This was announced by the head of the State service for special communications and information protection of Ukraine Yurii Shchyhol. In December 2022, the State Service for Special Communications stopped and blocked 395 such attacks. Today, on January 18, specialists from the State Service for Special Communications stopped a cyberattack by Russian hackers on the resources of the Ukrinform news agency.

In total, in 2022, the government's CERT-UA Computer emergency response team registered 2,194 cyber attacks. A quarter of them are against the government and local authorities. The energy sector, the security and defense sector, telecoms and developers, the financial sector, and logistics were most attacked. In addition, in December the system recorded 170,000 attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in government information resources protected by services. Most often, Russian military hackers send out malware that steals credentials or destroys information systems.

The State service for special communications and information protection also investigates attacks in the private sector - about 200-300 cyber incidents per day. They are examined mainly in semi-automatic mode.

Earlier, Detector Media talked about phishing attacks on Ukrainians. In particular, the scammers promised Ukrainians six thousand hryvnias of “New Year's” assistance; collected information about Ukrainian refugees and migrants; urged Ukrainians to apply for supposedly receiving financial assistance. More details.

Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels spread information about the flash mob “Meet me on the battlefield”, which was allegedly launched by pregnant Ukrainian women. Photos and videos are circulating on the net, in which women write “meet me on the battlefield” on their stomachs. Like, this is how Ukrainian women demonstrate that they are ready to educate future military men. According to another version, supposedly this is how unborn children talk to warring parents. It's fake.

Russian propaganda came up with this flash mob. According to StopFake, a photo of an  allegedly pregnant woman who left for Italy due to a full-scale invasion is in the public domain. It first appeared on the Russian social network back in 2021. There are no inscriptions on the woman's stomach, they were made later to create a fake photo.

The video, allegedly from the Italian publication Il resto del Carlino, also uses editing. This footage is taken from the documentary “Mother Ukraine / Pregnant during the war”. The film tells the story of a girl who is going through pregnancy, and her husband is a soldier of APU.

Thus, Russian propagandists are trying to show the international community that Ukrainians are an aggressive nation. Previously, propagandists manipulated the topic of mobilizing women and children, and also said that pregnant Ukrainian women are given draft notices.

Today, January 18, in Brovary, Kyiv region, a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten. It is a helicopter of the State Emergency Service, on board of which there was the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his first deputy and secretary of state. All three died in the crash. Civilians who were close to the place where the helicopter fell were also injured. According to the Deputy Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko, as of 1 pm, it is known that 16 people were killed, including 3 children, 30 people were injured, but the search is still ongoing.

The Security Service of Ukraine has already opened proceedings on the disaster. Currently, investigators have three official versions:

- violation of flight rules;

- technical malfunction of the helicopter;

- its intentional destruction.

However, on anonymous telegram channels pro-Russian rhetoric is broadcasting, including those operated by Russian intelligence, a lot of messages appeared immediately after the crash with so-called versions of what happened and who was to blame. “Detector Media” has identified and explains the most common disinformation messages about the tragedy in Brovary.

1. Helicopter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine crashed

Immediately after the tragedy, even before the catastrophe was reported by Ukrainian officials and the media, a message appeared in the telegram channels of Russian propagandists that a helicopter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had crashed in Brovary. In the reports, the authors traditionally cited their own sources without providing any confirmation. In fact, a helicopter of the State Emergency Service crashed in Brovary. In particular, information about this appeared on the pages of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The president's messages also said that Denys Monastyrskyi and his team were in the helicopter at the time of the accident.

