Pro-Russian resources claim that a prayer book for children has appeared in Ukraine, in which they are invited to pray to God, saying the following words: “Protect my father near Donetsk, as you protected my great-grandfather in Galicia”. This is manipulation.

The case was investigated by the fact-checkers of Gvara Media. They contacted one of the places where this prayer book was sold, the Church Store of the Lviv Archdiocese of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with a question whether such a text existed in the book. In response to a request from the fact-checkers, store employees responded that there was no such text in the prayer book and added that it was published back in 2011, that is, long before the start of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

Propagandists are trying to demonize Ukrainians in the eyes of ordinary Russian citizens in order to justify Russia's war crimes in Ukraine. We recently published an extensive article about Ukrainian children suffering as a result of Russian aggression.

American pro-Kremlin “expert” Scott Ritter, a former UN Armaments Inspector in Iraq, in an interview with journalist Garland Nixon, said that Russia’s high-tech air defense systems were able to completely destroy Ukrainian aviation. According to him, every time a Ukrainian plane, for example, a MiG-29, takes off, it is immediately shot down. Ritter also emphasized that the destruction of enemy aircraft gives the Russian army a great advantage. This is one of the important factors that makes a Russian military offensive possible.

Colleagues from the StopFake project began checking information about the “total liquidation” of Ukrainian aviation. When researching this topic, the fact-checkers referred to the Dutch independent project Oryx, which daily updates the loss of military equipment in Ukraine and Russia. According to it, as of October 27, Ukraine had lost 77 aircraft, while Russia had lost 93 aircraft during the war. For security reasons, Ukraine does not disclose information about the number of its combat aircraft, but at the end of March 2023, another propagandist Oleksandr Khramchykhin wrote that at that time Ukraine had about 350 combat aircraft remaining. Considering this, as well as the fact that Khramchykhin could very likely have underestimated the figures, it can be argued that Ukrainian aviation still did not suffer “crushing losses” on the battlefield during the war. In addition, in 2024, Ukraine's allies will begin delivering F-16 fighters to more effectively fight Russia.

Although Scott Ritter held high positions at the end of the 20th century, already in 2012 he was sent to prison on charges of pedophilia. In 2014 he was released. Since 2019, he has been collaborating with the Russian channel RT and has been making propaganda statements ever since. We previously wrote about how Ritter accused Ukraine of war crimes in Bucha.

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that the burial ground in Odesa was allegedly used to dispose of hazardous waste associated with the activities of US military biological laboratories. They say this was discovered during the neutralization of 147 tons of dust that had accumulated due to the fact that a ship sank near Odesa in 1979. Already today, local authorities have decided to cover up the traces of their activities instead.

The fact-checkers of the VoxUkraine project decided to investigate this case. They found out that on October 20, 2023, work on the disposal of 147 tons of dust near Odesa actually began. In 1972, the Mozdok ship sank in the Gulf of Odesa, containing 900 tons of dust on board. Two years later, a storage facility was built near the village of Altestove, and the dust was preserved in concrete bunkers. Already in 2012, most of the chemicals were disposed of, but due to lack of funding, 147 tons of waste continued to be stored in storage. Over the years, local residents felt the stench, and chemicals penetrated the soil and poisoned the Khadzhibey Estuary. This year, funds were allocated from the local budget to eliminate hazardous substances due to fears that Russian shelling could lead to the release of chemicals into water and soil. The liquidators got to work on time, as some bags of poison were already on the verge of depressurization.

Russian propagandists are spreading fake news about American biological laboratories in Ukraine and discrediting the Biological Threat Reduction Program, in which Ukraine has been participating since 2005 and of which Russia was a participant until 2014. This program operates within the framework of another – the general program of joint threat reduction. Russian propaganda uses tactics of demonizing the enemy, claiming that in Ukraine there are biological laboratories with dangerous substances, the purpose of which is to harm Russia.

Pro-Kremlin resources claim that on the evening of October 29, mass riots at Makhachkala airport allegedly occurred as a result of information “stuffing” by telegram channels controlled from Ukraine. They allegedly announced the arrival of a flight with refugees - Israeli citizens - in Dagestan. In addition, propagandists claim that they have already established the probable involvement of Iliia Ponomariov, a former State Duma deputy under the control of the SBU, in the situation at the airport. One of their arguments is that Ponomariov even had an “interview on this topic” before.

Propagandists do not provide any evidence for their statements. They assume that a “provocation” was prepared, but for some reason their government allegedly deliberately did not notice the problem. At the same time, some opinion leaders in Russia do not condemn the actions of the Dagestanis, but rather dissociate themselves from the situation, which is another reputational blow for the Kremlin. For example, Russian blogger Yurii Podoliak says that activists behaved in a similar way on the Maidan in Kyiv. They say that everything happened according to the same method, and the participants in the riots seemed to be working for the “Kyiv regime”.

It should be noted that in this case, pro-Russian sources use one of the propaganda tactics called “scapegoat” - they make amends for the Dagestanis and shift responsibility for the events in Makhachkala to Ukraine. Previously, we wrote about how Russian propaganda uses anti-Semitic stereotypes against Ukraine.

Pro-Russian resources began to disseminate information that Sony, a company specializing in electronics and other high-tech products, allegedly released the PlayStation 5 game console and its accessories in the colors of the Russian flag. This is manipulation.

The case was investigated by fact-checkers from the VoxUkraine project. They found out that when creating new designs for the game console and joysticks, the authors relied on the colors of the Earth, and not the Russian tricolor. Thus, one of the designers explained that his team was inspired by the beautiful and powerful shades that can be found in the depths of planet Earth. The colors used are Sterling Silver, Volcanic Red, Cobalt Blue, and not pure white, blue and red, as in Russia. If one reads the colors according to the usual version, that is, from left to right, then it will be obvious that the sequence of colors of the presented game consoles and accessories is different from the sequence of colors of the Russian tricolor.

Pro-Kremlin propagandists trying to trace at least latent manifestations of the civilized world’s solidarity with Russia resort to manipulation and use information for their own purposes. They use one of the propaganda tactics when they write about such “support” for the transnational company Sony: they try to evoke in ordinary Russian citizens a feeling of euphoria - a psychological state in which a person experiences elation, happiness and joy, which is unjustified by objective conditions.