This thesis is spread by the Russian propaganda media. Like, Volodymyr Zelenskyi is asking for a tribunal for Russia, but a real tribunal should be for the Ukrainian Nazis who neglecting all the legal norms of war and peace for eight years stormed the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and killed adults and children.

According to the EU vs Disinfo project analysts, this is a recurring disinformation thesis of the pro-Kremlin media that the Nazi junta ruling in Ukraine is persecuting ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians.

This statement was made to justify Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyi came up with the idea of ​​a special UN tribunal to punish Russia for war crimes in Ukraine. He stated this in a speech at the UN General Assembly.

“Punishment for torture and humiliation of women and men. Punishment for the catastrophic turbulence that Russia provoked with its illegal war, and not only for us Ukrainians, but for the whole world,” Zelenskyi said. “Why were you silent for eight years when you were killing children in Donbas?” - this phrase and its variations are today one of the most popular arguments of Russia's supporters. More details in the text of Yaroslav Zubchenko.

Russian propaganda media disseminate information that the West is responsible for everything that happens after the referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Like, because the EU can put pressure on Kyiv to negotiate with Russia, and if not, then Washington should do it. However, the West, according to propagandists, is doing the opposite, trying to frustrate any attempt at negotiations. And accordingly, he is responsible for what is happening in the occupied territories.

Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to this message. In fact, the spread of such messages is part of a wider disinformation campaign designed to justify Russia's illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory after the fake referendums. By blaming the West, propagandists are trying to divert responsibility from Russia for the consequences of its illegal actions. This is a kind of attempt to put pressure on Western countries to force Ukraine to accept the expected results of the so-called referendums.

In fact, it is Russia that is responsible for everything that happens in Ukraine because it was this country that started the bloody war, occupied Ukrainian territories and held illegal referendums there forcing people to vote for joining Russia at gunpoint.

Such messages are spread by Russian propaganda media and telegram channels against the background of news about illegal referendums that Russia held in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

The authors of the messages claim that after that other neighboring countries of Ukraine will want to take away part of the Ukrainian territory. They say that in the Lviv region they are already preparing a referendum on the accession of the region to Poland. They even add photos of the so-called ballots, which allegedly prepared a referendum, to the messages.

However, all this is not true. The fact-checkers of StopFake drew attention to the fake. In fact, no such referendums have been held in Ukraine and will not be held. As StopFake writes, the Constitution of Ukraine clearly states that questions about changes in the territory of the country are decided exclusively by an all-Ukrainian referendum, and not among residents of a separate region.

In addition, Poland constantly notes that it respects the borders of neighboring countries, respects the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. In Poland, in particular, they do not intend to recognize the results of the pseudo-referenda that Russia held in the temporarily occupied territories by holding voters at gunpoint.

Like, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted that "the Russian General Staff is many times superior to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in strategy".

In their materials, propagandists refer to an interview with Valerii Zaluzhnyi for the American edition of Time.

Time really published an interview with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, however, he did not confess his love for the Russian armies and did not claim, as propagandists say, that all military science is in Putin's country.

In fact, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi did not make any "declarations of love for the Russian army".

Zaluzhnyi said that among other things he was brought up on the labors of the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valerii Herasymov and said that he was surprised by the big blunders of Russia, which drove its soldiers in Ukraine "just to the slaughterhouse". Russia needs such messages in order to once again assert itself and assure others that the Russian army is one of the strongest and most powerful in the world. 

Such a message has appeared over the past week in anonymous telegram channels that systematically disseminate Russian propaganda narratives. Reports say that NATO is most likely preparing to invade Russia.

Correspondents draw such conclusions due to the fact that the US Embassy in Moscow called on its citizens to immediately leave Russia. "I understand that a decision is being prepared at the decision center," the messages said. Propagandists also claim that the governments of European countries, including Poland and Estonia are calling on their citizens to leave Russia, not because they have begun to mobilize, but because of the likely invasion of Russian territory.

Thus, propaganda seeks once again to shift the responsibility for its crimes on the territory of Ukraine to Western countries and show that they allegedly pose a threat to Russia itself. However, there is no real reason to believe that a NATO invasion will take place.

On the contrary, representatives of the Alliance have repeatedly stated that NATO is not a party to the Russian-Ukrainian war and will not enter into conflict. However, the Russians have repeatedly stated that it is not the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but the NATO military that are fighting the Russian military on the territory of Ukraine.

Such information is disseminated by Russian propaganda media, and the thesis is also circulated in anonymous telegram channels.

Reports say Western puppet Volodymyr Zelenskyi is using Ukrainians in his fake political campaign, and there are alleged similarities between South Africa's apartheid regime and Zelensky's.

Like, they have the same sponsors and the same tactics: they tend to separate people by ethnicity. In such reports, they add that the "peoples" of Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions have the right to self-determination, because "human rights are not only for Americans".

Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to the message on the network. According to them, such misinformation fuels the ongoing pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that Ukraine discriminates against Russians living on its territory and that the legitimate government of Kyiv is a puppet in the hands of the West.

However, Ukraine is a sovereign state. Only Russia denies its sovereignty and existence, declaring that Ukrainians and Russians are one people.

