On February 22, 2022, two days before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Oleksandr Lukashenko, Putin’s henchman, addressed the Ukrainian people and the country’s leadership with a call that “the Slavic peoples must live in peace and harmony”. At the same time, he suggested that Ukraine “should brush aside its overseas masters”, since they supposedly would not bring any happiness to the Ukrainians.

Russia claims that Ukraine cannot resolve a single important issue of its domestic and foreign policy without agreement with its “overseas masters”. And on one Russian website they even offer synonyms for this phrase: “Western leadership”, “agents of influence”, “a sect of lepers, rootless parasites”.

By the term “overseas masters”, propagandists mean “Washington and London”, in particular, because of their allegedly selfish policy towards Ukraine for quite a long time. However, Ukraine is an independent and sovereign state, and the reproaches of propaganda depending on Kyiv from the “overseas masters” are aimed at declaring the fictitiousness of the Ukrainian government and discrediting it in the eyes of the whole world. In addition, in this way Russia wants to assert that Ukraine is a country of error (“country 404”), and therefore its existence as a whole is supposedly unacceptable.

The assistance provided to Ukraine by the United States and Great Britain can be measured in tens of billions of dollars. They transfer weapons and military equipment, therefore, as a result, they allegedly allow themselves to set a “simple task” for Kyiv: to fight at any cost. Ukraine, in the eyes of propaganda, is a chessboard and supposedly realizes the interests of its “overseas masters”. All its actions are the fulfillment of the will of the latter, and the Russian-Ukrainian war is a proxy war, and not a struggle for independence and upholding the Euro-Atlantic course. According to the conclusions of Russian propaganda, the West’s position regarding Ukraine is aimed at destroying Russia, and so it is “defending itself”. Moscow's retaliatory rhetoric serves as yet another justification for bloody aggression and an unprovoked war.

Yes, without the military support of the West, it is unknown whether Ukraine would have survived the war against Russia. At the same time, this does not give grounds to assert that the Ukrainian state is subject to someone “from overseas”, since it defends the democratic values of the entire civilized world and that is why allied countries continue to support it.

A video allegedly belonging to the British magazine New Musical Express is being circulated online. They say, according to YouTube Music statistics for 2023, Ukrainian musicians have been supplanted by Russian performers, in particular Basta, Aigel, Katia Lel, Instasamka and American singer Taylor Swift. However, it turned out to be a fake video.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found that New Musical Express magazine had not released such ratings. In fact, Ukrainian performers are leading the official YouTube Music rankings in Ukraine. It's important to note that Taylor Swift does not appear in this ranking.

The VoxCheck 2023 study showed that in January and February, Russian artists temporarily made it into the top 5, but throughout the year, the leadership belonged to Ukrainian artists. This indicates that the statement about the advantage of Russian musicians is not objective. Also, according to public research, most Ukrainians avoided Russian-language content, indicating changes in cultural preferences during the war.

Propagandists spread such fake news to create a false impression of the superior status of Russian culture compared to Ukrainian culture, even in times of war. Like, Ukrainians really love Russian more because Ukrainian is a surrogate.

Information is being spread online that the fortune of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi is $596 million, and his rating among the richest politicians in the world according to the YouTube channel Data Sets is 31st place, and according to the website CAknowledge - 36th. However, this is not true.

The VoxCheck specialists drew attention to the fake. They found out that Volodymyr Zelenskyi is not on the list of the richest politicians in the world. The anonymous YouTube channel Data Sets regularly publishes various ratings, including “The richest Jewish actors 2024”, “The richest women in the world 2024”, etc. In April 2023, they posted a video with a list of the richest politicians in the world 2024, but did not indicate the source on which they compiled this ranking.

The fake rating by the CAknowledge website was previously refuted by American fact checkers from PolitiFact. CAknowledge did not provide any sources determining the income of the President of Ukraine. The site attributes property and shares to Zelenskyi, but this information is not confirmed.

According to Forbes, as of 2022, Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s fortune was estimated at less than $30 million. The declaration for 2020 shows that the income of the President and his family amounted to UAH 22.7 million. In January 2024, information on income for 2021 was updated, where UAH 10.8 million was noted, and for 2022 - UAH 3.6 million. This is due to the temporary termination of lease agreements due to the Russian invasion.

Forbes also did not include Volodymyr Zelenskyi in the list of the richest people in 2023. The richest people in Ukraine remain Rynat Akhmetov, Victor Pinchuk, Vadym Novynskyi, Konstiantyn Zhyvaho and Henadii Boholiubov. Previously, the fake that Zelenskyi and other politicians became richer by billions of dollars in 2022 was already refuted.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit the President of Ukraine. Like, he makes a fortune from the war while people die. Detector Media also refuted other fakes directed personally against Zelenskyi.

Information is being spread on the Internet that supposedly 10 thousand hryvnias are spent monthly on the maintenance of one prisoner of war in Ukraine, and if the amount is less, this is a violation of human rights. At the same time, the state allocates only 2,500 hryvnia monthly for pensions of Ukrainians. However, this is not true.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to this. They found out that the cost of maintaining a prisoner included not only clothing and food, but also utilities, staff and security. No special conditions were created for Russians, since the same amount is spent on maintaining prisoners in Ukraine. In March 2023, Deputy Minister of Justice Olena Vysotska stated that about 10 thousand hryvnia per month are spent on one prisoner of war in Ukraine. However, this amount includes not only clothing and food for the prisoner, but also payment for utilities, arrangement of the place of detention, work of staff and security, and so on. The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War does not specify a specific amount that the state must allocate for their maintenance. Each country determines this amount itself. Prisoners are also involved in work in the camp, and their labor partially offsets the costs.

As for pensions, in 2024 more than 271 billion hryvnia will be allocated from the state budget to pay pensions. The average pension in Ukraine exceeds 5,300 hryvnia. It is incorrect to compare expenses on prisoners and pensions, since these are different categories of expenses related to the protection of human rights and social support of the population.

With their statements, users are trying to sow hostile sentiments in society and emphasize that Ukraine allegedly does not care about its residents. Detector Media recently denied other manipulations related to Ukrainian captives.

Russian telegram channels circulated an image purporting to be from the Instagram account of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade. It shows a homemade bong – a device for smoking cannabis, with the caption “will you smoke?” However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the image had been edited using one of the advertising images of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade. They did not find any similar photos on its official page. The picture shows that this is an Instagram story, that is, in theory, it may have already been deleted.

However, VoxCheck found the original image - this is an advertisement for a test week of the attack aircraft that the brigade offers. There a person can undergo a 7-day training course and understand whether he is ready to join the unit. The Russians took a photo of a unit with a military man and put a homemade bong on it. This is indicated by the fact that the device in the fake picture is located on top of the Instagram username, and from under it one can see a military headdress on top and a belt-shoulder system with magazines to the left of the picture. They match the advertising photo. Also in the fake and authentic pictures there are identical trees on the right.

Propagandists spread such fake news to try to discredit the Ukrainian Armed Forces and stigmatize people who use marijuana. They say that the soldiers cannot stand it, and therefore resort to such methods of relieving stress. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted other Russian fakes aimed against the Ukrainian military.