Propagandists spread information that thousands of Ukrainians protested in defense of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Allegedly, they oppose the oppression of Orthodox Ukrainians. The authors of posts on this topic even add a “photo” from the “protests”. It's fake.

Analysts of the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that when looking for  images that are added as evidence of “protests”, one can see that they were actually taken on March 12 this year. On that day, believers gathered for Divine Liturgy at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on the feast day of the Cathedral of All Saints of the Caves. A video from this event was published by the page of the UOC-MP.

Thus, Russian propagandists want to intensify their information campaign on the “oppression of religion” by the “Kyiv regime”. Allegedly, the Nazi regime oppresses people for believing in God. For the same purpose, propagandists recently wrote about “blackened crosses” on the territory of Lavra.

Analysts of the international project “Fireworks of Lies” analyzed about 18 thousand accounts (including channels and chats) related to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and identified the main trends of Russian disinformation on the Telegram of this region. Detector Media has highlighted the main points of the investigation published on investigaci.cz.

In the telegram space, the number of channels in Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian and German with pro-Russian narratives has increased. They also differ in the form of presentation of content - some of them try to provide information as seriously as possible, while the other part presents these problems subjectively or even on behalf of “clairvoyants” and “fortune tellers”. Russian propagandists are well aware of the level of trust in them among the ordinary population in the region and use this to spread their own narratives.

In particular, in such channels one can find a repetition of a number of Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine: they say that this is all the West, there will be nothing left of Ukraine, but that’s how they need it, because there are Nazis. But in addition to this, they intertwine concern about the domestic political situation in the countries of the region. It seems that this war is not our business, we do not want to suffer from its consequences.

In addition to matching Russian messages, these channels also play conspiracy theories. In particular, they contain a lot of materials on the topic of the “world destruction plan” of the “world government”, in which the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine are only “stages”. According to conspiracy theorists, Russia started the war to fight “this swamp”, as the world's political and economic elites are sometimes called.

Thus, Russian propagandists want to disorient the inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe and shift the responsibility for Russia's crimes to the victims of aggression and those who help it. In addition, the destabilization of the situation in Europe helps Russia to carry out its aggression and build a platform for further spread. Detector Media has already examined the disinformation on the German telegram and highlighted its main narratives.

Anonymous telegram channels spreading pro-Russian rhetoric often publish messages that coincide with the position of conspiracy theorists on a number of world events. This time they claim that the war in Ukraine is the beginning of the third world war as part of the world elites' plan to destroy humanity. There have been more such messages after recent statements by Bill Gates regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this case, conspiracy theorists are referring to the theory of a “secret world government” made up of businessmen and wealthy people of the world. They allegedly lead heads of state to spread their ideas and sometimes resort to “grand plans”. They are often called pandemics, wars, major natural disasters, etc.

Now fans of conspiracy theories put the coronavirus pandemic and the war against Ukraine in one chain, calling them “stages of the plan to destroy humanity”. Like, the planet was closed for a year, stuffed with vaccines, but this was not enough, so it was needed to finish everyone off with a war. As goals for such plans, propagandists refer to the theory of the “golden billion”: only one billion of the most hardy population should remain on the planet, which could survive all these ups and downs.

Thus, Russian propagandists devalue the tragedy of these events and try to shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim of the aggression. Like, we are only on foot in this game, and the Western elites started the war. However, foreign experience shows that such a deepening of isolation from reality can be dangerous. In particular, in the United States, cases have been recorded when fans of conspiracy theories tried to kill their defendants.

This information was disseminated by the Russian propaganda media. Like, since the Ukrainian authorities are atheists, they will deny access to the holy relics in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra starting from March 21. In their messages, the propagandists refer to the video of Klyment, a head of the Synodal information and education department, metropolitan of Nizhyn and Pryluky, which appeared on the telegram channel of the UOC-MP. Klyment stated that on March 20, the monastery received a letter from the leadership of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra national reserve with a message that the museum would now stop access to the Near and Far Caves due to the work of the commission, which will determine the level of safety of cultural values. The priest called this approach of the Ukrainian authorities “atheistic”. However, this is manipulation.

