Spilnota Detector Media
Detector Media collects and documents real-time chronicles of the Kremlin disinformation about the Russian invasion. Ukraine for decades has been suffering from Kremlin disinformation. Here we document all narratives, messages, and tactics, which Russia is using from February 17th, 2022. Reminder: the increasing of shelling and fighting by militants happened on the 17th of February 2022 on the territory of Ukraine. Russian propaganda blames Ukraine for these actions.

On 04 December, on the 1014th day of the full-scale war, our editorial office recorded:

2568
Fake
768
Manipulation
743
Message
536
Disclosure
Русскій фейк, іді на***!

Manipulation During the IDF raid, they discovered a copy of Mein Kampf, which the Azov soldier allegedly left

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social networks are disseminating information that allegedly, during an IDF raid in the Gaza Strip, the book Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler was discovered, which was allegedly accidentally left behind by one of the Azov military units while staying at an Israeli clinic. However, this is manipulation.

Analysts from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the original source of these statements is a Russian satirical telegram channel called “here is my Yandex wallet”. The authors of the channel define their publications as “a parody and satire of political reality, only verified fakes”. This “news” first appeared on the channel on November 13 and was circulated on the Internet, appearing to be true information. The photo accompanying this story is a screenshot from an address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog on November 12, 2023. In it, Herzog stated that the book Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler was found in the personal belongings of a Hamas terrorist in the northern Gaza Strip. The Ukrainian military has nothing to do with this incident.

By spreading such manipulations, propagandists want to justify Russian aggression against Ukraine and “denazification”. Detector Media continued to refute other propaganda materials in support of “denazification”.

Fake Ukrainian phone scammers are allegedly blackmailing Israelis

Social media users spreading pro-Russian rhetoric are spreading an alleged news story about telephone scammers from Ukraine who, according to the article, are committing crimes against Israelis. In the news story they claim that since October 8, Israelis have been receiving calls from “banks” informing them that the bank office has allegedly been the victim of a Hamas attack, and they need to immediately provide card details to transfer money to a safe place. It is alleged that the police investigation showed that the money was transferred to Ukraine, where the criminals were operating. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They claim that this information is false. The video distributed online imitates the design of videos from the Israeli publication The Times of Israel, but in fact no such material exists on the official website or social networks of this media company. Also, the video's inauthenticity is indicated by a difference in design, as The Times of Israel uses a different font and from time to time publishes a video without its logo or any inscriptions. The story itself is completely fictitious because none of the reputable publications, including local media in Israel, reported such cases of fraud on the part of Ukrainians.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to discredit Ukrainians abroad. They say they interfere in the affairs of others and make money from the misfortune of others. However, Detector Media also refuted other fakes and manipulations on the latest events in the Middle East.

Message The war in Ukraine and Israel is “not an accident” as the United States creates unstable zones with its own hands

This thesis was spread on social networks in the Russian segment. Reports say that in fact, all current wars are the result of the US aggressive policy in the world. And they explain that the reason for the Russian-Ukrainian war, as well as the Israeli war against Hamas, is the White House, which seeks to create “zones of instability” and sow discord.

Analysts from the EU vs Disinfo project took up the case and explained that this is a typical conspiracy theory of Russian propagandists. So they are trying to absolve themselves of responsibility for military aggression, explaining it by external influences. The authors convince us that most often, peaceful people who suffer from “external control” pay taxes “God knows where”, are zombied by “Western values” and have literally lost the right to be heard. That is, they show that such an “impact” is not good and leads to stagnation in all spheres of people’s lives. To strengthen their argument, they add information about Israel's war with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. Accordingly, the war in Israel was caused by the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

Consequently, the Kremlin benefits from aggravation in the Middle East, because it distracts attention from what the Russian army is doing in Ukraine.

Let us recall that the Institute for the Study of War's statement as of October 7 said that the Kremlin is using the Hamas attack on Israel for information operations aimed at weakening support for Ukraine by the United States and other Western partners.

Manipulation Zelenskyi called on Israel to fight terrorism “without laws and rules”

This thesis was spread by pro-Kremlin media. The messages add how Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly stated that Israel should fight terrorism “without laws and rules” - in fact, he allegedly called for the commission of war crimes. This is manipulation.

