Russian propagandists on anonymous Telegram channels are actively spreading information that in one of the episodes of the animated series “The Simpsons” they predicted that “the Ukrainian ambassador to Great Britain will become president”, hinting at Valerii Zaluzhnyi. They say that this is evidenced by a screenshot from the cartoon. However, this is a fake.

In fact, the propagandists superimposed this caption on the original footage. We are talking about the second episode of the sixteenth season of the animated series, according to which Marge Simpson, the main character, receives an invitation to a cooking competition. At this moment, she reads a newspaper, which actually says “Father of eight children has disappeared”, and not the phrase that the propagandists are talking about.

By replacing real facts with absurd statements, they are trying to ridicule Ukraine and its leadership, in particular, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The use of a popular cartoon series creates a false information background aimed at distracting from current problems. The fake reinforces absurd conspiracy theories about external control of Ukraine and a “new world order” in order to justify Russian aggression.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading a distorted quote from the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and now the Ambassador of Ukraine to Britain, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, referring to the British tabloid The Sun. The former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, during a speech to Ukrainian servicemen undergoing training in the UK, allegedly advised them “not to fear death, because they have no chance of survival anyway”.

“Then why aren’t you on the front lines? What kind of scum are all these Zaluzhnyi, Zelenskyi, and Yermak”, the propagandists comment.

The Sun website did indeed publish an article titled “Watch Ukrainian troops training in the UK given orders to ‘kill without hesitation’ in a stirring speech by a former “iron general””. However, his words were distorted, as reported by StopFake. In fact, Zaluzhnyi advised Ukrainian soldiers “not to fear death and not to be afraid to look the enemy in the eye”. He stressed that the war is becoming tougher, and therefore may leave little chance of survival for those who do not learn to defend themselves.

Russian propaganda often accuses the Ukrainian authorities of covering up losses in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, using the tactic of reflection. In parallel, disinformation is spread, for example, about half a million Ukrainian soldiers who have died. In this way, Russian propagandists are trying to demoralize both the civilian population and the military. In addition, such narratives are aimed at discrediting the country's military-political leadership and officials in the eyes of Ukrainians.

On anonymous telegram channels they write that the former commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and now the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the UK, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, seems to be announcing a plan to annex the Kursk region to Ukraine. After this, according to him, it is possible to beat deeper with Western weapons on Russian territory. A video is added to the publications in which Zaluzhnyi allegedly talks about this.

Fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project found out that the original source of the video was a humorous telegram channel, and pro-Kremlin resources began to distribute the video as real and official news. Moreover, the video material was created using artificial intelligence technologies.

Moreover, neither Ukrainian nor foreign media wrote about such plans or distributed the video with Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Ukrainian troops broke through the Russian border in the Sumy region on Tuesday, August 6. Already on August 12, President Zelenskyi for the first time directly wrote that Ukraine was conducting an operation in the Kursk region of Russia. Back on August 12, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that Ukraine controls almost 1,000 km of Kursk region. As of August 13, it became known that 74 settlements in Russia are under Ukrainian control.

Read on Censor.NET: The United States seems to be involved in the operation in the Kursk region

Russian propaganda is spreading a new conspiracy theory, which can be called the “Ukrainian deepstate theory”. It is built on the misconception that in Ukraine there is a hidden conflict between the military and political leadership, which allegedly undermines the unity of the state. This theory is based on a distorted and inverted view of the original deep state theory, which describes a secret, invisible force or group of influence that governs a country in defiance of the official government, taking into account not national, but exclusively hidden personal interests.

According to a new theory, there is a hidden power struggle in Ukraine between President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, military leaders such as Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Oleksandr Syrskyi and other influential figures, in particular Kyrylo Budanov. Russian propagandists claim that these figures are allegedly acting against the interests of the state, engaging in intrigue and preparing secret plans that will lead to the political collapse of the country.

In fact, there is no basis for the existence of such a conspiracy. Ukrainian military and political leadership operates in close coordination. Conspiracy theories like the “Ukrainian deepstate” have no basis in reality and are part of a broader Russian disinformation campaign. The theory of the “Ukrainian deepstate” is nothing more than an attempt by Russian propaganda to transfer a Western concept to Ukrainian realities in order to sow distrust among citizens and international partners of Ukraine.

Russian propaganda is trying to create the illusion that Ukraine is supposedly torn by internal conflicts and intrigues, which makes it weak and vulnerable, unlike Russia, where there should supposedly be no contradictions among political figures. Such messages are aimed at undermining faith in the ability of the Ukrainian leadership to effectively combat Russian aggression and ensure security and stability in the country, putting a false sign between dictatorship and stability.

An alleged cover of the British publication The Independent is being circulated on telegram channels. It allegedly contained the inscription “Prime Minister: “While we were watching Ukraine, we lost our country”, and also referred to a statement by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who spoke about “suicidal thoughts” while commanding the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

But VoxCheck specialists analyzed the case and determined that such a cover does not exist. The original cover features the words of the British Prime Minister about the far-right riots in the country. And instead of a photo of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the page contains an image of Meghan Markle.

Moreover, the authors of the original issue wrote “Prime Minister warns far-right thugs: “You will regret taking part in the riots”, and the Duchess of Sussex and actress Meghan Markle are actually talking about “suicidal thoughts”, and not Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The text of the article relates directly to the unrest and does not contain any mention of Ukraine.

We have repeatedly documented hoaxes involving fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or commercials. Thus, propagandists seek to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. So it may seem to readers that the public is really dissatisfied with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, hinting that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda for Europe is a reason to laugh.

On social networks, pro-Kremlin channels are disseminating information that The Independent newspaper published an article on the front page of the newspaper dated August 5, 2024 entitled “While we were watching Ukraine, we lost our country”.

In fact, The Independent did not publish such material. Journalists write about this for the VoxCheck project. Propagandists generated an article with a similar title on a fake page of The Independent. The basis was taken from the present publication dated August 5, 2024 about the unrest.

Also on the cover they announce an alleged interview with Valerii Zaluzhnyi with a sensational confession. They say that in his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he “wanted to commit suicide”. However, this is also not true as Zaluzhnyi did not say this, because not a single reliable source wrote about this.

Voxcheck adds that the fake article about the unrest is part of the pro-Russian Operation Matrioshka, the organized spread of disinformation on X and other social networks, often on behalf of well-known media or public figures.

The purpose of this fake is to increase the unstable mood in the UK after the tragedy in Southport.

Pro-Russian telegram channels are spreading the message that the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, does not believe in victory and sincerely believes that Ukraine is not capable of gaining an advantage over the Russians on its own soil. Syrskyi and his entourage seem to be ready to sign a “ceasefire regime” and all sorts of variations on the theme of surrender and enforcement of peace.

Propagandists claim that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has stopped listening to the Office of the President and refuses to implement the offensive in the form in which it is proposed. And the OP’s demands seem to be to “throw meat at the front”. At the same time, just six months ago, propagandists called Syrskyi a “butcher general” who does not value his personnel. However, today he has allegedly become perhaps the biggest fan of surrender.

Considering these messages, we can conclude that Russian propaganda is once again trying to create a split between the political and military leadership of the country. On the one hand, propagandists send Syrskyi on an independent political voyage, saying that he does not listen to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and is playing his own game. On the other hand, the military leadership supposedly wants peace and surrender, but the political leadership does not.

In 2023, Russia also promoted the message that there is a conflict in Ukraine between the military and political leadership. Then the main object of propaganda was Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and now it is Oleksandr Syrskyi.

A recently created Telegram group invited Ukrainians to join the protest on May 21 at 12.00 in the “central square”. They say that Ukraine needs changes, and the people should no longer remain silent.

One of the messages indicates that users are willing to pay 50 hryvnia if they refer a friend to the group. This indicates an artificial attempt to protest.

Also, in the group one can find a corresponding picture with a lexical error, which suggests that it was probably created by non-native speakers.

The date chosen for the “protest” also plays into Russian propaganda. Like, on May 21, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi will become illegitimate. However, in reality, the Ukrainian Constitution guarantees the legitimacy of the president during martial law.

This group is probably part of the Maidan-3 operation, which the GUR warned about.  Detector Media has already written about how propagandists are still trying to spread the message about Zelenskyi’s “illegitimacy”. In general, the essence of the messages about the “loss of legitimacy” by Volodymyr Zelenskyi is as follows:

At some point in the first half of 2024, Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s tenure in office will expire. And he will no longer be considered the plenipotentiary leader of Ukraine.

After this, unrest may begin in Ukrainian society. It can be avoided if Volodymyr Zelenskyi leaves the post of President of Ukraine. But he, they say, will do everything to stay in power.

Therefore, the oppositionists or ex-commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii  Zaluzhnyi or the oligarchs or partners of Ukraine will remove Volodymyr Zelenskyi from office by force.

While monitoring the information space, the Center for Countering Disinformation discovered a fake telegram bot posing as the official account of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration. This bot directs users to an anonymous Telegram channel that distributes misinformation.

“If you come across a fake Chernihiv regional military administration resource, block it and do not follow any links. The Center calls on Telegram channel administrators not to create fake pages of official government agencies, so as not to mislead readers”, the Center for Countering Disinformation urges.

Fake telegram channels from authorities or officials may be created to spread misinformation. For example, in mid-July 2023, attackers created a fake telegram channel with the name of the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov. This channel spread a fake that Budanov thanked Ukrainian patriots for the partisan special operation in Crimea. The news was replicated by both Ukrainian and pro-Kremlin media. Later it turned out that Kyrylo Budanov did not make such statements.

In November 2023, a fake page of the then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, appeared on Telegram.

An alleged story from the BBC is being circulated online, which states that Valerii Zaluzhnyi allegedly received $53 million for abandoning “his ambitions in politics”. And Bellingcat investigative journalist Hristo Grozev allegedly studied the details of this agreement and also confirmed information about the receipt of money. It's a lie.

The VoxCheck analysts examined the case and found that the fake robes cut out parts from different recordings and edited them into one video. Journalist Eliot Higgins also called the recording fake.

In fact, the BBC did not publish such a story on its social media pages. We also did not find this entry on the Bellingcat investigative page. While the head of Bellingcat, Eliot Higgins, on his X page called this video fake. Moreover, in another message, Higgins indicated that Hristo Grozev has not worked for Bellingcat for more than a year. Therefore, he could not comment on anything on behalf of the organization.

Pro-Kremlin resources are spreading reports that dissatisfaction with the policies of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is allegedly growing in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, so that the Ukrainian military “wants to seize the Verkhovna Rada by force”. In asserting this, Russian propaganda refers to supposedly closed chats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces military.

In fact, this information is not true, according to the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Russia has been promoting this narrative since the beginning of the full-scale invasion - on February 25, 2022, Putin called on the Ukrainian military to “take power into their own hands”. This narrative became more active during the period after the resignation of ex-head committee of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. This is at least the second time that propagandists are using fake screenshots from “secret chats of the Ukrainian military”.

Thus, Russian propaganda “plays” with the moods and feelings of Ukrainians. This fake is aimed at exploding mutual trust in Ukrainian society: civilians towards the military, political leadership towards the military command, and the military, in fact, towards the authorities and command. Previously, we refuted the information that deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, allegedly under martial law, were required by law to resign.

Pro-Russian resources write that the appointment of ex-head committee of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi as ambassador to the UK is connected with his “checks” for the post of President and with high ratings that “scare” the current President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine reports that in fact, the approval of the candidacy of Valerii Zaluzhnyi for the post of Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK met one of the main requirements for an ambassador - an understanding of the military context. And the ex-head committee of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is perhaps the best candidate in this sense.

By promoting this message, Russian propaganda seeks to puzzle Ukrainian society. In addition, this is not the first case of such messages from Russian propaganda regarding Zaluzhnyi. Previously, we refuted the information that Zaluzhnyi allegedly joined the European Solidarity party, and also analyzed the fake that Valerii Zaluzhnyi announced a “coup d’etat” after his “resignation”.

Propagandists are distributing a photo allegedly from the cover of the German satirical magazine Titanic, which depicts Valerii Zaluzhnyi next to the bodies of dead soldiers. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that on the official website of the Titanic publication there is an archive of all the covers of the magazine and there is no mention of the cartoon there. This is confirmed by the fact that none of the magazine's official social media accounts have posted the above mentioned  cover.

