Manipulations are spreading on social media that power cuts in Ukraine, which had to be imposed as a result of Russian rocket attacks on energy facilities, are unfounded.

Allegedly, private entrepreneurs receive "surplus profits" from this and therefore turn off electricity to people on purpose. Cases of manipulation on the network drew the attention of the fact-checker of the NotaYenota project. According to data from DTEK, which fact-checkers managed to obtain, the losses occur not in the production of electricity, but in its distribution.

“There were minor damages at some of the TPPs that were quickly recovered. That is, we are talking about the fact that the same amount of electricity is produced as before the massive shelling of the infrastructure, but it is problematic to transfer it for consumption. Since the terrorist actions of Russia damaged critical facilities that transmit electricity from production stations to the place of consumption”, the message says. In addition, the distribution of electricity generated by nuclear, thermal or hydroelectric power plants is carried out in the network of NPC "Ukrenergo" (state-run enterprise) through high-voltage switchgear from 110 kV and above (150 kV, 220 kV, 330 kV, 750 kV) . Private regional distribution companies have networks and substations with a voltage class of up to 110 kV.

Their networks are designed to receive electricity from main networks with high voltage, convert this voltage to a level that consumers can accept (0.4 kV or 220 V) and directly transfer it to consumers. That is, government facilities were damaged. NPC "Ukrenergo" also performs the functions of the main dispatch center. The execution of any dispatcher commands for all other participants in the electricity market is mandatory. Under current conditions, all outages occur either as a result of accidents or at the command of the dispatcher (rolling outages).

This can be a drawn up proven schedule for some period of time (depending on the amount of capacity utilization and provision). In the current conditions, this is basically a given instruction, which is formed depending on the situation. Indeed, less electricity is used at night than during the day, but still this is too much for those lines that remained unscathed”, the fact checkers explain. They add that the delivery and use of electricity should go to zero: that is, how much is produced and how much is used. If 10 GW is produced, the same amount must be consumed. Today it is possible to deliver only a certain amount of electricity (it is not enough even for the less peak hours). So, throughout the day there are outages for balancing. However, it is beneficial for Russia to spread the manipulation that Ukraine is turning off the electricity to employees so that private companies can profit, and not because of Russia's criminal actions. Thus, Russia seeks to make itself not guilty and seeks to discredit the leaders of Ukraine. Like, they don't care about the conditions in which Ukrainians live. 

Such a thesis is spread by Russian propaganda, both in the Kremlin media and in social networks. In particular, such a message appears from time to time in pro-Kremlin anonymous telegram channels. The authors of such reports claim that Ukrainians are ignorant vandals who forget their history and are ready to destroy all monuments and memorials associated with the Soviet Union or Russia, solely at the direction of the authorities. This time the message appeared in the information space against the backdrop of news about the dismantling of the monument to Catherine II in Odesa.

Prior to this, such messages were spread, for example, when monuments to the Russian poet Oleksandr Pushkin were dismantled in turn in Ukrainian cities. The propagandists have only one argument: Ukrainians are poorly educated, they are overshadowed by the ideas of "nazism" and are ready to destroy everything that contradicts their ideology, in particular, very valuable sights, like the statue of Catherine II. The Russians are very concerned about the destruction of "values" in Ukraine, so even the Russian Investigative Committee expressed its readiness to "investigate" the cases of destruction. However, the Russians claiming the value of the long-term monument to Catherine are silent about the fact that this monument is actually a replica restored in 2007, and not an old bronze sculpture. According to Beyond the news, the monument of 1900 erected in honor of the alleged 100th anniversary of the city was dismantled in 1920: four sculptures of the empress's associates were kept in the local history museum, and only the head remained from the statue of the Russian queen.

The monument was reproduced under the name "Monument to the founders of the city" in 2007. And after the dismantling of the monument, they do not plan to destroy it. According to the representative of the Odesa Regional Military Administration Serhii Bratchuk, four figures of the so-called composition "To the Founders of Odesa" will return to the museum. However, it is the Russians who are engaged in vandalism in the temporarily occupied territory and, in particular, for ideological reasons. For example, according to Beyond the News, in Mariupol they dismantled the monument to the Victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 and political repressions, destroyed the Art Museum named after Arkhyp Kuyindzhi and even a mural dedicated to the girl Milana who survived Russian shelling in 2015. In addition, the Russians do not hide the fact that they took everything valuable from the Kherson Art Museum, and in Melitopol the invaders first robbed the local history museum, and then reopened it, while it is not known what happened to Scythian gold, the most valuable exhibit.

This thesis is spread by the Russian propaganda media. It is also replicated in social networks, in particular, in pro-Russian telegram channels. Reports say that Berlin is preparing to "make money" on the gas pipelines of the Russian multinational company "Gazprom" to deliver fuel from its LNG terminals. Like, according to forecasts, the German authorities are most likely preparing to seize Russia in this way. Propagandists are convinced that the Germans have been trying to seize "Rus" since ancient prehistoric times. In fact, this is an unsubstantiated statement of the pro-Kremlin media, which drew the attention of analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project. According to them, this thesis arose against the backdrop of news about the explosions of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. However, there are no facts or evidence to support the claim that Germany wants to take over Russia.

Explosions on both gas pipelines did occur, but there is no evidence that Germany was to blame for them so that this could be a step towards taking over Russia. As EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said: "Any deliberate undermining of the European energy infrastructure is absolutely unacceptable and will be met with a tough and common response". NATO called these incidents "deliberate, reckless and irresponsible acts of sabotage". However, the European Union did not name any party considered responsible for the incident. This is not the first time Russia has stated that it sees a threat from any country without giving good reasons for that. In particular, Russia also substantiates the so-called threat from Ukraine for the attack on Ukraine. Like, if they had not started a war, Ukraine would have attacked first, etc.

Such messages are spread by the Russian propaganda media. In their reports, referring to the words of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the propagandists claim that NATO plans to continue firing in Ukraine and will not stop it. However, this is not true. In fact, NATO cannot cease fire because the Alliance troops are not fighting in Ukraine. Indeed, the NATO Secretary regularly stated and claimed that the Alliance is not a party to the conflict in the Russian-Ukrainian war, and therefore cannot cease fire in Ukraine.

As the StopFake fact checkers write, to create a fake the propagandists used fragments from the speech of the NATO Secretary General at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27). However, Stoslenberg at the conference said that the war must be ended and called the best and easiest way for Putin to do this: "to respect the sovereignty of the neighbor - Ukraine".

However, Russia needs such fakes in order to once again nourish the narrative that Russia is actually at war not with Ukraine, but with Western countries, NATO, etc. This fake also nourishes the narrative about the so-called Western governance of Ukraine. Thus, Russia once again wants to stake out the opinion that Ukraine and the current local authorities are not subject, and all decisions, including very important ones — on a ceasefire, are made at the direction of Western curators.