Analysts of the StopFake project managed to process the case: they explained that the basis for creating this manipulation was most likely an interview with the Ukrainian president on the American television channel NBC News on November 5, 2023. During the live broadcast, the interviewer asked whether Volodymyr Zelenskyi is confident that Israel is subject to international law in the war with Hamas. Zelenskyi responded that it is Russia, Iran and North Korea that are trying to scale up the war in Israel:

“This is a fire that is burning between Israel and Palestine, and some people are still throwing matches into this fire, and I am sure that Russia is not far behind in sponsoring Hamas. And Iran too. That's who is to blame. When we talk about laws and rules, where there are terrorists, there are no rules [terrorists don’t care about rules ed.]”.

Actually, Volodymyr Zelenskyi meant that Russia and other “friendly countries” - Iran, North Korea, etc. — do not support the norms of international law, especially directly or indirectly incite discord. These countries, for example, actively block any legislative initiatives aimed at supporting Ukraine in the UN General Assembly. And according to Zelenskyi, they may also be interested in scaling up the war in the Middle East.

But propagandists twisted the statement and began to claim that it is the Ukrainian leader who seeks to sow discord and calls for committing war crimes, regardless of the cost. Thus, propagandists demonize Volodymyr Zelenskyi and label him: let's say, he is an aggressor and a provocateur who wants wars around the world.

Manipulation In the Gaza Strip, the number of victims is greater in 25 days than in Ukraine in 563 days

In the pro-Kremlin media and in the Russian segment of the Facebook social network, information is spread that in 25 days almost as many civilians have been killed in the Gaza Strip as allegedly killed in Ukraine in 563 days, that is, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian propaganda presents an infographic comparing the number of victims. This is manipulation.

The case was investigated by the fact-checkers of the StopFake project. In the graphs published by Russian propaganda, it is stated that 8 thousand 796 people died in Gaza during the 25 days of the conflict, of which 3648 are children. There were 24,000 wounded, of which 9,600 were children. These data are provided by the UN.

During the 563 days of the full-scale war in Ukraine, 9,614 people died, including 554 children. 17,535 people were injured, of which 1,180 were children. However, the Office of the United Nations and High Commissioner for Human Rights believe that “the actual figures are much higher”, because the organization's calculations do not take into account data from occupied cities where fierce fighting took place, such as Mariupol, Lysychansk, Popasna and Sievierodonetsk, where there are reports of numerous victims among the civilian population.

This was also stated by the spokesman of the UN Office for Human Rights in Ukraine, Kryshtof Yanovskyi. He noted that it is impossible to provide exact figures from Mariupol. Ukrainian human rights activists believe that in Mariupol alone, the Russian invaders killed about 100,000 people.

By manipulating numbers and using a sensitive topic for this, Russian propagandists are trying to put psychological pressure on Ukrainians. Russians also want to whiten themselves: as if against the background of Israel, which, regardless of morality, kills people, Russia looks like a humanistic country, because it supposedly protects Ukrainians. Earlier, we refuted the fake that Economy Minister Svyrydenko said that Ukraine would restore the Gaza Strip.

Fake Ukraine will restore the Gaza Strip, Economy Minister Svyrydenko said

Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric are spreading the statement of Ukraine's Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko that Kyiv is bound to restore the Gaza Strip after the end of the conflict. It is not true.

The case was investigated by the fact-checkers of the StopFake project. They established that Yuliia Svyrydenko did not make such statements, and the quote used by Russian propagandists is completely fabricated. There were also no statements by the minister or anyone from the department in the official communication channels of the Ministry of Ukraine.

Russian propaganda spread a fictional quote in the context of the fact that Ukraine will once again “beg for money” from the West for its supposedly new project.

In this way, Russian propagandists try to discredit Ukraine, undermine the narrative about its lack of independence and show it as a “beggar country”, and as a result reduce the support of Western partners. Earlier, we refuted the fake that Israel is calling Ukrainians to join the IDF.

Fake The Washington Post about Ukraine that increased the supply of weapons to Hamas

Anonymous Telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric spread information that “the supply of Ukrainian weapons to the Hamas group has tripled over the past month”.  Russian propaganda refers to an article published by The Washington Post, in which they allegedly wrote that Hamas currently has no problems with providing weapons thanks to Ukraine. This is a fake.

According to fact-checkers of the Center for Countering Disinformation, The Washington Post did not actually publish such an article. And the screenshot used by Russian propaganda was first published by the Ministry of Defense of Russia in 2022.

In this way, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit Ukraine and reduce aid from the West, including the supply of weapons. Previously, we refuted the fake that the Imam of the Grand Mosque of Paris thanked Ukraine for weapons for Hamas.