For example, the fake cover states that it is a February 2024 issue, but there is no issue with that cover on the magazine's website. The February 2024 issue appeared on the website on January 26 and has a different cover.

Propagandists spread such fakes to create the impression that the Western media has lost support for Ukraine. Detector Media has refuted fake covers before.

Propagandists on anonymous telegram channels are distributing a photo showing an allegedly real identity card of the European Solidarity party named after the ex-commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi, along with his photo. However, this is a fake photo.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the photograph used in the ID was published on December 10, 2019, when Zaluzhnyi was appointed as a head of North operational command. This was two years before he became commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Also visible in the photo are shoulder straps that have only one star, according to the rank of major general, which he received in 2017. In 2021, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, and his shoulder straps have 3 stars. On March 4, 2022, he became a general, so he should already have 4 stars on his shoulder straps. Additionally, the fact-checkers used the ELA (Error Level Analysis) tool in FotoForensics to check for a fake ID. The analysis showed that the edges of the document are uneven, and the text on it appears to be erased. This may indicate that the photo has been edited.

Propagandists spread such fakes in order to personally discredit Valerii Zaluzhnyi and aggravate the split in Ukrainian society. Detector Media has already refuted Russian fakes about Zaluzhnyi.

A video is being distributed online in which a former freelance adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, Oleksii Arestovych, allegedly accuses Valerii Zaluzhnyi of shooting down the Il-76 aircraft in order to frame the Office of the President. The video also states that there were supposedly Azov brigade prisoners of war on board of the plane. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that Arestovych never made such statements, and the video was a deepfake made with the help of artificial intelligence. No evidence or comments from Arestovych on social networks were found to support this story. In addition, incorrect facial expressions and the discrepancy between the term “Azov Regiment” and the actual name of the brigade indicate falsification. The results of testing the video using tools such as Deepware and AI Speech Classifier confirmed the possibility of creating it using AI. In addition, experts discovered that the footage used to create this fake was taken from a live broadcast on Arestovych’s YouTube channel, but the speaker did not mention the Il-76, and the reticence occurred the day before the event.

Propagandists create and spread such fake news to divert attention from the crimes of the Russians and incite controversy among the political elite of Ukraine.

Pro-Kremlin resources are disseminating information that a few days after the promulgation of the decree of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi on the resignation of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly sent an encrypted signal “to action”. In a photo distributed online, Zaluzhnyi allegedly depicted the letter “Z” with the index and middle fingers of both hands, which is a symbol of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.

In fact, this information is not true. This is written about in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. To create this fake, Russian propagandists manipulated the original photograph. On the social networks of the President of Ukraine on February 8, 2024, the day of Zaluzhnyi’s resignation, a photograph of a handshake between Zelenskyi and the now former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was published. This photo was what the Russians took as the basis for creating a fake one.

By distributing the edited photo, the Russians tried to mislead the Ukrainians. They say that General Zaluzhnyi either despaired of Ukraine’s victory, or was “offended” by Zelenskyi for being fired, so he decided to openly support Russian aggression. However, Zaluzhnyi’s “mysterious sign” is nothing more than a fiction of Russian propaganda. We previously reported that unknown persons created websites called “Zaluzhnyi 2024”, however, these resources are not actually associated with General Zaluzhnyi, and Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have already been informed of their existence.

The Internet advertises sites that are allegedly associated with the ex-commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Resources are located on different domains and created by anonymous users.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council reports that these sites are not associated with Zaluzhnyi, and Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have already been informed of their existence. Probably, behind the creation of these online platforms are Russians who are striving to split Ukrainian society, which is why they use different means to achieve this.

The sites lead to anonymous telegrams that collect information about users, which in the future can be used against citizens of Ukraine. The Center warns against registering on these resources and asks you to trust only verified sources.

The social network TikTok is distributing a video message from supposedly servicemen of the 117th separate territorial defense brigade of the 153rd battalion, calling for the overthrow of the constitutional order in the state.

In fact, the people in the video have never had and have no connection with the 153rd  battalion, as reported by the 117th separate territorial defense brigade on its page on the Facebook social network. This video was created using deepfake technology based on artificial intelligence. That is, it is fake. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council is already writing about this.

Thus, the creators of this video seek to discredit the Ukrainian military and demoralize Ukrainian society. Previously, we analyzed a fake video message from the ex-commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi, in which he allegedly called for a military coup.

This information was disseminated by pro-Russian resources, citing the “story” of the French France24. The TV channel host allegedly reported that French President Emmanuel Macron canceled his trip to Ukraine, planned for February 13-14, 2024, due to “preparation of an assassination attempt on him by the Ukrainian special services”. They say that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, was preparing an assassination attempt on Macron, but the special operation was thwarted due to the transfer of information to the French side by the former commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

In fact, this information is not true. Yes, the French President really postponed his visit to Ukraine for security reasons. However, not because of the “attempt on his life”. Some Russian sites began to independently disseminate a refutation of this information with a link to the France 24 channel, since it did not publish such a story.

Propagandists referred to videos of very poor quality, making it difficult to verify whether it was a deepfake or not. However, due to the deepfake video detection tool DeepFake-O-Meter, it was possible to analyze it. The result is a credibility score indicating that the video is likely to be fake.

In addition, in a commentary to RBK-Ukraine, GUR representative Andrii Yusov stated that “this is another Russian special operation and information attack against Ukraine”.  “Thus, the enemy is trying to implement his so-called Maidan-3 plan to discredit Ukraine in the international arena and destabilize the situation within the country”, he added.

Propagandists spread this disinformation story online as France and Ukraine approach the finalization of a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for the latter. That is, by spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda is trying to prevent the signing of the agreement, since this is unprofitable for Russia.

Pro-Kremlin media write that the Ukrainian army seems to be unable to defeat Russia even after a change in military leadership. In asserting this, they refer to Oleh Soskin, a former adviser to the second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma.

Today, the Defense Forces continue to hold the front and repel attacks by Russian occupiers. To strengthen the Ukrainian army, new approaches and strategies are needed; this is precisely why the top leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been updated. This is written about in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. It is too early to draw conclusions about the activities of the new military leadership and argue, in particular, that personnel changes in the army do not make sense, because the “reset team” has only just begun to fulfill its tasks.

Such statements by political scientists and other experts or pseudo-experts only nourish  panic among Ukrainians and play along with Russian narratives. Previously, we refuted the information that Germany allegedly created graffiti in which Zelenskyi is holding the bloody head of Zaluzhnyi in his hand.

In the Russian segment of social networks, a document “transcript” of allegedly secretly listening to conversations between Valerii Zaluzhnyi and Oleksandr Syrskyi and Mykhailo Podoliak is being distributed. The transcripts of the conversations allegedly talk about criticism of the Ukrainian president and dissatisfaction with him. It's a lie.

The VoxCheck analysts took up the case and determined that the “groundwork” of the so-called investigators is not real, because, first of all, the documents published on anonymous telegram channels and from there were replicated by other resources. In the “transcripts” one can notice numerous errors, for example: in the text they wrote “relatively”, but it is correct to write “in relation to”. Also, Syrskyi’s surname was simultaneously written in both Ukrainian and Russian.

Or else the text is filled with classic Russian propaganda techniques: where Zelenskyi was called a “drug addict”, “comedian”, “clown”, etc.

That is, it is most likely that the text was created by the Kremlin’s henchmen and subsequently they distributed it on anonymous resources.

Russian telegram channels are distributing a screenshot seemingly from the Instagram page of the German publication Deutsche Welle (DW) with an image of Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Chairman Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The screenshot shows provocative graffiti allegedly created by a group of Berlin artists of Sonice Development.

The Center for Countering Disinformation verified this “news” at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and found out that it was a fake. Also, the relevant information is not available on the official pages of the DW newspaper, including on the website. In addition, Sonice Development creates its drawings in a different style, and there have been no mentions of this group of artists in the news since 2014.

By spreading this fake news, propagandists are pursuing the goal of discrediting Zelenskyi, as well as providing even greater publicity to the topic of the conflict that may exist between the current President of Ukraine and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Previously, Detector Media denied information that Ukrainian schools were allegedly campaigning for Zaluzhnyi as President of Ukraine.

Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting Kremlin rhetoric distributed a video with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, in which he allegedly calls for a coup. The authors of the publication claim that these are natural actions of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, because they are probably trying to remove him from office. It's a lie.

The VoxCheck analysts examined the video and found out that Valerii Zaluzhnyi did not make such statements, and the video was compiled using artificial intelligence technologies. According to a reverse Google search, propagandists used Zaluzhnyi’s address on the occasion of Armed Forces Day on December 6, 2023 to create a deepfake.

Also, the Kremlin is now instrumentalizing for its own needs the message about a likely change in the military leadership of Ukraine. After all, official communications from the state or a publication from the Ministry of Defense, several comments from officials and videos assured that this was not the case, in particular, Zaluzhnyi “was not fired”. And they also said that they would not “comment” on the stuffing of anonymous resources that they themselves legitimized. Now the Kremlin’s mouthpieces are circulating reports about the situation and demonstrating it as “undermining the Ukrainian agenda”. For example, Maryna Symonian, editor-in-chief of the propaganda television and radio company Russia Today, said that “chaos... is useful for Russia”. Read about it here. Thus, the Kremlin’s minions are trying to enrage the Ukrainian information space by talking about the failures of state communication around reports of Zaluzhnyi’s removal from the post of Commander-in-Chief.

Deepfakes remain an effective tool for spreading Russian propaganda. We have repeatedly analyzed such cases, for example, including other “statements” of Zaluzhnyi’s deepfakes. For example, on November 8, 2023, propagandists published a video with a deepfake of Zaluzhnyi, who called on Ukrainians to come to the main squares of their cities, and the military - not to obey “criminal orders of the authorities”.  Anonymous people use deepfake technology on many famous personalities; by distorting their faces, voices and facial expressions, they try to instill confidence in the audience in the “expressions” of the hero.

Among other things, we recommend reading in more detail about the use of artificial intelligence technologies, in particular deepfake ones, in spreading the pro-Kremlin agenda.

In the social networks of the Russian segment, they are distributing a story from TSN, where they say that due to the adopted amendments to the law “On mobilization reparation and mobilization”, women who “have not given birth before the age of 25” must register with the military. Moreover, the so-called story said that the Verkhovna Rada seemed to have expanded the list of specialties for women who would be required to register with the military. It's a lie.

The VoxCheck analysts worked on this case and explained that the plot was primarily compiled. After all, the recording itself was created using artificial intelligence technologies. However, earlier there were indeed discussions around the bill on recruiting, mobilization and service: then MP Mariana Bezuhla, known for her scandalous messages on social networks about Valerii Zaluzhnyi and calls for his dismissal, published possible legislative norms on her Facebook. They stated, in particular, that women fit for military service were registered as liable for military service. At the same time, during martial law, women are recruited to combat positions only voluntarily.

However, during a big press conference on December 19, 2023, Volodymyr Zelenskyi  said that he would not sign a bill with clauses on the mobilization of women. But even in these legislative innovations there was not a single clause about “women who did not give birth before the age of 25”. This is simply a fiction of Russian propaganda. The mobilization bill is being finalized; it had previously been submitted to Parliament - without changes to the mobilization of women - but was subsequently withdrawn for revision.

In general, only doctors and pharmacists must register with the military from October 1, 2023; however, military registration does not mean mobilization or the establishment of restrictions on travel abroad. The Ministry of Health notes: registration is necessary only to summarize data on the existing reserve of doctors in the country. The travel of this category of women is unlimited. To register for military service, this category of women will have three years - until December 31, 2026.

A video is being distributed on social networks where the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi allegedly says that he created a petition to “mobilize” people’s deputies. And also in the video, as he added, if by January 5, 2024 the petition does not gather a sufficient number of votes, Valerii Zaluzhnyi will supposedly “resign from office”. It's a lie.

The VoxCheck analysts looked into this stuff and explained that the video was compiled. The audio recording itself with the words about the creation of the petition was created using artificial intelligence, and then superimposed on an existing video of Zaluzhnyi. Also, on the website of the Office of the President or the Verkhovna Rada there are no petitions created by Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Using a special tool called AI Speech Classifier, experts were able to find out that with a 98% probability the audio recording was created using AI technologies.

