This thesis was spread in pro-Kremlin media. The reports described how on September 18, 2023, the International Court of Justice in The Hague began a hearing on Ukraine's claim against Russia for violating the Genocide Convention. At the same time, Russian media are spreading messages that the court’s decision will be as “politicized” as possible, because Ukraine allegedly cannot collect “any evidence” of Russian crimes.

StopFake fact-checkers worked on the case and explained that the International Court of Justice itself is an independent institution that makes decisions without the involvement of third parties. In addition, a joint UN Commission operates to investigate and record Russian crimes. Moreover, the Commission has previously presented several reports describing systemic crimes by Russians against Ukrainians, in particular, premeditated murders, illegal detention, torture, rape and other types of sexual violence, as well as illegal transfers and deportations of protected persons and children. That is, the thesis that there is no evidence to prove the criminality of the Russian army is untrue. Thus, the propagandist authors are only trying to abdicate responsibility by calling various government institutions “incompetent” or “biased”. The Kremlin did the same thing, for example, when it denied the arrest of Putin by the International Criminal Court.

By the way, Detector Media analysts analyzed the manipulation, which stated that the UN investigation “found no evidence of genocide of Ukrainians” during the Russian-Ukrainian war. We explained the message that the so-called “evacuation” of Ukrainian children is “not a war crime”. We also disclosed a message that allegedly the UN Security Council “does not care about the suffering of the residents of Donbas”.

This thesis is being spread on social networks in the Russian segment, in particular on pro-Kremlin telegram channels. The authors write that the Russians are allegedly moving quickly at the front and making bold decisions that are “destructive for Ukrainians”. At the same time, Ukraine’s partners, according to the authors of the message, are carried away by the advancement of the Russian military on the battlefield.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security determined that there were no statements from official missions of the United States or the EU. That is, this is not the position of the US or EU authorities - but propagandists simply threw in such information. By comparison, US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland recently commented that she was, on the contrary, amazed at the progress Ukraine has made, especially in the south.

Thus, the Russians are trying to sow panic among citizens, saying that Ukrainian partners are already carried away by Russia’s achievements on the battlefield. Russia wants to strengthen its narrative about the “failure of the counteroffensive” and discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine, allegedly the Ukrainian military is not coping with the assigned tasks.

Russian propagandists use the themes of economic problems in the world, increasing tariffs in Ukraine and energy costs to intimidate Ukrainians and force them to end the war in any way (on Russia’s terms, abandoning territories seized by Russian occupiers) and to increase the spirit of the pro-Russian audience.

Last year, propaganda cables spread the message that the world economy would collapse unless sanctions against Russia and Russian businessmen were lifted and conceded on the front. Russian propaganda uses intimidation tactics to cause fear in people and get what they want: sanctions were lifted from Russia, and Ukraine recognized the occupied east and part of the south as Russian territories. It seems that this will help maintain the economy and prices. However, the whole world and Ukraine adapted to the new conditions, of course, not without increasing tariffs, but the economy turned out to be more flexible than the Russians expected. However, Russia itself has learned to circumvent sanctions.

Russian propaganda spread messages to Russians and residents of temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories about improving life in contrast to the “decadent” and supposedly impoverished Ukraine. Allegedly, with Russia, utilities become cheaper, Ukrainian companies that took out loans during the occupation may not repay them, and people who need medical care in Nova Kakhovka travel for free to a safe place for treatment. Here propagandists use love bombing tactics. Russian propaganda is trying to convince people that they need to support Russia, because it cares about them. Propagandists also use the tactic of repeated repetition - they repeat the narrative many times about the “piece of paradise” that populated areas supposedly become after the arrival of the Russians. They just keep silent about the fact that they are destroying Ukrainian cities and killing Ukrainians. About those territories that the Russians failed to occupy, propaganda deliberately spreads narratives about crisis, decline, and describes the worst-case scenario, causing fear among people. “Financial problems in Ukraine indicate that in the fall the economy will go into a steep decline and default”, they wrote in one of the telegram channels.

