Spilnota Detector Media
Detector Media collects and documents real-time chronicles of the Kremlin disinformation about the Russian invasion. Ukraine for decades has been suffering from Kremlin disinformation. Here we document all narratives, messages, and tactics, which Russia is using from February 17th, 2022. Reminder: the increasing of shelling and fighting by militants happened on the 17th of February 2022 on the territory of Ukraine. Russian propaganda blames Ukraine for these actions.

On 28 March, on the 763th day of the full-scale war, our editorial office recorded:

2043
Fake
676
Manipulation
634
Message
419
Disclosure
Русскій фейк, іді на***!

Fake US planned war in Ukraine to destroy EU economy

Russian media publish news reports claiming that a Swedish newspaper has published a "secret report" about the US plan to destroy the European economy through a war in Ukraine. It seems that the EU economy, primarily Germany, is competitive and its development poses a threat to the United States. In order to destroy the European economy, America planned to draw the EU into the war in Ukraine, as a result of which Russia would predictably restrict energy supplies and the EU would impose its own sanctions. Thus, a crisis will arise in Europe, which will slow down the overall development, destroy industry, lead to recession and inflation as well as to an increase in unemployment, so European specialists migrate to the United States.

This secret "memorandum" was actually published by the Swedish newspaper Nya Dagbladet. The report, according to this publication, was allegedly created by the RAND Corporation, an American think tank. But after the publication RAND stated that he had never published or prepared this memorandum.

The international group of fact-checkers Logically connects the Swedish publication with fringe politicians, including the ultra-right. The newspaper has previously spread conspiracy theories more than once.

Fact checkers found in the text of the memorandum many factual and grammatical errors, and one foresight. The document was created on January 25 but actually it refers to the “stopping of Nord Stream 2”, although at that time the pipeline was still planned to be launched and was in the process of licensing. The launch of Nord Stream 2 in the EU was abandoned after the start of the war on February 24. In addition, the document talks about the approval of the plan by the "Congress and the Senate" of the US but the US legislature is called the Congress, and consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are other gross factual errors that the authors of a think tank that has been working for governments and private corporations around the world since 1948 could hardly have made.

Fake Ukrainian troops fired on the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant

Russian propaganda media and telegram channels are spreading a fake that the Ukrainian military allegedly fired at the territory of the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant, despite the fact that they themselves reported on missile strikes against the nuclear power plant.

For example, on September 19, the day when rockets exploded 300 meters from the nuclear power plant reactors, the website of propagandist Yurii Podoliak and the Rybar telegram channel spread news with the headline “At night, Russian Armed Forces troops launched a missile attack on the South Russian NPP”. And they justified the shelling by the fact that “the reactors were not damaged”, and the missiles hit the “military base”, which seems to be located nearby and supplies fuel to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As evidence that Ukrainian military facilities existed on the territory of the station, Russian resources are distributing documents from 2017 with an order to conduct anti-terrorist exercises to work out the protection of nuclear power plants in Ukraine. These exercises were indeed carried out, they were not secret and are not related to any “bases” allegedly located on the territory of the station - information about the security measures of 2017 can be found in the Ukrainian media, StopFake notes.

We remind you that Enerhoatom and President Zelenskyi distributed a video of the shelling of a nuclear power plant and accused the Russian occupiers of shelling. “South” Command also noted that the Russians used “Iskander”. The station is located in the Mykolaiv region, which is regularly shelled by the Russians. In addition, the Russians had previously shelled another nuclear power plant - Zaporizhzhia. And, despite the conclusions of the IAEA, which demands the withdrawal of Russian troops from the ZNPP and recognizes the threat to Ukraine's nuclear facilities, the Russians are constantly trying to shift the blame for the shelling of nuclear power plants to Ukraine.

Message Medvedchuk was exchanged for the sake of “referendums”

The authors of many “patriotic” telegram channels in Russia were outraged not only by the exchange of the leadership of the Azov Regiment, which the Russian authorities promised to give to the tribunal and generally ruled out the possibility of their exchange, but also by the fact that Viktor Medvedchuk was among those who surrendered to Russia.