Among other things, we recommend reading in more detail about the use of artificial intelligence technologies, in particular deepfake ones in spreading the pro-Kremlin agenda.

Propaganda telegrams disseminate such information. They say that on January 2, as a result of another massive missile attack by Russia on Ukraine, in particular Kyiv, the in-depth command post of the Defense Forces was destroyed. The Russians also report the death of nine Ukrainian generals, one of whom is allegedly deputy commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. However, this is fake.

This information has nothing to do with reality, but is just another fabrication of Russian propaganda. This was reported in the Office of Strategic Communications of the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, on the official telegram channel, the Stratcom Armed Forces of Ukraine are advised to use information from official sources.

The Russian full-scale invasion showed in the first weeks that the occupiers do not care what or who they shoot at - all the mythical “NATO bases and compounds” in Ukraine turn out to be ordinary residential high-rise buildings, hospitals, schools or even maternity hospitals. With this information dump, Russian propaganda seeks to legitimize the shelling of the Russian army and prove the “high accuracy of its missiles”, which we wrote about earlier.

In the run-up to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin and Russian propagandists have increasingly spread the narrative that Ukraine is the aggressor in the war, which began back in 2014. They say that then the Ukrainian Armed Forces began shelling the civilian population of the Luhansk region and Donbas. This Russian propaganda narrative intensified in late 2021 after more than one year of a so-called “comprehensive truce” that Russia repeatedly violated. In this regard, it was decided to allow the Ukrainian military in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) zone to return fire to the occupiers without the approval of senior leadership. Thus, in particular, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi deprived the military of the need to fill out unnecessary documents. However, according to propaganda, Ukraine allegedly “sabotaged the truce”. Moreover, according to propagandists, sooner or later Ukraine would have attacked “defenseless” Russia, since it was also increasing weapons production.

The rhetoric of the Russians that Ukraine is the aggressor can in no way be justified, since it is our country that has been suffering from a war unleashed by a neighboring country for more than nine years. Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine began on February 20, 2014, when Russian troops without insignia entered the territory of the Crimean Peninsula with the aim of occupying it. Only after this did the Ukrainian military begin to resist Russian attempts to seize military installations in Crimea by force. Some time later, at the beginning of April 2014, the Russian military, under the cover of the newly formed quasi-state entities - the DPR and the LPR - declared their intention to establish control over the Donbas by armed means. That is, in the war against Ukraine, from the very beginning it was Russia that was the aggressor.

By spreading the thesis that “Ukraine is the aggressor”, Russian propaganda is trying to justify Russia’s bloody war against Ukraine, in particular, the presence of Russian troops on the territory of our state. They say that if the “liberators” had not come, the “oppression” of Russian-speaking Ukrainians and the killing of Donbas residents by the Ukrainian Armed Forces would have continued. Ultimately, Russia must answer for all war crimes committed in Ukraine and pay reparations for the harm caused to our country.

The Russians are promoting a message about the alleged appearance of “two armies” in Ukraine: one under the command of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the other under the Commander of the Ground Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi. Arguments allegedly confirming this thesis boil down to the fact that President Volodymyr Zelenskyi had personal communication with Syrskyi.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council explains that the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief is working, so personal meetings between Zelenskyi and Zaluzhnyi, and Zaluzhnyi himself with Syrskyi are regular. In Ukraine there is a clear vertical: Supreme Commander-in-Chief (President) - Ministry of Defense - Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The message itself about “two Ukrainian armies” is beneficial primarily to Russia. In this way, Russian propaganda is trying to sow discord among the military-political leadership of Ukraine, Ukrainians and weaken us. Previously, Detector Media denied information that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was allegedly calling for a military coup.

Users of social networks that spread pro-Russian rhetoric are distributing a video claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly called on Commander-in-Chief Valerii  Zaluzhnyi to resign from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Allegedly, Zelenskyi said that Zaluzhnyi is involved in politics and elections. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. In fact, such statements are not true, but they are consistent with Russian propaganda narratives that there is a conflict between the president of Ukraine and the commander-in-chief. It has been spreading since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine and was accompanied, in particular, by the appearance of a deepfake with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, where he allegedly called Zelenskyi a traitor and called on the military to march on Kyiv. However, there were no statements by the president in which he blamed Zaluzhnyi, and especially with instructions for his dismissal. There were also no decrees on the dismissal of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the website of the President of Ukraine. On November 30, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podoliak, said on Radio Svoboda (Liberty) that the conflict described by Russian propaganda does not exist.

Propagandists spread such fake news to create distrust in the Ukrainian government and create the impression that the situation is not under control. They say that Ukraine is approaching failure due to internal contradictions among those in power. Detector Media has already repeatedly refuted other fakes about Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social networks claim that the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andrii Yermak, said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda that it is planned to achieve peace with Russia in 2024. They attach an image similar to the screenshot of this news as “proof”. However, this is fake.

After the dissemination of such information, StopFake decided to check whether Yermak had made such statements. As it turned out, the disseminated information is not true. Since Russian media and social network users did not provide a direct link to the news, but only a screenshot, StopFake decided to look for it on its own. The distributed image shows that the news should be published on November 1, 2023 at 21:49 under the authorship of Yevhenii Kyzylov. According to the specified time and date, there is indeed a publication by this author on the Ukrainska Pravda website. But it has a completely different title: “Zaluzhnyi spoke about evaders and reserves: Gaps in legislation”, and in the text of the news there is not a word about “peace plans” with Russia. StopFake analysts also checked the presence of similar statements by Yermak in other authoritative Ukrainian media, but found nothing of the kind there. In his interviews, speeches and comments, the head of the Presidential Office said that peace negotiations with Russia are impossible if Ukraine has to sacrifice territory, independence or sovereignty.

Propagandists spread such fake news to discredit the political leadership in the country and destabilize the situation. They say that everything is so bad that even Bankova is ready to agree to Russia’s conditions. Detector Media has already repeatedly refuted other fakes in which the President's Office appeared.

Pro-Russian resources are spreading information that the Ukrainian army has stopped attacking and gone on the defensive, and the Russian military is stretching the Ukrainian Armed Forces along the entire front line. In asserting this, propagandists refer to an interview with former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar, which she gave to the online publication Liga.net.

Experts from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security developed this case. It turned out that the Russians manipulated Maliar’s words. In the interview, she made an assumption about the task of the Russians: to prevent the Ukrainian army from concentrating forces in a specific place. Also, the former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine noted that it is the Russian army that is stretching its troops along the front line in order to exhaust the Ukrainian defenders and prepare itself for offensive actions. In the end, there were no statements from Maliar that Ukraine was no longer advancing.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the Ukrainian counteroffensive and assure everyone around that the advantage on the front line lies in Russia. Previously, we refuted the information that Valerii Zaluzhnyi allegedly ordered preparations for defense between Mykolaiv and Odesa.

Pro-Kremlin resources are disseminating information that allegedly American bookmakers have recently accepted bets on political assassinations in Ukraine. Moreover, when claiming this, propagandists refer to “articles” from American online resources: MSNBC and NBC4 Washington. It's fake.

Experts from the Center for Countering Disinformation examined this case. They found out that in fact, materials with relevant content simply do not exist on the official pages of the mentioned online publications. Taking this into account, that is about another IPSO of Russian propaganda.

In an attempt to give more credibility to its lies, Russian propaganda spreads them on behalf of foreign online newspapers. The purpose of such disinformation is to create the illusion of a split between Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the top military leadership of Ukraine. They say that the “conflict” between the President and the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine is gaining momentum, so one can expect anything. As part of this information campaign, we also refuted the information that propaganda leaflets were allegedly being distributed in Zhytomyr calling for people to vote for Zaluzhnyi.

On social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric, photos of campaign leaflets calling for “voting” for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi and against Volodymyr Zelenskyi are being distributed. The authors add that such leaflets are distributed in Zhytomyr. It's a lie.

Analysts from the VoxCheck project investigated this case and explained that these leaflets are not real, because not a single local or national media has received such news. At the same time, information about the campaigns was disseminated only on social networks in the Russian segment. Moreover, there can be no official campaign under martial law. The fact-checkers add that according to the law “On the Legal Regime of Martial Law” it is prohibited to hold elections. And on November 6, Volodymyr Zelenskyi stated that there was “no time” to hold elections.

But the absence of an official propaganda campaign does not indicate that anyone, including the Kremlin’s minions, is ready to create such a leaflet using graphic editors and then create news about the “distribution” of propaganda. Analysts have not determined the authenticity of the photo itself.

We recently analyzed the message of Russian propaganda, where they claimed that the West is allegedly preparing a coup against Zelenskyi: and they want to put Valerii Zaluzhnyi in his place, who is supposedly more favorable to Western leaders. Such stories are generally intended to convince consumers of disinformation that there is a split in the military-political leadership of Ukraine.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social networks claim that in Ukrainian schools there is campaigning for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi for the post of President of Ukraine. They say this is confirmed by photographs where schoolchildren write on sheets of paper “Zaluzhnyi is our president” in classrooms with similar inscriptions on the board. However, this is fake.

The StopFake project specialists conducted an investigation and found that the photographs used for the fake were taken from the pages of Ukrainian users on social networks. However, they have been edited to add the necessary false inscriptions. One of the photographs was published on the volunteer page “Olia Olkyna” a few days before propaganda began distributing fake materials. In her message, she talked about volunteer activities in one of the schools, but nowhere did she mention Zaluzhnyi or campaigning for him. The real signatures on the photo, as it turned out, were in support of Ukraine, and not the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Propagandists spread such fakes to strengthen their false message about the conflict between individual representatives of the Ukrainian government. They say that a fierce struggle for the presidency has begun in Ukraine. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted a number of other fakes and manipulations aimed at personally discrediting Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Pro-Kremlin resources disseminated information that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi allegedly gave the order to begin preparations to repel enemy attacks between Mykolaiv and Odesa. He is allegedly confident that Russia is preparing a new offensive, which could potentially lead to the loss of Ukrainian territories. It's fake.

This case was processed by specialists from the BezBrekhni (No Lies) project. They found out that the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not publish such information and could not do so, since such topics are secret. Also, the propagandists did not cite a single source, which indicates that the “news” was made up.

Russian propaganda nourishes the narrative that there is a conflict between Zaluzhnyi  and Zelenskyi, the military and political leadership, but in fact this assumption has never been confirmed. By spreading this type of disinformation, propagandists are trying to sow discord in Ukrainian society and demoralize it. Previously, we refuted the information that Valerii Zaluzhnyi was supposedly being dismissed.

Russian media are spreading information that the West is planning to carry out a coup in Ukraine and wants to deprive Zelenskyi of power. The authors explain: on November 1, 2023, the British edition of The Economist “not without reason” published an article by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi and an interview with him - supposedly the West is trying to show its commitment to Zaluzhnyi, and not to Zelenskyi. After all, on October 30, 2023, the American magazine Time dedicated the cover of its new issue and an article to the Ukrainian president. “No one believes in our victory as much as I do. The lonely struggle of Volodymyr Zelensky”,  said the cover. In fact, the authors of the propaganda correspondence explain that the West is hinting at the “mediocrity” of the Ukrainian president.

Specialists from the EU vs Disinfo project investigated the case and explained that this is a typical conspiracy theory that has no confirmation. Such theses are aimed only at undermining the authority of Zelenskyi, who is allegedly losing the support of the West. And nothing indicates that Zaluzhnyi’s interview once shows the West’s “favor” for the commander-in-chief.

Detector Media analysts analyzed materials from The Times and The Economist - one  can read about it here. In short, the article about Zelenskyi contains manipulative signs, because “all betrayal goes through the stamp of anonymity”. And Russian propaganda  really gloated about this, explaining by this the so-called incompetence of the Ukrainian president.

Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric are disseminating information that protesters are allegedly being recruited in Kyiv for a rally in order to support the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. As proof, the manipulators share a fake screenshot, which was allegedly taken on a Ukrainian website for searching for various services. It's fake.

