Pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels are spreading a statement by Russian President’s press secretary Dmytro Pieskov that the Russian military allegedly “treats Ukrainian civilians with caution” and strikes exclusively at military targets. However, such statements contradict numerous facts and international reports that confirm the mass casualties among civilians as a result of Russian attacks.

This is reported by StopFake. Its experts claim that, according to the UN Monitoring Mission, more than 12,000 civilians have been killed since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and more than 26,000 have been injured. For example, in Kryvyi Rih, a ballistic missile hit a residential building, destroying an entire family with three children. During another attack, a children’s hospital and residential areas were damaged.

Amnesty International calls such actions war crimes, as shelling of civilian objects violates international humanitarian law. In addition to civilian casualties, strikes on energy infrastructure are causing a humanitarian catastrophe, worsening the living conditions of millions of Ukrainians.

The purpose of spreading such disinformation is to create the illusion of the “morality” of the Russian army, to try to justify war crimes before the international community, and to manipulate the perceptions of citizens of Russia and other countries. This disinformation is aimed at minimizing the consequences of attacks on the civilian population of Ukraine, shifting the blame for the victims to the other side, and discrediting objective reports by international organizations.

Pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels claim that supposedly “the absolute majority of Ukrainians are ready to surrender”. As “proof” of this, they cite the results of an anonymous poll published by the treason suspect Oleksandr Dubinskyi. However, this is not so.

This is reported by StopFake. Its experts point out that on November 17, 2024, he published a poll on his Telegram channel with the question: “Are you ready for peace in exchange for territory?”. By the evening of November 18, more than 15 thousand people had voted, 62% of whom answered “yes”. However, the results of this poll are not representative, since it was conducted anonymously among Dubinskyi’s audience, who is known for his pro-Russian rhetoric. Without proper sampling, such data do not reflect the real opinion of Ukrainians. In particular, Dubinskyi is in pre-trial detention on suspicion of treason. The investigation established his participation in a pro-Russian organization that was engaged in discrediting Ukraine for the money of Russian intelligence.

At the same time, real sociological research conducted by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation in conjunction with the Razumkov Center and Kyiv International Institute of Sociology shows that the majority of Ukrainians are not ready for any territorial concessions, even for the sake of ending the war.

The purpose of spreading this disinformation is to create a false impression that Ukrainian society is ready for surrender and territorial concessions. This is aimed at undermining the morale of Ukrainians, discrediting the political leadership and creating the illusion of support for pro-Russian ideas in Ukraine. Such messages are also intended to weaken international support for Ukraine and promote the spread of narratives favorable to Russia among the public.

Propagandists are spreading a photo of a woman in Ukrainian national dress on social networks, claiming that she is supposedly the grandmother of Russian TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak. The publications state that the woman was born in the village of Drozdni between Lutsk and Kovel, adding her life story. However, this is not true.

This is what StopFake writes about. The project's specialists found out that the photo actually shows the grandmother of Ukrainian journalist Anton Naumliuk of the “Graty” (Bars) publication, who spoke in detail about her biography. The photo was first distributed in 2017 for the family archive.

Information about the Sobchak family is available in open sources. Her paternal grandmother, Nadiia Andriivna, was Polish and lived in Tashkent. On the maternal side, Valentyna Volodymyrivna Narusova, originally from Leningrad, lived in Briansk. Although her family's Ukrainian roots are sometimes mentioned, no confirmation of a connection with the woman in the photo has been found.

Russian media is spreading disinformation that the Ukrainian military leadership is allegedly restricting access to reliable information for the Ukrainian president in order to remove him from office. This statement is based on the words of the so-called British expert Alexander Mercouris. However, it is untrue.

This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. Mercouris is the editor-in-chief of the pro-Russian English-language website The Duran, which regularly disseminates Kremlin narratives. He is presented on Russian channels as a “Greek political scientist” or a “British expert”, although he is known for his scandalous reputation. Mercuris previously worked at the Royal Court of Justice of the United Kingdom, but was disqualified from practicing law for creating fake letters and fabricating false stories.

Such statements are aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian leadership, creating tension, and undermining trust in the Ukrainian president. They are part of a broader information war waged by Russia.

Propagandists claim that in the West, particularly in the US, Europe, Ukraine and Russia, there is a confrontation between the so-called “war parties” and “peace parties”. Accordingly, the “peace parties” promote the idea of a speedy end to the Russian-Ukrainian war on terms favorable to Russia. While the “war parties” are escalating military action in Ukraine and do not want it to end.

In the West, the “war party”, according to the Russian propagandist, “works systematically, its pressure can be called strong, especially considering that this party has authoritative media outlets at its disposal, such as the Bloomberg agency”. The main argument of the supporters of the Western “peace party” is allegedly that the continuation of the war in Ukraine creates high risks of NATO being drawn into it, and this threatens a nuclear war in the long run.

In the US, according to Russian propaganda, the “war party” and “peace party” are personified by the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively. Thus, in response to the plans of the current US President Joe Biden's administration to send $6 billion to help Ukraine's security before Donald Trump comes to power, a Russian Telegram channel wrote that “the war party is shitting before leaving”. Similar comments from the Russian side were made about the US “war party” granting Ukraine permission to fire long-range missiles deep into Russian territory. They say that such decisions make any potential agreements on a speedy end to the war in Ukraine after Trump comes to the US presidency impossible. At the same time, a Russian pro-Kremlin Telegram channel writes that “one should not think that the White House will be inhabited by the “peace party” on January 20, 2025”, because “peacekeeping in the literal sense of the word is not typical of American policy”. There is also supposedly a strong “war party” within the Republican Party itself, which takes a much tougher approach to Russia than Biden. This is stated in a Ukrainian pro-Russian Telegram channel: “This is the wing associated with the American military-industrial complex, as well as with the oil and gas business – those who directly benefit from the war in Ukraine. And this wing will try to convince Trump that war is good business”.

In Ukraine, the “war party” allegedly calls all those who are against mobilization and continuation of the war “agents of the Kremlin”. The “war party” in Ukraine, as propagandists write, includes those who make money on the war. In turn, in Ukraine, the future “peace party” is allegedly just beginning to form, which “includes” MPs Yevhen Shevchenko and Artem Dmytruk. It is worth noting that on November 15, 2024, the court sent Shevchenko into custody on suspicion of treason, and Dmytruk illegally crossed the state border of Ukraine on August 24, 2024, after which he was declared wanted. There are three parties: the peace party, the war party, and the capitulation party. So, more and more supporters of the peace party are maturing in society! (...) More and more citizens of Ukraine want peace”, Ukrainian pro-Russian resources quote Artem Dmytruk.

In Russia, the “war party” is supposedly a branch of the “global war party”. This “party”,  writes the Ukrainian propaganda telegram channel, will convince Putin to never agree to stop the war along the front lines, but to fight until the Russian flag hangs over Kyiv. In addition, the propagandists add that the Russian “war party” regularly calls for a nuclear strike on Ukraine and Western countries.

Therefore, by resorting to the terms “war party” and “peace party”, propagandists are trying to blur Russia's responsibility for the war in Ukraine. Thus, they are trying to assert that the key confrontation is not between the aggressor Russia and Ukraine, but between the “peace and war parties”.