Riots break out in several UK cities after three children are killed in the north-west The unrest, which involved hundreds of anti-immigration protesters, began after false information was spread on social media that the suspect in the Southport attack was a radical Muslim migrant. The protests in English cities have escalated into clashes between protesters and police, and between anti-immigrant protesters and their opponents. Shops have been smashed and police officers have been attacked.

Although police said the suspect, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, was born in Britain, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim protests continued, turning violent, arson and looting.

The Royal United Services Institute has published research claiming that the Kremlin has actively exploited the theme of mass unrest using bots. An analysis of typical provocative terms associated with protests and unrest (#twotierkier, #twotierpolicing.) showed clear signs of Kremlin interference.

Some of the accounts that reposted this content were created back in 2022, during the full-scale invasion, but now these boots have moved from attacking Ukraine to criticizing the government for “allowing refugees, particularly Ukrainians, into Britain”. That is, they are trying to demonstrate, one way or another, that Ukrainians are to blame for such mass unrest.

Thus, Russian propaganda tries to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU in order to reduce support for Ukraine. We mentioned this in our own research. Since the beginning of the great war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda has been trying to discredit refugees who were forced to leave Ukraine to save their lives.

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.

Propagandists spread information in the media that ordinary Britons are allegedly frightened by the threat of a Russian invasion and therefore stock up, emptying supermarket shelves. They say that the British government has begun to prepare the population for possible emergencies by launching an information campaign. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden launched the government's disaster preparedness website, listing 100 possible threats, including a “full-scale Russian invasion” and disruption of transport links by drones. The Daily Mail claims that calls for an anti-crisis kit have allegedly caused panic among the British. However, this is fake.

The Insider specialists drew attention to it. They found that on May 22, the government website launched a Get prepared for emergencies page with tips on evacuating, storing important phone numbers and things you should have at home: a flashlight, a portable charger, a radio, first aid kit, hand sanitizer, water and canned food. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden spoke at the London Security Conference, where he outlined the government's approach to emergency preparedness. He referred to the National Risk Register, which contains possible threats to UK residents, including natural disasters, man-made accidents, terrorist attacks and military threats. There are no reports of panic buying of goods from the government list in the British media. The Daily Mail only urged shoppers not to repeat the panic buying that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Propagandists spread such fake news to discredit foreigners and cause unnecessary panic among Europeans.

Russian telegram channels are disseminating a report from the HJS analytical center, which allegedly indicates the fact that Kyiv has insufficient control over dangerous radioactive materials. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the report analyzes the nuclear security situation in Ukraine against Russian missile strikes. The authors do not indicate that Kyiv does not sufficiently control radioactive materials. In contrast, the report notes that the main threat to radiation safety comes from Russian attacks on nuclear facilities in Ukraine, which poses serious threats to NATO countries, including the UK.

The study makes recommendations to the UK and other NATO countries on the situation, such as using diplomatic and political means to reduce the nuclear threat, supporting the IAEA to create a “nuclear safety zone” around Ukrainian nuclear power plants and deploying radiation detection instruments. It is noted that the UK and NATO should initiate the development of an international legal instrument for the security of nuclear facilities during armed conflicts.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did not reveal any violations during its inspections of nuclear facilities controlled by Ukraine. Moreover, the IAEA Board of Governors approved a resolution on the need to return the Zaporizhzhia NPP to full control of Ukraine.

Propagandists spread such manipulations in order to discredit Ukraine and divert attention from Russia's actions. Detector Media has already written about other Russian manipulations concerning the IAEA.

Russian propaganda telegram channels citing the words of the former Ukrainian ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko spread information that Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the Office of the President planned to flee to the UK before a full-scale invasion. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that propagandists carried out this manipulation based on an interview with Vadym Prystaiko for Ukrainska Pravda, published on March 12, 2024. In it, he spoke about preparations for the invasion in his role as Ukraine's ambassador to the UK. In particular, they talked about discussing with the British government the possibility of finding premises in London for the Ukrainian authorities in the event of the fall of Kyiv. In addition, measures were considered to evacuate data from electronic registers, banking systems, television and radio broadcasting to cloud storage, and even move the gold and foreign exchange reserves outside the country in order to protect it from falling into the hands of Russian troops.

