Spilnota Detector Media
Detector Media collects and documents real-time chronicles of the Kremlin disinformation about the Russian invasion. Ukraine for decades has been suffering from Kremlin disinformation. Here we document all narratives, messages, and tactics, which Russia is using from February 17th, 2022. Reminder: the increasing of shelling and fighting by militants happened on the 17th of February 2022 on the territory of Ukraine. Russian propaganda blames Ukraine for these actions.

On 23 December, on the 1033th day of the full-scale war, our editorial office recorded:

2603
Fake
774
Manipulation
753
Message
541
Disclosure
Русскій фейк, іді на***!

Manipulation Serhii Prytula's Fund announced another collection of money, inflating the cost of one armored personnel carrier by 2.5 times

Pro-Russian telegram channels write that volunteers have announced another “muddy collection” for British Spartan armored personnel carriers. It seems that the purpose of raising funds is not the purchase of armored personnel carriers for the Ukrainian army, but the desire for profit. Like, Serhii Prytula announced that it is necessary to collect 200 million hryvnia for 50 cars, but in fact they will cost about 58 million. This is not true.

Detector Media received a comment from the Prytula’s Fund regarding car purchases. As the volunteers explained, Spartan armored personnel carriers will be bought from warehouses in the UK. The need to purchase was agreed with the military command. The choice was influenced by several factors: technical condition, price, sufficient quantity in warehouses and logistics. The Fund also explained that the amount of the fee, in addition to the cost of the armored personnel carriers themselves, includes their pre-sale preparation, transportation, and customs clearance. Also, the amount of the fee includes the training of the Ukrainian military by British instructors.

Russian propaganda is systematically trying to discredit the work of Ukrainian volunteers. Earlier, propagandists wrote that Ukrainian volunteers “cynically collect money” during Russian attacks and tried to convince them that it makes no sense to donate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and help volunteers.

Fake New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suspends aid to Ukraine due to financial crisis

They write about it on social networks. Like, Sunak believes that because of the "severe economic crisis" the UK can no longer provide assistance to Ukraine. It seems that he said that he was freezing the foreign aid budget for 2 years. This is not true.

Indeed, on the day of his appointment as prime minister, Sunak promised to "lead the country out of a deep economic crisis and restore confidence in politics". In his speech, he spoke about the recession of the UK economy and did not mention anything about cuts in funds or assistance to Ukraine. According to Logically's fact-checkers, on October 25, the prime minister's office issued a press release stating that Rishi Sunak had a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Sunak stressed the UK's unwavering support for Ukraine.

“It is an honor for me to communicate with the President of Ukraine this evening. Both he and the Ukrainian people can count on the continued solidarity and support of Great Britain. We will always be with Ukraine”, Sunak wrote on Twitter.

Russian propaganda is trying to react to the surrounding events and adjusts the disinformation work to the new conditions. In particular, after the appointment of Liz Truss as the prime minister, they wrote that she was incompetent and her policy was Russophobia. They also wrote that the UK is preparing for a military coup.

Message Moscow is ready for negotiations, but on its own terms

The message is spread by the Russian media with reference to the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mariia Zakharova. According to her, Russia always maintains a dialogue with everyone, even in the most difficult situations. Like, Russia is ready to wait for peace talks with Ukraine and this is its “good will”.

As the Center for Counteracting Disinformation notes, statements on the negotiations are heard at the highest level, but Russia insists that they should take place exclusively on their own terms.

Thus, Russia is trying to convince the Western audience that it is Ukraine that does not want to end the war. Also, under the pretext of the negotiation process, Russia plans to suspend hostilities in order to build up military potential and continue the occupation of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian authorities have announced the only condition for possible negotiations with Russia - this is the immediate cessation of the war against Ukraine and the withdrawal of Russian troops from the border of Ukrainian territories in 1991.

Previously, propagandists convinced that no one needed a war, that it was necessary to negotiate. Allegedly, Ukraine has unleashed a war with Russia and refuses any negotiations, moreover, Zelenskyi was forbidden to negotiate.

