Such information appeared in social networks, in particular on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. The authors of the messages added to the publication a screenshot allegedly from the Ukrinform website, which stated that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine plans to ban photography and video filming of cemeteries. The “news” that allegedly appeared on the Ukrinform website says that “according to lawmakers, public coverage of the state of Ukrainian cemeteries can provide valuable intelligence information to the Russian army, as well as create a negative information background in the country itself”. However, this is all fake.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project drew attention to the case. Fact-checkers found out that such a bill has not been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. The Parliament website has already passed a law on the creation of a National war memorial cemetery, but it also does not say anything about a ban on photography and video filming. “The screenshot of the news from the Ukrainian news agency itself is a fake. There is no such news on the Ukrinform website”, StopFake writes.

Russian propaganda needs such messages to create the appearance that the situation in Ukraine is too bad: people are dying en masse, there is no place to bury them, and the authorities are allegedly trying to hide the scale of the tragedy.

Such information is distributed in the German-speaking segment of social networks, particularly on TikTok. Reports say that people from Ukraine in Germany seem to be able to get assistance very easily. To receive payments, they allegedly do not even need to pass the verification that people from other countries must pass. The videos that were being circulated also stated that the Ukrainians receive this aid without problems and spend it on vacations on the islands. It is not true.

Analysts of the Correctiv project drew attention to the case in the network. In fact, Ukrainians in Germany do not receive social assistance without any verification, according to a spokesman for the Federal Employment Service. However, like all people receiving social assistance in Germany, they can spend 21 days a year away from their place of residence and do not have to work within these days, so the claim that refugees travel on the islands is not logical.

Analysts note that such videos are added to a number of other false claims that have been circulated against Ukrainians in recent months in order to create a negative image for refugees from Ukraine. Russia needs such fakes in order to discredit Ukrainian refugees and change the attitude towards them in countries where there are now tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.

Such messages appeared on social networks at the end of March. The reports said that a recent report by one of the Polish TV channels allegedly showed a map according to which Ukraine should be divided between Russia, Poland, Romania and Hungary. The publications claimed that the video was relevant and the map shows that “the entire south and east of Ukraine will belong to Russia”, and the western part will “join” Poland, small parts will go to Romania and Hungary. However, this is fake. The Polish channel did not show such a map in 2023.

As the analysts of the Correctiv project found out, the video is not up-to-date, it shows a report from Polish television in 2014, in which a Russian politician offered Poland to divide Ukraine. The Polish government called the proposal “strange” and one that should not be taken seriously.

Analysts have researched that the logos of the Polish news channel TVP1 can be seen in an online video that is being circulated in the messages, but what is heard is not what the messages claim: the speaker first speaks in Polish about “joining our territory”, and then says: “ […] Hungary and Romania received a similar proposal. There is no information about which regions Russia still wants to consider as its own, but only the central region will remain within the boundaries of modern Ukraine”.

Using the image from the video and the name of the broadcaster, analysts did a reverse image search and came across an original Polish TV report. It is dated March 23, 2014, so it is not relevant, contrary to what they say in social networks.

Russian propaganda regularly spreads messages about the plans of Poland and other countries to annex part of Ukraine. In fact, such statements are always unsubstantiated, but Russia needs it to partially justify itself by illustrating the desire of other states to seize part of Ukraine.

In its materials, Russian propaganda uses the term “rebel forces” to refer to separatists who have collaborated with Russia and allegedly “liberated Donbas” in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since 2014. This phrase was also used to refer to the Russian military, who in fact were on the territory of the Donbas and Luhansk region, but Russia did not recognize this.

With this term, they want to give greater heroism to the participants in the separatist movements. Like, they were engaged in resistance to the “Kyiv regime”, which came to power as a result of the “coup d'état” of 2014, as Russia calls it. In fact, it is about the events of the Euromaidan or the Revolution of Dignity. The propagandists want to create a legend around the people who supposedly opposed the values of the Revolution that they are fighting for real values and for their own survival. However, among the so-called rebel forces were representatives of the Russian special services. Their presence, in particular, was recorded due to the dialect, which is atypical for the inhabitants of the region, and there were other signs as well. Calling these events the so-called rebellion, Russian propaganda substitutes the concept, because in 2014 there was a Russian attack on the eastern regions of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.

Using the term “rebel forces”, propagandists want to discredit Ukraine and deepen the artificially created split in it. Allegedly, the Ukrainians wanted to destroy the real identity of Donbas and Luhansk region, and the locals could no longer tolerate this, and therefore joined the “rebel forces”. This approach is not new. For example, a similar tactic was used during the 2004 presidential election for the campaign of Viktor Yanukovych, when his team spread messages about his opponent Viktor Yushchenko, whose supporters allegedly divide Ukraine into two types: the best (the West of the country) and the worst (the East). However, it is Russia that artificially deepens such a split, since it often supports forces that manipulate differences among residents of different regions of Ukraine.

