Russian propagandists are spreading information that Volodymyr Zelenskyi will not be allowed to speak in the US Congress on September 21. It seems that meetings between the President of Ukraine and representatives of the US authorities are planned in the White House and the Pentagon, and Congress at this time will consider the issue of assistance to Ukraine. When making such statements, Russian propaganda refers to an article by The Financial Times. This is manipulation.

The case was examined by fact-checkers from the Center for Strategic Communications and the No Lies Project. The Financial Times did indeed publish an article with the headline “Volodymyr Zelenskyi to meet Joe Biden in Washington in quest for more aid”. However, the material does not contain information disseminated by Russian propaganda, supposedly Zelenskyi will limit himself to a meeting with UN representatives.

Moreover, Volodymyr Zelenskyi will speak in the US Congress and this speech was initiated by representatives from the Democratic and Republican parties.

Thus, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the United States and show that the West is allegedly so tired of the war that it does not even want to listen to Zelenskyi. Previously, we refuted the fake news that graffiti with “Zelenskyi the cannibal” was created in Berlin.

Propaganda resources began publishing reports about the “shooting down” of a Ukrainian Air Force helicopter in the area of the temporarily occupied Lyman without evidence. They say that the “first shots” of the Russian military’s successful testing of the Mi-8 helicopter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have appeared. However, this is fake.

Researchers at the StopFake project debunked this case using Google's reverse image search tool. As it turned out, the information provided is not true. These “first shots” only show a helicopter burning in the sky. They have nothing to do with the allegedly downed Ukrainian helicopter. An identical photograph has been used by various media outlets for several years. The oldest publications found by the search engine date back to 2020.

We also managed to find a video from which Russian propaganda took its “proof” of the alleged destruction of Ukrainian equipment. The British TV channel SkyNews published a video back in February 2020 with the same footage, but with a completely different caption. According to their journalists, it shows a Syrian military helicopter shot down by rebels. One can understand that this is the right helicopter from the same ignition of the fuselage (the place where fuel, landing gear, engines can be placed) of the aircraft and the color of the sky.

Previously, we also documented a similar hoax about the Russians “massively destroying” M1 Abrams tanks, although they had not even been delivered to Ukraine at that time. We also denied information that the Russians destroyed the first Leopard tank on the battlefield. This also turned out to be untrue.

Propagandists are actively disseminating in their media a quote from a Polish soldier fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Piotr Mitkiewicz, from his interview for the ONET portal, where he allegedly demands compensation from Ukraine for the families of his colleagues who died during the war. Like, Ukraine abandoned Poland and that’s what it needs. However, this is manipulation.

This statement by Mitkiewicz is taken out of context. The full version of the interview shows that the man really expressed concern about the lack of compensation for Polish volunteers fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, he noted that this is most likely due to the fact that there have been no such precedents yet; accordingly, the mechanism for paying these compensations has not yet been fully formed. Mitkiewicz did not accuse the Ukrainian authorities of disrespecting or neglecting the efforts of their Polish colleagues. On the contrary, throughout the interview he did not stop expressing his support for Ukraine and stated that he was soon going to return to the front again.

Using such manipulations, propagandists want to quarrel Ukrainians and Poles, and also accuse Ukraine of hiring foreigners without remuneration. Detector Media has already written about how Russians want to influence Polish politics because of anonymous telegram channels where such manipulations are spread.

Russian propaganda uses the term “Russian Spring” to refer to the Kremlin-orchestrated events of February-May 2014, which led to the annexation of Crimea and the proclamation of puppet quasi-state entities in eastern Ukraine. Propagandists are positioning this as mass unrest in the south-eastern regions of Ukraine, which supposedly had the goal of declaring a desire to either secede from Ukraine, which has become completely dependent on the West, or join Russia. According to propaganda, the “Kyiv regime”, together with Western curators, planned the Revolution of Dignity, tried to hand Ukraine over to the West, but did not take into account the public opinion - they say that the majority of people did not support the European integration course, but were oriented towards Russia. Moscow's target was Crimea, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Odesa regions. And in February-March 2014, they began to organize pro-Kremlin actions in regional or smaller cities, hung tricolors, and tried to seize local regional state administrations. And finally, there appeared “little green men” who positioned themselves as local self-defense, although in fact they were Russian special forces. Actually, propagandists convince that a series of actions carried out with the participation of Russian special services, mercenaries and Ukrainian citizens dissatisfied with the events of Euromaidan, as well as referendums, are exclusively the expression of the will of the Ukrainian people, an attempt to legitimately fight against the arbitrariness of power.

“The events of the “Russian Spring” bring a smile to my face - when the anti-Maidan protesters, armed from head to toe, showed their desire, the desire to become part of Russia”, the authors recall in pro-Kremlin telegram channels long before the big war. They explain that these events are framed by the widespread joy and admiration of supposedly ordinary people who rebelled against the Ukrainian authorities after Euromaidan.

