Pro-Russian sources have been spreading information claiming that in Slovakia, locals are allegedly vandalizing or removing license plates from the cars of Ukrainian refugees. According to these reports, this forces Ukrainians to return home to replace their plates, where they are supposedly detained by military recruitment officers for mobilization at the border. The supposed reason for this behavior is that Slovaks are ‘tired’ of Ukrainians.

However, fact-checkers from the StopFake resource have debunked this information. The first such reports appeared in Slovak on the Facebook page named Klub Priateľov Štefana Harabina — Dôstojnosť pre Slovensko (Club of Friends of Štefan Harabin — Dignity for Slovakia).

Štefan Harabin is a former justice minister and ex-president of the Supreme Court of Slovakia, who has openly propagated pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian views during his election campaigns. He denied the fact of Russian aggression against Ukraine and called for a complete cessation of any support for Kyiv, including financial and humanitarian aid.

Moreover, early in the full-scale invasion, Harabin stated that “if he were in Putin's place, he would have done the same”. Given this, it is clear that the page named after him regularly spreads pro-Russian narratives, rejoices in Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, and praises the policies of the Kremlin. The post about the supposed mass vandalism of Ukrainian license plates in Slovakia provides no evidence or sources. Notably, no reputable Slovak media outlet has reported such incidents, further proving the fabricated nature of this ‘news’.

Propaganda is spreading such fakes to scare Ukrainian refugees and create a sense of danger abroad. At the same time, propagandists aim to discredit countries that support Ukraine by promoting narratives of hostility from local populations. This aligns with the overall Kremlin strategy to destabilize European societies and undermine international support for Ukraine.

Earlier, we analyzed a report claiming that a Ukrainian schoolgirl in New York allegedly complained about her Black classmates and believed that her education should be funded by American taxpayers.