Propagandists are spreading the message that Ukrainian grain allegedly “broke” the European Union and the structure of the division of labor in it. They add that the European Commission is bogged down in negotiations and is lobbying for the position of the wealthy countries of Western Europe.

This message was noticed in the EUvsDisinfo project. Project specialists claim that in fact the EU is working together with Ukraine to resolve this situation. In the solutions, they try to take into account both the needs of Ukraine and the need for the EU to export grain from its own member countries. Exports from the EU play an important role in keeping food prices down. After consultations with the European Commission on April 21, Romania and Poland lifted the ban on the import of Ukrainian grain. Project analysts note that the EU is taking various measures to export Ukrainian grain, in particular, through the “corridors of solidarity” and the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

This message is part of a large-scale information campaign of Russians against the EU. Within its framework, propagandists spread messages according to which the EU is “falling apart” in front of their eyes. Thus, they want to shift the responsibility for aggression and its consequences from the aggressor to the victim and those who help it. Project experts note that it is Russia that is to blame for the “food crisis” that has developed due to logistical problems caused by the war against Ukraine. In addition, it is Russia that wants to destroy the Ukrainian agricultural market, causing damage to farmers in the billions.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that after agreements with Poland on a simplified regime for checking the export of agricultural products, timber, black soil and minerals will be exported from Ukraine. The authors of the messages add that Ukraine is “paying for help from the West”.

The case was noticed by the specialists of the VoxCheck project, who say that there is no confirmation that after the ban on the export of timber, it was exported from Ukraine. In addition, the West is helping Ukraine as a partner, not as a debtor for the provided weapons.

On March 3, 2023 Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskyi and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland Henryk Kowalczyk agreed on simplified procedures for the passage of goods before export. In particular, this applies to Ukrainian grain and oil.

This thesis was circulated in social networks, in particular on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that the EU is losing in the confrontation with Russia. “The growth of inflation and unemployment, the dysfunctional banking system - this is the result of Brussels’ policy in the EU”. Like, the Russian economy “goes into the abyss”.

The experts of the EU vs Disinfo project worked on the case and found that the thesis about the terrible economic situation in Western countries is untrue. According to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2022 has been a bad year for the Russian economy. According to experts, in 2022 Russia's gross domestic product fell by at least 2.2% in the best-case scenario and by 3.9% in the worst-case scenario. The Russian economy will shrink in 2023 as well. GDP is expected to contract by 5.6% or 3.3% according to the organizations.

In addition, the Yale University study examined in detail the impact of sanctions on the Russian economy, concluding that sanctions are catastrophically destroying the Russian economy.

According to the latest figures from the European Commission, the EU economy is “resilient and ready to face the challenges, in particular those caused by Russia's war against Ukraine”.

Anonymous telegram channels spreading pro-Russian rhetoric publish information that the President of Ukraine, by his decree, created “information hubs for Ukrainian citizens to find work”, taking into account the “sharp increase in unemployment”. It's fake.

Analysts of the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the screenshot used by the authors of such messages is a fake. In particular, it contains the Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 127/2023. It can be easily found on the website of the Office of the President and you can see that in fact it concerns the appointment of O.Kamyshin as an adviser to the President of Ukraine. In addition, there are no decrees with information about “information hubs” on the site at all.

Thus, the authors of telegram channels are trying to increase the number of their subscribers by misleading users. However, Russian propagandists also took advantage of this, presenting it as evidence of an economic disaster in Ukraine. Like, everything is so bad that even the government is forced to send people to work.

Such messages are distributed in the Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels. They say that the trade turnover between Russia and the European Union at the end of 2022 reached a maximum in eight years, while the import of goods from Russia was at a historical maximum. Allegedly, this is confirmed by Eurostat data. This is manipulation.

The volume of trade actually increased, but the entire increase occurred at the beginning of the year, that is, before the start of a full-scale war. According to The Insider fact-checkers, immediately after the outbreak of the war, exports from EU countries fell sharply and have remained at about the same level since then. Imports of Russian goods in March were still at a high level (probably due to previously contracted supplies of raw materials), after which they began to decline, by May they had decreased to about last year's level and continued to fall until the end of the year. One of the main trends in EU trade policy has been to reduce dependence on Russian raw materials. For example, in 2021, about 45% of EU coal imports came from Russia, and in 2022 only about 13%. Russia's share in gas imports during the year decreased from 36% to 18%, oil - from 25% to 14%, fertilizers - from 29% to 16%.