Russian propaganda also tried to show that the sanctions imposed on Russia for allowing a full-scale war in Ukraine are disadvantageous for the whole world, because protests are taking place in different countries, especially in the countries of the European Union. Propagandists spread many versions that “soon gas will be at $4,000 and oil at $200”, “in the coming days the price of gas in Europe will be very interesting” and disseminated information about what saving measures can be taken in connection with the rise in prices of energy carriers. Moreover, sometimes Russians even equated economic means of pressure on them with the destruction of the Russian people. Thus, Russian propaganda tried to manipulate and make the audience feel guilty, to intimidate readers, to impose the opinion that Russia influenced the world agenda and without cooperation with it, Europe and the whole world simply cannot exist.

Such information was disseminated in pro-Kremlin telegram channels. Reports say that the German fast food chain Burgermeister allegedly launched an advertising campaign - “to talk about something more important than Ukraine”. Instead, they suggest talking about “a new line of tasty and juicy burgers”. The publications add a screenshot allegedly from a promotional video. It's a lie.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project analyzed this case and found out that the video was compiled using a video editor. At the same time, representatives of the German burger joint noted that they did not create such a campaign and had nothing to do with the creation of the video. And to edit this video, the propagandists used cuttings of various news stories about Ukraine, and in the second part of the video they placed a real Burgermeister advertisement posted on the main page of the site.

We have repeatedly debunked fake news regarding fake graffiti or covers on foreign magazines/newspapers or advertisements. Thus, propagandists seek to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. So it may seem to readers that the public is really dissatisfied with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, hinting that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda for Europe is a reason to laugh.

Read the latest fakes on this topic, where Russia turns a blind eye to false works of street art and pop culture: 

Allegedly, in The Hague, the capital of European justice, they created graffiti depicting Zelenskyi hanging on the gallows. Or look at the fake cover of the allegedly British newspaper The New European, where the Ukrainian president was sitting on the lap of the Dalai Lama. Or about the fake cover of the numb Volodymyr Zelenskyi from the figure of the dictator Putin and Jesus Christ.

Such information was disseminated on social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan allegedly made a statement about Crimea, which “is Russian territory and will always be so”. The authors of the fake message add that the Turkish president is supposedly giving a clear signal to the whole world that continuing to arm Ukraine is “pointless and futile”. Such publications refer to Erdogan’s interview with the American PBS television channel. It's a lie.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project investigated this case and found out that the Turkish President did not make such statements in an interview, and propagandists simply made it up. At the same time, he said that, in his opinion, today it is impossible to force Russia to leave the temporarily occupied peninsula, but “time will tell”.

Turkey has taken a strong position in supporting Ukraine and condemning the occupation and subsequent annexation of Ukrainian Crimea by Russia. But he emphasized that the Crimean Tatar people remain loyal to Ukraine, but not to the aggressor. And during a speech at the Crimean Platform summit on August 23, 2023, the Turkish leader also emphasized that Crimea is part of Ukraine, and Turkey speaks about this “at all international platforms”.

Find out here what propagandists wrote about the bilateral meeting between Putin and Erdogan in Sochi on September 4, 2023.

This thesis was spread in pro-Kremlin media. The messages added how the West was allegedly trying to destroy Ukraine, “to lead it to the grave” so that it would lose everything in the war. Therefore, the messages call for “marriage” with Russia, and it is better to “sever relations” with Western countries; according to the authors, the West is not interested in the Ukrainian victory. The publications refer to material from a foreign publication, which sets out these opinions with reference to authoritative sources.

Analysts from the StopFake project took up this case and found out that the foreign material referred to by propagandists turned out to be full of Kremlin messages. That is, the author expressed his vision in relation to the Russian-Ukrainian war. The material was published on one of the Slovak news sites. Among other things, the author of the material repeated many disinformation stories that coincided with the Russian agenda. For example, the war is supposedly “interesting to the West for the sake of making money” or that it is better to “be friends and cooperate” with Russia, etc. But this is not the official position of the Slovak government, but the author’s own opinion in the column.

Using quotes from public figures, military officers, politicians and other public figures, Russian propaganda is trying to convince consumers of disinformation of the authenticity of such expressions. Like, if the journalist himself stated this, he can be trusted, because he is an authoritative source. Although the publications do not characterize how authoritative the information presented in the column is. After all, propagandists use the tactic of appealing to authority.