Message Western countries have begun to deny Ukraine weapons because they want to stop supporting the war

Anonymous GRU-controlled telegram channels are spreading an article by the Italian publication Il Messaggero to prove that Western Europe is gradually withdrawing support for Ukraine and cutting off the supply of weapons. In fact, the article is titled “Rome freezes order for new weapons for Kyiv. But the support of Ukraine remains”, it is not said that Italy refuses to supply weapons to Ukraine. But only that Italy is waiting for the visit of NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg to coordinate plans for the supply of weapons to Ukraine. The visit of the head of NATO will take place in the coming days. In addition, the article says that the air defense systems requested by President Zelenskyi are few in Italy, and therefore the delivery of these systems is being postponed for the time being. Russian telegram channels insist that the "supply of weapons" is stopped because they are allegedly smuggled into the EU and the Middle East, where they fall into the hands of criminals. All of them have recently referred to an article in a Finnish publication, which claimed that law enforcement officers from several Scandinavian countries found weapons from Ukraine in local gangs. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine requested such data from law enforcement officers in Finland - and they did not find any evidence of what was said in the article. Russia has been trying to discredit Ukraine in order to reduce the number of weapons provided by partner countries from the first days of the war. To do this, it systematically invents fakes and manipulates.

Manipulation The Tula Cartridge Plant continues to supply cartridges to the United States

Such information is disseminated by pro-Russian information resources. They say that sanction restrictions do not prevent sales of cartridge products in the United States and do not have a significant impact on the work of the enterprise. This is manipulation. The posts cite the company's explanations for the 2021 income statement. In fact, the sanctions against the Tula plant have nothing to do with the war in Ukraine, since they were imposed as a US reaction to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Oleksii Navalnyi with the Novichok nerve agent. The sanctions limit the conclusion of new contracts for the supply of weapons and ammunition from Russia. However, the sanctions did not affect previously concluded contracts, and therefore it was possible to continue their implementation. Over the period from September 2021 to March 2022, the volume of cartridge imports from Russia to the United States did not really decrease. However, in April 2022, the US government made a legislative decision to stop the usual trade relations with Russia. From April 2022, the duty on the import of cartridges from Russia to the United States is 30-45%. In April-June, the import of Russian cartridges decreased by 88% compared to the previous quarter. In June, the US President set a fixed duty rate for Russian products at 35%. Given that almost half of the products of the Tula Cartridge Plant are systematically exported, the company is now suffering from the loss of one of its main sales markets. In July, out of 1,397 workers, the plant transferred 530 workers to downtime with the payment of two-thirds of their wages, and another 337 workers quit. Thus, Russia is trying to promote disinformation messages that sanctions are not hurting the Russian economy and the West is still secretly trading with Russia despite the sanctions. More details.

Fake Lithuania and Poland overturn troops to the Belarusian border

Belarusian media write about this and distribute a video on social networks, which allegedly shows columns of German self-propelled mortars moving towards the border. Allegedly, Polish soldiers are helping the Lithuanians. Also, allegedly, the Lithuanian military had identification marks in the form of red ribbons. This is manipulation. According to the Lithuanian fact-checkers of the Delfi project, in fact, this video was filmed at the international Iron Wolf 2022-II exercises, which began on October 17. In total, 3,500 military personnel and 700 pieces of equipment were involved in the training. Such exercises are held annually in spring and autumn for the Iron Wolf mechanized infantry brigade and its battalions. The purpose of the exercises is to work out the combat coherence not only of the Lithuanian troops, but also of partners from other NATO countries. Russia and Belarus systematically spread fake news that NATO countries are aggressive and dangerous. The propagandists claimed that the goal of the West was to blow up the economic potentials of Russia and Belarus and worsen the quality of life of citizens, and also convinced that the Russian army, with the support of Belarus, could “take” Kyiv in two or three months.