2. The plane crash was due to air defense

This is one of the most common messages of Russian propagandists about the likely causes of the helicopter crash. Like, a helicopter with the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was simply shot down by Ukrainian air defense. Further, the versions on the accusation of the air defense operators differ: in some reports they claimed that this was done intentionally, in others, on the contrary, they insisted that it happened by accident, but also because the air defense in Ukraine is faulty. Firstly, at the time of the helicopter crash in Brovary and in general in the Kyiv region there was no air raid alert. According to the Alert Map, the last time an air alert was announced in the Kyiv region was on January 14, during a massive enemy missile attack. So the likelihood that the air defense worked unnecessarily, not seeing a threat from the air, is scanty. Secondly, this version is not included in the list of official ones considered by the Security service of Ukraine (SBU) investigators. However, this is not the first time that Russian propaganda has accused operators of the Ukrainian air defense system of negligence and, accordingly, of crimes. The propagandists used this technique for the last time on Saturday, January 14, when the entrance to a residential building was destroyed as a result of the fall of a Russian rocket. More than four dozen people died as a result of the disaster. Propagandists systematically spread fakes and manipulations about the work of air defense. In particular, Russia needs this to accuse Ukraine of various crimes, mostly committed through the fault of Russia itself. In this case, the propaganda found a reason to once again accuse Ukraine of alleged negligence, because of which people die.

3. Ukraine hides the true cause of the disaster

Another message was shared in anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. Anonymous reports say that the Ukrainian authorities allegedly know and hide the true cause of the disaster in Brovary. Like, Ukrainians may not even wait, because they won’t be told the truth, because they won’t like it. In fact, it is too early to talk about the causes of the plane crash before the investigation is over. In order to accurately state who is to blame for the disaster, whether it was accidental etc., evidence is needed for the sake of collecting which the SBU initiated an investigation and put forward the first official versions. However, such a message is intended to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and once again nourish the narrative about its alleged negligence and indifference to its own people.

4. The accident happened because of cheap helicopters

In order to create the appearance of a careless Ukrainian government, the message was also spread that the accident allegedly occurred due to bad helicopters that Ukraine purchased. Allegedly, it says about former helicopters that the Ministry of the internal affairs purchased from France in September 2018. Like, the helicopter crash was due to the fact that the helicopter was common and bad, because earlier the Norwegians allegedly refused a batch of the same helicopters. In fact, there is no data on which helicopter is in question, and whether it was purchased in France. There is indeed a version of a technical malfunction among the official versions of the investigators, however, it is impossible to state that the crash occurred because of this and, in particular, because the Ukrainian authorities deliberately purchased faulty helicopters, as there is not a single confirmation of this yet.

In addition, anonymous telegram channels circulate versions of a helicopter shot down from an American Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missile system or a drone. However, the facts confirming these versions are also not provided by anonymous authors, and none of them is included in the list of official ones.

Russian propaganda once again speculates on sensitive topics and tries to promote its own narratives, according to which it is Ukraine that is the aggressor, and the Ukrainian authorities do not care about their people, because people are dying because of their negligence and criminal actions. In this case, propagandists make unfounded and hasty conclusions, ignoring the official versions of the investigation.

Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels spread the news that allegedly “after the mobilization of women” in Ukraine, they began to mobilize dogs. Allegedly, dog owners must put them on military registration from February 1, 2023. This applies to Shepherds, Labradors, Boxers, Rottweilers and other “big, strong” dogs. In case of violation of this requirement, the alleged owner of the dog will be punished. It's fake.

In the Law of Ukraine “On mobilization training and mobilization” there is not a word about the mobilization of animals. One of the sources of the fake is the telegram channel of the Zaporizhzhia collaborator Rohov. He writes that “dog draft notices” are allegedly carried by “dogs of the Zelenskyi regime”. Rohov also distributed a photo of the announcement, which was allegedly sent to him from the South of Ukraine. The Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center checked these reports. On fake leaflets, the abbreviation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was used in Russian language, not in Ukrainian. The phones given there are used by the National Police Department in the Transcarpathian and Rivne regions, although leaflets are allegedly distributed in the South. These contacts are freely available.

Obviously, such fakes are spread primarily through the occupant telegram channels (list is  here) in order to convince the residents of the temporarily occupied territories of the “hopeless” situation in Ukraine. Also, Russian propaganda is trying to ridicule the “absurdity” of the orders of the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and once again parasitizes on the topic of mobilization.

Pro-Russian telegram channels and Russian resources wrote that supposedly in different cities of Ukraine there were protests by wives and relatives of the dead servicemen. Like, the Ukrainian authorities instructed the media to hush up information about these protests. This is manipulation.