Such a thesis appeared in the Russian propaganda media, as well as in the Turkish media spreading messages the same as the ones of Russian propaganda. The reports said about the so-called “dirty plan” of the United States to bring “Zelenskyi” to power in Turkey. That is, an allegedly puppet president will carry out all the orders of his curators, as allegedly the Ukrainian president is doing it. The authors of the messages argue that in this way Washington will resolve conflicts with Moscow on all possible fronts.

Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to the case. They emphasize that this is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation message that calls into question Ukrainian statehood and sovereignty. In such reports, the authors do not provide any evidence to support the allegations made in the context of the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This disinformation statement attempts to denigrate the President of Ukraine as a puppet of the United States and the West.

However, Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically elected president and parliament. Ukraine has a functioning government and economy, it is a member of many international organizations (for example, the UN, the Council of Europe and a party to international agreements). Ukraine has bilateral diplomatic relations with most countries.

This thesis is spread by the Russian propaganda media. They say that there is no freedom of speech in Europe, because Russian media are blocked there and “they do not allow the public to hear an alternative thought”. The reports also cited as an example the situation when EU High Representative Josep Borrell reacted to the arrest of Evan Gershkovich in Russia, saying that “journalists should have freedom of work and the right to be protected”. Propagandists are asking in their posts if Borrell is going to call for the release of journalist Julian Assange, who has been imprisoned in Britain for exposing US and NATO war crimes.

In fact, the message that there is no freedom of speech in EU countries, or in the US, is not new. Russian propaganda promotes it from time to time to establish the opinion that the local media should not be trusted, since they are all allegedly puppet, and promote the unified position of the governments of the countries. In such messages, propaganda uses the tactics of reflection: in fact, the lack of freedom of speech is precisely in Russia, where most media disseminate the position of the country's government and are of propaganda direction.

Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to the case in the network. In fact, comparing American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia on March 29 and charged with espionage, with Julian Assange is a typical Whataboutism technique, a rhetorical distraction. Evan Gershkovich is a WSJ journalist illegally detained in Russia. The EU condemned his detention, and the Secretary General of “Reporters without borders” called Gershkovich's detention an “institutional hostage-taking”. Julian Assange is the founder of Wikileaks, who has released numerous classified documents and is now being held in the UK.

According to “Reporters without borders”, Western countries have the most freedom of press and speech, with European countries predominating, as well as Canada and the United States. Russia, where authoritarian tendencies are on the rise, ranks 150 out of 180 in the press freedom ranking.

A photo of the cover of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which depicts Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, Russian President Volodymyr Putin and Jesus Christ, is circulating on social networks. A description is added to the photo that the cover symbolizes Zelenskyi's “church race”, which angered even Jesus Christ, whom Putin supposedly calms down and says: “Don't! We'll figure it out ourselves!”. In fact, Charlie Hebdo never published an issue with this cover.

 Analysts at the Myth Detector project found that the cover published by the French satirical magazine on April 5 does not match the published versions, and there are no similar cartoons on the covers of Charlie Hebdo special issues. Charlie Hebdo's circulated cover bears a serial number (1603) and a release date of April 5. According to the official website of the publication, on April 5, a magazine with serial number 1602 was released, which has a different design. The cover is on the theme of the protests caused by the new pension reform in France.

This is not the first time Russian propaganda has been distributing fabricated covers of various Western publications, which allegedly mock the Ukrainian president. Thus, Russian propaganda seeks to discredit Volodymyr Zelenskyi and create the appearance that the level of trust in the Ukrainian president will fall in the West. Like, the Western community is already beginning to understand “who he really is”.

Such information appeared in the Georgian-language segment of social networks,particularly on Facebook. The reports stated that the Ukrainian post office issued a series of stamps dedicated to the division SS “Halychyna” (SS Galizien). The authors of the messages did not refer to the words of the press secretary of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mariia Zakharova, however, it was she who first disseminated this information, back on January 27, 2023. According to Zakharova, the stamps were issued for the 75th anniversary of the division SS “Halychyna” (SS Galizien) and the Holocaust Remembrance Day in Ukraine. Like, the fact that Ukraine produces such stamps testifies to its Nazism, because the stamps were issued “in honor of the Nazi division”. It's fake.

In fact, the post of Ukraine did not issue the stamps shown in the photo, which is distributed in the messages. As analysts of the MythDetector project write, stamps with images of members of the SS “Halychyna” (SS Galizien) division have been distributed in the Russian media and on Russian-language forums since 2018. In addition, on April 27, 2018, the Russian Embassy in South Africa circulated a photo of the stamps on Twitter, claiming that the stamps were issued in Ukraine “in honor of the Nazi division”.

There are indeed such stamps, but they are not official, because they were issued by a group of enthusiasts who research the history of the SS “Halychyna” (SS Galizien) division. The stamps were issued in limited quantities and can be bought at online auctions.