Fake A model of an Iskander was created in Ukraine which will be used as a dirty nuclear bomb

 Such information appeared in the pro-Kremlin media. Messages began to spread after Volodymyr Putin in his "Valdai speech" said that Ukraine was creating a "dirty bomb" and Russia even knew "roughly where this is being done". Propagandists claim that Kyiv, on the basis of the projectile of the Tochka-U missile system, made a dummy of the Iskander missile for a provocation with a dirty bomb over the exclusion zone of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Like, the layout was made by Pivdenmash specialists, and the main cassette part of the dummy is pushed with radioactive material, and then shot down in the Chernobyl area in order to shock the world and accuse Russia of using nuclear weapons. However, this is not true. According to The Insider's fact-checkers, the so-called mock-up shown by the Russian media is fake. “Despite the similar outlines, Tochka-U and Iskander missiles have different sizes. The diameter of the Iskander is 920 mm, and the Tochka-U is 650 mm, almost one and a half times smaller. It is impossible to create a model of the Iskander based on Tochka-U, except perhaps a smaller copy, which is unlikely to convince international experts. And the scenario in which a rocket allegedly launched by Russian troops with a radioactive filling explodes over the Chornobyl exclusion zone, that is, a practically deserted territory where the harm done to Ukraine will be minimal, does not look very plausible,” the fact checkers write. This is not the first time Russia has claimed that Ukraine is going to use a dirty nuclear bomb to blame Russia for it. Read more about this in the text of Hala Skliarevska.

Fake The French released the cartoon “Stop nazi games” about Ukraine

A cartoon with the same name is distributed on social networks. It seems to show what is really happening in Ukraine. In the story, Volodymyr Zelenskyi becomes a puppet of Western rulers and launches an attack on the Donbas. The animated video was allegedly produced by the Barracudas agency, positioned as a “French independent studio”. It is fake. There is no information on the web about the so-called Barracudas studio, its creation or work, except for one cartoon about “Nazi Ukraine”. The studio does not have pages or channels on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. At the same time, the video upload date on many platforms is the same - August 14-15. As VoxCheck fact-checkers note, this may indicate forced distribution from fake accounts. Fact-checkers of the Delfi project from Latvia noticed that the style of the Stop nazi games cartoon resembles the work of the Armenian animator David Sahakyants, who created the Kill Dim cartoon series two years ago. This is a political satire about Azerbaijan, which is portrayed as a puppet of Turkey and a threat to the security of Armenia. The cartoons use very similar artistic and visual imagery. For example, the dolls of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Volodymyr Zelenskyi are put on the arm. Later, in both cartoons, these puppets press a button with the inscription “war”, and tanks leave for Armenia and the Donbas. The cartoon "Stop Nazi Games" promotes the key narratives of Russian disinformation about Ukraine: that Ukraine is a Nazi country that started a "civil war" against its own population in the Donbas. Previously, propagandists distributed anti-Ukrainian cartoons created by a Russian woman from Sochi, with comments that allegedly it was made by Israel.

Disclosure Russian propaganda disseminates information about a break in the IT system of situational awareness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

This was reported in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. A recently updated version of this system was successfully presented at the annual NATO Tide Sprint conference of experts and developers. Shortly thereafter, the enemy began to attack the system and disseminate information through a network of propaganda resources about the alleged kink and access to its data in order to discredit it. The information systems and tools used by the Ukrainian defenders are a strategic target for the enemy, as is the country's critical or energy infrastructure. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports that now the system is working stably, the data in it is securely protected, no unauthorized intrusions have been recorded. IT developers and cybersecurity specialists monitor hostile activity in real time.

Orest Slyvenko, Artur Koldomasov, Vitalii Mykhailiv, Oleksandra Kotenko, Oleksandr Siedin, Kostiantyn Zadyraka, and Oleksiy Pivtorak are collaborating on this chronicle. Lesia Bidochko serves as the project coordinator, while Ksenia Ilyuk is the author of the project.