By spreading such manipulations, Russian propaganda aims to show that European sanctions are ineffective and Russia is still a serious economic player.

Propagandists distribute photos that allegedly show a loan agreement of one of the Ukrainian banks. According to it, “the transfer of the territory to the jurisdiction of another state does not release the borrower from obligations”. The authors of messages with photos in Russian telegram channels add: they say, in this way even Ukrainian banks admit that Ukraine has lost or will lose its own territories forever. It's fake.

Analysts of the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found the original contract belonging to Alliance Bank. It does not contain clauses on the transfer of territories to the jurisdiction of another state. In this version of the contract, the paragraphs with numbers in the photo have a different content. Also, VoxCheck analysts did not find similar provisions in loan transactions of other Ukrainian banks.

Thus, propagandists want to demoralize Ukrainians. They say that Ukraine is losing on the battlefield and losing its territory, so the war is meaningless and it must be ended on Russia's terms. However, such fakes are also created in order to hide Russia's failure at the front.

Such a fake was spread on social networks, in particular in telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. Reports say that the grain agreement, under which grain from Ukrainian ports was “actively exported to Western countries”, allegedly “turned into a disaster” for Ukraine itself. Allegedly, as a result of the grain corridor, almost all grain, about 20 million tons, including sowing grain, was exported from the country. Ukrainian farmers have nothing to sow the fields with. It is not true.

Analysts of the StopFake project investigated this case and turned to Denys Marchuk, deputy chairman of the All-Ukrainian agrarian council, for a comment. The expert said that the information about the “disruption of the sowing campaign” is not true, since the strategic provision of Ukraine with grain fully meets domestic needs. At the same time, not all grain was exported from Ukraine. As the expert explains, the current sowing campaign, as in 2022, will take place in the most difficult conditions. He emphasizes that Russia's largest-scale invasion undermines the foundations of food security not only in Ukraine, but throughout the world.

Propagandists have repeatedly manipulated the issue of food supply for Ukraine. Thus, they nourish the narrative that Ukraine does not care about Ukrainians, but only tries to please Western countries by allegedly supplying all the grain.

The Russian media are spreading a quote from Swiss official Guy Parmelin. Allegedly, he said that Switzerland refused to commit suicide over the transfer of Russia’s frozen financial assets to Ukraine and believes that there are no legal grounds for confiscating Russian money. This is manipulation.

The Swiss official said nothing about Switzerland's refusal to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. Moreover, Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis, in an interview with Tages-Anzeiger, confirmed that he supports the idea of confiscating frozen Russian funds and using them to restore Ukraine. StopFake fact-checkers note that currently the funds are not transferred to the Ukrainian side due to the lack of an appropriate legal framework, but this issue is already being discussed by a number of countries.

Thus, Russian propaganda nourishes the narrative that Ukraine is a weak state that will not win the Russian-Ukrainian war. Also, with such messages, propagandists are trying to demoralize the fighting spirit of Ukrainians and encourage Western states not to send weapons to Ukraine.

This is the message propagandists use on social networks and telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. It states that the goal of the World economic forum is to reduce the number of people to 1 billion of “chosen ones” because there is not enough space and sources in the world for everyone. For this, WEF members, according to propagandists, have developed a special plan, which is already underway due to the war in Ukraine and the pandemic. It's a lie.

As Eu vs Disinfo experts explain, this is a propaganda stuffing built on conspiracy theories. The World economic forum is a well-known independent international organization. As noted in the program of the Annual meeting of the forum 2023, the current event is dedicated to various situations, in particular, the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic. The agenda of the Forum “focuses on solutions to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges”.

When propagandists spread such fakes and use conspiracy theories, they want to achieve a distortion of reality that is beneficial for Russian propaganda to spread their narratives. They say that the war in Ukraine has long been planned by third parties, and Russia has nothing to do with it. So, Russia blurs the borders and justifies itself, creating the appearance that people in Ukraine are dying not because of its aggression, but because of the collusion of large organizations.

Such a message is distributed through social networks and hostile telegram channels. It says that electricity prices will change dramatically. Like, by July 1, 2023, Ukrainians should expect an increase in electricity prices up to 47%. It is not true.

According to the StopFake fact checkers, the price will not change for all consumers. The increase in electricity tariffs will affect only non-residential consumers. That is, for consumers-entrepreneurs, for example, those who buy electricity for their own business. Experts say that this is due to the shelling of the Ukrainian energy infrastructure. For non-residential consumers, the price of electricity by July 2023 will increase by 18%, not 47%.