Also in Ukraine, Russians are not discriminated against on the principle of apartheid. In Kyiv, they adopted the Law on ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language without discrimination of any languages. Russian and other minority languages ​​can be freely used in private communication, religious ceremonies, book publishing, the media and education. Ukraine is not a Russophobic, anti-Russian country. Relations between the countries escalated after the occupation by Russia in 2014. In addition, the fake referendums that Russia held in September 2022 have nothing to do with the right to self-determination, human rights and the rule of law.

This statement is spread by Russian propagandists in the media and telegram channels. Such reports stated that the referendums were organized in order to realize the people's right to self-determination. Propagandists assured that during illegal referendums, their organizers observe the same rules as in France. Like, no one puts pressure on people, they vote absolutely voluntarily. Recall that during September 23-26, Russia really held illegal referendums in four occupied regions of Ukraine (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson). Illegal referendums condemn Western countries and will not recognize their results.

“The European Union strongly condemns these planned illegal “referendums”, which contradict the decisions of the legitimate and democratically elected Ukrainian authorities, violate the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and are a gross violation of international law. The results of such actions will be invalid and will not be recognized by the EU and its Member States”, Borrell said.

This thesis is spread by Russian propagandists. Like, because of the energy crisis in Europe and economic difficulties against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the West is falling apart. Propagandists claim in their reports that the EU will become deindustrialized due to high energy prices caused by Russia's decision to cut gas supplies to Europe.

However, this is not true. After all, despite the Kremlin’s decision to limit gas supplies to Europe and other consequences of Russian aggression against Ukraine, the EU economy is recovering from the crisis caused by COVID-19. For example, according to a recent forecast by the European Commission, growth of 2.6% is expected in 2022. Inflation is also expected to average 7.6%.

According to EU vs Disinfo analysts, the EU statistical office Eurostat indicates that in the 2nd quarter of 2022, the eurozone GDP grew by 0.8%, employment grew by 0.4%. Compared to the same quarter last year, seasonally adjusted GDP grew by 4.1% in the euro area and by 4.2% in the EU in the second quarter of 2022. The European Investment Bank estimates that real economic growth in 2022 will be below 3%, 1% below the forecast at the beginning of the year. It also notes that EU member states will have to deal with rising prices for households and industry, disruptions in trade, and so on. However, the EU is in a good position to avoid recession.

This is not the first time Russian propaganda has been spreading the message that the countries of the West are "decaying" and will soon fall apart. Thus, the Kremlin puts pressure on Western governments and seeks to blackmail them by creating public panic over energy insecurity/cost of electricity, etc.

Such information is distributed in Russian propaganda media. In their materials, propagandists refer to the publication of the New York Times.

According to propagandists, the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly recognized the futility of using the American HIMARS multiple launch rocket system. As StopFale writes, some reports refer directly to the battles for the city of Bakhmut, where HIMARS did not significantly affect the success of the Ukrainian side. However, the Russian media significantly distorted the real publication in the New York Times.

In fact, NYT journalists, citing the Ukrainian military, write that in the Bakhmut direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine “could not seriously affect the Russian supply chain,” even with HIMARS missile systems. We are not talking about the "uselessness of use" or the "inefficiency" of the American MLRS.

StopFake fact checkers add that, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian forces continue to deliver aimed fire from the HIMARS MLRS on the accumulation of enemy manpower and military equipment in all directions, including the Bakhmut one.

Information that the West is no longer ready to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons is spread by pro-Kremlin propaganda media. It is also distributed in anonymous telegram channels.

Such reports, ostensibly citing Bloomberg, claim that neither the United States nor the EU countries are allegedly ready to increase the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine during the war with Russia.

However, according to StopFake, the original Bloomberg article does not say that the West is no longer ready to supply heavy weapons, but discusses the difficulties that arise in each of the countries with the supply of one or another type of weapon.

After the announcement of mobilization in Russia, as well as the holding of pseudo-refendums in the EU countries and the United States, they announced the need to continue supporting Ukraine and increasing the supply of weapons. The Kremlin needs such messages in order to stake out the opinion that soon Ukraine will be left without weapons and will not be able to repulse the Russian invaders.

Also, such messages create the appearance that all foreign partners of Ukraine are becoming indifferent to it.

Such information is being disseminated by Russian propaganda media. It also appears in anonymous pro-Russian telegram channels. The reports say that the West is allegedly using "nuclear blackmail" against Russia and "some representatives of the leading NATO states speak out about the use of weapons of mass destruction against Russia".

In such messages, propagandists refer to the words of Russian President Volodymyr Putin. Putin, of course, really said this, but his statements have nothing to do with reality.

The fact-checker StopFake drew attention to the spread of fakes on the network. According to sources, in fact, neither the US, nor the EU, nor NATO has ever threatened Russia with the launch of nuclear warheads. At the same time, the threats were just from the Kremlin officials.

Even now, in the conditions of the war unleashed by Russia, the Kremlin not only directly declares the possibility of using nuclear warheads, but also uses the seized Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as an additional “nuclear leverage”. Over the past weeks, there have been many hints from Russia about the possible use of nuclear weapons. By spreading information about the so-called threats from the West, the Kremlin seeks to shift responsibility from itself.

Like, everything happens only because there was a direct threat to Russia. Transferring responsibility is not a new tactic for Russian propagandists. In particular, Russia has repeatedly stated that it attacked Ukraine for reasons of its own security, otherwise Ukraine would have done it first.