The photo of a pregnant woman escaping from a bombed maternity hospital has become one of the symbols of the bloody war in Ukraine. The heroine of this photo, Marianna Vyshemirsky, immediately found herself at the center of a fierce disinformation campaign, as a result of which she was flooded with hatred from Internet users. In an interview with the BBC, the Russian service debunked the false claims of Russian officials. It is her first interview with popular Western media since being evacuated to her hometown of Donetsk, a territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Denis Seleznyov, a blogger who actively supported pro-Russian separatists and was interviewed after fleeing Mariupol, helped organize the conversation with the woman. Did the explosion happen near the maternity hospital, which did not work? The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that the blast took place near the maternity hospital №1, which did not actually work with patients at that time. According to the BBC's disinformation department, Marianne was in the maternity hospital №3. Marianne confirms that the hospital where the maternity hospital was located was operating and had patients. The Russian authorities claimed that it no longer functioned as a medical facility.

Did the Azov Regiment seize the maternity hospital? Russia has claimed that the Azov Regiment seized the building, which Moscow calls a "Nazi" organization, which Ukraine denies. From Marianne's interview with Denis Seleznyov, Russian officials chose isolated phrases to create a narrative that Ukrainian soldiers allegedly used Marianne and other pregnant women as a human shields. Marianne tells the BBC that there were no soldiers in the building where she was. According to her story, she saw Ukrainian soldiers in the oncology department, located across the building from the maternity ward. Still, she did not know whether they had a base there. However, Marianne's phrases from an interview with Denis Seleznyov were used by the Kremlin to come up with a new lie.

Russian officials used her words, saying that she does not think an airstrike caused the hospital bombings. It was a Ukrainian shelling, they said.

"The characteristic sound of an airplane when it flies, it is impossible not to hear it," Marianne said in an interview, adding that she had not heard such a sound.

But journalists from the Associated Press documented evidence that the plane crash was - including in the video, where the sound of the plane can be heard. In addition, the military and police are talking about the airstrike on video at the scene. In addition, the photos show a giant funnel, which, according to weapons experts, could remain only after the bomb.

"I haven't seen this funnel, but I've seen the video," said Marianne.

"In fact, I can't blame anyone because I didn't see with my own eyes where it came from," she added.

This controversial moment caused another wave of bile from the trolls.

"On the one hand, I was considered an actress. On the other hand, they thought I was lying that there was no airstrike,” explained Marianna.

Did Marianne take part in the production? Before the war, Marianne advertised cosmetics on her blog. One pro-Kremlin telegram channel lied that the photos from the delivery room were staged. Based on the fact that Marianne was a beauty blogger, the authors said that she was an actress, which made up for the victim. This lie has been repeated many times by high-ranking Russian officials and Russian state media. "It was unpleasant to hear because I really went through it," said Marianne.

Among the people she considered friends were those who did not believe her. For example, beauty blogger Yaroslava, who lives in Russia, believes Russian television claims that Marianne took part in the production.

"I think Marianne played her part. Ukraine needed so that the Ukrainian military could blame Russia for everything," Yaroslava said. Since then, she has unfollowed her former friend on Instagram and no longer talked to her.

"It`s sad, of course, when acquaintances believe in something I haven't done, and I'm not capable of because, for me, my conscience has always been above everything," Marianne replied.

The Borova community in the Kharkiv region has denied a fake spread by Russian propagandists about the placement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a local school - the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center reported.

Russian propagandists, citing the head of Russia's National Defense Management Center, Mikhail Mizintsev, said Azov National Battalion fighters were holding hostages children and civilians in the basement of a school in the village Borova in the Kharkiv region. The fake report said that in the kindergarten "Berizka," Ukrainian defenders equipped barracks and deployed military equipment in the area. Propagandists are spreading lies that the Ukrainian military keeps civilians not only in the basements of the garden but also in the school. According to the Russian side, the hostages include women and children.

Russian propagandists are spreading this message, the Center for Disinformation Protection said.

According to Russian propagandists, "neutral Finland has decided to exchange available Russian gas for NATO membership. Residents of Finland refused to pay for Russian gas in rubles. Finland will buy more gas from the United States at an inflated price to cover the deficit. "

A Russian propaganda channel called Channel One aired a story about alleged "foreign journalists" who visited the occupied Kherson region. In fact, it turned out that these "journalists" are bloggers - fans of Putin, who have been living in Russia for many years. Ilya Shepelin, a former journalist for the Dozhd TV channel, drew attention to this. He wrote about it on his Twitter page - “Thomas Roper and John Dugan, whom they described as "foreign journalists," did not work for any media outlet.”

