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 24 December, on the 1034th day of the full-scale war, our editorial office recorded:

2605
Fake
776
Manipulation
755
Message
542
Disclosure
Русскій фейк, іді на***!

Manipulation Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament is outraged that God is helping Russia

In the Russian propaganda media and the Russian segment of Facebook, as well as in Georgian and Norwegian ones, information is being disseminated that the Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, allegedly was indignant at “God's help in achieving Russia's goals”. It is noted that the speaker spoke during the visit of Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to Vilnius. This is manipulation.

The journalists of the 15min project drew attention to the case. The Russian propaganda used manipulative headlines, and quoted in the text without reference to the source. On March 22, during a meeting with Bartholomew I, the leader of the parliament really spoke about God, but in slightly different words: “In Vilnius, the word of God was spread by love, not by the sword. Therefore, we, the inhabitants of Vilnius and the descendants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, consider it completely unacceptable that the imperialist goals of the Kremlin regime are disguised as the will of God”. That is, Čmilytė-Nielsen meant that the Kremlin's policy is covered by God, but she was not angry that he was helping Russia.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to create a religious conflict, to discredit the Orthodox Church and the authorities of Lithuania. Previously, Detector Media explained the message, which said that Ukrainians discredit Orthodoxy because they separated from the Moscow Patriarchate.

Fake Zelenskyi supports Russia as he wears shoes with the letter “Z”

In the Lithuanian segment of Facebook, information has spread that Volodymyr Zelenskyi wears shoes with the letter Z, a symbol of the Russian invasion. As proof, they added a cropped video from an interview with the President of Ukraine to the German TV channel ZDF, where this letter is clearly visible on his shoes. Also behind the scenes, a man swears and allegedly asks for shoes. This is manipulation.

The journalists of the 15min project drew attention to the case. The sound superimposed on the video is from the meme and does not concern Zelenskyi's shoes. As for the shoes themselves, the President of Ukraine wears New Balance sneakers and the letter N, the brand logo, is embroidered on them. In the video, the President of Ukraine crossed his legs and leaned on the floor with the toe of his sneaker. That is why the letter N became similar to Z.

Russian propaganda is systematically trying to discredit the President of Ukraine, to convince Ukrainians of his insincerity and to impose the opinion that he supports Russia and does not believe in the victory of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Earlier, Detector Media denied fakes that Zelenskyi allegedly has a Russian passport, Ukrainians allegedly protested against him, and he himself seems to be dreaming of uniting part of the territories of Ukraine with Poland.

Manipulation The Ukrainian general admitted that the professional army of Ukraine has already been killed

Such information was disseminated in Russian propaganda media, referring to the head of the Kharkiv military garrison, Serhii Melnyk. He believes that Ukraine “will never have enough people and equipment to defeat Russia”. Russian propaganda also stated that “the combat-ready part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed, and the professional military was out of action”. This is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project drew attention to the case. Russian propaganda media used an interview with General Serhii Melnyk for the Spanish edition of El País. Melnyk spoke about the defense of Kharkiv in 2022 and the upcoming counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2023. The general noted that Ukraine needs not only a large amount of equipment and ammunition, but also the military, so that rotations can be carried out more often. It was this statement that took the propaganda out of context and created the manipulation that the Ukrainian army had “already been killed”.

After the Russian propaganda media began to spread this manipulation, Serhii Melnyk explained his words. He noted that although the fighters are heroic, however, they are exhausted, some are injured, and someone dies. He also noted that Ukraine has enough resources for a counteroffensive, but the most important thing is to get enough weapons to save the lives of the fighters.

This is not the first time Russian propaganda wants to undermine the reputation of the Ukrainian military leadership and cause discouragement among Ukrainian society by manipulating the topic of a counteroffensive. Like, even the military leaders do not believe in the victory of Ukraine over Russia. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the manipulation that if the Ukrainian military fails the counteroffensive, the West will allegedly stop supporting Ukraine.

Fake “6600 UAH for Ukrainians born before 2008”, Zelenskyi approved a decree on payments

On the telegram channels of the Ukrainian segment, information is being disseminated that “an hour ago, Zelenskyi approved a decree to resume payments to Ukrainians”. Allegedly, all Ukrainians born before 2008 can receive 6,600 hryvnias in one payment from all international organizations. To receive payments, you need to register in your region - select the region in which the person lives, and follow the link. Also in the message there is a video that talks about obtaining assistance from international organizations. It's fake.

According to the journalists of the “Bez Brekhni” (No Lie) project, the video referred to by the authors of the telegram channels is taken out of context and does not explain the essence of the message. Also, there is no mention of Zelenskyi’s decree on the website of the Office of the President. Moreover, such a document cannot exist, because the President of Ukraine does not have the authority to appoint payments from international organizations. Another important point: in Ukraine, the head of state does not approve decrees, but signs them; in such messages, the date of the “approval” of the decree is always indicated, but it is not here. Questions arise why payments are provided to Ukrainians born exactly before 2008 as this is the entire adult population of Ukraine. By following the links in the message, a person gets to the pages of channels with the names “Good evening, we are from Zhytomyr, Rivne, Dnipro …”.

Parasitizing on the topic of help, unscrupulous administrators of telegram channels are trying to attract new subscribers. Information about state payments and the procedure for receiving them is contained exclusively on the official websites of state institutions. Earlier, Detector Media wrote about how Ukrainian telegram channels speculate on the topic of air raid alert.

Fake Ukrainian flour is poisonous: it contains insects and pesticides

A message appeared on the Czech Facebook segment and on sites spreading disinformation that VitaFlora flour with dangerous pesticides from Ukraine is being sold on the shelves of the Kaufland supermarket chain in the Czech Republic. In social networks, they hint that it contains insects, and also mention dangerous mold. That is, allegedly Ukrainian flour is poisonous and should not be consumed by people. It's fake.

Specialists from Manipulátori.cz drew attention to the case. In fact, Slovak grain is used to make VitaFlora flour. Later, a post appeared on Kaufland's Facebook page stating that Mlýn Kolárovo indeed confirmed the 100% Slovak origin of the raw materials for VitaFlora flour, and sent a protocol with the results of laboratory tests. The report added that the management of the supermarket decided to withdraw VitaFlora flour for sale as a preventive measure.

This is not the first Russian stuffing regarding Ukrainian grain. By spreading such disinformation, Russia is trying to strike at the Ukrainian economy. In the summer of 2022, in the conditions of a full-scale war, Russia blocked and continues to block the Black Sea shipping routes to Asia and Africa, so most of the Ukrainian grain was imported to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Also, information about allegedly dangerous flour from Ukraine led to the emergence of websites supporting Russia.

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.