Experts from the Center for Countering Disinformation drew attention to this case. They point out that there are no such announcements on Ukrainian websites, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or anyone from the military leadership does not gather extras for events. Such statements are a series of falsehoods aimed at discrediting Valerii Zaluzhnyi, an attempt to create the erroneous impression that there is a split in the Ukrainian military-political leadership, and President Zelenskyi is trying in every possible way to get rid of the commander-in-chief because of the latter’s disloyalty.

A week ago, a deepfake was spreading on social networks, allegedly Valerii Zaluzhnyi called on the population of Ukraine to take to the squares of their cities, and the military not to obey “criminal orders of the authorities”. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine really did not make such an appeal and did not call for a military coup. At the same time, fake news appeared that the current Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Rustem Umierov, recently proposed the dismissal of Valerii Zaluzhnyi. In response to this, Umierov responded that this was a fake. Shortly before this, swindlers created a fake telegram channel for Valerii Zaluzhnyi and sent out discreditable messages.

Pro-Russian resources began distributing a video in which supposedly Ukrainian military personnel, introducing themselves as fighters of the 3rd battalion of the 110th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, complain to the President of Ukraine and the Commander-in-Chief about poor command and heavy losses in Avdiivka.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project processed this case. They found out that the 110th separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces responded to this video and refuted it. On the brigade’s official Facebook page they write that the video is not of their Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers, but of occupiers dressed in Ukrainian uniforms. In addition, suspicion was also aroused by the fact that the “military man” who complained on behalf of the battalion did not name his company, unit, position, surname or call sign in this “appeal”, although the video was recorded with open faces.

Propagandists are trying to demoralize Ukrainian society by spreading fake news like this video. They do this cynically, insidiously and resort to peculiar methods. Previously, we refuted the information that allegedly Hamas representatives recorded a video in which they thanked Zelenskyi for providing the weapons.

This information was spread in the pro-Kremlin media. Reports say that the current Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Rustem Umierov, recently allegedly submitted a request to dismiss the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The authors of the publications refer to the Facebook post of Volodymyr Ariev, one of the people's deputies of Ukraine. However, this is not true.

On his pages in social networks, Rustem Umierov denied the fake: indeed, the People's Deputy posted information about the so-called resignation of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, but it does not correspond to reality and is not substantiated. In the end, the deputy referred to anonymous sources and did not provide any evidence. Later, Volodymyr Ariev deleted the publication on Facebook and apologized. But in another publication, he explained that he was deleting the post, because “currently, many sources say that this [submitting a petition to the Bid for dismissal] is not the case”.

In fact, Rustem Umierov confirmed on Facebook that it was a throw-in. But propaganda resources picked up the statement of the People's Deputy even before the publication was deleted and circulated it.

Let us remind you that earlier we documented a case in which we told how unknown people created a fake account of Valerii Zaluzhnyi in Telegram in order to spread messages of discrediting content.

Russian media reacted to the article by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, for foreign media, presenting individual quotes from him as evidence of the “failure of the Ukrainian army” on the battlefield and suggesting that he “announced the inevitable surrender” of Ukraine. However, this is a fake.

Specialists of the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that Zaluzhnyi actually emphasized: Ukrainians in practice demonstrated their willingness to “put their soul and body down for their freedom”. He noted that Russia, having an advantage in resources, could not implement the plans of its general staff. In the interview, the Commander-in-Chief identified five priority directions for the development of Ukraine to avoid turning the war into a war of position. In his opinion, at this moment Ukraine, limited in resources, has reached parity with Russia in such areas as air warfare and radio-electronic warfare.

In addition, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces emphasizes the importance of increasing the effectiveness of the management of the Ukrainian forces through the widespread use of modern information technologies. Zaluzhnyi also emphasized the need to improve the logistical support of the country's defense. He noted that the situation “requires the search for new and non-trivial approaches to avoid military parity with the enemy”.

By spreading such fakes based on the statements of Ukrainian high-ranking officials, propagandists want to distort reality and cause disputes between representatives of the Ukrainian authorities. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted fakes and messages directed directly against Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

A fake page of Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi appeared on the Telegram channel. Zaluzhnyi himself reported this on his verified Telegram channel: “I received information that someone, using my name, is sending personal messages to certain famous people with requests and proposals of a discreditable and provocative nature”.

The case was studied by the fact-checkers of the Center for Strategic Communications. Valerii Zaluzhnyi also noted: “The Zaluzhniy_ua account on Telegram does not belong to me, like any other accounts under the name Valerii Zaluzhnyi. They are all fake”.

The official pages of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are on Facebook and the social network X, formerly known as Twitter.

By spreading disinformation through the fake account of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the Commander-in-Chief and sow panic and despondency among the Ukrainian people.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social networks publish a scan of a document allegedly in the name of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. In it, the moral and psychological state of the Armed Forces is assessed as low. However, this document is a fake.

The analysts of the Center of Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine drew attention to it. They found that the “document” contained a large number of grammatical errors. In addition, the text has a characteristic Russian-language tracing paper and a style uncharacteristic of documents. Moreover, the margin between the main text and the official's signature has been increased by 1.5-2 times. That is, part of the main text is hidden or deleted.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to demoralize the Armed Forces of Ukraine and cause panic among the civilian population. He said that terrible things are happening to the psyche of the military, and therefore, you have to agree to Russia's terms and start living normally. In this way, the Russians manipulate the important topic of mental health of veterans, turning it into a scarecrow for Ukrainians. Detector Media has already written about how Russia devalues the topic of mental health during the war in general.

The social network TikTok is distributing a video in which the military command of Ukraine, in particular Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Serhii Shaptala, Dmytro Marchenko  allegedly created a petition for the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the subsequent mobilization of deputies. The video also features Vitalii Kim, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration. Social network users are encouraged to follow the link and sign the petition. It's fake.

The case was examined by fact-checkers from the Center for Countering Disinformation. In fact, such a petition does not exist, the video is fake, and the link to the petition leads to various telegram channels and third-party sites.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the military command of Ukraine and promoting the message that there is a conflict between it and the leadership of the state. Previously, we talked about a message that allegedly Zaluzhnyi “was asked to reduce the level of his publicity due to the conflict with Zelenskyi”.

Euphoria is a psychological state in which a person experiences elation, happiness and joy that are not justified by objective conditions. It can occur during listening to music, dancing and synchronized activities, including religious rituals, parades, and public celebrations. Russian propaganda uses states of intense emotion, including feelings of intense happiness and well-being, to manipulate public opinion and promote a particular agenda or ideology. The goal of the tactic is to create a positive emotional association with a certain phenomenon or political leader, often to sway public opinion in favor of a particular point of view. Russian propaganda uses this tactic to raise morale and greater unity of certain social groups by holding mass events, spreading fake news about the unprecedented successes of the Russian army at the front, the mass deaths of Ukrainian military personnel or the destruction of equipment.

Every year on May 9, Russia celebrates Victory Day on a grand scale - loud parades are held with the participation of military equipment, concerts with military songs, flash mobs and events like the “Immortal Regiment”, where participants walk in columns holding photographs of their relatives who participated in World War II. At the same time, Russia calls this war the “Great Patriotic War”, blurring reality and leveling the role of Ukraine and other countries in the fight against Nazism. All these measures are aimed at inducing euphoria and a sense of greatness among Russians - they say those are they who defeated Nazism, flew into space, had super-powerful nuclear potential, etc.

Russia also pompously celebrates Defender of the Fatherland Day on February 23, a legacy of the Soviet past. This day is a day off; there are solemn ceremonies near the Kremlin, parades, mass celebrations, laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, concerts and spectacular fireworks. All this is intended to cause euphoria in people and fuel patriotism, as well as unite them into a strong social group, which thus heroizes the Russian military and encourages them to defend Russia from imaginary enemies. On February 24, 2022, Russia began a full-scale war in Ukraine. This happened the day after Defender of the Fatherland Day. As propagandists systematically spread fakes and manipulations promoting the narrative of the dangerous “Kyiv regime”, this prompted Russians, on a wave of euphoria, to take up arms with great enthusiasm and fight against the far-fetched Nazism on the territory of a foreign state.

In 2023, in the occupied cities of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Russians also celebrated Defender of the Fatherland Day. “In the Novoaidar district, after 8 years, schools again held lessons dedicated to Defender of the Fatherland Day”, wrote in the pro-Kremlin media. Let us remind you that Russian troops occupied Novoaidar in early March 2022. In the temporarily occupied territories, Russian propaganda is trying to bring back the holidays that Ukraine canceled in order to give people a feeling of euphoria and create the illusion of joy and a happy life. They say that Russia will return both the holiday and pleasant emotions to the residents of Luhansk and Donbas.

In this context, it is worth mentioning the concerts in the Russian “Luzhnyky” on the occasion of the annexation of Crimea, which the Russians call “annexation” and “return to their native harbor”. Since 2015, March 18 is a day off in Crimea, and flash mobs and public events are held in a number of Russian cities. In particular, a large concert-meeting is being held in Moscow, at which Volodymyr Putin gives a speech and to which Russian show business stars are attracted. In 2022, the concert was called “For a world without Nazism”; its characteristic feature was the justification of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, patriotism, love for Russia and support for the Russian military. Celebrations are held every year to consolidate the positive impressions of the holiday and to ensure that the public does not cool down and systematically feels the euphoria of capturing new territories.

Euphoria paralyzes the ability to think critically, so when this state begins to pass, Russian propaganda tries to feed it with fake news about an inevitable victory over Ukraine and all Western countries or to hold another concert and mass event. Thus, Russian propagandists used the “euphoria” technique, spreading fake news that the United States welcomed Russian troops with the conquest of Bakhmut, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate Kyryl Budanov and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi allegedly “died” - they say, the “special services” work so skillfully. This tactic is not only designed to instill joy and a sense of expected victory among the Russians and boost morale, but also to demoralize the Ukrainians.

Russian propaganda uses the tactics of opposite versions - it presents mutually exclusive explanations for a certain event or phenomenon. The use of this tactic causes cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is an internal conflict that arises as a result of a collision in the human mind of incompatible judgments, ideas, beliefs that negate each other. Russian propaganda deliberately spreads versions that deny each other in order to make people feel confused, insecure and impose the impression that “not everything is so simple”, but “we will never know the whole truth”. A person in whose mind a cognitive dissonance has arisen is unlikely to try to find a true version of reality. This is what Russian propaganda is counting on.

After the Russian military blew up the Kakhovka HPP on June 6, 2023, propagandists promoted conflicting messages: that the dam collapsed on its own due to improper maintenance; the dam crumbled as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian military; only the upper part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station was destroyed, and the dam was not damaged: the “Kyiv regime” committed “undermining the structures of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station”.

Messages with mutually exclusive versions appeared about the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. In May and June 2023, Russian propaganda wrote that Zaluzhnyi allegedly “died”; he was allegedly removed from the public space because he “did not deserve Zelenskyi's trust”; he was seriously injured and underwent surgery; he actually went abroad.

Russian propaganda spread similar versions about the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyryl Budanov: he allegedly “died” from a missile strike; is in a Berlin hospital after a Russian missile “hit” the office next to his; after a Russian missile attack, he is in a coma, although this is “hidden”.

Russian propaganda provides information in a way that confuses the person and creates contradictions that will create anxiety, guilt, and pressure that they want to get rid of. Since propagandists spread many versions of the same event, it is difficult for a person to determine which one is true.

When previous representations do not agree with new information, it causes discomfort. There are several ways to overcome discomfort and get rid of cognitive dissonance: change one’s own beliefs and correct behavior; justify one's own beliefs by discounting the phenomenon that causes cognitive dissonance, or by avoiding information that may cause it.

Russians try to get rid of cognitive dissonance through the slightest resistance - not to change their minds, but to justify their beliefs so that they seem logical. To do this, they search the Russian media and social networks among friends with similar views for information, for example, that Nazism reigns in Ukraine. Using cognitive dissonance, propagandists try to arouse doubts and paranoia in people, so that they can later use this state of confusion to their advantage - to encourage them to be inactive or, on the contrary, to take specific actions that are beneficial to Russian propaganda, for example, to mobilize into the Russian army and commit genocide against the Ukrainian people.

This tactic is to ignore the topic of discussion when it changes to the opposite. Ignoring the topic is used by Russian propagandists. After an event occurs that is unfavorable to Russian propaganda, official sources keep silent about it or selectively cover certain aspects. This tactic is used to reduce or minimize the negative aspects of a situation, divert attention from important issues, and create a false narrative. Propagandists hide information, sharing only news that supports their false thesis, while ignoring or blocking the content that hangs them. This contributes to the echo chamber effect.

