Famous photographer Yan Dobronosov published photographs of graves with numbers in a cemetery in Kramatorsk, which caused a wave of erroneous assumptions and manipulations in Russian and pro-Russian media. In the comments to his post, various assumptions about the purpose of these graves began to appear. Some users asked whether these could be the graves of unidentified local residents. This is written by KramatorskPost.

The publication's journalists claim that these burials have nothing to do with the war. As Ihor Yeskov, head of the information policy department of the Kramatorsk City Council, explained, the first burials in this sector appeared back in 2020, and it was specially designated for homeless people whose names and surnames cannot be established at the time of burial. Usually, these are the graves of people without a permanent place of residence, who are often impossible to identify due to the lack of documents or connections with relatives. Yeskov explained that from time to time, deceased homeless people are found in the city, and finding their relatives can be extremely difficult, even for the police, but burial is still necessary. Such people hide in a certain area of the cemetery, their data is entered into a special card index, which has been maintained since Soviet times. They are assigned a burial number, and if relatives are subsequently found, this number can be used to find the place where the person is buried.

Additionally, a special section for honorary burials of fallen soldiers, known as the Alley of Heroes, was created in Kramatorsk, with clearly defined rules about who can be buried there. In addition to the comments, there were also opinions that these burials may belong to unidentified people, possibly military personnel, medical workers, or volunteers who are difficult to identify due to a lack of documents or witnesses to the events. Unfortunately, similar burials exist in other regions of Ukraine, especially in areas where fighting took place.

The spread of manipulative messages about graves with numbers in Kramatorsk was aimed at creating a negative emotional background around Ukraine and sowing distrust in the Ukrainian government. Due to the distortion of facts, such disinformation is used to present Ukraine in an unfavorable light, to generate fears and suspicions among the population, and to strengthen narratives about the abuse of its citizens.

Reacting to the results of the second round of the presidential elections in Moldova on November 3, 2024, which were won by Maia Sandu, pro-Russian media and politicians called her the “president of the diaspora”. They justify this formulation by the fact that without the votes of the Moldovan diaspora, the incumbent president would have lost the elections.

According to the Central Electoral Commission, within Moldova, the candidate of the pro-Russian Socialist Party, Alexandru Stoianoglo, who received 51.19% of the votes, actually beat Sandu (48.81%) by 32 thousand votes. However, taking into account the votes of the diaspora, it was Maia Sandu who won a convincing victory in the second round of the presidential elections with a lag of almost 11% (55.35% versus 44.65%).

Such reproaches towards Maia Sandu are part of Russian information influence and a kind of protest, since obviously the victory of a pro-European and pro-Western presidential candidate was not part of the Kremlin’s plans.

The day before, Russia interfered in the elections in Moldova, trying to influence their results. In particular, in Moldova, television showed an investigation by journalists from the Ziarul de Gardă portal about how the Shor pro-Russian party bribed citizens with money from Moscow. As for Russian information influence in Moldova, the Center for Counteracting Disinformation wrote that throughout the election campaign, Russia carried out information attacks on the Moldovan authorities and provocations.

The use of the term “president of the diaspora” by pro-Russian actors is to discredit the victory of Moldovan President Maia Sandu. To affirm that she is now an “illegitimate president”.

Read on Censor.NET: propaganda about elections in Moldova

Propaganda media and social media users have begun spreading information that in Ukraine citizens are allegedly being forced to change their Russian surnames to Ukrainian ones through the state service Diia. Propagandists have allegedly published a screenshot of a message in which a user with the surname “Lebediev” is asked to “Ukrainize” it and change into “Lebedenko”, “Lebedinskyi” or “Lebedchuk”. However, this is a fake.

StopFake debunked this fake, finding errors in the screenshot text that indicate a fake. In particular, the use of the Russian letter “e” instead of the Ukrainian “є” and the incorrect gender of the word “surname” as feminine rather than neuter, as well as the use of an unofficial font. These errors are unlikely for an official message from Diia. In addition, StopFake specialists checked the official pages of Diia and did not find any similar initiatives or services for Ukrainization. The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, which is responsible for the functioning of Diia, also confirmed that such messages were not sent and are fake.

This fake is yet another attempt by propaganda to discredit the Ukrainian state system and stir up tension in society by spreading false information about the alleged forced imposition of Ukrainian identity on citizens.

Anonymous propaganda Telegram channels are actively distributing an ad about a “50% discount” on one boot for veterans of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a disability allegedly established by Ukrainian sellers. However, this is fiction, and the photo with the ad has been edited.

This is what experts at the Center for Countering Disinformation say. They note that this type of disinformation is aimed at manipulating citizens' emotions in order to cause indignation and despondency among Ukrainians, especially among those who actively support the military and help the wounded. Through targeted fakes, Russian propagandists are trying to portray Ukrainian society as not appreciating its heroes, as absolutely false and manipulative.

Such propaganda can also sow discouragement among international partners providing financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Propaganda seeks to convince both external and internal audiences that support for veterans is weak and their needs are ignored. This not only undermines unity within the country, but can negatively affect Ukraine’s reputation in the world. At the same time, such manipulations reinforce stereotypes, portraying Ukraine as a country that allegedly despises its heroes, which in a war situation is a dangerous tool for psychological influence on society.

Russian anonymous Telegram channels have spread information about the detention of a volunteer at a checkpoint in the Sumy region, allegedly with more than 100 kg of drugs that were supposed to be received by Ukrainian soldiers from the 82nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The propagandists used a photo of a pickup truck with drugs from the X social network. However, this is not true.

This was discovered by experts from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. They found out that the photo used for the fake really does refer to a report from the US Border Service. And the drug shipment mentioned in the fiction was seized in Texas, not in Ukraine.

The purpose of such information manipulations is to discredit the Ukrainian military and volunteers in the eyes of the international community, which undermines support for Ukraine at the international level. Such fakes create the impression of corruption and criminal activity among Ukrainian defenders and volunteers, aiming to cause mistrust among partners and donors providing assistance to Ukraine. Such disinformation campaigns are part of Russia's strategy aimed at undermining the unity of international support and the attitude towards Ukraine as a reliable partner in the fight for security and democracy.