Photos from the exhibition of “captured” weapons in Moscow's Patriot park, including allegedly banned Italian-made mines, are being circulated on social networks. Propagandists say that they were neutralized by Russian sappers in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The original source of the photos is the Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in Italy. It's fake.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto denies any allegations by Italy of supplying banned weapons to Ukraine. According to Stop Fake, the Italian Ministry of Defense reported that the objects in the photo are not of Italian origin. This is indicated by the corresponding marking. The production of such mines in Italy was stopped 28 years ago, after a moratorium was introduced in accordance with the Ottawa Convention. The signatories are obliged to get rid of stockpiles of these weapons, it is forbidden to transfer anti-personnel mines to third parties. Ukraine ratified the Ottawa Convention in 2005, unlike Russia.

Russia systematically accuses Ukraine of using prohibited weapons. Earlier propagandists wrote that Turkey supplies Ukraine with cluster munitions; they wrote that Ukraine used chemical weapons against the Russian military in the Zaporizhzhia region. Russian propaganda also said that allegedly Russia does not have banned chemical weapons.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. The messages include a video with the participation of the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Pavlo, in which he calls Patriarch Filaret a “schismatic”, and the head of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifanii, a “self saint”. He also says that the Uspenskyi (Holy Assumption) cathedral was given to the OCU for holding a festive service. As if people from all over Ukraine would be “specially” brought there and paid for participation in the liturgy.

For these statements criminal proceedings were opened against Pavlo, the Metropolitan of the church of the Moscow patriarchate, on the fact of inciting religious hatred. This was announced by People's deputy Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.

In January 2019, ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew signed the Tomos on the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian church was officially established on January 30, 2019. The Church of the Moscow patriarchate has not yet recognized the creation of the OCU.

In January 2023, Metropolitan Epifanii held a festive Christmas service for the first time at the Uspenskyi (Holy Assumption) cathedral. After that, Russian propaganda spread messages that only militants and the press were present at the liturgy.

After the Security service of Ukraine (SBU) opened a case about the glorification of the “Russian world” in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Russian propaganda began to spread messages in defense of the Moscow patriarchate church. In particular, they said that Ukraine is “destroying” the largest religious denomination. They also wrote that Ukraine is on the verge of the largest interdenominational conflict in Europe.

After the events in Brovary on January 18, Russian propaganda began to spread messages that Russians sympathized with the death of Ukrainian children. Allegedly, this emphasizes the “humanity” of Russians, in contrast to Ukrainians, who “hate” all Russians, including children. They say that the Ukrainians are calling for the destruction of Russian children so that “they will not turn into orcs”.

Thus, Russian propaganda uses the tactics of “disuniting the enemy”. That is, he deliberately depicts Ukrainians as extremely aggressive and vengeful. This nourishes the propaganda messages about the “Nazism of the Ukrainians”. Russian propaganda used a similar tactic, in particular, when covering the explosions in the Crimea. They wrote that supposedly Ukrainians are happy that war has finally come to Crimea.

In fact, Ukrainians showed sympathy for the Russians even after 2014. For example, they carried flowers, candles and toys to the Russian embassy in 2015 after the crash of the Russian plane. Or in 2018 after the tragedy in the Kemerovo cinema. However, the full-scale invasion significantly affected the emotions of Ukrainians. As of January 2023, due to Russian aggression in Ukraine, at least 459 children were killed, more than 909 were injured of varying severity. These figures are not final, since the recording and investigation of Russian war crimes, including those against children, in places of warfare and in the liberated territories.

By spreading messages allegedly about “sympathy”, Russian propaganda is trying to hide aggressive anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, an example of which is the statements of Russian propagandist Anton Krasovskyi about Ukrainian children and the positive reaction to them on pro-Russian resources.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels as a reaction to the statements of Ukrainian partners in the supply of weapons to Ukraine. In particular, the reaction was caused by the speech of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the Davos form. He stressed that Ukraine needs a significant increase in arms supplies at a key moment in the war.

In this way, Russian propaganda nourishes narratives that Western military aid “really” only prolongs the war and increases the number of casualties.

The purpose of these messages is to influence the emotional state of Ukrainians, to intimidate and force them to surrender. Previously, propagandists spread a similar message that the desire for peace and the desire to further stuff Ukraine with weapons are mutually negative actions.

Russian and pro-Russian resources write about this. Like, even the International federation of journalists (IFJ) stated that there are no free media in Ukraine, because they actually came under the control of the authorities.

In fact, the International Federation of Journalists has not made such a statement. IFJ representatives called on the Ukrainian authorities to review the new legislation and start a broad and inclusive dialogue with journalistic unions and the media sector to improve it. That is, the IFJ drew attention to the possible risks to freedom of speech in the context of this law.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads messages about censorship in the Ukrainian information space. They also argued that the new media law introduces a “total” dictatorship of the state in the information space. Thus, the propagandists are trying to discredit the Ukrainian media and increase the audience for pro-Russian influence. More details.

Pro-Russian and occupational telegram channels are spreading reports that allegedly a Polish TV channel used a map in which the western regions of Ukraine are depicted as part of Poland when forecasting the weather. A screenshot is supposedly added to the messages. It's fake.

The Polish TV channel denied the information. The picture was created using digital photo editors. As StopFake writes, in fact, the weather forecast studio on the Polish TV channel looks different. The propagandists also used the emblem of one TV channel, and the photo of the presenter from another TV channel. Russian propagandists are systematically spreading the message that Poland wants to seize part of Ukraine.

The government commissioner for the security of the Polish information space, Stanisław Żaryn, reacted to the fake. He noted that Russian propaganda in Poland is mainly aimed at portraying Ukraine and Ukrainians as disgusting and helping Ukraine as an escalation of events, and intimidating Poland into the war.

This is not the first time Russian propaganda has used modified maps to promote its own interests. Earlier they wrote that allegedly on the Ukrainian TV channel they showed a map of Ukraine without temporarily occupied territories; allegedly at the G20 summit they placed a banner with a map of the Russian Federation, covering the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine; allegedly, a map of Russia with Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and the occupied territory of Donbas appeared in Spanish textbooks; allegedly the German TV channel ZDF showed a map of Ukraine without the territories occupied by Russia.

Slovak social media circulated reports that allegedly the district administration in Banská Bystrica (probably other district administrations) was given the task of conducting “comprehensive exercises to carry out tasks after the declaration of martial law and orders to mobilize the armed forces of the Slovak Republic”. In particular, such a message was published by the Bádatel resource. This is manipulation.

According to Infopost.Media, the Slovak police denied the information. Usually, mobilization exercises are organized twice a year to test the defense capability of Slovakia. They have nothing to do with the war in Ukraine.

According to the police, the fake news about the mobilization in Slovakia is being spread by Russian propaganda as they are trying to cause panic in countries that support Ukraine with the alleged threat of being drawn into the war. Also, these fakes are spread in order to create a general information chaos and distrust of law enforcement agencies among the population.

In Ukraine, propagandists systematically manipulate the topic of mobilization, in particular, they talk about the forced mobilization of women, children, and even dogs.