The term “Russian Spring” is not new; it dates back to the mid-19th century, when a series of national movements that fought against reactionary monarchies swept across Europe—the “Spring of Nations”. In recent history, the events of the early 2010s, when mass protests and sometimes full-fledged revolutions against autocratic regimes took place in Arab countries, received a similar name. It is ironic that Russian political strategists created the term by analogy with these revolutions, although the Russian empire was directly involved in suppressing the “spring of nations”, and the Russian Federation supported the regimes of Arab autocrats, even to the point of intervening in the civil war in Syria on the side of dictator Bashar al-Assad. . So, we see another substitution of concepts characteristic of the ideologists of Russian imperialism. The People's Spring and the Arab Spring were democratic popular movements that led their nations toward progressive change. While the “Russian Spring” was a special operation organized by the Kremlin that spread authoritarianism in the occupied territories, and created real military dictatorships (juntas) in the occupied part of Donbas.

Propagandists are distributing materials on social networks that allegedly confirm that the southeast is fighting for all of Ukraine. They say that Western Ukraine does not adequately evaluate these efforts. It was noticed in the NotaYenota project.

The specialists found out that Russia regularly restores this message, adapting it to different regions of Ukraine. For example, materials are being distributed to the western regions according to which supposedly only Western Ukraine is fighting, while Eastern Ukraine is holed up in the Carpathians. The opposite message is being spread to the southern and eastern regions.

Project specialists note that these messages do not correspond to reality, since representatives of all regions are fighting at the front for Ukraine. To confirm them, Russians manipulate data and create deliberately false infographics. In particular, in the West only regional territorial recruitment centers are considered, and in the East - regional, district and other branches. Previously, the eastern regions had a higher population density, but now the situation has changed due to Russian aggression. In addition, in the infographics one can notice the typo “southeast”, which is typical for Russian speakers.

Propagandists use this message to turn residents of the western regions against the eastern ones and thus destabilize the situation from within. Detector Media wrote about how Russian propaganda manipulates people from different regions of the country, especially (de)occupied territories.

On social networks one can find advertisements according to which the Ukrainian government has allegedly “approved” a law on payments to “families defending” the country at the front. NotaYenota project specialists drew attention to it.

They found out that the Russians were actually behind the ads. In particular, this is indicated, at least, by the fact that in Ukraine the government does not “approve” laws. In addition, neither the Verkhovna Rada nor the Cabinet of Ministers made such decisions.

Project specialists note that Russians launch such advertising campaigns to spread negative sentiments in society and cause distrust in the authorities in general. The advertisements were created with the expectation that Ukrainians would start asking local authorities about payments and, in response to a refusal, would accuse it of lying. Subsequently, Russians will make advertisements about how corrupt Ukraine is. Detector Media has already written about how the topic of corruption in Ukraine is used by Russian propaganda in its own interests.

Russian propagandists on anonymous telegram channels and in the media claim that the weapons transferred from Western partners to Ukraine ended up in the hands of European terrorists. Referring to the American ultra-right conspiracy portal Breitbart, they report that the police in Northern Ireland allegedly confiscated these weapons from two radicals of the New Irish Republican Army. This is manipulation.

Analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that on September 9, during a preventive counter-terrorism operation, the police actually confiscated several grenades and explosives from several members of the organization. The New IRA has been recognized as terrorist in the UK and the USA, and its members advocate continuing the armed struggle for the unification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (part of the United Kingdom) into one state. However, the weapons that were confiscated from them are not Western-style weapons transferred to Ukraine as part of military assistance. The radicals were found to have a new type of grenade, which is used exclusively by the Russian army. StopFake analysts note that although the investigation does not exclude the possibility that these weapons fell into the hands of radicals from the front line in Ukraine, it is currently unknown how exactly this happened.

Using this manipulation, Russia wants to undermine its partners’ trust in Ukraine. They say that the weapons provided by Western states are sold by Ukraine as smugglers, so there is no need to provide them. Russian propagandists have repeatedly manipulated the topic of the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine, as Media Detector has already written about.

Russian propagandists in anonymous telegram channels claim that on September 5, the Susupilne supposedly published the news “In the Odesa region, a military man was detained on suspicion of raping a 10-year-old girl”. They say that the criminal is a soldier of the 41st mechanized brigade. It's fake.

Analysts from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that as of September 12, the article had a different title, namely “In the Odesa region, a man was detained on suspicion of raping a 10-year-old gir”. Neither the police nor the Susupilne identified the suspect as a military man. A backup copy of the news as of the morning of September 10 shows the same title. Consequently, the propagandists edited the screenshot of the news.

By using this fake, Russia wants to discredit the Ukrainian military and cause distrust of the population in them. They say that only rapists and unhealthy people serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Thus, the Russians justify their aggression against Ukraine. Detector Media also debunked other fakes regarding the Ukrainian military.