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 16 May, on the 812th day of the full-scale war, our editorial office recorded:

2148
Fake
693
Manipulation
648
Message
440
Disclosure
Русскій фейк, іді на***!

Disclosure The Ministry of Health of Ukraine allegedly sends emails to Ukrainians about the shortage of medicines in the country

According to such reports, the shortage of medicines allegedly arose against the backdrop of Ukraine’s refusal to use medicines produced in Russia or Belarus, as well as due to complicated logistics. In addition, the letters contain advice on how traditional medicine can help in this case. This is the Russian IPSO.

The case was worked on by the Center for Countering Disinformation and noted that the Ministry of Health of Ukraine itself had already managed to refute this information. They reported that in fact there is no shortage of medicine, and added: Ukrainians have access to original and high-quality medicines both in pharmacies and in medical institutions.

The purpose of this pseudo-mailing is to discredit the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and sow panic among Ukrainians. Previously, we analyzed the message of Russian propaganda that expired medicines are allegedly being imported into Ukraine, which is why people are allegedly  dying.

Disclosure The Ministry of Agrarian Policy allegedly sends Ukrainians recipes for dishes made from pigeons and dogs

The agricultural sector suffered significant losses, therefore, in order for ordinary citizens of Ukraine to at least somehow diversify their diet, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine allegedly sent out a mailing to Ukrainians with recipes for preparing dishes from pigeons, dogs, and Colorado beetles. This is the Russian IPSO.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Security investigated this case. They noted that the Ministry of Agrarian Policy itself had already denied the information. They stated that they did not do such a mailing and called it another attempt by the Russians to convince everyone around that there is famine in Ukraine.

Previously, we analyzed the message of Russian propaganda that Ukrainians are supposedly starving and must stand in line for free lunches.

Fake Ukraine allegedly began mining territories on the border with Hungary

Propaganda resources began distributing a video in which an unknown man in the uniform of the Ukrainian Armed Forces “warns” residents of the Transcarpathian region that he and other military personnel were allegedly given an order to start mining the border areas bordering Hungary. It's fake.

The information was analyzed by the experts from the Center for Countering Disinformation. They asked the State Border Service of Ukraine to comment on the video. They replied that the information mentioned in the recording was not true. Probably, having taken possession of the uniform of the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a result of one of the battles at the front, the Russians decided to take advantage of this and create a fake video.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to sow panic among the civilian population of Transcarpathia and resort to one of the propaganda tactics: using fear, uncertainty and doubt to achieve this goal. Previously, we denied information that the wife of the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs crossed the Ukrainian-Hungarian border with $13 million.

Fake Soldiers of the Kraken special forces are allegedly sent to the Transcarpathian region to strengthen mobilization there

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that special forces from the Kraken unit of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense will allegedly be sent to Transcarpathia to strengthen the mobilization of the men there. In addition, a separate task for the fighters will be to catch and torture Hungarians, and then mobilize them too. As evidence, propagandists attach “screenshots of correspondence” between two Kraken fighters. This is nothing more than a fake.

The specialists from the Center for Countering Disinformation decided to study this case. They contacted the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine with a request to confirm or refute the “news”. They didn't have to wait long for an answer - the Main Intelligence Directorate says that the information disseminated by Russian propagandists is untrue. Today, fighters of the special forces “Kraken” are in the combat zone. There they carry out the tasks set by the highest military-political leadership of the country, facilitating the de-occupation of Ukrainian territories from Russian troops.

By spreading such disinformation, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the mobilization process in Ukraine and the Kraken special forces, as well as promote the message that Ukraine is allegedly seeking to destroy ethnic Hungarians and is recruiting them en masse into the army. Previously, we refuted information that NATO could allegedly attract the Azov and Kraken battalions to suppress protests in France.

Manipulation Ukraine may join NATO “in exchange for territory”

Pro-Kremlin resources are disseminating information that Ukraine was offered to join the North Atlantic Alliance “in exchange for abandoning” Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Propagandists refer to the words of former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who allegedly made such a proposal due to the “failure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces counteroffensive”. However, this is manipulation.

This case was analyzed by the fact-checkers of the StopFake project. They found out that Rasmussen actually promoted the idea of Ukraine joining NATO without occupied territories. However, he did not call on Ukraine to give up those territories, but had something slightly different in mind. In his opinion, the country’s early entry into NATO will help protect itself from new manifestations of Russian aggression in the territories controlled by Ukraine, since Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on Collective Defense will apply to them. That is, the invasion of Russian troops into these zones will mean an attack on NATO and the response will be immediate. If Ukraine joins NATO as soon as possible, it will also be possible to release additional Ukrainian defense forces, which, for example, are now located on the border with Belarus, and send them to de-occupy the territories captured by the Russians.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen also reminded that there is a similar historical precedent. In 1955, West Germany joined NATO and Article 5 was extended to its territory. At the same time, it did not apply to East Germany, which was then under Soviet occupation.

Russian propaganda is trying to demoralize Ukrainian society with such manipulations and declare that Ukraine allegedly cannot de-occupy the territories captured by Russian troops. Previously, we denied information that NATO is preparing for the defeat of Ukraine and the occupation of the western part of Ukrainian territories.

Orest Slyvenko, Artur Koldomasov, Vitalii Mykhailiv, 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.