In this way, former American military man Scott Ritter, loyal to the Putin regime, decided to allegedly test the reaction of the social network to the "wrong" opinion.

Currently, his page is blocked, but screenshots with a "test" about Bucha were shared on Twitter by supporters of Russia. As the Center for Combating Disinformation pointed out, in fact, such a tweet is another manipulative "throw-in" and a deliberate provocation to determine possible changes in the reaction of Western society to the Russian genocide in Ukraine.

Russia is actively using Scott Ritter as an "expert" to promote narratives needed by the Kremlin to foreign audiences.

"We warn you! All information, even made public by well-known Western experts, needs to be carefully checked!" the Center emphasized.

The Russian media spread this information. The proof is a letter that allegedly came to a former employee of the law enforcement agencies who lives in the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region.

The text of the letter states that the pensioner was sentenced to death for treason to Ukraine and cooperation with Russia, and the sentence will be carried out "soon."

He is given 15 days to take his family to the territory controlled by Ukraine, and if he escapes, it is hinted that his son, who is in Zaporizhzhia, may suffer. At the end of the letter, it is stated that the best option for the collaborator is to kill himself. This letter is a fake, the fact-checkers of the "On the other side of the news" ("Po toy bik novyn") project note.

Official letters from the Security Service of Ukraine must be on letterhead with details, source number, and signature. Collaborators demonstrate only text printed on paper and written in Russian. Many grammatical and punctuation errors indicate that the document is a forgery. Moreover, other errors in the letter are factual.

The letter states that the traitor was sentenced to death by the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The death penalty has been banned in Ukraine for 22 years. Its absence was a mandatory condition for our country's membership in the Council of Europe.

It isn't the first time that Russian propaganda has used fake documents to spread disinformation about the SSU. "Such statements by the occupiers are an attempt to tarnish the Ukrainian special services. In addition, the Russians and their supporters want to shift responsibility for their war crimes because it's known that the occupiers themselves are trying to "legitimize" the execution," fact-checkers note. More details.

After the Russian occupiers announced an attack by drones on their ships in Crimea on October 29, messages on this topic appeared in anonymous propaganda channels.

NATO forces were allegedly engaged in a drone attack in Sevastopol Bay. It was allegedly their military training under cover of Ukrainian strikes. Once again, propagandists repeat the message that Ukraine has become a testing ground for Western and American weapons.

Allegedly, revenge is expected for this, and the Ukrainians will receive a response in the form of strikes on the energy system. Whenever the occupiers report an attack on the occupied sites, they resort to intimidation tactics against the civilian population. Propagandists spread similar messages on October 8 after the attack on the Crimean bridge.

The window of opportunity has allegedly opened for Russia to start a "full-scale war." However, Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has been ongoing since February 24, 2022.

The Russians terrorize millions of Ukrainians daily, destroy entire cities and villages, and attack the energy system. In this way, they want to sow panic among Ukrainians to start protests and force the Ukrainian authorities to negotiate with Russia, which means meeting the Kremlin's requirements and capitulating.

The shelling of the power system and residential buildings only angers Ukrainians more, and more Ukrainians say there can be no negotiations with a terrorist country.

It was reported by Russian websites regarding the German publication Der Spiegel. During the shooting down of drones, bullets from small arms allegedly hit random people. However, it isn't true.

Russian propagandists twisted the ending of Jörg Römer's article "How Ukraine shoots down Russian kamikaze drones." The journalist wrote, "Ukrainians should be careful with such shots so that the bullets do not hit civilians. Many people have already died from such shots."

StopFake analysts reached out to Römer for an explanation. He replied that it was a general statement, not about Ukraine's deaths. After that, the journalist added the last sentence of the article: "Many people have already died from such shots in other places." And added a link to his other article, "Every bullet fired upwards falls downwards."

Russian propagandists resort to such manipulations to show that Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities don't endanger civilians. Thus, they shift responsibility for their crimes to the Ukrainian army.