In fact, in this way, the relatives of the captured servicemen demanded that the prisoners be exchanged according to the “all for all” scheme. This event was covered by the Ukrainian media.

In the messages, propagandists also mentioned military personnel who were considered missing. However, they emphasized that the majority of these military men allegedly died, and the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “intentionally” did not inform their relatives about this. They also manipulated the distribution of Ukrainians by region of residence. They say that the inhabitants of the West of Ukraine do not understand why their relatives should fight for Donbas.

Russian propaganda uses the emotionally vulnerable state of Ukrainians whose relatives are at the front to further destabilize the internal situation in Ukraine. Earlier propagandists have already said that allegedly the Ukrainian authorities are lying, that there are no losses in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, although the Armed Forces of Ukraine are losing people “left and right” in the interests of the West. To enhance the effect, propaganda combines these messages with messages about mobilization, saying that the Office of the President increases it. More details.

Such messages are continued to be spread by Russian propaganda through pro-Russian resources. They say that in Ukraine there is a “catastrophic” situation with the church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Moreover, Russia initiated the convening of the UN Security Council allegedly because of the “harassment” of the Moscow Patriarchate Church, which it calls “the only canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine”.

At the same time, even before the beginning of the Security Council, the Moscow Patriarchate Church denied the request for help in protecting their rights. They say that they did not appeal to any state, especially to the one that carried out an armed attack on Ukraine.

Russian propaganda is systematically spreading messages that Ukraine is “destroying” the greatest religious denomination. Despite the fact that according to the results of the KMIS sociological survey, 72% of Ukrainians consider themselves Orthodox, and 54% identify themselves with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The propagandists also used reports of an attack on a priest in a church to promote the message and claimed that a church was set on fire in Volyn, the rector of which refused to go to the OCU.

Ukraine is a secular state that guarantees its citizens the freedom of worldview and religion. Russia is trying to use religion as a weapon against Ukrainians.

Propaganda says that Ukraine has become one of the private military companies affiliated with NATO. Like, NATO pays money to Ukraine, supplies weapons and intelligence information. NATO also allegedly points to the targets that Ukraine should hit. Allegedly, Ukrainians suffer from this as they must fight.

Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically elected president and parliament. Ukraine does not fight on behalf of a foreign government or organization. It was Russia that started the war in 2014 by occupying parts of Ukrainian territories. Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The Ukrainian army protects Ukrainian territory and Ukrainians. EU vs Disinfo analysts drew attention to the spread of the message.

Due to the spread of such messages, Russia is trying to discredit the support of Ukraine by democratic states. Previously, similar messages were spread: they say that Ukraine is a tool of the West to undermine Russian statehood; the war in Ukraine is part of a secret Western plan to destroy China. The propagandists also claimed that the West was “coordinating” Ukrainian strikes against Russian military facilities.

Such a message is spread by Russian propaganda to a foreign audience, in particular, covering the events in Soledar. Like, thanks to the “bold and selfless” actions of the “volunteers” of the battle groups of the private military company (PVK) “Wagner”, an assault was made on the city blocks of Soledar “occupied” by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

EU vs Disinfo analysts drew attention to the spread of the message. In fact, the PVK “Wagner” is an illegal armed formation that is fighting in Ukraine. Russia did not report the participation of the Wagner group officially. However, their operations are closely linked to the regular Russian army and its foreign policy. The equipment comes from Russian state arsenals and the group is completely dependent on supplies through the logistics of the Russian army.

As analysts write, Wagner is as “private” as the Kremlin needs to avoid command responsibility for the group's atrocities or its covert involvement in conflicts around the world. The group can be considered as another auxiliary armed formation under the Kremlin umbrella.

Their rights, including being in captivity, depend on the official status of the military who are at war. Russian propaganda uses the tactics of substitution of concepts, calling Ukrainian volunteers “mercenaries”. Real mercenaries fighting in the ranks of the Russian army are presented as volunteers.

Earlier, Russian propaganda claimed that a group of Islamists from Syria would fight on the side of Ukraine or spoke about Polish mercenaries who allegedly fought and died in Ukraine.