Even under the Soviet Union, Russian propaganda used the tactic of ignoring the topic. For most Russians, the Second World War is called the “Great Patriotic War” and it allegedly began on June 22, 1941 with the attack of Nazi Germany troops on Poland. However, the fact is hushed up that the Nazi troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and the Soviet Union itself occupied Poland on September 17, 1939. Prior to this, Nazi Germany occupied the territories of the Czech Republic and Austria, and the Soviet Union did not call it an aggressor.

During the Soviet period, ignoring the topic was actively used by the then press. The Chornobyl tragedy, which occurred as a result of the explosion at the fourth power unit of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986, was kept silent by the Soviet media for several days. Only on April 28 at 21:00 did the Vriemia (Time) television program very succinctly report on the accident, which was supposed to create the illusion of safety for people, and events for the May 1 holiday were also not canceled. They tried to hush up the greatest man-made disaster in the history of mankind: the real diagnoses of people who received radiation damage were hidden. However, due to the scale of the disaster, which affected a number of European countries and foreign media, it could not be ignored. Soviet traditions and ignoring the topic were inherited by modern Russia, which on February 24, 2022 started a war against Ukraine. In May 2023, Russian propagandists disseminated information about the serious injury of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi, due to which he would no longer be able to perform his duties. Murdered versions even appeared on anonymous telegram channels and in media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. However, already on May 25, Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, blogger and journalist Anatolii Stefan “Stirlitz” published a video with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and from that moment all the pro-Kremlin media and telegram channels took it in their mouths: no one denied the information about the death of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but the fact of his public appearance was ignored.

Another topic Russian propaganda ignores is strikes on Russian cities. On July 30, 2023, there was a drone attack on Moscow, which resulted in the destruction of the facades of two Moscow City towers, where Russian ministries are located - the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications. In connection with this event, the air zone over Moscow was closed for flights. However, Russian federal television channels ignored this incident and focused on covering the Navy parade in St. Petersburg and a conversation with Putin’s journalists following the Russia-Africa summit.

Intentionally or unintentionally, by ignoring important information, Russian propaganda prevents the spread of unwanted news among the population. By taking technical measures, Russian propagandists manage to prevent their popularization and prevent the emergence of an undesirable negative reaction among citizens.

On the YouTube platform, advertisements are being distributed regarding the high losses among the Ukrainian military. The video says that “350,000 warriors sacrificed themselves so that we remember”. The video accompanies the text that the United24 fund allegedly accidentally disclosed the losses. It's fake.

The case was noticed at the Center for Counteracting Disinformation. Earlier, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar commented in her telegram channel on information about the alleged number of dead Ukrainian soldiers, which appears in various publications, including foreign ones. She said: “During martial law, this information is a state secret. Not because someone wants to hide, but because this is a requirement of the military”. Maliar explained that the enemy could use data on the dead and wounded in order to calculate their further actions.

By launching fake ads about losses among the Ukrainian military, Russian propaganda is trying to sow panic and despondency among Ukrainians and discredit the authorities, saying that it is silent about the true number of deaths and the United24 fund, which raises funds for the army and humanitarian needs. Earlier, we refuted the fake advertisement about Zaluzhnyi, that claimed that the Foreign Ministry allegedly hides his incompetence.

The American edition of Newsweek disseminated information that in Ukraine there is allegedly a possibility of “replacing the military leadership of Ukraine, headed by Valerii Zaluzhnyi”. The publication refers to sources close to the Ukrainian government. An anonymous person claims that this is allegedly due to “differences in the Ukrainian leadership on offensive strategy”. It's fake.

The case was investigated by fact-checkers of the Center for Countering Disinformation. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine stated that this was a hoax, and there was a direct connection between the military and political leadership of Ukraine.

Such fakes are spread in order to undermine the credibility of the authorities and feed the narrative that there are alleged conflicts between the military-political leadership of Ukraine. Earlier, we refuted the fake about Valerii Zaluzhnyi who allegedly believes that the Ukrainian counteroffensive “turned into a clownery”.

On August 1, 2023, the American publication Politico published an article that talks about Ukraine's plan in the event of the death of Volodymyr Zelenskyi. In this case, the “governing council” will supposedly include the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, the head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. At the same time, Valerii Zaluzhnyi will remain the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The publication refers to the comments of the Ukrainian MP from the opposition party “European Solidarity” Mykola Kniazhytskyi and senior researcher at the Eurasian Center of the Atlantic Council Adrian Karatnytskyi. Ukrainian businessman Yaroslav Azhniuk ruled out the possibility of a Russian assassination as “the realm of alternative history”.

The case was studied by the Center for Strategic Communications. On August 1, on the air of the telethon, NSDC Secretary Oleksii Danilov commented on Politico's article and called it nonsense and stuffing. “We have a Constitution, we have laws, we know how to do it. But why do some representatives of our country do such information stuffing providing [journalists] with absolutely non-validated information, this is a question”, Danilov said.

Oleksii Danilov also noted that recently Russia has stepped up information attacks, and it can use Western media to spread lies.

Propagandists in the Russian media are spreading disinformation based on an interview with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for The Washington Post. In particular, they claim that Valerii Zaluzhnyi allegedly accuses Western partners of turning the counteroffensive into a “clownery”. It's fake.

Specialists in the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that in fact Zaluzhnyi did not say anything about clowning. At the same time, commenting on the progress of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, he noted that despite the lack of a number of necessary types of weapons in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian army “is moving forward every day, even if it is only 500 meters”. Therefore, he is “irritated” by statements that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is moving “slower than expected”.

Thus, propagandists want to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and create a false impression of Russia's victory on the battlefield. In addition, they want to show Ukraine and its government as ungrateful for the help of Western partners.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that Valerii Zaluzhnyi said that Russians should be “killed” as a nation. The authors refer to an interview with Zaluzhnyi edition of The Economist. It is not true.

The fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project took up this case and found out that Valerii  Zaluzhnyi did not say this. It's just a propagandist's invention. In an interview, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine spoke about the destruction of the Russian military stationed on the territory of Ukraine. He has been talking about the Russian-Ukrainian war since 2014. But he stressed that in a war, Russians and any other enemies need to be killed, and the Ukrainian army should not be afraid to do this. That is, Valerii Zaluzhnyi meant Russian occupiers, not civilians.

By spreading this fake, the propagandists are trying to expose the Ukrainians and the leadership as aggressors. Allegedly, the Ukrainian army is capable of killing civilians. This is how the authors whitewash themselves by hiding their true actions.

Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric distributed a screenshot of Zelenskyi’s video message, which allegedly shows the chevron of the Nazi 14th Waffen-SS division “Galicia” in the form of a lion with three crowns. Russian propaganda allegedly noticed it on a board with military chevrons behind the back of the President of Ukraine. This is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project drew attention to the case. A board with military chevrons really hangs behind Volodymyr Zelenskyi's back. However, the chevron that Russian propagandists passed off as the emblem of the SS division “Galicia” actually belongs to the 1st separate tank Siversk brigade, and it depicts a horse in armor. For the fake, Russian propaganda used a video message from the President dated June 20.

Russian propagandists are systematically spreading the narrative that Ukrainians, and President Zelenskyi in particular, are Nazis. Russian propaganda transfers responsibility for Russia's crimes from the aggressor to the victim of aggression. Earlier, Detector Media denied fakes that Zelenskyi wore a sweater with Nazi symbols to a meeting with the Pope, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi allegedly has a “bracelet with a swastika”.

Users of the Ukrainian segment of Facebook massively complain about advertising on Valerii Zaluzhnyi. In advertising posts, they distribute a screenshot allegedly from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine with “a refutation of speculations about the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi”. The report also says that this is an official statement from the ministry and thus the authorities hide that something happened to Zaluzhnyi so that the allies continue to provide weapons. Users also distribute a screenshot of the alleged message of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, where he notes about “losing the war”, “unsuccessful counteroffensive” and “disclaimer of responsibility”. Allegedly, because of it, he disappeared from the information space. It is not true.

There is no “refutation of speculations” on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, moreover, it is not in the web archive either. So, the screenshot, which is distributed on Facebook with an alleged statement by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry about Valerii Zaluzhnyi, has been edited in a photo editor.

The Espresso edition drew attention to the case. They determined that this “advertising” was distributed by two accounts - “Verniom”  (We’ll return it) and “Stout Pugh”, but it is not known to whom they belong.

Regarding posts on behalf of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, there are no such statements on his Facebook page. The “advertisement” published on Facebook about Zaluzhnyi contains a photo fake and is designed to discredit the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as sow discouragement among Ukrainians.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyryl Budanov, is allegedly in a hospital in Berlin after a “Russian missile” hit the office next to him. Like, at first he was delivered by helicopter to Poland, and then by an American evacuation board to Germany. It's a lie. 

This information was denied by the representative of the GUR Andrii Yusov, he explained that it simply does not correspond to reality. Kyryl Budanov is still on duty. 

By spreading this fake, the propagandists seek to demoralize the Ukrainians and show them that “there is no one to protect them anymore”. Thus, propagandists sow panic among Ukrainians. We recall that we recently refuted similar fakes regarding the “death” of the military leadership. This was one of the cases about the commander of the territorial defense units, Ihor Tantsiura, who, according to Russian propaganda, was allegedly killed in Bakhmut. And we also refuted the fake about the “death” of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi did not appear at the emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on June 6. Like, this once again proves that he disappeared. The authors add to the posts a photo published by the Office of the President and add that it has been edited with a photo editor. That is, according to them, Zaluzhnyi was added to the photograph. It is not true. 

Fact-checkers of the Center for Countering Disinformation explain that the photo has not been edited. To be sure, they used a special application to determine if the photos had been edited. Checking the photo gave no indication that the photo was compiled. Consequently, the authors of the messages simply threw in false information. Let us remind you that this fake is part of a series of propaganda stuffing about the “death” of the military leadership of Ukraine. So, the authors seek to demoralize the Ukrainians.

Propagandists are spreading a video on social networks, which allegedly depicts the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi in a national outfit. They claim that this is what it looks like after surgery to treat head injuries. It's fake.

Analysts of the MythDetector project drew attention to it. They found out that the video was created using a deepfake, where Zaluzhnyi's face was superimposed on an already published video of a Ukrainian blogger. In addition, propagandists previously distributed photoshopped images that allegedly show damage to the head of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This information has already been repeatedly refuted by videos and photographs showing Zaluzhnyi without injuries.

Thus, propagandists are trying to personally discredit Valerii Zaluzhnyi and cause panic among Ukrainians. Detector Media has recently repeatedly denied reports of the “death” of Zaluzhnyi.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that during the last air raid, Kyrylo Budanov died from a missile attack. The authors of the messages convince readers that they are preparing for the funeral procession. It's a lie.

Fact-checkers of the Center for Countering Disinformation investigated this case and explained that this is another propagandist stuffing about the “death” of the Ukrainian military leadership. Kyrylo Budanov is on duty.

By spreading this fake, propagandists seek to demoralize Ukrainians and show them that “there is no one to protect them anymore”. Thus, propagandists sow panic among Ukrainians.

Let us remind you that we recently refuted similar fakes regarding the “death” of the military leadership. This was one of the cases about the commander of the territorial defense units, Ihor Tantsiura, who, according to Russian propaganda, was allegedly killed in Bakhmut. And we also refuted the fake about the “death” of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

This message is circulating in the Russian segment of Facebook and Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. As proof, they cite Stephen Bryen’s article What happened to Ukraine’s General Valerii Zaluzhny? posted on the Asia Times website. Zelenskyi seems to have doubts, despite the Ukrainian Armed Forces being equipped with American and European weapons, including Leopard tanks, because “Ukraine will have to go mostly without air cover for any advance and will face a heavily electronically jammed battlefield where Western smart weapons may not work”, as the article notes. This is manipulation.

Stop Fake experts drew attention to the case, noting that this article in Asia Times is an outright manipulation. The author of the article, Stephen Bryen, is spreading fake Russian propaganda about the allegedly missing Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Earlier Detector Media denied this information.