During the outbreak of the aggression, Zelenskyi was offered several times to leave Ukraine, including an offer from the US government and the British Prime Minister, but he refused. Propaganda accusations of Zelensky’s cowardice and plans to escape are not supported by evidence and are intended only to sow panic among the Ukrainian population. Previously, other fakes regarding Zelenskyi’s alleged plans to flee to the United States were refuted.

Australia's national broadcaster ABC has released a documentary “The Ukrainian War: The Other Side”, in which British journalist Sean Langan covers the war through the eyes of the Russian side.

In particular, the film disseminates the following Russian propaganda narratives:

- in 2014, a coup d’état took place in Ukraine;

- Ukrainians from Donbas wanted to go to Russia;

- Ukrainians are Nazis supported by the West;

- Bucha is a fake;

- The Ukrainian Armed Forces use civilians as “human shields” and fire at civilians;

– Russia did not start the war, it is ending it.

That is, in attempts to show the “other” side, Sean Langan actually provided the Russians with a platform to justify their aggression against Ukraine. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about this.

The dissemination of such materials to an international audience is promoting Russia and humiliating the Ukrainians, who today are fighting with blood for the right to freedom and independence. We previously wrote that the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko called the film “the equivalent of a bowl of vomit”, contacted the country’s Ministry of Communications and asked for an explanation from the TV channel.

Also, in February 2024, a British journalist filmed a similar documentary with the occupiers near Avdiivka, which also turned into an oasis of Russian narratives.

Propagandists disseminated information in the Russian media that the President of Ukraine, according to them, during his last visit to Odesa allegedly revealed the location of a secret base in the port area of the city, where, according to them, drones were being prepared for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, these statements are not confirmed.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. They note that the meeting between the President of Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Greece was of an official nature and took place in the presence of many government officials and journalists. It is baseless to assume that a secret military base was included in the excursion program as part of such a visit.

The Greek Prime Minister confirmed that the delegation was near the port when the shelling occurred, but this has nothing to do with Zelenskyi's visit to any secret base.

Propagandists spread such fakes in order to discredit the President of Ukraine and quarrel between Western countries and Ukraine. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted fakes directed personally against Zelenskyi.

About 1600 years ago, Germanic tribes migrated to the British Isles. Today these tribes are known as the Anglo-Saxons. In the terminology of Russian propaganda, this word is used in relation to the British, residents of Great Britain, Americans, Australians, Canadians and representatives of other nations who speak English. Moreover, the term “Anglo-Saxons” designates English-speaking Westerners specifically as “evil”, “warlike”, and “morally corrupt”. “Arrogant Saxons” is a word with the same meaning as “Anglo-Saxons”, but with an additional emphasis on the supposed arrogance, rudeness and insolence of citizens of Western countries.

In November 2021, the press secretary of the Russian President Pieskov, commenting on publications in the American press that Russia was preparing an invasion of Ukraine, said that “the Anglo-Saxon media are whipping up hysteria”. In January 2022, Pieskov again resorted to similar rhetoric: “The Anglo-Saxons, of course, are significantly increasing tension on the European continent. Here we Europeans have something to think about”. In these two cases, one can trace the tactics of reflection typical of Russian propaganda, used, in particular, to divert attention from the real state of affairs.

In 2022, while presenting the World Cup match between England and the USA, a “journalist” from a Russian TV channel called British football players “arrogant Saxons”,  thus demonstrating his disrespect for them. And he did it twice in half a minute. It is not surprising in fact, because a few months earlier in the mentioned incident, the same “journalist-TV presenter” called the Polish football players who refused to play with Russia in the selection for the 2022 World Cup “vile creatures”. It is significant that he said this with a “Z” symbol on the T-shirt - a symbol of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The use of the words “Anglo-Saxons” or “arrogant-Saxons” serves to reinforce narratives of supposedly Western imperialism and interventionism, portraying these countries as orchestrators of events or policies that harm Russia and perhaps even its allies. That is, the “Anglo-Saxon world” in the minds of Russian propaganda is trying to conquer and dominate.

Contrasting the Western community and Russians, propaganda also resorts to the term “Westerns”. As a negative universal term, the word “Anglo-Saxons” is also widely used by propagandists in the context of conspiracy theories. The Detector Media has a section with the appropriate name, the materials of which can be viewed here.

