Russian propagandists are disseminating information that Ukrainians are constantly discussing the topic of joining the EU due to the fact that they are now losing the war to Russia. At the same time, pro-Kremlin sources claim that Ukraine will never join the EU, and the promises of European leaders are nothing more than empty words. They say that even the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, is bluffing: he realizes that none of his promises will ever be fulfilled. He allegedly uses the situation in Ukraine to increase his personal rating, on the one hand, and to gain the favor of Washington, on the other.

The information was analyzed by the fact-checkers from the EUvsDISINFO project. They found that, despite accusations against EU representatives of the insincerity of their relations with Ukraine, it is possible to clearly trace the steps and efforts taken by both sides towards the integration of Ukraine into the EU. On February 28, 2022, Ukraine submitted its application for EU membership. In June of the same year, the European Commission presented its favorable findings on the EU membership applications submitted by Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. According to the conclusion of the commission on Ukraine’s application for EU membership, our country noticed the European vector of movement and granted Ukraine candidate status by unanimous consent of the leaders of all 27 EU member states. This happened on June 23, 2022.

The path to EU accession is a relatively long technical process. In June 2023, the European Council called on Ukraine to continue reforms in the country and fight corruption. At the same time, the European Council assures that it will work closely with Ukraine and support its efforts to fully comply with all necessary conditions for accession.

The Kremlin is afraid of losing its leverage over Ukraine and is trying to neutralize its aspirations to become a member of the EU by repeating this disinformation narrative. Russia’s position is the same regarding Ukraine’s entry into NATO.

Such information was disseminated on social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that an illegal “mobilization of scientific staff” is allegedly being carried out in Ukraine - and add to the publications a video from an eyewitness who says that her comrade was allegedly forcibly taken to the local territorial recruitment and social support center. And that person is a historian and supposedly teaches in a higher education institution. The authors sum up: no one can fight in Ukraine, it doesn’t need smart people, so everyone is being raked into the “Zelenskyi meat grinder”. It is not true.

Research workers, scientific-pedagogical and pedagogical workers are not subject to conscription for military service during mobilization. According to the amendments to Article 23 of the Law “On Scientific and Scientific-Technical Work” dated July 29, 2022, they are not subject to conscription, provided that this category of people works in scientific institutions and organizations, institutions of higher education, professional higher education, professional (vocational and technical) or general secondary education (at the main place of work with at least 0.75 rates of their salary).

Moreover, the heroine in the video did not provide any evidence, photo or video evidence confirming the arbitrary behavior of employees of the local territorial recruitment and social support center towards the man. Yet, cases where employees of territorial centers exceed their authority are still recorded. We are talking, in particular, about the use of physical force against those liable for military service. But the woman simply spread information and in no way confirmed either the thesis about the use of violence against the scientist, or the fact that, in general, a higher education worker was hypothetically mobilized.

Anonymous telegram channels in the Russian segment are distributing a photo of an allegedly Ukrainian military ID of “foreign mercenary” Brian Boenger. The document contains the fighter’s personal data, and also contains a separate photograph: a photograph of both guys kissing. This is how the authors convince that this is a photograph of an American. They also add that this ID was found in the Zaporizhzhia direction and that “his beloved friend waits in vain for the military” hinting at the probable destruction of the American military man.

The analysts from the VoxCheck project began analyzing the case and found that the photos of the military ID were partially compiled. The figure of the American fighter Brian Boenger is real, and he fought in Ukraine. Using a reverse search, the fact-checkers found that the image of an American soldier’s military ID was indeed published in journalistic materials back in 2016.

And to create a fake photograph, propagandists superimposed on the image of a real military ID a photo of a stranger and a photo of two guys kissing.

Moreover, Brian Boenger is not a “foreign mercenary”; in April 2016, he entered into an official contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At that time, the decree allowing foreigners or stateless persons to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine was signed by the then President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko back in November 2015.

Russian propaganda systematically fuels the narrative that professional military personnel from other states - the so-called “foreign mercenaries” - are fighting in Ukraine. Thus, Russian propaganda also tries to justify the failures of the Russian army. They say they are not fighting “weak” Ukrainians, but “specially trained NATO members” or Americans. Moreover, Russian propaganda spreads fake news about hiring students, the unemployed, and they like to show that in Ukraine there is no one left to fight and they are recruiting “everyone in a row”.

By the way, in our Newspeak section we talked about Russia that recruits mercenaries, in particular, Wagner group representatives. This is essentially a terrorist organization within the Russian army.

A story allegedly from the European media Euronews is being spread on social networks in the Russian segment. It talks about the so-called 34-year-old Ukrainian refugee Petro Bondarenko, who was recently detained in Germany for committing a crime. He, according to the conclusions of the authors of the fake message, added the number 8 to houses with numbers 148. And then he divided the resulting number with the symbol / - thus forming the Nazi slogan 14/88. It is not true.

The VoxCheck project analysts investigated this case and found out that the news story about the Ukrainian refugee was compiled. At the same time, this news was also not found on the official Euronews website or on their pages on social networks. German media also did not come out with similar news.

In addition, the probable plot consists of numerous cuts of various videos that are not related to each other. For example, fakers used fragments of videos from different seasons, and this can be seen in the changes in natural phenomena: in one fragment, the leaves of the trees are green, and people are walking in light clothes while another part of the video depicts a completely different time of year, where people are dressed in warm clothes, and the leaves are no longer there, although, hypothetically, journalists cover events for one period of time, namely the moment of the “detention” of a Ukrainian refugee. The story also showed a law regulating the ban on the display of Nazi symbols in Germany, although in fact the propagandists illustrated the Australian law.

The image of the so-called Ukrainian refugee was used from the website “We face painting”, which published the photo back in 2011. Obviously, this photo has nothing to do with Ukraine.

Finally, propagandists are trying to show that Ukrainian refugees are supposedly a total threat to the sovereignty and security of EU countries. Russian propaganda, first of all, seeks to demoralize Ukrainian refugees in the eyes of Europeans and pass them off as supporters of Nazi ideology who are ready to resort to vandalism and violation of laws for their own purposes. All this contributes to a decrease in assistance to Ukraine from EU countries; and also leads to the victimization of Ukrainian refugees - when they are the only ones to blame for all the troubles.

We recommend reading our previous cases on this topic as the Kremlin systematically speculates on this:

- the Poles allegedly declared that they “don’t want to see” Ukrainian refugees in their country; 

- how a Ukrainian refugee barista “showed off his Nazi inclinations” by seeming to paint Nazi symbols on his coffee. 

And in our weekly review of disinformation, we talked on how propagandists lied about the mobilization of Ukrainian refugees in Europe.

Such information was disseminated on social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that the Ukrainian branch of McDonald's allegedly released a cherry McPie, the packaging of which states that the product “may contain the bones of Russian babies”. Photo evidence is added to publications. It's a lie.

The VoxCheck fact-checkers analyzed the case and came to the conclusion that the note about “Russian babies” was added in a photo editor. At the same time, McDonald’s did not change the packaging and recipes of the products; such information was not published either on the company’s official website or on their pages on social networks. Experts add that most likely the original source of the stuffing was Ukrainian users who jokingly distributed the photo on the social network X (formerly Twitter). But propagandists picked it up and passed it off as real McDonald's products.

At the same time, the photo itself has been edited. The checkers checked this fact using a special tool called FotoForensics. Moreover, the original font and the inscription “may contain bones” differ from the phrase “of Russian babies”, so it was simply superimposed using a special photo editor.