Bryen also writes that the United States is allegedly pressuring Zelenskyi to launch a counteroffensive, and then adds that “There are other rumors pointing to an ongoing struggle in Ukraine between military and civilian leaders”. The opinions expressed in the article spread Russian narratives.

Detector Media found out that on May 13, 2023, in an interview with Italian media, Zelenskyi said that the issue of a counteroffensive is the most popular in Ukraine, but the president cannot disclose details so as not to do harm.

And on May 29, he wrote on his telegram: “I just finished the Headquarters. Important questions. Important decisions. The main thing is timing. And most importantly, there are answers regarding the timing”.

Russian propagandists continue to spread narratives about an upcoming Ukrainian counteroffensive that is supposedly doomed to fail. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to demoralize the Ukrainian military, discredit Volodymyr Zelenskyi and sow discouragement among Ukrainians. Earlier, Detector Media refuted the fake that NATO military experts are confident in the failure of the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian military, and also that the West is allegedly preparing for the loss of Ukraine in the war.

Propagandists in the Russian media spread information that the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi is no longer alive and that he was replaced with a double. Like, in the latest videos, Zaluzhnyi has a different eye color. It's fake.

Analysts of the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They watched the relevant videos and saw that Zaluzhnyi's eye color was still the same. The propagandists simply chose a shot that was beneficial to them, where the light falls so that the eyes appear brown, not blue. In addition, in all media materials released later, the color of the eyes is gray.

 By writing such stories, propagandists want to demoralize the Ukrainian population and cause panic among them. Like, the commander-in-chief was killed, which means that now the Ukrainian army is doomed to failure. However, they have repeatedly tried to personally discredit Zaluzhnyi and arouse distrust in him. For example, inventing fakes that he and his family are laundering funds abroad.

Screenshots of the alleged cover of the magazine with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi are distributed in the Russian segment of Facebook, telegram channels and Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. In the caricature, Zaluzhnyi and the Ukrainian soldiers are sitting in a boat and sailing along the Styx River - the river, according to mythology, is a transition to the other world. This cartoon is fake.

Myth Detector specialists drew attention to the case. There was no such cover in any May issue of Courrier International, including the special issue. On May 25, a cover was published with serial number 1699, which does not include Zaluzhnyi. This is the last issue of the magazine to date. However, Russian propaganda published a detailed cover on the edition numbered 1700. Also, Courrier International's website does not have this cartoon in the specials section.

Thus, propagandists are trying to show that the West is allegedly tired of the war and really supports Russia, while in Ukraine they do not value human lives. Earlier, Detector Media debunked such reports, in particular, the “cover” of The New European with a caricature of Zelenskyi.

This thesis was spread on telegram channels and Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Allegedly, Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi was seriously injured and had an operation. Telegram channels write that no one except the Office of the President sees him, and “one can be skeptical about this information, but publicly Zaluzhnyi has not appeared in public for a long time, which only reinforces the rumors that everything is not all right with him”. It's fake.

Information about the serious injury of Valerii Zaluzhnyi has no evidence, because this is a conspiracy theory of Russian propagandists. The “death” of the Commander-in-Chief has been repeatedly refuted by Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar. Also, on May 24, 2023, Volodymyr Zelenskyi held a meeting of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, after which he noted in his telegram that “the Commander-in-Chief, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, the commanders of the Khortytsia and Tavria United strategic grouping of troops reported on operational information”. The presence of Zaluzhnyi at Headquarters was also confirmed by NSDC Secretary Oleksii Danilov, he wrote about it on Twitter.

On May 25, Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, blogger and journalist Anatolii Shtefan “Stirlitz” published a video with Valerii Zaluzhnyi. In the video, Shtefan says: “Finally, on May 25, I want an open terrible secret, a very terrible secret about the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, and then the camera is moved to the side where Valerii Zaluzhnyi is sitting at the table. The Commander-in-Chief thanked all Ukrainians and said: “Together we will definitely win and not only today”.

By spreading the narrative about the elimination of Ukrainian commanders, Russian propagandists are trying to sow panic among the Ukrainian population. Allegedly, no one will protect the Ukrainians without the military leadership. Also, these narratives should demoralize the Ukrainian military and encourage the Russian occupiers. Earlier, Detector Media denied the fake that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii  Zaluzhnyi was allegedly killed, and the commander of the territorial defense units, Ihor Tantsiura, was allegedly killed in Bakhmut.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, seems to rarely appear in public space. The authors of the messages convince that Zaluznyi is actually no longer alive, or he was allegedly removed from the public space, since he “did not deserve Zelenskyi’s trust”. It is not true.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project investigated this case and found that Valerii Zaluzhnyi is still on duty. That is, this is a conspiracy theory of Russian propagandists. Recently, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar also refuted this information and said that Valerii Zaluzhnyi was “on the spot”, and all the fakes in relation to the death of the commander in chief were a Russian propaganda stuffing.

By spreading this fake, propagandists seek to demoralize Ukrainians and show them that “there is no one to protect peaceful Ukrainians anymore”. Thus, propagandists sow panic among Ukrainians.

Let us remind you that we recently refuted similar fakes regarding the death of the military leadership. This was one of the cases about the commander of the territorial defense units, Ihor Tantsiura, who, according to Russian propaganda, was allegedly killed in Bakhmut.

Kremlin propaganda media and a network of Twitter bots are spreading the information that Zelenskyi came to a recent meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican wearing a sweater with supposedly Nazi OUN-UPA symbols. It's fake.

The case was noticed by specialists from the StopFake project. Volodymyr Zelenskyi did indeed wear a black sweatshirt to the meeting at the Vatican, but it features a stylized white coat of arms on a black chevron. This image is not the symbol of the OUN-UPA, which was drawn by the Ukrainian graphic artist Robert Lisovskyi and approved in 1932 (yellow coat of arms with a middle element in the shape of a sword on a blue background). The Ukrainian trident has been used in state heraldry for hundreds of years.

Stylization of the emblem of the OUN 1932 and the Ukrainian trident are not Nazi symbols and are not prohibited in the world. Moreover, during the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-1946, none of the national liberation movements, in particular the OUN and the UPA, were found guilty. Nazi and fascist symbols are prohibited in Ukraine by the law “On the condemnation of the communist and national socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols”.

Propagandists systematically spread the narrative that Ukrainians are Nazis and the real killers that Russia is fighting. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to justify Russia's crimes by shifting responsibility from the aggressor to the victim of the aggression. Earlier, Detector Media refuted the fake that Zaluzhnyi had a “bracelet with a swastika”.

Such a “document” was circulated on social networks, in particular on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The order states that the Ukrainian military is seeking to regroup and withdraw troops from the Bakhmut area. The document says that allegedly  Zelenskyi forbade the withdrawal of troops, and left them there “to the last”.

The Center for Countering Disinformation investigated this case and found that the document was fake. As analysts explain, the “document” includes a number of inaccuracies, in particular:

The “document” contains incorrect military terminology;

The barcode of the counterfeit document is damaged, making it impossible to verify it;

The “Order” was issued with significant violations of the rules of official document flow.

On TikTok, there is a fake account of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Unknown people speculate on the theme of the war and publish videos about supposedly “live broadcasts from the front” or “diaries of the counteroffensive”.

The case was taken up by the fact-checkers of the project “Beyond the News”, who investigated that in this way it is beneficial for the authors to spread fakes and Kremlin narratives. For example, in one of the videos, the authors depicted the “top of euro banknotes” with the inscription: “Do you want to join the team? Leave a comment”. In this way, they promote the narrative about the existence of so-called “foreign mercenaries” on the battlefield, whose main goal is to make as much money as possible in the war.

Fact-checkers are sure that neither Valerii Zaluzhnyi nor the representative office of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was involved in the creation of this page. At the same time, fact-checkers believe that the authors are trying to increase activity on the TikTok account by publishing emotional videos from the so-called “live broadcasts at the front”.

And the TikTok account itself is tied to one of the telegram channels, which spreads false information about the “missile radar”, which is ready to track every missile or flying object. Analysts of Detector Media have already talked about the “missile radar” and why it does not exist.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that Russian military missiles “Kynzhal” (Dagger) hit the location of the NATO military, who secretly manage the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At the same time, the authors refer to the foreign edition of The Intel Drop. It is not true.

Specialists of the VoxCheck project investigated the case, and explained that the NATO military does not participate in the war in Ukraine, and they do not lead the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Fact-checkers also said that the author of the article in The Intel Drop is one of the Russian propagandists. The Intel Drop features Kremlin narratives and fake news. For example, the publication writes that Ukrainians do not trust Valerii  Zaluzhnyi in terms of the number of downed missiles, and their moods on social networks give out despondency towards the President. Among the publications of The Intel Drop, one can also see other materials of propagandists, for example, reports about the so-called “foreign mercenaries”.

In January 2023, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg once again emphasized that NATO does not send its military to war, but NATO supports Ukraine with weapons.

Comparison with the standard of the negative (destruction of authority) is a propaganda tactic in which propagandists compare a new idea, process or person with an already known analogue that causes persistent negative emotions. In tactics, a certain logical flaw is applied: if A includes X and B includes X, then A = B.

Using this tactic, Russian propaganda is trying to convince both Russians and the whole world that Ukrainians are Nazis. In particular, Russians systematically find evidence of Nazism in the Ukrainian army. For example, they said that the uniform of the Ukrainian military was significantly changed after the 2000s and now it supposedly reflects the “reincarnation of Nazism”: rhombuses on shoulder straps instead of Soviet stars, the use of the “Nazi” edelweiss flower in the symbols of the units, as well as an artificially aged naval emblem of marine corps. Propaganda also considered Nazi symbols on military helmets, Ukrainian armored vehicles and even Ukrainian military awards. Moreover, allegedly the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army Valerii Zaluzhnyi also has a “bracelet with a swastika”. Thus, the Russians are trying to promote the conclusion that if Ukrainian soldiers use Nazi symbols, then they share the same views as the Nazis during World War II.

They use the same tactics in relation to Volodymyr Zelenskyi - they say that he is not only supported by the same countries that supported Hitler, he even published the book “My Struggle” similar in name and style to “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler. Russian propaganda also said that in Poland they allegedly issued a stamp with Zelenskyi in the image of Hitler. Or they said that Zelenskyi, during a visit to the United States, handed over to Congress the flag of Ukraine “with SS runes”. And during a meeting with the leaders of France and Germany, the Ukrainian leader “could not resist” and “carefully showed Z” standing near the German flag.

Another example is the comparison of the Ukrainian special services, in particular, the Security Service of Ukraine, with punishers. Russian propaganda uses this tactic mainly in the temporarily occupied territories, convincing people that if they are released, they will live even worse. Like, the SBU is preparing punitive operations in the liberated territories. Allegedly, people will be judged even for such “innocent” acts as baking bread or organizing football matches during the occupation. In this context, the tactics of comparison with the standard of the negative are combined with the tactics of labeling (punishers) and the replacement of concepts (punishment for crimes committed is given as repression against civilians).

Russian media are spreading reports that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi is allegedly using his daughter as a “live offshore” to acquire real estate abroad. As a result, propagandists claim that Zaluzhnyi's image in the West will “fall” like a house of cards. It's fake.

The Insider drew attention to the case. According to their research, the original source of the fake is anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. It was they who had “scans” of registration certificates for villas in Las Palmas on the island of Gran Canaria and in the Chilean city of Valparaiso. The authenticity of the “scans” is indicated by the English spelling of the name of Zaluzhnyi's daughter as Kristina Zaluzhnaya. Ukrainian documents use Ukrainian transliteration of names, respectively, the true option is Khrystyna Zaluzhna. In addition, the analysts of the VoxUkraine project checked the cadastral codes for real estate indicated in the “evidence” and found out that they are fake.

Thus, Russian propaganda wants to undermine the reputation of the Ukrainian military leadership abroad and cause discouragement among Ukrainians.

Against the background of news about the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the UK, France and Belgium, pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels have been spreading a lot of disinformation messages, with the help of which Russia imposes its own interpretation of events on the audience. Analysts of Detector Media have identified the most common of them.

