Anonymous telegram channels and Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric report that Russian Defense Minister Serhii Shoihu said in an interview that “if the United States supplies Ukraine with cluster munitions, the Armed Forces of Russian Federation will be forced to use similar weapons”. This is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the Center for Strategic Communications investigated this case. In May 2022, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch published a report stating that the Russians use at least 6 types of cluster munitions in Ukraine. Russia bombarded Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and other cities with them. On April 8, 2022, the Russians used a Tochka-U ballistic missile with a cluster warhead and struck it at the Kramatorsk railway station. Then 54 adults and 7 children died.

Thus, Russian propagandists transfer responsibility for Russia's crimes to Ukraine and expose themselves as a constant victim of “aggression”. Like, Ukraine attacks first, so Russia will have to use cluster munitions in return. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the message that Ukraine is making fake attacks on nuclear facilities in order to discredit Russian troops.

Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric on July 12 published a selection of British tabloid covers featuring a sex scandal involving a BBC journalist as the main topic. Russian propaganda asks a rhetorical question: “Find at least a word about Ukraine and the NATO summit …”. This is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the Center for Strategic Communications paid attention to the case. They note that The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star and others “traditionally prefer the “yellow” theme”. And some of the most popular and authoritative socio-political publications, such as The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, not only wrote articles, but also covered the announcements of materials about Ukraine and the NATO summit on the first pages.

Thus, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the UK and promote the view that the West is tired of the war in Ukraine and ignores the news related to it. Earlier, Detector Media denied the fake that the German edition of Handelsblatt published a cover with Volodymyr Zelenskyi who cannot get into the NATO door.

Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric spread information that Polish President Andrzej Duda and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi met in Lutsk and implemented the first stage of the Warsaw Union. Like, then the Poles will seize part of Ukraine. It's fake.

The fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Liar) project drew attention to the case. Andrzej Duda and Volodymyr Zelenskyi did meet on July 9 and led the events to perpetuate the memory of all the victims of World War II and the 80th anniversary of the Volyn tragedy. The President of Poland wrote on his Facebook page to “demonstrate friendship in the face of a complex history”.

Russian propagandists systematically spread disinformation about Poland to convince Ukrainians that they want to take over Western Ukraine. Russian propaganda is trying to sow discord between Poland and Ukraine. Earlier, Detector Media denied the fake that NATO could agree to send troops to the territory of Ukraine.

Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric distribute the cover of the German satirical publication Handelsblatt featuring Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The President of Ukraine goes to the doors, on which the NATO emblem is painted. The propagandists are promoting the message that Ukraine will never get there. It's fake.

The case was investigated by fact-checkers of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation. There is no such cover on the official website of the newspaper. The barcode marked on the issue with Volodymyr Zelenskyi belongs to another issue. Moreover, this issue allegedly came out as number 134, but no such issue exists.

Russian propaganda systematically distributes fake covers of foreign magazines and newspapers. Thus, Russian propagandists seek to show that the West does not really support Ukraine, does not respect and ridicule Zelenskyi, and the Ukrainian agenda is a good reason to laugh. Earlier, Detector Media denied the fake that the American magazine The Nation dedicated the cover to Zelenskyi calling him an “evil boy”.

In the Polish segment of Facebook, a video recording of the visit of the President of Ukraine to Prague is being distributed. During a meeting with Czech President Petr Pavel, Zelenskyi was booed. The video is also accompanied by the caption: “Television will not show this! Zelenskyi was booed in the Czech Republic”. It's fake.

The fact-checkers of the Demagog project drew attention to the case. Volodymyr Zelenskyi did meet with Czech President Petr Pavel on July 6, 2023, but no one booed him. The video shared on Facebook is edited. The original footage of the meeting was posted by CNN Prima News, with only the music in the background.

Thus, the Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the assistance of the Czech Republic, to convince everyone that the West is already tired of the war and is not on the side of Ukraine. Earlier, Detector Media denied the fake that Zelenskyi turned to the French amid protests and said that peace would return with Ukraine.

Russian propagandists explained the blowing up of the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in different ways. However, the most popular version of the justification for the explosion is that Ukraine allegedly carried out a “planned flooding” of the station. Like, in this way, the Armed Forces of Ukraine wanted to block the “failures” on the battlefield.

In fact, it is Russia that is responsible for undermining the dam. This is evidenced by a number of pieces of evidence, including data from foreign media and investigators who analyzed seismic activity data around the hydroelectric power plant, satellite images and open data.

Using phrases such as planned flooding, the propagandists want to shift the responsibility for the actions and their consequences from the aggressor to the victim of the aggression. In addition, such reports are intended to discredit the Ukrainian government and its efforts to eliminate the consequences of the explosion. Like, Ukraine blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant and made people suffer. However, it was Russia that committed another crime.

