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.

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.

Russian media reports that IAEA observers should see that there is no Russian military equipment at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. StopFake writes about it. They refer to the words of Volodymyr Putin who announced this in Vladyvostok. The Russian dictator noted that these divisions of the National Guard of Russia "guard" the perimeter and territory of the station. This is manipulation.

The IAEA report notes just the opposite: that military equipment is present there. In particular, paragraph 39 of the report states: “The team observed the presence of Russian military personnel, vehicles and equipment at various sites of the ZNPP, including several military trucks on the first floor of block 1 and block 2 of the turbine hall, as well as military vehicles under the crossing connecting reactor room.

And the National Guard, according to Russian law, is a military organization. And in Ukraine, this structure fulfills military purposes, in fact, being an occupation structure.

Photos of elderly women carrying firewood are circulating on social networks, with captions that German pensioners are supposedly preparing for winter because of problems with gas. This is manipulation.

In fact, in the photo are Russian pensioners. Fact-checkers of the MithDetector project found that the photos were taken in 2018-2019 by Russian photographers to illustrate materials about whether the Russians will have time to prepare for winter. Despite the fact that Russia is trying to blackmail the West with gas supplies, many regions of Russia are still not connected to the gas supply system, so they must prepare firewood for the winter.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European countries are really trying to find alternative sources of energy instead of Russian gas. Alternatives include harvesting firewood and acquiring wood-burning stoves. Demand for wood stoves in Germany has doubled compared to last year. In the past, less than 6% of Germans used wood for heating, but this year the number is likely to arise.

Russian propagandists spread several theses about the visit of a mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the alleged plan of the Ukrainian authorities to take control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

First, the pro-Kremlin media noted that on September 01, at dawn, “an unsuccessful assault began.” Allegedly, Ukrainian saboteurs on seven boats and two self-propelled barges tried to disrupt the IAEA mission in Enerhodar, temporarily occupied by Russia. The Russians blocked their landing, the British-trained elite fighters were massacred and the barges were sunk.

According to another version of the Russian Ministry of Defense, specially selected and trained "media representatives" from Ukraine, the United States and Great Britain, in the presence of the IAEA mission, were supposed to inform the world community about the transfer of the station to the control of Kyiv. Therefore, all unauthorized persons, when trying to cross the demarcation line, along with the IAEA motorcade, stopped and were not allowed through.

And it did not happen without accusations of Ukraine in the shelling. They say that the Russian side ensured the arrival of more than 60 journalists from France, the USA, China, Denmark, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Vietnam and other countries. In the morning of September 01, they witnessed an attempt to attack the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by Ukrainian saboteurs, could see massive artillery shelling by the artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and hid in a bomb shelter.

Remember that the IAEA mission headed by its head Rafael Grossi on September 01 visited the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant being seized by Russia since March 4. 14 experts stayed at ZNPP for two and a half hours. On that day, the Russian army conducted a powerful shelling of the corridor through which the IAEA mission was supposed to follow from Zaporizhzhia to the nuclear power plant, so the experts traveled quite a long time.

The Russians did not allow independent Ukrainian and Western journalists to enter the ZNPP. As President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said, despite the agreements with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi, the IAEA mission arrived at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant without journalists, there were only propagandists from Russia. Enerhoatom confirmed that “the overwhelming majority of “media from all over the world” who arrived at the plant on September 01 were Russian propagandists.”

The board of the joint-stock company "Khersonoblenergo" (JSC), operating in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, reported that again the organization has nothing to do with the distribution system operator "Khersonoblenergo" JSC and draws funds from consumers in the Kherson region. Both the newly created company and its website are located in Moscow. The Ukrainian company also reminded that all electricity supplied to the Kherson region is supplied exclusively from the territory of Ukraine and must be paid exclusively to Ukrainian accounts.

Russian propaganda systematically accuses Ukraine of striking the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. At the same time, the "commander" of the occupying garrison of the nuclear power plant, Russian General Vasiliev, threatened that "the station will be either Russian or nobody" and "there will be either Russian free land or scorched earth".