Zelenskyi's visit diverts attention from the situation in Bakhmut

In December, during Zelenskyi’s visit to the United States, propagandists wrote that Zelenskyi deliberately flew out of the country in order to “hang” the surrender of Bakhmut on the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Like, there is a long-standing conflict between Zelenskyi and Zaluzhnyi and such a decision is the consequences. Allegedly, “guilt” will allow them to change the commander-in-chief. However, Bakhmut is still under the control of the Ukrainian army. This time, the propagandists also take advantage of the difficult situation that has arisen in the city due to the Russian invasion. In their opinion, Zelenskyi wants to look like a hero, so he personally left to negotiate for weapons. However, to do this, he allegedly needs to convince Western partners that at least three hundred thousand more people will be mobilized into the Ukrainian army. Allegedly, such a figure is “justified” by the losses of personnel. However, such statements are only the assumption of propagandists. They don't provide any evidence. In this case, Russian propaganda is promoting several manipulative messages at once: Western support for Ukraine is waning; there are huge losses in the Ukrainian army, which will be covered by forced mobilization; Zelenskyi is “playing the hero”. In fact, Volodymyr Zelenskyi is acting president of a country at war and is negotiating with partners for further cooperation.

Zelenskyi’s trip to Europe “extinguishes” the corruption scandal in Ukraine

They say that the corruption scandal with procurement by the Ministry of Defense undermined the image of Ukraine. As if Ukraine now needs to create a positive “motivational” picture for the Europeans. According to the authors of anonymous telegram channels, Zelenskyi's visit, they say, will be able to change the headlines on the front pages of the Western press. Such theses are manipulation, because they do not have a causal relationship. Of course, the media will cover the visit of the President of Ukraine, we see a lot of positive feedback, but there are no guarantees that there will be no negative headlines for Ukraine either.

Zelenskyi is no longer a “bunker ruler” after debunking the myth that Putin wants to kill him

In such reports, anonymous authors refer to a recent interview with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, which Russian propaganda used to spread disinformation. Propagandists claim that Putin showed mercy and promised not to kill Zelenskyi. However, propagandists invented this statement, distorting the meaning of what Bennett said.

In spreading this message, Russian propaganda uses the tactic of substitution of concepts. In fact, the Russian president is called the “bunker old man”, and not only by Ukrainians, but also by Belarusians and Russians. Unlike Putin, who rarely attends any events, Volodymyr Zelenskyi from the first days of the great war recorded videos in front of the building of the President's Office and showed the Ukrainians that he was in Ukraine. Trips to the liberated Bakhmut, Kherson, Izium and other cities, a visit to the United States also refute the version of the propagandists about “concealment” of Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

Zelenskyi will travel more in Europe in 2023, in particular because of the elections

Anonymous telegram channels write that Zelenskyi is allegedly preparing for the upcoming elections, so there will be more foreign work trips in the near future. Thus, propagandists are trying to be proactive and try to convince Ukrainians that the authorities are supposedly more worried about the upcoming elections and their continued tenure than about the war and the current problems of Ukrainians. However, according to Ukrainian legislation, elections are not held under martial law. So far, martial law has been extended until May 20, 2023. That is, elections to the Verkhovna Rada, presidential elections in Ukraine or local elections will take place only after the end of the war.

In Britain, they took a photo of Zelenskyi in front of a tank - this is the maximum that he can get from the trip

Reports say that the British allegedly allowed Zelenskyi to be photographed in front of the Challenger 2 tank solely to advertise the tank in the world media. As if these tanks will never appear on the front lines in Ukraine. Like, they promised to give them within a month, but only when placed in the capital for “PR”. Tanks will not be sent to the front. In fact, the Ukrainian military has already arrived in the UK and is learning how to operate these tanks. Moreover, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assured Volodymyr Zelenskyi that the UK would expedite the dispatch of its and allied equipment to Ukraine “to ensure it reaches Ukraine’s frontline in the coming days and weeks, not years”.

Visit to the European Parliament will not have results

There are also messages in anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric, the authors of which claim that “except for the applause of insane senile people” a visit to the European Parliament will not give Ukraine anything. Like, they applaud Zelenskyi, take a picture with him, and that will be the end of it. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to promote messages about “insignificant Europe” and “the absurdity and helplessness of European institutions”. Like, in fact, they do not solve anything and are not capable of anything. However, the head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola, in her speech noted that the European Union should take the next step and consider providing fighter jets to Ukraine. The visit of the President of Ukraine is still ongoing, so it is too early to sum up the results, as propagandists do.

Messages aimed at ridiculing Volodymyr Zelenskyi personally

In anonymous telegram channels, propagandists also use the tactics of ridicule and discredit Volodymyr Zelenskyi. This is necessary for propagandists to devalue the results of a foreign visit. In particular, they write that Zelenskyi was allegedly brought to the UK “like an amazing monkey” for the British monarch. Like, Zelenskyi, as a “beggar”, went to beg for help, moreover, he cried in the European Parliament, and this is a sign of weakness for propagandists. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to make Ukrainians feel ashamed of their leader and his behavior abroad.

The second foreign visit of Volodymyr Zelenskyi since the beginning of the full-scale invasion has already become historic: the British monarch honored the Ukrainian president with an audience. Against the backdrop of Zelenskyi's visit, the UK imposed new sanctions against Russia. The President of France also awarded Volodymyr Zelenskyi with the Order of the Legion of Honor, the highest award in France that can be received for civil merit.

Russian media, as well as social media users, are spreading information that President Zelenskyi allegedly admitted that the supply of Western tanks will not be able to change the situation at the front and turn the tide of the war. This is manipulation.

As StopFake writes, in an interview with the ARD TV channel, Zelenskyi said that Germany still cannot decide on the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. He also said that the decision of an individual country to transfer or not to transfer a dozen tanks cannot significantly affect the course of the war:

“When they (the Russians) have a thousand tanks, not a single country that can give us 10 tanks, 20 tanks, 50 tanks, solves the problem. But they do one very important thing: they motivate our warriors to fight for their values, because they show that the whole world is with you”.

That is, it was about the decision of one country, specifically Germany, to provide or not provide tanks to Ukraine, and Zelenskyi's words are essentially a response to Olaf Scholz's frequent statements that Germany cannot provide Ukraine with heavy weapons because it is afraid to become a “party to the conflict”. Thus, Zelenskyi responded precisely to Scholz's words that Germany's decision would indeed not significantly affect the course of the war,  but the course of the war is influenced by the decisions of dozens of Ukraine's allied countries, and it is collective efforts (including providing tanks to Ukraine) that will help Ukraine win the war.

And it is even known exactly how many tanks Ukraine needs to return the territories occupied after February 24: in an interview with The Economist, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi said that this requires 300 tanks, about 700 infantry fighting vehicles and 500 howitzers.

By manipulating Zelenskyi's words, Russian propaganda is trying to convince the audience that Ukraine will not be able to win the war, despite any help from Western partners, and thereby influence public sentiment in Ukraine.

Against the backdrop of news about the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the United States, a lot of disinformation messages have appeared in the information field, in particular, in anonymous telegram channels broadcasting a pro-Russian position, with the help of which Russia promotes its agenda to the audience. Analysts of Detector Media have identified the most common of them.

1. Zelenskyi did not reach the goal of his visit to the USA The authors of the messages argued that Zelenskyi did not achieve the purpose of the visit to Washington. Like, he went to the United States to get more powerful weapons and intensify offensive operations at the front. However, according to anonymous telegrams, there is no sign that Zelenskyi managed to convince Biden to provide Ukraine with such weapons. The authors of the telegram channels do not provide evidence for their assertion, nor do they explain on what grounds they draw such conclusions.

2. Zelenskyi thinks about diplomacy and prepares for negotiations with Putin The authors of such messages argue that since "there were no signs" that he managed to "beg" from the United States for precision weapons that would help prolong the counteroffensive, the Ukrainian president is ready for diplomatic steps. In particular, for negotiations with Russia. The anonymous authors add that the US authorities seemed to be waiting for Zelenskyi to answer the question of what position Ukraine is in now in order to speed up the process of peace negotiations. Some reports claimed that US President Joe Biden allegedly persuaded Zelenskyi to negotiate with the help of his speech. However, in fact, Biden did not publicly voice the thesis that Ukraine should sit down at the negotiating table and agree to the conditions of the Kremlin. On the contrary, he once again expressed support for Ukraine in its struggle and said that he was convinced that Putin was losing the war.

3. Zelenskyi's goal in the US is to get more money Also, in anonymous telegram channels, the thesis was expanded that Zelenskyi was going to the United States solely to “beat out” even more money, but this, according to anonymous authors, would not be so easy, because American congressmen are hostile to Zelenskyi. They say that congressmen will force Zelenskyi to answer uncomfortable questions about the assistance that Ukraine has already received and there will be no “sweet welcoming” for the Ukrainian president. By spreading such theses, propagandists want to create the appearance that Ukraine will be left without support in the near future. Like, in the United States, Zelenskyi is already not willingly accepted and uncomfortable questions are asked. To further undermine the situation and sow a sense of despondency in society, such reports add that without Washington's money, Ukraine will face complete chaos.

4. Zelenskyi’s trip to the US was lobbied by the “armed lobby” This thesis also appeared in anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. They say that the so-called armed lobby became the initiator and sponsor of Zelenskyi's trip to the United States. This is how pro-Russian telegram channels call people who allegedly earn billions on the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine. In such messages, Ukraine is called only a tool for the “armed lobby”, the purpose of which, according to the authors of the messages, is to promote their weapons in order to advance to the world market. By spreading such messages, Russian propaganda levels out the support, both armed and financial, that Ukraine receives from Western partners. Like, indeed, by the fact that the United States provides weapons to Ukraine, it does not support the Ukrainians, but only continues the war and promotes its weapons to the market, trying to force China out of it.

5. Zelenskyi flew out of the country in order to “hang” the surrender of Bakhmut on Zaluzhnyi Anonymous telegram channels also spread the thesis that during the visit of President Zelenskyi to the United States, Bakhmut will be “surrendered”. They say that everything was specially arranged in the President's Office so that upon his return Zelenskyi could accuse General Zaluzhnyi of negligence and the surrender of an important city. The reports also add that due to the fact that the president left the country, even more hell will begin in Bakhmut. In fact, this is not the first time propagandists have been stirring up the conflict between Zelenskyi and Zaluzhnyi and claiming that the Ukrainian president is not satisfied with the work of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and therefore makes various provocations in order to “have something to cling to” and remove him from office. However, no facts confirming this thesis are provided in messages in telegram channels. Also arguing that hell in Bakhmut will begin due to Zelenskyi's departure from the country, the authors of the messages shift the responsibility for what is happening in the city from the Russian army to the Ukrainian president. After all, it was Russia that attacked Ukraine, and it is precisely because of the actions of the enemy army that the situation in individual Ukrainian cities and villages is becoming hellish.

6. Zelenskyi was specifically invited to the White House to “test” the ground and understand how it can be deceived Another thesis of pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels. Like, the White House decided to call Zelenskyi in order to clarify the drafts and understand where they can “bend” Ukraine. The reports add that Biden and Zelenskyi allegedly have differences in the vision of how the war in Ukraine should unleash. It's as if Biden is worried that things won't go "too far". And, they say, Biden constantly hints at a peaceful settlement to Zelensky and asks him how it should look like. Spreading such messages, propagandists seek to stake out the opinion that the leaders of Western countries no longer want to support Ukraine in its struggle, but see the only way to end the war - with peace negotiations, because they are afraid of escalating problems with Russia. However, there is no reason to believe that the United States or any other country will soon stop supporting Ukraine if Zelenskyi does not sit down at the negotiating table. The heads of states did not make public statements of this kind.

7. Zelenskyi's visit to the US is a distraction Telegram channels broadcasting Russian rhetoric also reported that Zelenskyi's visit was beneficial to American Democrats. And besides the fact that the visit, according to anonymous authors, was organized by an "armed lobby", the Biden administration allegedly tried to shift some internal accents from problems within the country to global problems. That is, in such messages, Ukraine is once again presented only as a tool for the United States to achieve its goals. Also, such reports do not mention that Zelenskyi’s visit to the United States is, first of all, beneficial to Ukraine in order to make agreements according to which Ukraine will continue to receive assistance from the United States to fight the aggressor. Such reports are beneficial to Russia and its supporters, because they form the opinion that the United States is playing its game, only pretending to help Ukraine. We recall that earlier in the telegram channels they spread the message that Zelenskyi's trip to Bakhmut was a staging before his business trip to the United States. Like, he specifically wanted to demonstrate that he was allegedly going to a constantly shelled city, so that he would look like a hero in Congress the next day. 