In fact, it is not about closing access to the caves forever but checking the caves of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and their temporary closure for parishioners. Such actions are held completely in accordance with the law and are not an “atheistic approach”.

The fact checkers of the StopFake project drew attention to the case. According to them, a commission is working on the territory of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra reserve to check the availability, storage conditions and state of preservation of cultural values. The monastery is located on the territory of the National Reserve on the basis of an agreement for the free use by a religious organization of religious buildings and other property that is state property. This agreement expires on March 29, 2023. “The check of the state commission should be completed on May 15 this year, and the caves of the Lavra will again be open to parishioners”, the fact-checkers said in a statement.

However, with the help of such fakes, Russian propaganda seeks to once again expose the Ukrainian authorities as unprofessional. Like, the authorities violate the law because of their atheistic views.

Such information is disseminated in pro-Kremlin propaganda media and on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. Reports say last week Ukrainian refugees allegedly burned down a historic 400-year-old hotel in Midhurst, West Sussex, England. Like, the Ukrainians are criminals, and if it had not been for them, the building would have survived. It is not true.

The fire on North Street in Midhurst did indeed occur on March 16, and it did not only affect the Angel Inn, which the propagandists write about. Ukrainian refugees also really lived in a hotel. According to local authorities, 30 people were evacuated from the hotel due to the fire, including “several” Ukrainian refugees. However, claims that it was the Ukrainians who set the fire are unfounded.

The fact checkers of the StopFake project drew attention to the case. They found out that local media wrote that the fire first started in the early morning in a nearby house on North Street, and only then spread to the roof of the nearby Angel Inn. “But not only this fact, but also the preliminary findings of the West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service do not confirm any involvement of Ukrainian refugees in the fire”. A spokesman for the fire service told the BBC: “Preliminary investigations indicate that there are no suspicious circumstances associated with this fire, but our investigation is ongoing”, the fact-checkers wrote.

This is not the first fake of Russian propaganda about “bad” Ukrainian refugees. For example, propagandists have already claimed that Ukrainians burned a forest in Germany. By spreading such fakes, propaganda wants to create for Ukrainian refugees the image of criminals who can, for example, set fire to the house they live in. This is how propagandists try to convince the audience that Ukrainians should not be supported. Read more about disinformation regarding Ukrainian refugees in the Detector Media investigation.

In the Kremlin propaganda media, there were reports that the planes transferred to Ukraine by Poland and Slovakia are not effective in combat conditions. Like, this was recognized by the leadership of the Air Force of Ukraine. In their messages, propagandists refer to the words of the speaker of the Air Force, Yurii Ihnat, on the air of the Rada TV channel. Propaganda theses about the inefficiency of the aircraft appeared against the backdrop of news about the transfer of MIG-29 aircraft to Ukraine.

In fact, according to StopFake, the Russian media took out of context a quote from the representative of the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Yurii Ihnat. He did not say that planes from Poland and Slovakia were ineffective. Ihnat said that these planes would help Ukraine on the battlefield while patrolling the airspace, covering strike groups of Ukrainian bombers and other cases.

However, by spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda seeks to create the appearance that Ukraine's partners let Ukraine down, because they are sending unnecessary weapons that allegedly will not help the Ukrainian army in any way.

Such information was disseminated in Russian propaganda media and on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. The report says that the International Criminal Court in the Hague allegedly acquitted the Russian army. Like, the court did not find war crimes committed by the Russian military in Ukraine. However, this is not true.

The propagandists’ reports also said that since the court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Volodymyr Putin concerns the suspicion of committing only one war crime: the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine. That is, propagandists conclude that the deportation of children is the only thing Russia is generally accused of. Like, this means that neither Russia nor its military is to blame for anything else.

In fact, according to StopFake, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Volodymyr Putin exclusively in the case of illegal deportation to Russia of children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Fact-checkers add that this does not yet apply to other possible crimes, since the court, according to lawyer Dmytro Koval, selects only the highest priority cases.

By spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda seeks to create the appearance that the Russian army is doing everything right and it does not harm civilians in Ukraine. This allegedly confirms the thesis of the Russian propaganda that the Russians bring peace.