On January 14, a Russian military rocket attack on an 18-entrance building in Dnipro, where more than 1,100 people lived, killed at least 9 people, including a 15-year-old girl, and injured 64. Russian propagandists have spread a number of messages, whitewashing Russia's crime and blaming the Ukrainian military and government for the tragedy.

Russia has never struck civilians

Pro-Russian bloggers claim that the Russian military's missile strikes are accurate and always hit the target. This time, the targets were energy infrastructure facilities and Ukrainian air defense positions.

An air defense missile hit the building

Like, an air defense missile destroyed the whole entrance of a multi-storey residential building in Dnipro. Allegedly, as a result of the hit, a secondary detonation took place, most likely the result of a gas explosion. Neither the air defense missile itself, nor even the Russian cruise missile could cause such fatal destruction.

No one will know the truth, independent experts will not be invited

Allegedly, Ukraine blamed the Russians, and Russia blamed Ukraine. This controversial case could be resolved by sending independent experts, but during the war no one will do this and everyone will blame each other.

For the sacrificial death of Ukrainians, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive the latest tanks from the West

Allegedly, the Ukrainian authorities use a hit of the house in order to beg military assistance from the West. Like, Zelenskyi is safe and ready to fight to the last peaceful Ukrainian.

In fact, a building in Dnipro was destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile strike. According to Mykola Lukashuk, chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, he was released from a Tu-22m3 long-range bomber. It was at this time that air raids continued throughout Ukraine, and Russian missiles were hit not only in Dnipro, but also in other settlements of Ukraine. In particular, in the Lviv region. However, Russian propaganda once again seeks to justify the crimes of Russians against Ukrainian civilians and accuse Ukraine of killing civilians. Propagandists use this technique almost every time after people die as a result of Russian strikes. For example, Russia denied its involvement in the deaths of people in Kramatorsk or Vinnytsia, who died as a result of rockets falling on public places. In addition, Russia regularly claims that it hits only infrastructure facilities. However, this is not true, because Russian missiles have repeatedly hit both residential buildings and led to tragedies, as well as shopping centers, train stations and so on.

By the way, in one of the propaganda telegram channels at the time when the air raids continued in Ukraine, a message appeared that there were 80 missiles in the sky over Ukraine at that time. The message also said that not all of them will fall into infrastructure facilities. Later, propagandists began to spread the words of Oleksii Arestovych, an adviser to the President's Office, who allegedly agreed that the explosion in the house was due to air defense. Allegedly, a rocket flying over Dnipro was shot down and it exploded when it fell on the entrance of a residential building. These words of Arestovych were massively shared by Russian propagandists, claiming that Ukraine itself admitted its guilt in the death of civilians. However, the words of Oleksii Arestovych are not the official position of Ukraine on this issue, and the Office Advisor himself has not yet commented on the situation that has developed as a result of his statements.

However, according to the project NotaYenota, according to the speaker of the Air Force of Ukraine Yurii Ihnat, the missile was launched over Dnipro from a Tu-22M3 long-range bomber from the Kursk region and the Sea of Azov. In total, there were 5 launches of such missiles. The X-22 is called the “carrier killer”. The missile, warhead 950 kilograms, can be equipped with a nuclear warhead. It is designed to destroy aircraft carrier groups at sea. Such missiles are not used in cities, but it was Russia that launched them over Dnipro. Later, Arestovych spoke about his words on the Facebook page. The adviser to the Office of the President did not deny that he really spoke on the air about the fall of the air defense missile. However, he noted that no one would accuse Ukraine of blowing up the house, because the world would understand everything correctly. Such words of the adviser were perceived ambiguously, so in the comments to the message he was asked if the tragedy really arose because of the Ukrainian air defense. Arestovych noted that the explosion occurred as a result of Russian actions. The Air Force Command of Ukraine once again reacted to the situation and reported that the radar facilities had found the approximate launch site, altitude, and flight speed. “There is no doubt that it was the X-22 missile. The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not have fire weapons capable of shooting down this type of missiles”, the ministry said.

This was stated by a Russian propagandist in one of the TV programs. According to her, from the territory of Ukraine, where the Russian army entered, orphans and children with disabilities were massively taken to Europe, who were without caregivers and disappeared without a trace in the hundreds. Like, Ukrainian children disappeared in Poland, in the UK, in the Netherlands, where in particular 170 Ukrainian teenagers disappeared in the spring and allegedly they most likely became victims of transplantologists or pedophiles. The propagandist refers to information from dutchnews.nl. 

StopFake journalists found a publication on dutchnews.nl, which became a primary source for Russian propagandists. In the publication of DutchNews, referring to the news of the Dutch TV channel NOS, they are not talking about the disappearance of 170 teenagers from Ukraine.

Russian propagandists significantly distorted the reports of the Dutch media, which discussed the issue of registering children from Ukraine who arrived in the country unaccompanied by their parents.

Some of the children received their guardians, many minors arrived in the country accompanied by distant relatives, adult sisters, brothers, etc. The publication says that human rights organizations insist on mandatory registration and provision of guardians for such children, since refugee children from Ukraine without registration and guardians can become victims of violence, abuse and exploitation. However, none of their reports refers to the mass disappearance of minors from Ukraine in the EU.

According to Russian propaganda, Ukraine does not protect children and condemns them to organ trafficking during the evacuation. Like, Russia is not an aggressor, it wants to save Ukrainian children from the crimes of the Ukrainian authorities and “evacuate” to the territory of Russia, where it is safer than in Ukraine and Europe. Thus, Russia justifies the war with Ukraine and the forced removal of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories in an unknown direction and without the possibility for relatives and guardians to get in touch with them.

