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:

2604
Fake
775
Manipulation
753
Message
541
Disclosure
Русскій фейк, іді на***!

Fake In Paris, Zelenskyy depicted in graffiti absorbing money like a black hole

Russian propaganda media, including Pervyi kanal (Channel One), Russia Today, Vesti (News), Ukraina.ru, Izvestia (News reports), Arguments and Facts, FAN and others, have distributed a photo of a 3D graffiti caricature of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They wrote that this graffiti was made in Paris, and the authors of the picture posted on social networks with the following description: "Hello France, give me all your money!" and a response from supposedly France: "I'm sorry, but I don't care".

As the fact-checking project Myth detector found out, this picture is a fake. Investigators found out that the photo shows the exit from the Saint-Mande metro, next to it you can see the La Florangerie flower shop. The project asked its own employee to go and see if there was graffiti there: as of December 3, there was none there. The project also contacted a representative of the flower shop and he confirmed that the store has not had any graffiti at all lately.

The photo of the fake graffiti was posted on an Instagram account that only has two posts. The previous one is also a photo of graffiti with Zelenskyy allegedly made in Warsaw. Three fact-checking projects at once found out back in November that this was a fake and there was no such graffiti in Warsaw either. Such graffiti is part of the propaganda messages that allegedly the Ukrainian authorities “demand money” from the West in order to wage “a war that no one needs” or “get rich”. They also constantly try to send a message that “Ukraine, like a black hole, absorbs money and weapons”, that is, spends it on both without control. But propaganda efforts are in vain: the EU, the US and other partners continue to support Ukraine.

Message Invincibility points are ineffective and dangerous

Immediately after the appearance of invincibility points, which were introduced for Ukrainians suffering from the lack of light and heat due to Russian shelling, Russia launched a disinformation campaign against them. At first, Russian propagandists and anonymous telegram channels wrote that the points were not effective at all, and even “provoked” the enemy to strike, because they were unprotected and they had a lot of people. Then - that three people have already died at the invincibility point in Kharkov - although this is a refuted fake. Now, telegram channels supervised by Russian military intelligence are spreading unconfirmed information that men are issued a draft notice at points of invincibility.

Fake Ukrainian refugees were forcibly evicted from an apartment in Krakow

The Russian media are spreading another fake about Ukrainian refugees who were supposedly forcibly evicted from their home in Krakow. But, as StopFake found out, there is no evidence or mention of such an incident - except for the words of a witness referred to by the Russian media. They also distribute a video that seems to show that Ukrainian refugees had to be expelled from their apartment with a crane.

As fact-checkers write, a video about how the police got through the window in the center of Krakow appeared on the network on October 8, 2021, and there is no relation to the war in Ukraine. There is also no mention of any case of forced eviction of Ukrainians either in the local media, or in the police of Krakow, or in the Polish segment of social networks.

Message The President's office exaggerates the effectiveness of air defense and "invents" missile attacks

To downplay the successes of the Ukrainian air defense forces, anonymous telegram channels run by Russian intelligence spread the following message: "The President's office exaggerates the number of missiles launched by Russia". And therefore, "air defense successes" are also exaggerated. They also spread the fiction that the Office of the President itself gives orders to turn on air raid alerts in regions “which Russia did not intend to shell,” and then allegedly the authorities inform citizens that they shot down “non-existent” missiles.

This is an obvious lie since even the Russian military admits the massiveness of their own rocket attacks, and each time they rejoice at every report about the blackout of electricity, water and heat as a result of these missile strikes. Independent experts also regularly report on the number of missiles that Russia has fired at Ukraine, and also calculate how many missiles the aggressor state has left after each such shelling. In the days leading up to the strike, both foreign and Ukrainian experts also warned that Russia was stockpiling a large number of missiles and that at least 50 missiles were needed to basically break through the Ukrainian air defense system. By the beginning of November, according to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the effectiveness of Ukrainian air defense was from 60 to 80%. This time, about 60 out of 70 missiles were shot down during the shelling, the air defense reported. This fully confirms the message of the Ukrainian military about the ratio of downed missiles and those that hit the target.

Fake Explosions heard in Lviv region

Russian propagandists and anonymous telegram channels spread information that there were explosions in the Lviv region. According to the head of the Regional military state administration Maksym Kozytskyi, this is a fake. “I officially declare that as of 15:00 the information is untrue”, Kozytskyi wrote and urged people to stay in shelters.

Message Rocket attacks on Ukraine is revenge for explosions in the Russian rear

As soon as an air raid began almost all over Ukraine, Russian telegram channels, guided by the Russian GRU, began to spread the thesis that the shelling was a consequence of “Ukraine’s sabotage in Russia”, including explosions at military airfields in the Saratov region and near Riazan.

Today, the Russian media reported about the explosions at both military facilities. At the Engels-1 air base in the Saratov region, a drone fell on the runway, which caused damage to two Tu-95 bombers, and two soldiers were hospitalized with injuries. A fuel truck exploded at the Diahilevo airfield near Riazan. At least three Russian soldiers were killed. Ukraine has not officially confirmed its involvement in the explosions: Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the President's Office, said that since the earth is round, and Russia launches a lot into the air every day, sometimes these objects return home. Ukraine officially does not have drones that could cover the distance to Engels (700 km) and Diahilevo (500 km).

In fact, Russia does not “retaliate” with missile strikes. Insider Project investigators have found that each massive missile strike requires a week to ten days of preparation, so there cannot be a "response" to any Ukrainian military action that occurred less than a week ago.

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.