Propagandists on social networks are spreading information that a Ukrainian confectioner allegedly smeared the walls of the toilet in the London restaurant Hide, owned by Russian entrepreneur Yevhenii Chychvarkin, with Nutella. As proof of this, they are distributing an Instagram story allegedly written on the pastry chef’s profile. Like the publication included a description: “If you continue to support Russia, next time it won’t be chocolate”. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that the messages show that the publication was allegedly made on behalf of the profile @dolnyk.art.cake, owned by Ukrainian confectioner Kristina Dolnyk, who now lives in California (USA). StopFake journalists contacted Dolnyk to find out whether she really made such rhinestones on her Instagram profile. The pastry chef replied that she had never made such publications. Moreover, in correspondence with StopFake, she confirmed that she was not in London and therefore did not visit the Hide restaurant.

Later, the pastry chef published a story in which she refutes the fake news. She also noted that Yevhenii Chychvarkin does not hide his support for Ukraine, so such provocations are pointless.

Propagandists spread such fakes to strengthen their message about “wild Ukrainians” who do not know how to behave abroad and only spoil their reputation. Like, that’s why one shouldn’t help them and let them into Europe.

Pro-Russian resources are spreading information that London has developed a plan to secretly send NATO forces to Ukraine. Propagandists report that Great Britain has initiated a plan to introduce NATO troops to the right bank of the Dnipro and to the border with Belarus in order to “free up” the forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and send them to the “real war” zone.

In fact, this information is not true, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation. This is another disinformation spread by the Russians, based on manipulations around the British statement about the NATO training Steadfast Defender 2024. The training itself began near the borders of Russia at the end of January 2024.

Thus, propagandists seek to demonize NATO, in particular Great Britain, and assert that in the event of any “aggressive actions” by the North Atlantic Alliance, Russia will certainly “defend itself”. This fake feeds the Russian propaganda narrative that supposedly Russia is really fighting not against Ukraine, but against the “collective West”, which is interested in exhausting Russia. Ukraine seems to be nothing more than a tool in the hands of the West. Previously, we denied information that NATO countries would try to capture “six Russian regions”.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social networks are distributing a video with the symbols of the British language corporation BBC, which claims that Ukraine allegedly spent $1.2 billion in 2023 to create fakes about the victories of the Ukrainian army at the front. The order, according to the video, was carried out by one of the largest PR companies in Britain. Propagandists claim that, as a result, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andrii Yermak, allegedly “refused to renew the contract for 2024 with the British”, since their activities “did not help in any way to increase the attractiveness of mobilization in Ukraine”. They say that the money went down the drain or “was stolen according to the old Ukrainian tradition”. The video claims that this information was discovered by the independent international research team Bellingcat. However, this is a fake.

Analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that the BBC had never published such a video on its social networks. This video is likely fake. The attackers deliberately crystallized the logo of the British television company and their design for propaganda purposes. To create the video, footage from open sources was used (in particular, an image of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Andrii Yermak) and stock videos (in particular, with people in suits shaking hands). Propagandists used archival photographs of Ukrainian military personnel taken before the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The portion of the video purported to be Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins talking about his “investigation” was taken from his #ConflictZone interview with DW (December 2022 issue), where Higgins is actually talking about the Russian disinformation against Ukraine and the activities of Russian spies in the West. Official information on Bellingcat resources also does not contain any information about the investigation that propagandists refer to. Previously, Higgins noted on his X (formerly Twitter) account that propagandists had already attributed false statements to Bellingcat several times.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, in order to cover up the war crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine and create a false impression among the world public about the failures of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the battlefield, Kremlin propaganda has been actively spreading the narrative that Ukraine is creating fake content about the war in Ukraine. They say that Ukraine lies to its citizens, which means there is no point in trusting it.

Russian media responded to the launch of the new Black Sea coalition with disinformation messages that “Britain and Norway are escalating the situation in the Black Sea”. They argue that the international community's intention to protect civilian shipping in the Black Sea from attacks by the Russian army is a “new stage of aggression” against Russia.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to the message. They found that the work of the new coalition, which includes Great Britain and Norway, is aimed at long-term cooperation and aims to strengthen Ukraine's naval defense, as well as improve its ability to operate along its own coast. However, the main task of the allied countries is to provide assistance to Ukraine in opening trade routes and ensuring free passage of civilian ships in the Black Sea. From the new coalition, Ukraine will receive long-term support, including training, equipment and infrastructure to improve security in the Black Sea. In particular, on December 11, it became known that the British Royal Navy transferred two minesweepers to the Ukrainian Armed Forces to search for Russian mines, and Norway also announced the transfer of two more ships to Ukraine for demining the water area. StopFake analysts recall that the agreement on the transfer of two Royal Navy minesweepers to the Ukrainian Navy was signed back in 2021, before the full-scale Russian invasion, and in the summer of 2023 a ceremony for their commissioning took place.