"Channel One showed a story about how enthusiastic" foreign journalists "visited the occupied Kherson region. In fact, these "journalists" were Putin's bloggers, who have lived in Russia for many years - Thomas Roper and John Dugan, who do not work in any media, " Shepelin wrote.

Before that, the propagandists made headlines about Roeper as a "journalist for Anti Spiegel from Germany." However, in reality, it is his blog, which was also created on a domain registered in Russia. In this blog "loyal to Putin," Roper rebroadcasts all the Kremlin's methods written on the Telegram channel "Trukha Ukraine."

Russian media widely spread the opinion of the Permanent Representative of Crimea to the President of Russia, Deputy Prime Minister of the Crimean Government Georgiy Muradov. According to him, gross violations of the rights of the Russian-speaking population have made the Ukrainian state "unviable" and "this is former Ukraine."

"It was primarily related to the rights of the state-building Russian people, whose language rights are enshrined in the tenth article of the Ukrainian constitution. However, these principles were grossly violated," he said.

He added that Russia would no longer restrict the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and that "the lands of these territories have historically been Russian, and their population mostly speaks Russian." It is not the first year that Russian historical propaganda has spread this narrative, saying that Crimea and Donbas have always been Russian and that southeastern Ukraine is, in fact, Novorossiya. Instead, Ukrainian historians claim that only 5.6% of the written history of Crimea belonged to Russia (11.4% to the Crimean Khanate). Russians made up a relative majority, but only 4% throughout the written history of Crimea, and an absolute majority of only 2.5%. Donbas has traditionally had a regional identity, although the majority of the population, at least in rural areas, was and is Ukrainian, according to the study book Revision of History: Russian Historical Propaganda and Ukraine.

We remind you that Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that “the state language in Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The state ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life throughout Ukraine. Ukraine guarantees the free development, use, and protection of Russian and other languages ​​of national minorities of Ukraine."

This article aims not to ban Russian but to promote the development of the Ukrainian language. However, during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency, there were attempts to amend Article 10 by introducing Russian as the second state language.

In Ukraine, the eastern and southern regions are mostly Russian-speaking, or instead, they were. According to a study by the Rating Sociological Group, Russia's war against Ukraine has dramatically changed the situation. According to the survey, the number of those considering Ukrainian their mother tongue has been growing steadily over the last decade: from 57% in 2012 to 76% in 2022. There is also a steady decline in the Russian-speaking part of Ukrainians: in 2012, there were about 40% of such respondents, and at the beginning of the war - 18%.

"The unprecedented unity of society against the background of the war had a substantial impact on the attitude to the status of the Ukrainian language: today, the absolute majority (83%) for the Ukrainian language to be the only state language in Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age, and language groups. On the other hand, in a poll, almost a quarter of citizens supported granting state status to the Russian language before the war, and today - only 7%, " the sociological group said.

Russian media spread another disinformation statement by Maria Zakharova about "the activities of American bio laboratories in Ukraine," which allegedly "engaged in activities aimed at enhancing the pathogenic properties of plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases using synthetic biology." That is why Ukrainian citizens are allegedly being "massively tested" for tuberculosis at the entrance to the European Union.

According to StopFake, this Russian fake is designed to frighten and sow distrust of Ukrainian citizens in European countries. After arriving in the EU, Ukrainian citizens do not undergo any medical tests, including tests for the presence of tuberculosis. Due to Russia's aggression, European countries have lifted all restrictions on Ukrainians entering the European Union. The European Commission explains that "the absence of travel or medical documents (e.g., vaccination certificate, COVID-19 test) will not prevent you from entering the EU". The European Union has also weakened customs and veterinary controls for Ukrainians: “Ukrainian citizens are free to enter the EU with their belongings and pets.”

The European Commission's information bulletin states explicitly that even with the absence of a biometric passport for travel abroad, a regular passport, or any other identity document, Ukrainians have the right to enter the European Union on humanitarian grounds. In this case, the undocumented Ukrainian should remain available to local authorities in a safe place in the EU. Learn more about "biological weapons" from fleas, mosquitoes, and lizards.

This is reported by the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

The National Interest has published material by USA intelligence veteran Paul R. Pillar. He states that "humiliating" Russia with sanctions and removing Putin from power "will harm the whole world."

Serbian political scientist George Vukadinovic, interviewed by Kremlin media abroad this week, also spoke about Russia's greatness. Vukadinovic claims that NATO "should be held responsible for the war" in Ukraine. In a Politico article, scientists Patrick Portman, Justin Logan, and Benjamin M. Friedman suggested that Ukraine should return to "negotiations with Russia" because the West was giving Ukraine "false hopes of victory" in this war, hiding that it could not help money and weapons for so long.