The military or political leadership of the Russian Federation has not yet commented on the exchange because of the indignation of the “patriots” who consider it a defeat, real and informational. But Russian propagandists and PR people are making significant efforts to distance the leadership of the Russian Federation in the information field from any defeats and shift the responsibility to someone else. Therefore, commenting on the exchange of more than 200 Ukrainian military and foreigners who fought on the side of Ukraine was instructed to Denys Pushylin, the leader of the “DNR”.

He stated that he “signed the order himself” on the exchange, which is surprising since the exchange was coordinated by the efforts of a group of negotiators, including the Turkish president, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, representatives of President Zelenskyi’s office – and none of these countries, of course, recognized the “DNR” as “a part of the conflict”, and Pushylin as a person who can decide at least something. Still, Erdohan thanked the efforts of “Zelenskyi and Putin” for creating the possibility of an exchange.

But it is Pushylin who is spread by Russian propaganda where he explains that Medvedchuk was “liberated from Ukrainian captivity”. Although Medvedchuk was in custody and is a citizen of Ukraine, therefore he cannot be captured and thanks to his previous “merits” he cannot be involved in organizing the exchange of prisoners. And it seems that the absence of Medvedchuk in Russia “complicated the referendum and support for this referendum”. Consequently, the detained Medvedchuk complicated the process of “expression of will” in the occupied parts of Ukraine, and how come “free Medvedchuk” could help the “referendums” that would begin tomorrow, Pushylin, of course, did not explain.

All these incomprehensible statements are another proof that in any defeats, Russian propaganda is trying to shift the responsibility to the “people of Donbas”. For example, during the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region, it was the Russian propaganda who blamed the defeat on those mobilized from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Fake Toys in the form of bones of Russian infidels appeared in Ukraine

Russian propaganda came up with a new fake to prove the “inhumanity” of Ukrainians. To do this, they used a video of a woman who walks around the supermarket, approaches a large container and says: “Oh, how interesting! “Orcs” in a transparent package. Something new”.

Where exactly and when the video was taken is unknown. But judging by the design of the container, which StopFake drew attention to, these are toys that have already begun to be sold on Halloween, which is celebrated on the night of November 1st. Russian propaganda used the name of the toys to prove that Ukrainian children are offered to play with “the bones of Russian soldiers who are called orcs in Ukraine”.

Message The advantage of “referendums” is that Russia will “get” additional territories rich in minerals

Russian propaganda telegram channels began to distribute a video that should “explain” to the Russians what the Russian Federation will “receive” as a result of the so-called “referendums” in the occupied territory of Ukraine.

Oddly enough, there is no mention in the video of the “liberation of Russian-speaking brothers from the Nazis, or their “protection” from ghostly “oppressions”. At the same time, they focus only on the fact that Russia has seized more than 100 thousand square kilometers of land, the territory of Ukraine “will decrease by 20%”, and the population - “by 21%”.

The video tells how much grain can be grown in the occupied territories of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and reports on the same grain that the Russians stole this year in Ukraine. Since it is also impossible to boast of the “benefit” from the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, because the industry of the occupied Donbass was destroyed during the 8 years of the war, the video reminded that “the USSR in the Donetsk region produced 30 million tons of coal annually”, and “before the Maidan, GDP of Donetsk region accounted for 16% of the total gross domestic product of Ukraine”. The propagandists decided not to specify anything about the Luhansk region, they only indicated that “it has huge mineral reserves”.

The video also shows a map of Ukraine, which demonstrates all these calculations for the territory of all regions within their administrative boundaries but none of these four regions is completely occupied.

Orest Slyvenko, Artur Koldomasov, Pavlo Rud, Oleksandra Kotenko, Oleksandr Siedin, Kostiantyn Zadyraka, and Oleksiy Pivtorak are collaborating on this chronicle. Lesia Bidochko serves as the project coordinator, while Ksenia Ilyuk is the author of the project.