Russia began growing the conflict zone in the Black and Azov Seas back in 2014, trying to limit Ukraine’s legal right to use its internal waters. Russian actions violate international law, and due to their systematic disregard for them, Russia was expelled from the Council of the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO) in December 2023.

Russian media are deliberately misinterpreting these steps as an “escalation of the situation”, trying to separate them from their context and interpret them favorably in their favor. All this is done to present Russia as a victim.

Pro-Kremlin media are disseminating information that Great Britain allegedly has plans to bring British military personnel into Ukraine to de-occupy Crimea. Russian propaganda refers to a statement by the top military leadership of the United Kingdom about the prospect of transferring the training of the Ukrainian military from Great Britain to the territory of Ukraine. It's fake.

The case was investigated by the fact-checker of the StopFake project. They established that Great Britain had no plans for the participation of the British military in the de-occupation of Crimea. Russian propaganda manipulates, citing an article by The Telegraph about the new Minister of Defense of the United Kingdom, Grant Shepps. He reflected on assistance to Ukraine and training of the Ukrainian military by British instructors, but did not make statements on the introduction of British troops. Grant Shepps suggested that training could be moved closer to the western regions of Ukraine.

Subsequently, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak explained that these plans are long-term and that instructors will not be sent to Ukraine in the near future. Moreover, he emphasized that Great Britain does not intend to send its army to war with Russia.

Thus, Russian propaganda nourishes the narrative that Russia is allegedly at war with NATO and the collective West. This should create the impression that Russia has the best army and justify defeat at the front. Previously, we talked about the manipulation that Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that Russia invaded Ukraine “because of NATO”.

This thesis was spread in pro-Kremlin media. The messages added that it was as if it had become clear that Volodymyr Zelenskyi was a protégé of Britain. Namely, he is a member of the secret British intelligence organization - MI6. The publications also promoted the opinion that all decisions of the Ukrainian president seem to be made in London. That is, they claim that Ukraine is under external influence.

Analysts from EU vs Disinfo began to analyze this case and found out that such a thesis is a conspiracy thesis, because the propagandists never provided any evidence that Zelenskyi belonged to that organization. But using the rhetoric of “external influence”, propagandists show that all political decisions in Ukraine are supposedly made by Western officials while Ukrainian politicians are subject to these decisions, without the right to appeal them. Any events occurring in Ukraine that are not in favor of Russia are allegedly caused by external control. This is how the authors strive to create an image of a puppet country that cannot exist on its own. Let's say Ukraine constantly needs “protection”.

But such messages are generally beneficial for Russian propaganda in order to deny the existence of statehood in Ukraine. They say that Ukrainian officials are not in charge there, but all powers are transferred to a third party, especially to Western politicians. Russia sees such actions as a potential threat to its existence and presents it as one of the reasons for a full-scale invasion - a fight against the “collective West”.

Anonymous telegram channels, Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric, and propagandists are spreading information that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, allegedly received a British passport along with his wife and two close relatives. These passports were personally brought by Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his last visit to Ukraine on September 8. Ukrainian sources reported this. “A foreign passport provides the Ukrainian authorities with guarantees and protection of NATO countries”, the propagandists explained. It's fake.

The case was examined by fact-checkers from the Center for Countering Disinformation. In fact, Boris Johnson arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit on September 8 to participate in the Yalta European Strategy (YES) forum and went to Lviv on September 9. Propagandists do not provide any evidence that the ex-prime minister brought passports to Budanov. And since Russian propaganda refers to Ukrainian sources, such information cannot be verified.

Thus, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit representatives of government bodies and cause disdain and mistrust of them. Previously, we refuted the fake that First Lady Olena Zelenska received an Israeli passport, and Kyrylo Budanov is in a coma.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that the UK is allegedly transferring fighter jets with military pilots to Ukraine. That is, they will lead the fighters, not the Ukrainian troops. The authors explain this by saying that Ukrainian pilots take a long time to learn, so they send “foreign mercenaries” to Ukraine. It is not true.