In recent days, pro-Russian telegram channels have been spreading information through the network that an offensive from Belarus will take place in the near future. Allegedly, the western regions of Ukraine are massively preparing for defense - trenches are being dug all over the territory and everything is mined.

In fact, the “invasion from Belarus” is one of the most common messages of Russian propaganda. Stuffing with thoughts about preparing Ukraine for an offensive from Belarus into the Ukrainian media space, propagandists are trying to sow panic and strike fears among Ukrainians.

Russian propaganda media, citing The Wall Street Journal, reported that Western and Ukrainian officials and analysts called on the Ukrainian Armed Forces to leave Bakhmut and retreat to a new line of defense while such a withdrawal is possible. They say that the battle for Bakhmut takes place on Russia's terms, because of which the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost the forces necessary for the spring offensive.

In fact, an article in The Wall Street Journal titled “Russia gains ground in east Ukraine as fight for Bakhmut intensifies”, which Russian resources refer to, does not contain any appeals to the Ukrainian army to leave Bakhmut. The article describes the situation on this sector of the front, where, according to the British Ministry of Defense, Russian troops and members of the Wagner Group paramilitary force “now most likely control the majority of Soledar, 6 miles northeast of Bakhmut”. The WSJ writes that the encirclement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by the Russians in Bakhmut is still unlikely.

The article contains quotes from President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, military journalist Yurii Butusov and Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar. Their words boil down to the fact that even with the capture of Soledar, the Russian army will not achieve anything and that the battle for Soledar continues. None of the Ukrainian representatives said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly “continue to fail”.

Bakhmut and Soledar in the Donetsk region remain the site of some of the fiercest fighting between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Russian occupiers. Russian propagandists use the information field in these battles, spreading fakes about non-existent movements or using fake calls for retreat, as in the case of the WSJ article. This is necessary to demonstrate success in the war after a series of defeats from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Russian military command created a special document for propagandists to cover the events of the war against Ukraine. Now they should praise Serhii Shoihu and not mention the Wagner group.

The document was analyzed by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

General recommendations contain eleven points, the main content of which is:

1) Orientation to information exclusively from sources agreed by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation;

2) Emphasizing in informational materials and comments of “independent” experts on the leading and positive role personally of Serhii Shoihu and Valerii Herasymov;

3) Justifying strikes on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure, referring to the “forcedness” of such actions;

4) Emphasizing the theme of providing Ukraine with Western weapons. In this sense, it is especially recommended to focus on the fact that “Russia is conducting a military operation not against Ukraine, but against the entire NATO”;

5) Refusal to mention the Wagner military group in a positive context. Emphasizing excessive human losses and Wagner meaningless attacks;

6) Tracking and citing publications in foreign media about the successes of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the failure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It is proposed to focus particular attention on the statements of Western and Ukrainian politicians, which can be interpreted in a similar vein.

As explained in the Main Intelligence Directorate, the document indicates a fundamental change in emphasis on covering the course of events in the war against Ukraine and the aggravation of the political struggle within Russia.

This was written by anonymous pro-Kremlin telegram channels. Allegedly, in Ivano-Frankivsk, a local tattoo parlor offers a special promotion: the removal of a swastika for half the price. The proof is the “photo” of the banner with the announcement of such a “promotion”. This photo was also circulated on the Polish forum.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project checked the shared photo using Google and Bing image search platforms and found that photos of the Tattooirograf tattoo studio, located in the Russian city of Biisk, Altai Territory, were used to create a fake.

In the announcement, the propagandists wrote the word “share” in Russian, not as it would be correct in Ukrainian. By spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda once again wants to nourish the narrative that Ukrainians are Nazis. It arose back in 2014, Russian propaganda justified the invasion of the territory of two regions of Ukraine with the so-called Nazism, calling the Ukrainian authorities criminal and illegal. Ukrainians became Nazis allegedly because they “destroy the people of Donbas”, ban the Russian language, hate everything Russian, etc. And the so-called denazification became one of the fictional reasons for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

On December 13, this information was circulated in English on Twitter by the Russian Embassy in London. This post was shared among the English-speaking sector on Twitter. Also, the Russian media published relevant news with reference to the embassy.

On the embassy’s page, a video was circulated as evidence, in which the Ukrainian military is working with drones, attaching details with the inscription “OB” to them. Russian propagandists in the diplomatic mission believe that the Ukrainian military is apparently preparing to use chemical weapons, probably phosgene. Allegedly, the video shows gas cylinders with the inscription “OB”, which means “poisonous ammunition”.

In fact, the Russians distributed edited excerpts of a video published in a telegram by the Ukrainian military, the commander of the Madiar Birds aerial reconnaissance group with the call sign Madiar. He showed how Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance officers assemble the Molfar folk kamikaze drone with a warhead on their own. In another video, Madiar demonstrated how kamikaze drones work near Soledar at a Russian military point.

Russian propagandists are stuffing with fakes into the information space about the possible use of chemical weapons by the Ukrainian military in order to change the topic from their own failures near Bakhmut and Soledar, which they planned to capture before January 1, 2023.

Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of using and distributing banned weapons. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry recorded an alleged chemical attack on the Russian military from a Ukrainian drone and unmanned vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were found for spraying chemicals.

Ukraine ratified the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which includes phosphorus, in 1998. Then the entire chemical arsenal that Ukraine inherited from the USSR was destroyed. At the same time, Russia is using banned weapons in Ukraine.