Fake Ukrainians demanded money from the family of a dead Hamas hostage

Pro-Russian resources claim that allegedly “swindlers from Ukraine” blackmailed the family of German and Israeli citizen Shani Luk, who was kidnapped by Hamas militants. After it became known about the girl’s kidnapping, the Ukrainians began calling her family on behalf of Hamas and demanding a ransom of 500 thousand euros. The police who investigated the case of the already deceased Shani Luk seemed to come to this conclusion. Propagandists referred to a screenshot of “news published by the German newspaper WDR”. It's fake.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project began to analyze the information. After independently searching for this news on the website of the German publication WDR, they found out that such material was not published on this news resource. A Google search also did not yield any results about the alleged ransom demand from “Ukrainian scammers”. In addition, there was no mention of a police investigation into this case in reputable German or other media.

Russian propaganda, using the author's style of a German newspaper, tried to justify the actions of Hamas and denigrate Ukraine. The Kremlin is trying to demonize Ukraine in the eyes of ordinary Russian citizens in order to justify the war crimes of its army in Ukraine. Also, by spreading these types of fakes, propagandists hope to weaken international support for Ukraine so that it will not be able to finance defense needs. Previously, we denied information that allegedly former porn actress Mia Khalifa thanked Ukraine for helping Hamas.

Fake Israel calls on Ukrainians to join the IDF

Pro-Kremlin media are distributing a video of an alleged advertising video on YouTube, in which a military man in an Israeli army uniform is supposedly campaigning in Ukrainian to join the IDF - the Israeli Defense Forces - and fight against Hamas. It's a lie.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council analyzed this case and found that such advertising from the official representative of the Israeli Ministry of Defense does not exist. It was compiled: after all, using a reverse search on Google, experts found that to create a fake advertising video, the authors used a TikTok video from the official account of the Israeli Defense Forces on this social network. And later a voice in Ukrainian was superimposed on the video.

Let us recall that the Institute for the Study of War’s statement on October 7 said that the Kremlin is actively using the Hamas attack on Israel for information operations aimed at weakening US and Western support for Ukraine. And the thesis about “mobilizing people to Israel” is used by fake bots to, first of all, convince that the Ukrainian leadership sees only military force in men and women - and officials, say, will use this for their own purposes. Even for mobilization to other countries.

Previously, we have already documented a propaganda campaign, supposedly Ukrainians were given draft notices to mobilize into Israeli volunteer battalions.

Fake Hamas recorded a video expressing gratitude to Zelenskyi for providing weapons

Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric are disseminating information that representatives of the Hamas group allegedly recorded a video thanking Volodymyr Zelenskyi for the transferred weapons, which help resist Israel. It's fake.

Fact-checkers at the Center for Countering Disinformation analyzed the video and determined that it was fake. It is this video that is being distributed by Russian propaganda resources and fake foreign accounts, the time and place of filming are unknown. Moreover, the video cannot be verified because Hamas representatives have their faces covered.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and reduce the assistance of Western partners. This is a continuation of the disinformation campaign about Ukrainian weapons in the hands of Hamas. Previously, Detector Media refuted the fake that Ukraine sells weapons to Hamas and debunked the fake that Hamas militants use weapons from Mukachevo.

Fake “If Ukraine loses the war, it will be because of the Jews”, Zelenskyi said

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social networks claim that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly said that “if Ukraine loses the war, it will be because of the Jews”. This is a fake.

Analysts of the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security Council of Ukraine and the Georgian MythDetector project drew attention to it. They found out that the circulated quote is a fake, because it cannot be found either on the official pages of the President, or in Ukrainian or Western mass media. On the contrary, Zelenskyi condemned the actions of Hamas and drew parallels between the current events in Israel and the Russian-Ukrainian war. He condemned terrorism and emphasized Israel's right to self-defense.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to convince Ukrainians that after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, Western countries will redirect the aid intended for Ukraine to Israel and Ukraine will not have the support of the international community.  Detector Media explained how propagandists still manipulate the topic of events in Israel.

Orest Slyvenko, Artur Koldomasov, Vitalii Mykhailiv, Oleksandra Kotenko, Oleksandr Siedin, Kostiantyn Zadyraka, and Oleksiy Pivtorak are collaborating on this chronicle. Lesia Bidochko serves as the project coordinator, while Ksenia Ilyuk is the author of the project.