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 28 March, on the 763th day of the full-scale war, our editorial office recorded:

2044
Fake
676
Manipulation
634
Message
419
Disclosure
Русскій фейк, іді на***!

Fake Russian musician Serhiy Shnurov went to the temporarily occupied Luhansk region

The information that Serhiy Shnurov visited the city of Irmino in the Luhansk Region was spread by the Russian propaganda media with reference to the Russian actor Georgy Bolonyev. Later, a photo in which Shnurov is allegedly in Luhansk Oblast also appeared on the pages of Ukrainian online media. However, this is not true.

The photo turned out to be a fake. Shnurov accused Russian propagandists of having photoshopped his old photo into a picture with Prigozhin and Bolognev. Pro-government Russian media also denied the fake, referring to the words of Shnurov's press secretary Serhii Guguchkin. Like, the singer is currently in Turkey and taking part in a corporate event. Later, Bolonev published other attempts of the same photo on the Russian social network Vkontakte and wrote that Shnurov is being confused with the Russian actor Sergei Garusov. And this is done not only by readers of social networks, but also by residents of occupied Stakhanov who saw Harusov in person.

"Media Detector'' checked the photo. It is impossible to establish the author and the location of the shooting, as metadata about who created the image is erased in social networks. Reverse search of the original image on the Internet through search engines and the TinEye extension is not convincing due to the clutter of image reposts. However, analyzing the image in the InVid application shows traces of editing. Especially, the right part of the image, where Shnurov is supposed to be. This shows that Shnurov is not really in the photo from Irmina. Harusov is only three centimeters shorter than Shnurov, this difference can be muffled by a hat, higher shoes or lifting on the toes. So, they could really be "confused".

The use of photos of celebrities who were not actually in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories is a novelty for Russian propagandists. Previously, they published news about stars who really visited the occupied territories for, apparently, ideological reasons.

Message Ukraine engages in "nuclear terrorism"

Russian propaganda systematically accuses Ukraine of striking the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. At the same time, the "commander" of the occupying garrison of the nuclear power plant, Russian General Vasiliev, threatened that "the station will be either Russian or nobody" and "there will be either Russian free land or scorched earth".

Fake Residents of the Odesa region are being urgently evacuated due to the Russian offensive

Anonymous telegram channels write about it. Allegedly, such an instruction was given to local authorities. It is not true.

Fake Germany tests experimental weapons in Ukraine

This is reported by anonymous Telegram channels. Allegedly, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz accidentally said that Ukraine is being used as a testing ground for new weapons. It is not true.

In an interview with the Canadian edition of The Globe and Mail, Olaf Scholz said that Ukraine was given some weapons systems that the Bundeswehr does not have. However, Scholz did not call the transferred weapons experimental and did not talk about the fact that they are being tested in Ukraine. He also said that German specialists teach Ukrainians how to use this equipment correctly.

Fake Europe refused the special tribunal on Russia and recognition of the war in Ukraine as aggression

Russian media spread a distorted quote from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba. They said, there will be no "new Hague" — the European Union "refused" to create a tribunal, and the International Court of Justice "does not want" to recognize the Russian "special operation" as aggression. It is not true.

During the interview, Dmytro Kuleba answered questions about holding a special tribunal over Russia. The diplomat said that today there is a discussion about the legal format of the investigation and punishment for Russia's war crimes in Ukraine — the creation of a tribunal or the sessions held by the International Criminal Court. Discussion of the legal subtleties of the future process continues, there is no mention of Europe's refusal to recognize Russia's war in Ukraine as aggression or don’t investigate and prosecute those responsible for the war. Ambassador-at-large Anton Korinevych explained that currently there is no international court or tribunal that could judge crimes of aggression, from which genocide, crimes against humanity,d war crimes are derived.

In mid-June, the EU, USA, Great Britain, Japan,d other countries supported Ukraine in opening a criminal case against Russia at the International Court of Justice. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly,d the OSCE Parliament supported the creation of a special tribunal. According to StopFake, three possible models for conducting such a tribunal are currently being discussed.

Orest Slyvenko, Artur Koldomasov, Pavlo Rud, 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.