A photo is being circulated on social networks, in which, next to cans of canned vegetables and a postcard in Russian, it says: “Dear soldier, happy New Year! We wish you all the best and a speedy victory!”. In a post posted on a Facebook news group in the city of Yartsevo (Smolensk region of Russia), it was also reported that Russian soldiers were greeted by the head of the Russian Bonduelle in Russia, Kateryna Yelisieieva. The leaflet also contains information that 10,000 Russian soldiers will receive gifts in the form of four cans of canned vegetables. Now the original post, where they posted a photo of the “gifts”, is not available. According to StopFake, this is a fake.

At the very least, the head office of the French company Bonduelle officially denied involvement in the “New Year's gift sets” allegedly sent on its behalf to the Russian army. On December 31, Bonduelle released a statement saying that “Russian social media has spread false information about our activities in Russia”. The company continues to operate in Russia, unlike thousands of other Western companies, but denies any involvement in congratulating Russian infidels. “This information, as well as statements attributed to Bonduelle and its management, are fake”, the statement said. The press service added that Bonduelle continues to work in Russia “with the sole purpose of ensuring the population's access to basic food products in Russia and neighboring countries”. Later in a comment to AFP, the company said: “We do not send packages to Russian soldiers”.

At the same time, the head of the Russian office, Kateryna Yelisieieva, did not comment on the appearance of the fake. But it is known from open sources that she is a graduate of the FSB Academy.

This opinion is spread by Russian propagandists in the media and social networks. Allegedly, the Ukrainian authorities promised to restore houses destroyed during the war, but they did nothing and people near Kyiv live without windows and in the cold. But in Mariupol, which the Russians occupied, they say they are restoring the infrastructure, helping in every possible way and importing books from all over Russia. Allegedly, the Ukrainian media do not talk about this, because they are jealous of how quickly Russia is restoring the occupied city.

Earlier, propagandists promoted the message that very soon there will be houses in Mariupol in which people are settled, but in Ukraine they cannot build anything.

Russia has launched a disinformation campaign that aims to convince Ukrainians that Ukraine continues to export electricity to other countries, in particular, Moldova. This thesis is promoted by Russian propagandists and Ukrainian anti-vaxxer bloggers, fortune tellers and even YouTube channels of those breeding Corgis. Among those spreading a fake about the sale of electricity to Moldova is the well-known Ukrainian anti-vaccinator Ostap Stakhiv. This proves that the campaign is coordinated to work with different target audiences, writes StopFake.

In fact, turning off the electricity in Moldova, despite the statements of propagandists, does not prove that Ukraine supplies electricity to the country. Ukraine and Moldova are in a single block of regulation. This means that the systems of Moldova and Ukraine are six times more strongly interconnected than, for example, Moldova and Romania. This process of combining systems began in 2006 to make it easier for the systems of the two countries to integrate into the pan-European energy system. Moldova does not have many power generating capacities, and one of the largest producers, Moldova GRES, is located in Transnistria and is owned by the Russian Inter RAO. Until October 11 of this year, Moldova bought at least 30% of electricity from Ukraine, but Ukraine stopped deliveries and Moldova was forced to urgently conclude a contract with the same Russian power plant in Transnistria. Also, since October 13, Moldova has been buying a small part of the electricity needed from Romania. And they turn off the lights in Moldova after the shelling precisely because the systems of the two countries are connected, and when part of the system of Ukraine is turned off, Moldova is also turned off.

Propagandists also spread a fake that it seems that on the websites of various energy companies you can see that Ukraine gives electricity to other countries. This is also not true: the sites show data on non-commercial energy supply to the systems of neighboring countries. Also, these countries give such an amount of electricity to the Ukrainian system. This is done to balance the systems. You can read more about this in the article “Without light but without you”.

Russian media write about it. Like, in Ukraine, against the background of the energy crisis caused by Russian missile strikes on the country's energy infrastructure, a new 30% tax was introduced on the import of generators from abroad. Netizens comment that it is not a sin for “sincere patriots” in power to make money on the complicated circumstances of people. This is not true.

As StopFake writes, the Government of Ukraine has not introduced a new tax as the norm on taxation of goods imported into Ukraine over 500 euros has existed since at least 2012. Moreover, due to the energy crisis caused by Russian missile strikes against Ukraine's infrastructure, on November 8, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that the government had decided to abolish import taxes on generators, transformers, batteries, etc.

