Propaganda spreads information that Ukrainians allegedly began to donate less and help volunteers and the military less. And also that Western foundations and organizations have completely stopped funding, as a result of which financial support for the treatment of the military has decreased. In addition to this, the ability to travel abroad to receive surgical services was allegedly limited. But all this is fake.

Vox Ukraine specialists drew attention to it. Based on the results of a survey conducted by Gradus Research on the second anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion, there is a positive trend toward an increase in the frequency and regularity of citizens making donations. Data from Monobank, one of the leading banking services for collecting charitable contributions, confirms this positive trend. During 2023, support for charities and voluntary organizations has more than tripled compared to the first year of the full-scale invasion.

Data from the reports of the Come Back Alive foundation also refute this fake. Compared to 2022, the amount of donations in 2023 was slightly lower, but it is known that the average amount of donations in the second year of a full-scale invasion increased by more than 10%.

In this case, propagandists are trying to level out the support of Ukrainian citizens and contribute to the destabilization of society by reflecting false opinions. They describe the situation in such a way as to provoke a pessimistic attitude towards assistance to the Ukrainian military and dramatize the economic situation of citizens.

Propagandists, through pro-Russian telegram channels and accounts on the social network X (formerly Twitter), are distributing a video in which Catherine Himmler, the granddaughter of the brother of one of the most influential leaders of Nazi Germany, Heinrich Himmler, allegedly calls on Ukrainian young people not to return to Ukraine. Like, she advises “not to hand over Ukrainians to the bloody dictator Zelenskyi”. But this is not true.

In fact, Himmler made no such statement. The video was edited using archival chronicles from the time of the Third Reich, echoing footage of a meeting with the participation of the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Germany Dmytro Kuleba and Annalena Berbock, as well as other German politicians. Katherine Himmler responded to the Agency's editor by email, confirming that she had not said what propagandists had attributed to her.

On April 16, the President of Ukraine signed the law on mobilization and military service, which talks about strengthening sanctions against military service evaders, as well as some changes in military registration. On April 23, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced a decision to limit the provision of consular services abroad to Ukrainians of military age. Commenting on this decision on the social network X, he noted that “soon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will provide updated explanations on the procedure for obtaining consular services within the framework of the law for men of mobilization age in foreign diplomatic institutions”. Taking advantage of this situation, Russian propaganda is trying to spread panic and discredit the government. Detector Media also refuted other Russian stories on the topic of mobilization in Ukraine.

Statements by Russian figures about the need for destruction and withdrawal of the population of Kharkiv were accompanied by a constant stream of similar messages on social networks. Since the beginning of 2024, there have been signs of an organized campaign to fill the online space with alarming messages promoting the idea that Kharkiv will soon become uninhabitable. Mariia Avdieyeva writes about this for the Ukraine Alert Atlantic Council project.

In her opinion, the role of social networks in Russia’s information attack against Kharkiv is very important. Platforms such as Telegram, TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter) serve as platforms for carefully orchestrated Russian propaganda. Groups of accounts associated with the Kremlin are intensively promoting key propaganda messages on this topic. These include the hopelessness of the military situation in Ukraine, the inability of the Ukrainian state to protect its citizens and the likelihood that Kharkiv will suffer the same fate as Mariupol.

The Russian information attack is also expressed through the spread of false statements attributed to Ukrainian authorities. For example, accounts from Russia spread disinformation that the Ukrainian government was allegedly calling on residents of Kharkiv to immediately leave the city to avoid a cordon by Russian troops. Fake reports from Ukrainian authorities were also distributed that Kharkiv was on the verge of a humanitarian crisis.

These fakes usually look convincing and are almost indistinguishable from official communications from the Ukrainian government. They even come with detailed information about “safe escape routes”. As a result, many residents of Kharkiv are exposed to this misinformation and unwittingly become accomplices in the spread of Russian fakes.

In addition, propagandists use real news and distort it to mislead the population and provoke panic. For example, they described a series of planned evacuations from certain settlements along the front line as a full-fledged evacuation of entire districts of the Kharkiv region.

In addition to faking government announcements and deliberate distortions, propagandists are also actively distributing videos. One of them said that thousands of cars were allegedly leaving Kharkiv. However, it later turned out that this is archived video from the beginning of the invasion in the spring of 2022.

Propagandists are spreading information that after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed a new law on mobilization in Ukraine, the number of people looking for notaries to draw up wills has suddenly increased. Advocates point to Google Trends statistics for searches for “notary to draw up a will”. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They note that Google Trends is a service that helps one understand what topics the audience is interested in based on the number of search queries on Google. However, checking the statistics on the request of a notary to draw up a will in Ukraine over the last 7 days did not show enough data to display statistics. This means that during this period of time, users did not make such a request often enough. In addition, the service’s charts show that over the past year, interest in the topic of wills in Ukraine has remained stable without sudden increases after the signing of the law on mobilization.

This law provides for some restrictions for those liable for military service, but Russian propaganda is trying to manipulate this issue, spreading panic among the population.  Detector Media also refuted other Russian inventions under this law.