The VoxCheck project specialists took up this case and determined that the UK did not announce that it would provide fighters along with crews. That is, it is an invention of propagandists. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak previously announced that the British military would train Ukrainian fighter pilots. And already on May 15, 2023, the British government announced that it would begin training Ukrainian pilots in the summer. At the same time, Rishi Sunak explained that the UK does not plan to send fighter jets to Ukraine, it will only train the military. Consequently, the UK does not plan to transfer either fighters or crews to Ukraine.

By spreading this fake, the propagandists feed the narrative about the fight against the “collective event”. Allegedly, mercenaries sent by NATO are fighting on the side of Ukraine. Thus, the authors attribute their failures on the battlefield. Like, the whole world is fighting against them, and not just Ukraine.

Kremlin propaganda media are spreading information that London is allegedly inciting Kyiv “to attack civilian objects and civilians within Russian borders”. Russian propaganda refers to British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley and writes that he is ready to take responsibility “for the damage and suffering inflicted on the citizens of the Russian Federation, as well as for the dangerous escalation of the conflict”. It's fake.

The fact-checker of the Stop Fake project drew attention to the case. According to Article 51 of the UN Charter on the right to self-defense, Ukraine, while repelling Russian aggression, should not be limited to striking Russian targets exclusively on its territory. According to international law and the laws of warfare, Ukraine's legitimate goals to counter Russian aggression are military installations on Russian territory, such as airfields. That's what the British Foreign Secretary was talking about. “Ukraine defends itself”, “it does have the right to project force beyond its borders to undermine Russia's ability to project force into Ukraine itself”, said James Cleverly. 

Thus, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit Western partners and intimidate the whole world with war. They are also trying to shift the responsibility for the invasion and Russian crimes to the victim. Earlier, Detector Media explained the message that Ukraine is allegedly a terrorist country, and also talked about manipulations, that Ukraine allegedly blackmails Western partners with terrorist attacks if they stop supplying weapons.

Telegram channels circulated reports that allegedly after the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to London, the British newspapers Evening Standard and The Times published cartoons of him on the front pages.

Like, the Evening Standard newspaper published how Zelenskyi was pulling the plane after the visit, and The Times published a cartoon showing the hypocrisy of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron. Allegedly, their “yes” to Zelenskyi’s pleas for the provision of fighter jets really means one big “No”.

In fact, none of these British newspapers published cartoons of Zelenskyi on their front pages.

The Evening Standard newspaper published on the front page how Rishi Sunak warmly hugs Zelenskyi. In another photo, they are walking together in London.

The Times on its front page on February 9 published a portrait of Zelenskyi with the victory gesture once shown by Winston Churchill. On February 10, The Times published an op-ed by Ros Clarke in the “Comments” section, illustrated with a cartoon depicting Zelenskyi with European leaders, but it was not brought to the front page.

With these fake first columns, Russia is imposing its own interpretation of Zelenskyi's visit to the UK, France and Belgium on the audience. Immediately after the visit, propagandists wrote on telegram channels that Zelenskyi was photographed against the backdrop of a British tank - this is the maximum that he can get from the trip; a visit to the European Parliament will not bring results; Zelenskyi will travel more in Europe in 2023, in particular because of the elections; Zelenskyi’s trip to Europe “extinguishes” the corruption scandal in Ukraine.

Detector Media has collected images of all the front pages of British publications, which depicted the visit of the President of Ukraine to London.

Messages of this content appeared in Russian propaganda media and in telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. The authors of the messages claim that Great Britain, together with its vassals - the Baltic countries and Poland, are preparing an anti-Russian coalition. Like, the Baltic countries are only colonies and vassals of Great Britain, and London is trying to build an anti-Russian coalition in order to reduce the influence of Russia. Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to the case in the network. According to analysts, Russian propaganda seeks to present the Baltic countries and Poland as dependent or even puppets of Western states (in this case, Great Britain). In this way, propagandists convince the world that because of ties with the UK, other countries are losing their sovereignty. The propagandists expanded the same narrative in relation to Ukraine. They say that Ukraine is controlled by third forces: both the countries of the West and NATO, and it is they who allegedly set Ukraine and Ukrainians against Russia.