This message is spread by the Russian propaganda media. Like, Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted in an interview that the Russian military leader inspires fear in him. As StopFake writes, the message about the recognition of the fear of the Russian Surovikin by Zaluzhnyi is based on an interview of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the British edition of The Economist. The interview of the Commander-in-Chief is real, but he did not say that he was afraid of Surovikin. It's fake. In fact, Valerii Zaluzhnyi spoke in an interview about the course of the war, the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and also gave an assessment of Russian actions on the battlefield.

Pro-Russian websites continue to write about the alleged conflict between the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. This time the propagandists used an article from the British daily newspaper Financial Times "We hit them with slingshots': Ukraine's iron general shows his mettle" to make their lies more convincing.

Like, in the publication "a lot of attention is paid to the issue of the conflict between Zaluzhnyi and Zelenskyi".

The Financial Times article dedicated to Valerii Zaluzhnyi describes Zaluzhnyi's qualities, his tactics and style, thanks to which the Ukrainian army so successfully liberated Kherson and the Kharkiv region, and was able to defend Kyiv. They also mentioned his biography, how the general reached his current role, and what experience he had before.

The publication has no facts about the conflict with President Zelenskyi, but only suggests anonymous sources that Zaluzhnyi was asked to bring down his level of publicity. At the same time, the article further states that the General himself does not attribute victory and success in battles with the Russian army to himself, and does not lose the opportunity to thank the soldiers for their contribution to the future victory.

Russian telegram channels, as part of a large narrative about “Nazi” Ukraine or “Ukrainians as descendants of Nazis”, have come up with and promote another fake: it seems that on November 16 the city of Novohrad-Volynskyi, Zhytomyr region, was renamed into Zviahel and it proves that the Ukrainian government is “Nazi”. As proof, they spread the word that the city had this name during the German occupation in 1941-1944. And indeed it is.

But at the same time, this city was called Zviahel (or modifications of this name) from the moment of its establishment - at least from the first mention of the city in 1256. And for more than 500 years it had borne this name - until the partition of Poland under Catherine II who ordered the name Zviahel to be changed to Novohrad-Volynskyi in 1795. From then until 2022, with the exception of four years of occupation, the city had the name that was invented for it under the Russian Empress, and this year the historical name was finally returned. By the way, Lesia Ukrainka and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi were born in this city.

Such information is spread by pro-Russian anonymous telegrams. Allegedly, the declassification of passwords from Zaluzhnyi’s Instagram account is a continuation of the leak of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by the Office of the President and personally by Andrii Yermak.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi's Instagram is not related to his professional activities, there are only children and family photos. Therefore, to call it the “Zaluzhnyi’s leak”, firstly, is incorrect.

Secondly, there is a war in Ukraine, the office of the president and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine work as a team, there are no misunderstandings between them. This was confirmed by Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

Thirdly, Russian propagandists have been trying to qet Zelenskyi and Zaluzhnyi to “quarrel” almost since the beginning of the war. In August, the Security Service of Ukraine discovered a million bot farm that was spreading fakes about Zaluzhnyi's alleged conflict with the President's Office.

Propaganda anonymous Telegram channels spread this photo fact.

In fact, the Russians drew the "swastika" on the bracelet of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, themselves, using a compressed image, which made the Scandinavian symbol distorted. Journalist Roman Tsymbalyuk pointed out the propagandists' lies in his Telegram channel. "The Russian conscript is assured to give his life for Zaluzhnyi's bracelet. If so, let them take a closer look at what he looks like before he leaves for the other side of the Kerch Strait in a black bag," he wrote and published a photo of an analog of Zaluzhnyi's bracelet.

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. 

Russian media write about it.Like, the provocation was ordered by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. It seems that the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine needs to expose Russia as an inhuman aggressor, which, due to failures at the front, hits peaceful targets. For this, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are allegedly beaten at power facilities with “Points U”.

Russia has not provided any evidence to support its claims. On September 11, the Russians launched a missile attack on CHP-5 in Kharkiv, leaving Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk and partially Donetsk regions without electricity. In total, 11 missiles were fired at the facilities of the Ukrainian energy system.

After the beginning of the liberation of the Kharkiv region, Russian propagandists confirmed that it was their troops who had struck the critical infrastructure: “Glad to strike the energy infrastructure of the Kyiv regime because it is important for victory.” Moreover, they called on the Russian military to carry out new strikes, including against the Rivne and Khmelnitskyi nuclear power plants. In their opinion, “electricity is not a right, but a privilege”, which Ukrainians “do not deserve”.

Subsequently, the rhetoric of the pro-Kremlin media and propagandists changed, they accused Ukraine of “self-shelling” and “provocations”. Like, Ukraine will expose Russia as a “terrorist” and will again make false accusations. Among other things, allegedly Ukraine will launch messages that the Russians tortured civilians in the occupied Kharkiv region. Thus, propaganda is trying to justify the crimes committed in the temporarily occupied territories.

This message follows from the publications of pro-Russian bloggers. They say that the need for an offensive by the Armed Forces of Ukraine followed from discussions about the supply of weapons to Ukraine in order to demonstrate to the allies that they should give even more weapons, even despite the depletion of their own stocks.

According to bloggers, we can talk about fighters, tanks and long-range ATACMS missiles capable of hitting targets in Russia. For this, according to the authors of the reports, shortly before the counteroffensive, an article was published by Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi and Lieutenant General Mykhailo Zabrodskyi, which deals with the possible spread of hostilities to other territories.

However, the supply of weapons to Ukraine began long before the counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, and the results of its use, in particular, could be seen in the Black Sea and the sinking of the Moskva cruiser. Also, the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, of course, is not a demonstration of the capabilities of Ukraine, but, above all, an operation to liberate the territories occupied by the enemy, and it was planned from this point of view. According to its results, we recall that more than 2 thousand square kilometers of Ukrainian territory were freed.

The appearance of such messages is a way for pro-Russian bloggers to somehow explain the defeat of Russia on the battlefield and the loss of initiative in this direction, as well as an attempt to kill the wedge between Ukraine and the allies.

The primary source of the fake document was the Telegram channel of the Russian propagandist Volodymyr Soloviov. This "letter" is allegedly printed on the letterhead of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and is addressed to the Secretary of the National Security Council, Oleksii Danylov. It was allegedly signed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who has nothing to do with the correspondence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. In fact, such documents must be signed by Minister Oleksii Reznikov or his deputies.

Information about the losses of the Ukrainian army is a state secret, therefore, according to logic, the "document" should be marked accordingly. In addition, the "writing" has a lot of grammar mistakes, indicating that it was automatically translated from Russian or written by a person who does not speak Ukrainian well. Probably, the purpose of the letter is to demoralize Ukrainians because of the extremely high loss figures and to emphasize the victory of the Russian army for Russians.

Russian propagandists have been creating fake documents since the beginning of the Great War. Recently, fake letters from the Ukrainian and Polish MFA about renaming a street in honor of Stepan Bandera were circulated. Also included in the list of fake documents are the "decrees" of the President of Ukraine that women should "support by any means and forces the spirit of men restraining military aggression in Ukraine" and the deprivation of citizenship of certain politicians; "letter" from the head of the President's Office to the commander-in-chief about not using "Bairactars"; "order" of the commander of the National Guard to shoot captured servicemen; "letters" of the Ministry of Education of Ukraine on the formation of lists of graduates of draft age with the characteristics of the evaluation of military-patriotic education or with malicious programs. These are only private examples of the work of propagandists to undermine the confidence of Ukrainians in the government. The common feature of all these documents is illiteracy and ignorance of the norms of Ukrainian business administration.

The Twitter social network created a fake page of the Commander-in-Chief Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny. The General Staff of the Armed Forces reported that Zaluzhny does not have an official Twitter page.    

This manipulative thesis was spread on the Russian military-propaganda TV channel "Zvezda," namely: the program "Glavnoe with Olga Belova" came out with this "theme." The program repeats several fakes and manipulations, in particular, regarding the split between the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhny; also about Zelensky's surrender of "western Ukraine" to Poland and riots of units in the Armed Forces and requests of captured servicemen of the Armed Forces not to return them to their homeland. The plot also contains fakes about the mandatory mobilization of women in Ukraine to "replenish the ranks of the Armed Forces due to combat losses" and manipulations on the topic of Zelensky signing a decree on sending territorial defense fighters to the front. Propagandists are convinced that both ideas "are not supported by Ukrainian civilians and the military." Most of these manipulations and fakes have already been refuted by "Media Detector."

According to the journalist Andriy Tsaplienko, the Russian occupiers are distributing a fake newspaper about the "lost Zaporizhzhia region," which allegedly quotes the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhny. The newspaper claims that the article alleges that Ukraine allegedly "lost the Zaporizhzhia region" because it "used its reserves to defend Azovstal."

The network is spreading a fake about the "order" to remove bayraktars from the hotspots of the front. A document with "Head of the President's Office" is attached to such posts. This document is allegedly a scan of a letter from the President's Office to Valeriy Zaluzhny. However, the fake authors broke through and indicated his position incorrectly, calling him the Chief of the General Staff, not the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Instead, the Chief of the General Staff in Ukraine is Lieutenant General Serhiy Shaptala.

The other day the propaganda publication "Komsomolskaya Pravda" published an article with the title "What is the secret of the Ukrainian army". In the text the author Sergey Markov allegedly tries to analyze why the Ukrainian army gives a decent fight to the Russian - "one of the strongest in the world". That is, the Russian propaganda already admits that the Ukrainian military is able to resist Russia and tries to look for various explanations for this "phenomenon". In particular, calling the Ukrainian army an amazing and very strong combination of a Russian soldier, a fascist officer and an American general and claiming that almost the entire leadership of the Ukrainian army during 8 years of war was trained by Americans. American, British passports, as well as individual salaries that they receive there," the author of the text claims.

In fact, Ukrainian generals do not have dual citizenship and do not work for the Pentagon. In particular, General Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of the AFU, a Ukrainian military officer who studied and served in Ukraine specifically, was Commander of Troops of Operational Command "North" (2019-2021), Chief of the Joint Operational Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - First Deputy Commander of the Joint Forces (2018), Chief of Staff - First Deputy Commander of Troops of Operational Command "West" (2017). Commander of the 51st separate mechanized brigade (2009-2012). In addition, the Ukrainian army has servicemen from different cities and regions of Ukraine, and they communicate both in Ukrainian and Russian. There is no reason to claim that Russian is the main language in the Ukrainian army. Thus, by claiming that Ukrainian generals are people trained and paid by the U.S., Russia tries to justify the defeat of its troops, saying that the Ukrainian army is strong only because of this.

The Facebook page, which was created only in January 2022, circulated a video showing a squad of fighters, one of whom had a chevron with the Tornado battalion emblem on it. It is noteworthy that only one fighter has the Tornado chevron - no other insignia is visible in the video. The angle for the video was chosen so that the chevron was in the frame. All the soldiers were wearing balaclavas for the formation in the room, hiding their faces. We can assume that they knew that the video would be recorded. In the video, the fighters are allegedly read out the decree of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the transfer of hostilities to the territory of Russia. In this video, Zelenskyy is referred to as the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In fact, the commander-in-chief of the AFU is Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and Zelenskyy is the supreme commander of the AFU. The order read out stated that it was necessary to prepare a number of units of the Ukrainian army "to carry out combat operations in the directions: the city of Belgorod and the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation". It was impossible to establish when this video was recorded, because the metadata was erased. Earlier, the Center for Counteracting Information under the CNSD warned that Russia was preparing new provocations in Belgorod to accuse Ukraine. The AFU General Staff also repeatedly reported that Ukrainian troops were conducting defensive operations.

The Russian occupiers shoot staging videos of such scenes. The Center reported this for Strategic Communications and Information Security. However, this is a fake. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny, said that the enemy was doing this to discredit the defence forces of Ukraine. He added that the military of the Armed Forces and other legitimate military formations strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law.