Fake news from Russian, Belarusian services spiked during floods in Poland, minister says

WARSAW (Reuters) - Disinformation attributable to Russian and Belarusian services spiked on the internet by around 300% during the first days of severe flooding in Poland, the country's deputy premier and digitalisation minister was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

The worst floods in at least two decades left many towns in central Europe, including southwestern Poland, submerged earlier this month, and the government warned of a spread of disinformation at the same time.

Digitalisation Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski told journalists in parliament that some of it was spread on the internet by Belarusian and Russian services.

"Accounts that had previously been used during the beginning of the war in Ukraine... became active again and began to disseminate information that floodwalls would not hold, (alleging) that the government does nothing ..., that we are dealing with floodwalls being blown up," Gawkowski was quoted as saying by PAP news agency.

Russian and Belarusian authorities have repeatedly denied Western accusations of disseminating internet disinformation.

Poland, one of Ukraine's staunchest supporters, has repeatedly accused Russia and Belarus of trying to destabilise the European Union and NATO member state since Moscow's invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

(Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; editing by Mark Heinrich)