This news is spread by propaganda and hostile telegrams. The message states that from the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, the British marines are involved in the war. As evidence, propagandists cite an article in The Times that allegedly mentions this. However, this is not true.

According to VoxCheck experts, the propagandists distorted the words about the activities of the British Marine Corps in Ukraine. In fact, the British military was engaged in the protection and evacuation of the British embassy in Ukraine, but did not participate in the war with Russia.

On December 13, the publication published an article about the covert operations of British forces in Ukraine. The Times, citing a British lieutenant general, writes about the use of Marines to evacuate the British embassy in January 2022 and to protect embassy staff in April 2022.

The article is not talking about the fact that the Royal Marines carried out operations against Russia. There is no evidence of the participation of the British military in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The Kremlin media are spreading another fake - that Ukrainian recruits who are studying in the UK are "shocked by the seen" as the "ignorant" "came from the villages" and it will be “difficult for them to resist those mobilized and trained from Russia”. The Kremlin media cite an article by the Financial Times. The article is really talking about the training of the Ukrainian military, and the instructors really talk about several problems in training the Ukrainians: the training lasts 5-6 weeks while the British military has 14 weeks. And the Ukrainians are from different units, so it will be difficult for them in the future when they return to their own units. But this is all.

Not a word is mentioned about "villages", about "lack of education", or that the Ukrainian military is "shocked" by training conditions that simulate conditions close to combat - including a lot of blood and torn off fake limbs; there are also actors playing the roles of the wounded. All these phrases about “not professional enough” Ukrainian recruits were simply invented by Russian propagandists and added to the news, referring to the Financial Times. At the same time, the following phrase was thrown out of the text by Lieutenant Colonel Harris, who supervises Ukrainian recruits:

“They are the most motivated, determined, hungry-to-learn trainees that I’ve worked with across the world in my 20 years of soldiering. That they train in water up to their knees for 36 hours and can still laugh, joke and quickly answer questions says it all for me.”

Russian propaganda is constantly trying to convince their local audience and part of the Ukrainian that mobilization will “turn the tide” of events at the front and that the Ukrainian military does not know how to fight. They attribute Russia's defeats in the war to the abilities of mythical "foreign mercenaries" and "NATO command".

This was written by the Russian media with reference to the British edition of the Financial Times.

Allegedly, Lieutenant colonel John Harris who is in charge of training Ukrainians said that they are poorly mastered in “weaponry, battlefield tactics and cyber security” and that “the Russian armed forces makes it difficult” to resist.

We are talking about the article «Ukrainian army recruits join British boot camp to prepare for combat» in the Financial Times.

As the fact-checker Stopfake noted, the Russian propaganda completely distorted the essence of the article in the Financial Times, because the material just praises the high motivation of Ukrainians and their willingness to learn.

“They are the most motivated, determined, hungry-to-learn trainees that I’ve worked with across the world in my 20 years of soldiering,” Harris said. “That they train in water up to their knees for 36 hours and can still laugh, joke and quickly answer questions says it all for me.”

The conclusions are completely opposite to what the Kremlin propaganda writes about.

Russian propagandists are spreading manipulations about the “failure” of the Ukrainian military in exercises abroad, because they are actually afraid of motivated opponents trained according to NATO standards who will launch a counteroffensive and push Russian troops out of Ukraine.

Pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels spread information that a tragedy, catastrophe or information stuffing on this topic is being prepared in Ukraine for the G20 summit in order to stir up interest in the Ukrainian crisis of all G20 participants. And allegedly this plan will be carried out by the British.

When propagandists warn about something tragic in anonymous telegram channels, this is most likely a criminal plan of Russia. In this case, they are on the alert in order to remove the blame for their actions.

The Russians are constantly trying to discredit the partnership between Ukraine and the UK, not for the first time accusing the British of various crimes. In particular, Russia officially accused the UK of organizing a fleet drone attack in Sevastopol.

Such news is spread on social networks and propaganda media. Reports say British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is allegedly planning to cut aid to Ukraine and its refugees. Propagandists refer to the British edition of the Daily Mail, which allegedly wrote that because of the budget deficit in the country a high-ranking official plans to cut aid. However, this is not true.

According to experts from the Center for Counteracting Disinformation, UK assistance to Ukraine is still ongoing. In particular, the sponsorship scheme "House for Ukrainians" is functioning. If the number of refugees increases, the country may make changes to the program, but they are not going to stop it.