The propagandists devalued and manipulated news stories to increase Ukraine's mistrust of its partners.

On July 12, a two-day NATO summit ended in Vilnius. The summit adopted a package of decisions of three elements on Ukraine. In particular, the allies confirmed that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance and agreed to remove the requirement to fulfill the Membership Action Plan (MAP) from the entry procedure. According to them, this will change Ukraine's path from a two-step process to a one-step process. Propagandists could not get around such a large information drive. Detector Media prepared a selection of their messages.

1 The summit was a failure for Ukraine

Russian propagandists reacted to statements by Western leaders at the summit with cries of “Failure!” and blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi for this. Propagandists promoted the view that the NATO summit brought nothing to Ukraine. Like, they didn’t let them into NATO, didn’t give them new weapons, and Zelenskyi, with his harsh statements, alienated everyone so much that they didn’t even want to be photographed with him. Propagandists snatched from the stream of news only those pieces of news that were convenient for them.

Let us remind that although at the summit there were no specifics regarding when and according to what clear plan Ukraine can join NATO, however, our state was allowed to bypass the procedure of the Membership Action Plan. That is, theoretically speed up the flow. In addition, the summit adopted the Declaration of the G7 countries, which deals with security guarantees for Ukraine, to which the propagandists reacted with cries of “external control” and “surrender” of Ukraine to the West. We also received new types of weapons from a number of countries participating in the event.

2. Foreign press ignored the summit

The propagandists tried to show that the foreign press allegedly ignored the summit, which means they were tired of the topic of Ukraine as a whole.

They regularly use collections of fake and genuine covers from foreign media or distort materials from foreign publications. The main purpose of such collections is to confirm by allegedly independent sources that the picture of the world that the propagandists paint is true. On the eve of the NATO summit, for example, they quoted an article by the Finnish public broadcaster Yle about Ukrainian refugees who are being denied social assistance. At the same time, propagandists did not give links to the source. And the latest publications on the Yle website, in fact, were supportive of Ukrainians who received asylum in Finland.

In general, the topic of the NATO summit in foreign media has become a noticeable news drive. And they would write about it even if they did not talk about Ukraine there, since this is an international meeting of the highest level. In particular, the media actively wrote about him both in the United States and in European countries.

3. At the summit, Zelenskyi lobbied for the introduction of Polish and Lithuanian troops into Ukraine, but NATO did not agree to this

During the NATO summit, the traditional message of propagandists about Poland, which supposedly wants to take over Ukraine, took on a new shade. In particular, they frightened their audiences with the likely introduction of Polish and Lithuanian troops into Ukraine. Like, Zelenskyi demanded this from NATO, but he was refused.

This is another invention of propagandists. First, they are trying to convince Russia's supporters that Russia is not the only aggressor. Secondly, to emphasize that the Ukrainian Defense Forces no longer have the ability to confront Russia, which means that Russian victory is close. Thirdly, to play on the Ukrainians' fears of losing independence. Fourth, to devalue the help of Poland and Lithuania, which are one of the main partners of Ukraine in countering Russian aggression. Detector Media has written about this before.

4. NATO reduces funding for Ukraine as a result of the “failed counteroffensive”

Propagandists claimed that Western leaders, whose names they did not name, allegedly announced at the NATO summit that they planned to cut the amount of aid to Ukraine. Like, this is the result of a “failed counteroffensive” that began in February.

It's fake. Neither Ukrainian nor foreign media have any information about such statements. The topic of the counteroffensive was rarely heard in official speeches and publications of the NATO summit participants.

By spreading such fakes, their authors tried to undermine the confidence of Ukrainians in NATO.

5. Citizens of NATO countries do not want to see Ukraine in the Alliance

Propagandists spread the assertion that Ukraine did not receive guarantees of joining the Alliance, because the citizens of the countries-members of the Alliance do not want to see it there.

In such publications propagandists refer to the results of opinion polls. In this case, in particular, they manipulated a survey commissioned by the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita. In the original article, 47% of respondents did not agree with the results of the survey that Ukraine should be immediately accepted into NATO. However, the infographic from the article in Rzeczpospolita is only an illustration of one question on a sociological survey. And the original article goes on to say that the Poles recognize the importance of Ukraine as part of the NATO security architecture and are not against Ukraine joining the Alliance later. This is quite in tune with the positions of the top officials of the NATO member states. At the summit in Vilnius, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that all NATO members and their allies are unanimous that Ukraine will sooner or later become a member of NATO.