After Donald Trump was elected US President, propagandists began actively spreading statements on social media allegedly made by his daughter Ivanka Trump about Ukraine. In particular, she was credited with saying things like “Ukraine stands between us and a fair world” and “I know Ukrainians, they are vile people”. In fact, Ivanka Trump did not make such statements.

StopFake reports on this. The project's fact-checkers found out that this disinformation first appeared on a Telegram channel known for its fictitious publications. Despite this, the fake quotes quickly began to spread as genuine. Ivanka did not participate in the election campaign and in November 2022 announced her decision not to return to politics, preferring her family. From 2017 to 2020, she and her husband Jared Kushner worked as an adviser in her father's administration when he was president. At that time, Kushner dealt with international relations, in particular, US relations with the Middle East, China, Mexico and Canada.

While staying out of politics, Ivanka continues to do charity work. For example, in March 2022, at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she arrived in Poland to support Ukrainian refugees and provided humanitarian aid, including food and medicine. In December of the same year, she donated generators to Ukrainian churches left without electricity due to shelling. On her Instagram page in 2022, Ivanka expressed support for Ukraine, writing that Ukrainians inspire the world with their courage in the fight for freedom and that their heroic struggle is in her prayers.

Propagandists use such disinformation quotes to create a negative image of the West and American politicians in the minds of Ukrainians and international audiences. Fake statements ordered by Ivanka Trump are aimed at undermining confidence in the US support for Ukraine and creating the impression that even those close to the US government are hostile to Ukrainians. It also serves to distract attention from the real statements and actions of international political figures who support Ukraine.

This conspiracy theory claims that Western intelligence agencies, together with secret groups (the Freemasons), allegedly deliberately tried to bring people with "mental disabilities" to power in Russia in order to create a "fifth column" to weaken the state internally. According to adherents of this theory, such manipulations allow the West to bloodlessly conquer society and take control of the country. They say this has already happened in the Baltic countries and Moldova. Supporters of this theory are convinced that only a “small fry” of officials loyal to Russia under the leadership of Putin, a “real hero”, resist Western influence, saving the country from collapse.

There is no evidence to support the claim that the West secretly controls governments and allegedly installs “mentally defective” people into power en masse. Political decisions in most countries often contradict Western policies. In addition, although the Baltics and Moldova have experienced difficulties since the collapse of the USSR, their current state is the result of their own internal policies, not external “undermining”. The use of the image of a “hero fighting for the country” contributes to the division of society and reinforces the idea of the need for an external enemy to bring division and weaken the state. This is a common propaganda technique for strengthening authoritarian control.

Russia uses this conspiracy theory to justify its aggressive actions against Ukraine and to give them a supposedly “defensive” character. Within this conspiracy theory, the Ukrainian government is portrayed as a “Western-controlled” force that threatens Russian influence and “traditional values”. By claiming that the West is “coercing” post-Soviet states into submission, Russian propaganda justifies the invasion of Ukraine as a supposedly necessary response to an imaginary threat. It also serves as a tool to mobilize support among the population due to fears of losing national identity.

Propagandists are distributing an interview with a Ukrainian prisoner of war in the media, who allegedly heard threats from his commanders to “shoot him in the back”. However, this is disinformation. This is written by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

Its experts remind us that, firstly, prisoners are forced under pressure to talk about what the occupiers demand, including confessing to false crimes or making other false statements. The Russians practice torture and murder of prisoners, grossly violating the laws of war. Secondly, methods similar to Stalin's blocking detachments have been restored in the Russian army, where Kadyrov's Akhmat units perform this function. Back in March 2022, the SBU released an intercepted conversation of a Russian militant who admitted that their task was to hold back retreating Russian soldiers. Thus, Russia is again using the “repulse” tactic, accusing the Ukrainian side of its own crimes.

The purpose of spreading this disinformation is to undermine Ukrainians’ trust in their military command and state institutions, to raise doubts about the professionalism and morality of the Ukrainian army, and to sow divisions in society. Such tactics help Russian propaganda to shape the image of Ukraine as a state with a chaotic military, where there is supposedly brutal treatment of subordinates by commanders. It also serves to justify the brutality of the Russian army by projecting its own practices onto the enemy.

The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is spreading a statement about the alleged US preparations for holding elections in Ukraine with the aim of removing Volodymyr Zelenskyi, which is part of a large-scale information campaign against the Ukrainian government. This message, launched back in November 2023, has been reinforced since the spring of 2024 by fakes about the West's plans to remove Zelenskyi from power. This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

Such disinformation messages are part of the operation Maidan-3, aimed at destabilizing the political situation in Ukraine, in particular by discrediting the initiatives of the President of Ukraine, such as the Peace Formula and the Victory Plan. In light of these manipulations, the Ukrainian authorities have also repeatedly explained the legal impossibility of holding elections during martial law, refuting speculations about a change of power through foreign influence. The goal of this approach is to create the illusion of an alleged loss of support for Ukraine from Western partners, focusing on false claims about the “unrealistic” nature of Ukrainian peace initiatives.

The purpose of spreading this fake is to try to undermine Ukrainians' trust in President Zelenskyi and discredit him in the eyes of the international community. It also aims to sow doubts among Ukrainians about the stability of their government and relations with international partners.

Propagandists have created and are distributing an animated video named after the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. It depicts Cossacks defending Ukraine from attackers who look like the Golden Horde. The action then moves to the present, where modern Ukrainian troops confront soldiers under the DPRK flag. The voiceover says: “We could do it then - we can do it now!”, calling on viewers to join the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, this video is not available on the official resources of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and is published only by Russian and pro-Russian media. This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

Its specialists also found out that the Russian origin of the video is also indicated by the use of stress, which is typical for Russian pronunciation, falling on the first syllable.

The purpose of spreading such disinformation is to attempt to discredit Ukraine and its military leadership, and to sow doubts among Ukrainian citizens and the international community about the ability and determination of Ukrainian forces to defend the country. Such fakes are aimed at undermining trust in Ukrainian state institutions and ridiculing national values. In addition, the manipulation of historical and national images, such as the Cossacks, seeks to stir up emotions and fuel domestic debate by presenting Ukraine in an absurd light.