By spreading such messages, anonymous social media accounts exaggerate their influence on the mood of Ukrainian society during the war. Allegedly due to the fact that the authorities do not tell the Ukrainians about the real state of things, what they are preparing for and where Ukraine is heading, disappointment will only grow. They say that only alternative sources of information give the people answers about what the reality will be and how to prepare for it, so Ukrainians are buying up various things that will help them survive in the event of a power outage and heating. Neither the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, nor the mayor of Kyiv Vitalii Klychko, nor any head of the regional military state administration hides the fact that the Russian army is carrying out genocide of the Ukrainian people and destroying infrastructure. Authorities urge people to prepare the necessary supplies and explain how to act and where to look for information in the worst case scenario. This means that the authorities have not given up, but are considering different scenarios in order to endure and be prepared.

Anonymous channels spreading insider information is one of the tactics of Russian propaganda. On critical days, these sources will begin to disperse panic and intimidation, which work no worse than missiles and are informational terror.

In connection with an unsuccessful attempt to withdraw from the grain deal, Russia is urgently throwing several contradictory theses into the information space in order to confuse the audience and prevent them from asking a rational question: why, when Russia "withdrew" from the agreement, ships with Ukrainian grain continued to leave ports and deliver it to other countries?

In fact, after Ukraine, the UN and Turkey "informed Russia" that they would extend the agreement, despite Russian statements, the weakness of Russia's position was demonstrated to the whole world. It cannot blockade Ukrainian ports, it cannot destroy Turkish ships, and it cannot blackmail Ukraine again because of successes at the front, since now Russia is losing. Therefore, Russia was simply forced to "return" to the agreement and its propaganda had to somehow explain it to the audience.

The explanations are as follows: Ukraine gave written guarantees that it would not use the humanitarian corridor for military operations. But this is not true: Ukraine did not give additional guarantees. She gave them first and carried them out. But now Russian propaganda is forced to explain that "additional guarantees have been provided, but Russia still does not believe in any guarantees from Ukraine". And therefore reserves the right to "withdraw" from the agreement again, whenever it pleases.

The second explanation is that Russia has returned to fulfilling its obligations in order to prevent the West from "manipulating" that Russia provokes famine in the poorer countries of Asia and Africa, and thus win over the "global South". And to show that Russia is a stable and reliable partner”. And that is despite the fact that in the last 8 months Russia massively violated contracts, agreements, promises and even guarantees. It is unlikely that the reputation of a terrorist and an aggressor can be corrected by poor compliance with a single agreement.

Such a strategy looks especially disastrous against the backdrop of numerous statements by Russian officials who on November 1 stated that Russia's return to the grain agreement on the previous terms was never possible, and the next day the agreement started working again according to the same rules.

Russian propaganda is increasing the energy blackmail of Europe and is trying to force Europe to abandon sanctions against Russia and stop supporting Ukraine. The Kremlin seeks to pressure and blackmail European governments and create public panic over energy insecurity or rising electricity costs.

According to the EUvsDISINFO fact checkers, the EU member states are preparing for winter and the heating season both at the national and at the EU level. In particular, they adopted a resolution on filling gas storage facilities and distributing them in a spirit of solidarity, using various sources of energy resources, and committed to reducing gas use by 15% this winter. Despite the cessation of Russian gas supplies via Nord Stream, Europe is ready for winter. Underground gas storage facilities in the EU were filled to 82.5% of their capacity well before the November 1 deadline set in the gas storage regulation.

Recently, the Russians made a video about a winter without gas in Europe, which was supposed to scare the Europeans. However, the “powerful gas country” used winter footage from the hitherto non-gasified Russian city of Krasnoyarsk to shoot the film. Propagandists also claimed that 60% of British factories would stop working due to rising electricity prices provoked by anti-Russian sanctions. They tried to scare and fake that the United States is killing Europe, since it is beneficial for them to refuse Europeans from Russian gas.

Such a thesis is being circulated on social media as a continuation of the Kremlin’s narrative that Poland intends to annex Ukraine. To promote the message, they used the news that Ukraine and Poland intend to build a pipeline to transport Ukrainian sunflower oil to the Polish port of Hdansk.

