According to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, this thesis is promoted by Russian propaganda. In particular, according to Russian State Duma deputy Matveichev, "Putin deliberately creates for Ukraine and the West a sense of their imminent victory. The latter will not strike decisive blows yet, but will continue to create the illusion as if a little more and Russia is defeated." "According to the "expert", such a strategy will force the measure to provide all possible weapons to Ukraine. After that, Russia will "dispose of all NATO weapons" and "deliver a decisive blow." The population of Russia "should understand this and fully trust the commander-in-chief. But in reality, these theses are only used by Russian propaganda to try to justify military defeats with the Russian Federation in front of its own population, first of all in the North of our country, from which the enemy has disgracefully retreated," reported in the Сenter. Thus, Russia is also trying to create the illusion of controlling the situation, and by reporting that Russia still has not delivered a decisive blow, propaganda is trying to justify the defeat of the Russian army.

Comments issued by pro-Ukrainian ones appear by the dozens under posts on public platforms, particularly Facebook. In fact, a significant portion of them may be spread by Russian bots. As can be seen from the screenshot, the same bots can express extremely different positions. For example, they can simultaneously support Russia's aggression against Ukraine, hate Russia, and wish Ukraine victory. This is a vivid example of how the Russian propaganda machine works, whose goal is not only to increase the number of Russian supporters and distort reality, but also to sow discord in Ukrainian society. Thus, thanks to scandals in social networks that may arise as a reaction to bot comments, Ukrainians are turned against each other, increasing the level of aggression and misunderstanding in society. Read MediaSapiens' text to find out how the botform works from the inside.

According to the Slavyansk City Military and Civil Administration, residents of the community receive a notice that Privatbank, Monobank, and Oschadbank will allegedly charge each user 3,000 UAH in connection with Russia's military aggression. However, this is a fake. The civil-military administration urges people not to click on the links that come in such messages, so as not to get hooked by fraudsters.

This information is spread by Russian propaganda media. In particular, the resource RIA-news. The reports say that the Ukrainian military are planning to blow up the dam in the city of Marganets in Dnipropetrovsk region and have already replaced it accordingly. In its statements, the publication refers to the notification of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The head of the Nikopol regional state administration Yevhen Yevtushenko reacted to the information about the mining of the dam in Marganets.

In his Facebook, the official called it Russian disinformation and noted that in addition to military action, Russia is waging an information war. "The news of the aggressor country is sharpened for disinformation, creating panic moods and increasing social tension on the territory of Ukraine. Use verified sources. If in doubt, seek clarification from local authorities and the district military administration," he said.

This is the information spread by users in social networks. As Mythdetector fact checker writes, the fake started spreading in late April by Russian-speaking users of social networks. The messages said that Kadyrov had allegedly arrested Azov battalion co-founder Andriy Biletsky. Facebook users claimed that Biletsky tried to escape in a helicopter, but was caught, and Kadyrov's men filmed his final video. The publications mention that in a 2-minute video Biletsky apologizes and blames Zelenskyy for everything and adds a screenshot allegedly from that video. However, the claim that Andriy Biletsky was captured by the Kadyrovites is a fake. In fact, the widespread video is an excerpt from an interview with the Ukrainian media.

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Anonymous telegram channels spread information that in the temporarily occupied territories the Russian authorities allegedly write off debts for public utilities. The authors of such reports also claim that with the spread of rumors that the western regions of Ukraine may be ceded to Poland, Romania, Slovakia or Hungary, people living in these regions are also allegedly not allowed to pay utility bills, because then the debts will be written off, as Russia does.

First of all, there is no question of the annexation of the western regions to any other country. It is only Russia that has attacked Ukraine with a war and seeks to seize our territory. Second, Russia may be writing off debts in the temporarily occupied territories, but in cities where Russian troops were already present, there are significant problems with communications, because Russia is purposefully destroying Ukrainian infrastructure. In particular, it blows up water and sewage pipelines, etc., and electricity and gas disappear in cities due to rocket and other shelling. In addition, such a message is dangerous because it seems to tell Ukrainians that it is advantageous to surrender to Russia because they will not have to pay for utilities and will be able to save money.

This is revealed by the British Foreign Office An expert study funded by Britain has shown exactly how Russia has developed a disinformation campaign designed to manipulate international public opinion about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, build support for the war, and recruit new sympathizers. This study has not yet been published. According to MediaSapiens, the British Foreign Office, citing this study, reported that in addition to Ukraine, Russia had targeted British ministers and world leaders from a number of countries. Traces of the deal were found on eight platforms, including Telegram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. In particular, according to the British Foreign Office, Russia's "troll factory" used Telegram to recruit and coordinate new fans, who then attacked the social media profiles of Kremlin critics, sending comments in favor of Vladimir Putin and Russia's war against Ukraine. Read more.

This statement appeared in the Russian propaganda media after the events that took place in Khust, Transcarpathia, on Saturday, April 30. Women in the town picketed the local military registration and enlistment office and demanded an explanation as to why their men, allegedly serving in territorial defense, were being sent to the war zone without proper equipment. Video of the picket appeared in both the Ukrainian and Russian media. However, the latter first and foremost began to call Khust a Nazi town, because it was for a time the capital of Carpathian Ukraine. and claim that more and more people in Ukraine do not believe in the victory of Ukraine and are discouraged by the actions of the authorities. And also allegedly women are constantly protesting against the fact that their men are being taken to war, and even in the western regions, where there is no fighting, "there is already beginning to be unrest." In fact, there are few such cases. So far, such protests have only taken place in Khust, and no other cities in Ukraine have been recorded so far. At the same time, residents of the western regions are agitated not because of distrust of the authorities, but because Russia has unleashed a bloody war in Ukraine and is hitting not only the eastern or southern regions, but the western regions as well. In addition, according to a sociological survey conducted by the research panel "Own opinion" with the support of the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences, as of mid-April about 79% of Ukrainians answered the question "How much do you believe in Ukraine's victory in the war with Russia?" "I fully believe". More than 14% said that they "rather believe", 2% of respondents answered "rather do not believe" and "do not believe at all"; 4,3% consider that they "find it difficult to answer" this question.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation, this thesis is spread in the media by Russian propagandists and, in particular, by foreign ex-officials, not for the first time supporting Russia and its aggressive policies. For example, former New Zealand Foreign Minister Matt Robson thanked Russia for standing up to NATO. According to the Center, an "expert" from New Zealand in the English-language news segment spreads the propaganda thesis of Russia that "NATO has always wanted to encircle Russia and China." "On April 29, a number of New Zealand media outlets published a commentary by M. Robson in which he expresses gratitude to Russia for the war with NATO in Ukraine in a manipulative manner. Since the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, M. Robson has regularly made such statements, completely repeating the disinformation narratives of Russia's leaders. In February and March, the former Foreign Minister of New Zealand stated that "NATO provoked the Putin. In April, Robson repeatedly stated that "NATO had promised not to expand its geographic presence. In reality, only Russia unleashed the war on the territory of Ukraine and NATO had nothing to do with it.