Due to the operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region, local Russians are fleeing their homes. In Russia they call this voluntary evacuation. Residents of the Kursk region allegedly voluntarily leave their homes and property, voluntarily, in a hurry, grab their children with them and voluntarily evacuate. Russian official sources resort to such rhetoric when depicting the situation in the Kursk region. In fact, more than 120 thousand Russians have already evacuated.

Some pro-Russian public pages even sneer at the term “voluntary evacuation”, saying that this is “something like mass entertainment, a new type of active tourism”. They also add that the Russians “listened to the victories of the Russian army and voluntarily evacuated”.

The evacuation itself in the Kursk region is difficult, as evidenced, in particular, by the video appeal of the local residents to Putin with an appeal to help them, since the local authorities are doing nothing. For example, one of these videos was recorded by residents of the village of Huievo, Sudzhanskyi district, Kursk region, complaining that they did not evacuate.

Also, instead of the term “voluntary evacuation”, Russian officials may use the word “displacement”. Thus, on August 12, 2024, the governor of the Belgorod region, Viacheslav Hladkov, announced the activity of Ukrainian troops on the border of the Krasnoyaruzh region and announced the beginning of the evacuation of residents from there. “We are having an alarming morning (...) In order to protect the life and health of our population, we are starting to move people living in the Krasnoyaruzh district to safer places”, Hladkov said in his address on the telegram channel.

Concepts such as “voluntary evacuation” or “relocation” help official structures in Russia curb the panic among its ordinary citizens caused by military operations in the Kursk region. And also to downplay the scale of what is happening, thereby disfiguring Russians’ perception of reality. Accordingly, everyone inside the country should think that the situation is under control and “everything is going according to plan”. However, in fact, the reality is different as the war has come to Russian territory, and the Russian authorities are trying in every possible way to deny this, which is why they resort to such absurd terms.

Propagandists disseminate information in pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels that the slogan of Kharkiv Pride is supposedly the phrase “Better is an AFU gay than a straight draft dodger” (the original spelling has been preserved). However, this is fake.

The official accounts of Kharkiv Pride on social networks do not have this slogan. Moreover, the fakeness is indicated by the fact that the propagandists made a number of grammatical errors. In Ukrainian, the correct spelling of “evader” is not a copy of Russian and is not used by Ukrainians. In addition, the slogan itself is provocative in nature and was created with the aim of manipulating public opinion.

This fake is part of an information war aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian military and further dividing society. The use of such slogans aims to sow discord among citizens, cause negative attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community and discredit the Ukrainian army. Russians are trying in every possible way to increase homophobia through various manipulations and fakes. Thus, they want to justify their aggression against Ukraine. They say that Russia is fighting for real values that do not exist in the West.

Hackers send emails disguised as messages from the Security Service of Ukraine. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation.

According to the government response team CERT-UA, more than 100 infected computers have already been detected, including those belonging to government agencies and local governments. The State Committee for Special Communications reported this.

The emails contain a link to download a file called Documents. But in fact, this link downloads a file that activates the malicious software ANONVNC, allowing attackers to gain hidden, unauthorized access to the victim’s computer.

The State Committee for Special Communications notes that urgent measures have already been taken to reduce the risk of a cyber threat.

Propagandists are actively spreading disinformation, claiming that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, allegedly supported the idea of lowering the mobilization age in Ukraine to 18 years. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Security drew attention to it. They found that Russian propagandists had taken Budanov’s words out of context, which he said during a meeting with students and teachers of the Kyiv School of Economics. At this meeting, he did not support the idea of lowering the mobilization age, but only voiced the calculations of the Russian side: if Ukraine starts mobilizing citizens from 18 years old instead of 25, it will be able to resist Russia until 2033. However, he immediately criticized this idea, noting that Ukraine values the lives of its citizens, and prolonging the war for such a long period is unlikely, since “no economy can withstand so much time in a state of war”.

This fake is part of an information campaign, the purpose of which is to demoralize Ukrainian society, create panic and attempt to disrupt mobilization processes in the country. Russian propaganda is trying to push Ukrainians to believe that their leadership is ready to sacrifice young lives, while the reality is completely different. Russia seeks to split the unity of Ukrainians and raise doubts about the advisability of defending their country, thereby simplifying its tasks at the front.

Propagandists claim that the Ukrainian army allegedly carried out an attack on the Kolotylivka border checkpoint in the Belgorod region. They say that it was the only place for the exchange of prisoners and dead between Russia and Ukraine. However, this is not true.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security write about this. They found that this is not the first time such misinformation has occurred. For example, in May 2024, Moscow stated that Ukraine allegedly “suspended exchanges itself”, which was denied by the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets. Then he confirmed that the exchange is not happening only because Russia does not want it. However, it must fulfill its obligations under international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.

Russia continues to use prisoners as a tool to blackmail and destabilize Ukrainian society from the very beginning of the full-scale war. Russian propaganda is manipulating him in order to sow distrust among Ukrainians in their military-political leadership, shifting responsibility for the supposed “disruption of the prisoner exchange process” onto him.