The construction of such a pipeline is, first of all, beneficial to Ukraine, since it will contribute to the partial unblocking of Ukrainian exports in the face of Russian aggression. It was previously reported about the construction of an oil pipeline 600 km long and with a capacity of up to 2 million tons of oil per year. The pipeline will be laid from Yahodyn (Volyn region) to Hdansk.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine explains that the start of a full-scale military aggression by Russia and the blocking of Ukrainian seaports forced the government to look for new routes for the transportation of Ukrainian agro-food products. Ukraine is a major world producer and exporter of grain and vegetable oils, and by the beginning of the war, more than 90% of these products were exported through ports located on the Black Sea.

Poland believes that in addition to partial unblocking of Ukrainian exports, the implementation of the memorandum will also contribute to improving the food security of countries facing famine. As a consequence, this should reduce migration pressure on Europe.

We are not talking about any capture of Ukraine by Poland. It was Ukraine that initiated the project to build a pipeline to the Polish port of Hdansk as Russia continues to threaten exports from Ukrainian seaports.

Russia is constantly spreading fakes that Poland intends to seize part of Ukraine. In July, propagandists wrote that two Polish brigades would take control of Western Ukraine in August. They also wrote that Ukraine is a “dying donor”, each country wants a “piece” for itself, and Poland takes the most. Thus, the propagandists are trying to destroy the partnership between Ukraine and Poland. 

 This thesis is spread by the Russian media with reference to a study published on the Bloomberg website. In fact, in an article about how skyrocketing electricity bills will affect entrepreneurs in the absence of state support, not a word mentions that the crisis was provoked by anti-Russian sanctions.

On the contrary, the author of the article, Julian Harris, notes that there is such a risk, six out of 10 British manufacturers are in danger of decline due to high electricity prices. The article notes that in order to avoid a crisis, the government should announce a wider support package. "The new government needs emergency action", said Stephen Phipson, CEO of MakeUK.

Russian propagandists love to find international economic articles that talk about hard times for European businesses due to high utility bills and lead to the fact that this would not have happened if it were not for anti-Russian sanctions. They say that the West suffers more from these sanctions than Russia, so it is enough to introduce them, make friends with Russia and get low bills for electricity and gas.

At the same time, the Russian media are silent about the fact that sanctions against Russia will be lifted if it retreats from the territory of Ukraine and does not kill the civilian population and destroy cities and villages.

This news is spreading across the web. The report says that foreigners allegedly buy agricultural land in Ukraine without any problems and freely dispose of it. Like, all Ukrainian land will soon not belong to the Ukrainians themselves. However, this is not true.

In fact, according to Ukrainian law, foreign citizens do not have the right to buy agricultural land in Ukraine. From 1992 to 2021, there was a moratorium on the sale and purchase of agricultural land in Ukraine, even citizens of Ukraine could not trade agricultural land.

According to the current legislation, the purchase of non-agricultural land for foreigners is allowed only on the condition that there is real estate (for example, a house) on this land and the land belongs to an urban-type settlement.

So far, agricultural land in Ukraine can only be purchased by individuals who are citizens of Ukraine, and not more than 100 hectares. This thesis is being expanded to show that Ukraine is subject to the West and is a puppet in the hands of European officials: it does everything under dictation, it is ready to give up its lands.

Such theses are disseminated by propaganda channels, in particular by RIA Novosti. These reports say that Polish companies have organized the purchase of farmers’ products at a reduced price. In this way, allegedly Poland dooms Ukrainian enterprises to bankruptcy. And since then the Poles seek to buy the assets of companies and Ukrainian lands at reduced prices. However, this is all lies.

As the specialists of the Brekhunets (Lier) project explain, the current harvest campaign is really difficult. Due to the loss of access to ports, after the full-scale invasion of Russia, those who grew grain were the first to suffer. In addition, part of the crops in the temporarily occupied territories was also lost: fields were burned, equipment was destroyed.

The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine noted that there are only a few bankruptcy cases.

Now, for example, ports have started to work, and if the dynamics are the same as now, then export volumes will be at the level of 4-4.5 million tons, it is quite possible that in September talks will begin between banks and manufacturers about new repayment and credit schedules.

Media Detector has already written about a fake on the impossibility of selling agricultural land to foreign citizens. Moreover, this applies as well to legal entities - food companies.

France’s policy towards Ukraine, the supply of weapons to it and financial assistance is supposedly suicide for this country, since Ukraine is the most corrupt country in the world. In addition, sanctions against Russia do not work because they are the main supplier of raw materials in the world. This is manipulation.

