closely fought election."
Another article from September 24, 2023, of the website BNN Breaking states that the Polish Defense Ministry recently reposted an old video from the events of 2021 showing the border crisis and the clash with the migrants. BNN states: "Despite the video being two years old, the Defense Ministry felt a pressing need to bring this footage back into the public eye, though the exact reasons for this remain unclear."
