Propagandists are distributing a report allegedly created by Deutsche Welle, which states that Polish journalist Agata Grzybowska was fired because she published her own investigation in the publication Rzeczpospolita. Grzybowska allegedly said that European media heavily edited videos of Ukrainian soldiers to hide Nazi symbols on their uniforms. However, this is not true.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to the fake. They found out that Deutsche Welle did not actually publish such a video on its official website or social networks. There is also no such investigation on the website of the Polish publication Rzeczpospolita.

A reverse image search on Google revealed that clips from other videos were used for the fake report. For example, the image of Agata Grzybowska is taken from a presentation of her work at the cultural institution Dom Spotkań z Historią in Warsaw. The photo of police detaining her was taken in 2020 during women's protests against an abortion ban in Warsaw. The video with the 59th brigade was filmed in Kramatorsk in February 2024.

Agata Grzybowska is a Polish photographer. On her Facebook page she covers events in Ukraine, in particular the Revolution of Dignity and the Russian full-scale invasion. In a comment to the Belarusian Intelligence Center, Grzybowska denied information about her dismissal and the publication of the investigation. She explained that she does not write articles because she is a photojournalist by profession.

Propagandists are spreading this fake news to once again reinforce their message about “Ukrainian Nazis” and the “need for denazification”. Thus, they justify the crimes of Russians against Ukrainian civilians.

Propagandists are distributing a report allegedly created by the German television channel Deutsche Welle about the Gisec Global exhibition, which took place in Dubai from April 23 to 25. The video claims that robot Sophia, answering a question about Ukraine's victory, allegedly said: “It is obvious that Ukrainians need to surrender, because this is the only chance to save themselves as a nation. The Ukrainians have no chance of winning, but they create the opposite picture. I urge them to accept reality and do what the whole world expects of them”. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that there is no such video on the official website of Deutsche Welle and on the official accounts of the channel on social networks.

A reverse image search on Google showed that the fake video consisted of excerpts from various open sources. For example, the video with the robot Sophia is taken from an episode of the American talk show “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, which was released in April 2017. The footage of artificial intelligence researcher Ben Goertzel comes from an interview with Discover Crypto published in March 2024.

While the Gisec Global cybersecurity exhibition did take place in Dubai from April 23 to April 25, 2024, there are no reports of Sophia's work being included in the event. She attended The Global AI Show on April 16-17, which also took place in Dubai. The video, where the robot Sophia allegedly calls on Ukrainians to surrender, was assembled from excerpts of her interview with Aletihad during this exhibition. In the interview, Sophia did encourage the UAE to invest in research and development for AI innovation. She did not call on Ukrainians to surrender and did not mention Ukraine.

Propagandists spread such fake news to dishearten Ukrainians and convince them that the world no longer supports them.

Propagandists are distributing a video allegedly released by Reuters, which states that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi may pass a law to revoke the passports and driver’s licenses of Ukrainians abroad. According to the video, these norms will come into effect on June 1, which will oblige all Ukrainian men from 18 to 60 years old to return to Ukraine. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that there was no such video on the Reuters website or social networks. Also, there is no corresponding bill on the Verkhovna Rada website, and Ukrainian media did not report the possibility of making such a decision.

In addition, the video is a compilation of publicly available footage. The first frame with Volodymyr Zelenskyi is taken from his speech in the Verkhovna Rada on July 1, 2022, where he did not mention the revocation of passports or driver’s licenses and did not talk at all about men of military age who are abroad. Footage from the vehicle checkpoint in 2022 was distributed by Ukrainian media, citing the Western Regional Directorate of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. Footage of Ukrainians standing in line at passport offices was published by international media and the Ukrainian military in April 2024.

The fake video also states that since April 22, about 50 men of military age have returned to Ukraine, but the source of this data is not specified, and the State Border Service did not provide such statistics. The agency reports weekly only the total number of border crossers, without indicating age and gender.

Russian resources create such fakes, releasing them through the publication of authoritative international media, in order to cause panic among Ukrainians both in Ukraine and abroad, as well as to disrupt the mobilization process. Detector Media also refuted other fakes on this topic.

Russian propagandists are spreading a story on telegram channels, allegedly published by the Italian publication Il Messagero, in which Vatican Cardinal Mario Zenari accuses the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmytro Kuleba of “genocide” of his own people. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found that Cardinal Zenari did not make such statements, and the story was not published in any Italian publication.

The logo is visible in the video. A Google Images search for this logo revealed that it belongs to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero. However, this publication did not publish such a story either on its website or on its pages on social networks. Russians often use logos of well-known media to make their fakes more credible. In addition, the original Il Messaggero videos have a logo in the lower right corner, while vertical videos do not add a logo at all.

Propagandists claim that, first of all, Cardinal Zenari criticized Kuleba on the Vatican News channel. However, Vatican News is the news portal of the Holy See, which only has a radio and YouTube channel, but does not have its own TV channel. There was no such story on the Vatican News YouTube channel. The last news about Mario Zenari on the Vatican News website appeared on April 10, 2024 and concerned the lives of civilians in Syria, while the Russians began distributing the video in question on April 26.

In addition, Russian disinformers edited videos from different, unrelated recordings. For example, the fragment where the cardinal speaks in black clothes is taken from his 2022 interview about the Open Hospitals project in Syria, where he did not mention Ukraine. Part of the video with Dmytro Kuleba was taken from a recording of his meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó on January 29, 2024.

Russians are also speculating on the topic of changes to the mobilization law, citing a quote from Kuleba’s message about limiting consular services for men of military age abroad. We are talking about obtaining passports; men from 18 to 60 years old can now only obtain them in Ukraine. However, these restrictions do not apply to persons with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, victims of Russian actions, those who left for treatment, etc.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists are trying to disrupt the mobilization process in Ukraine. Detector Media also refuted other fakes on this topic.

Propagandists are spreading information on social networks that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg allegedly called the Ukrainian Armed Forces military “cannon fodder”. However, this is not true.

VoxCheck project specialists found that Stoltenberg did not say this. They found the speech that the Russians are quoting. The Secretary General voiced these theses at a press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on April 23, 2024. His words were taken out of context.

In his speech, Stoltenberg did not call the Ukrainian Armed Forces military “cannon fodder”. At the same time, he said that NATO countries must pay a certain price, that is, provide assistance to Ukraine in order to live in a safer world. Stoltenberg noted the need to support Ukraine. In his opinion, this is an investment in the security of other countries that are threatened by Russia.

NATO officials say the organization was created for defense, not to participate in wars. Although NATO does not intervene in the war with Russia, NATO member countries condemn the aggression and provide assistance to Ukraine.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit Ukraine’s Western partners and devalue the Ukrainian authorities. They say that NATO does not send its soldiers to war, but “uses” Ukrainians for its own whims. They say, therefore, Ukraine should follow the road with Russia.