Euvsdisinfo.eu. writes about it. In fact, Ukraine in the ranking of corrupt countries, which is compiled by Transparency International, was 122nd out of 180 countries in 2021, and Russia, for example, was 136th. In addition, in order to fight corruption, Ukraine has taken and is taking a number of important steps, in particular, it is implementing judicial reform, changing the composition of the High Council of Justice, and strengthening anti-corruption bodies - SAPO (Specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office) and NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine). The latter recently announced suspicion to deputy Trukhin for offering a bribe to a policeman.

As for the sanctions, Russia suffers from them because it lacks the technology for, in particular, the military-industrial complex.

This fake is being spread to distract the West from helping Ukraine and lifting sanctions against Russia. Their constancy in time allows Ukraine to keep the defense in an unprovoked war and hope for its victorious end.

Russian propaganda continues to disperse the topic of dependence on gas from the Russian Federation throughout Europe and Ukraine, in particular. This time, the pro-Kremlin media wrote that centralized heating was canceled in Kyiv and called on the people of Kiev to “buy warm clothes” and they named the reason for this: sanctions against Russia. The propagandists referred to the words of the mayor of the capital, Vitalii Klychko. In fact, he did not talk about the abolition of the heating season, but warned the townspeople about possible blackouts of heat and electricity and possible terrorist attacks at thermal power plants.

Vitalii Klychko said in an interview with Babel that there is gas for the population, but in the conditions of the Russian war, the capital is preparing for possible terrorist attacks on Kyiv thermal power plants. The mayor of Kyiv did indeed warn of possible power and heat outages and urged people to warm up. However, there are no quotes about sanctions and the energy crisis.

“The average readiness for the heating season in Ukraine as of August 17 is 73%. As of mid-August, Ukrainian storage facilities have accumulated 12.6 billion cubic meters of gas, as well as 1.89 million tons of coal. The task of the Cabinet of Ministers is to accumulate 19 billion cubic meters of gas - this volume will allow a successful heating season in Ukraine. According to the chairman of the board of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, Yurii Vitrenko, before the onset of cold weather, Ukraine will provide part of the missing gas through domestic production, and about 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas will need to be imported,” StopFake fact checkers explained.

Pattern: in the context of frozen messages about Europe, propagandists always mention sanctions against the Russian Federation. Therefore, the dissemination of these fakes, manipulations and messages are attempts to intimidate the population in order to influence the circle of decision-makers on sanctions.

Earlier, Russian propaganda already wrote that the mayor of Lviv called on residents to buy firewood for the winter, the next winter without Russian gas is an important test for Germany and Europeans are panicking due to a reduction in Russian gas supplies.

Anonymous telegram channels and Russian media "quote" an interview with Deputy Head of the National Bank of Ukraine Serhii Nikolaichuk to Rabbit Hole. They say that the stocks were transferred for storage "until the situation normalizes," but now Kyiv is unlikely to be able to return them. It is not true.

Serhii Nikolaichuk did not say that either in this interview or in any other. There are no mentions of gold reserves in the Rabbit Hole interview. They are talking only about the problems and challenges of the Ukrainian economy during the war. The information was checked by the StopFake fact checkers. No amendments were made to the article on the export of gold and foreign exchange reserves.

According to the National Bank, as of August 1, monetary gold makes up only 6.7% of the gold and foreign exchange reserves. Most of the gold and foreign exchange reserves (54.9%) are securities, another 38.3% is in cash accounts. In general, the gold and foreign exchange reserves of Ukraine are a collection of reserves that are placed in different places and forms, so it is impossible to take the “entire stock” to Poland.

Anonymous telegram channels write about this with reference to the global rating agencies S&P and Fitch. They say that only "official default" awaits Ukraine, that is, "bankruptcy". It is not true.

Ukraine has not declared a default. Due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there have indeed been significant changes in the state budget of Ukraine. This is stipulated, in particular, by the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Regime of Martial Law”. The main priority during this period is the defense industry. According to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, after negotiations, the investors agreed to defer payments.

“Thanks to the solidarity with Ukraine of the private investor community, together with the official public sector, we will be able to meet the needs of the country’s state budget at war and keep our public finances stable,” said Ukraine’s Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.

According to Bloomberg, the restructuring process is supported by Ukraine's key allies, including the United States and the International Monetary Fund. The international community understands that Ukraine is now defending itself against a much larger and richer aggressor, so it needs substantial financial support and assistance.