This is the information spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. However, according to the UN Refugee Agency, as of March 30, 4 million people - about 10% of Ukraine's total population - had left Ukraine abroad, and at least 6.5 million more had been forced to leave their homes and moved to other areas of Ukraine. . Therefore, the statements from pro-Russian telegram channels cannot be trusted, because it is not known where the propagandists got the figure of 8 million from, and as of what date they recorded such data. Recall that in such cases, only data from official sources should be considered. In addition, according to a Razumkov Center survey, as of April 5, 79% of refugees from Ukraine plan to return home after the war ends. In reports that many propagandists also claim that this is the so-called "Zelenskyy arithmetic," as if blaming the Ukrainian authorities for this situation. However, people did not leave Ukraine en masse until Russia launched a full-scale invasion and began killing Ukrainian civilians and military personnel.

This information is spread in social networks and Russian propaganda media. The reports are accompanied by a video, in which the servicemen brutally detain people. The description says that the video shows the arrest of civilians in the Dnipro region who support Russia. However, this is a fake. As fact checkers from StopFake report, the detention in the video took place in Pavlograd, not in Dnipro. "The SBU special forces detained local thugs who had previously beaten up a territorial defense fighter, as reported by the mayor of Dnipro. The Russian agitprop repeatedly attempts to divert attention from the war crimes of its army, distributing various videos that allegedly bring the brutal treatment of Ukrainian soldiers to the civilian. civilians from Dnipro, allegedly supporting Russia, is not involved," the fact checkers write. Read more.

This is the thesis spread by Russian propaganda media. The reports claim that SBU officers were replacing the chlorine storage in the Kharkiv region, namely at the Khimprom enterprise in the town of Pervomaisky. However, this is a fake. As StopFake fact checkers write, there are no chlorine storages at the Khimprom plant in Pervomaisky because it ceased to exist many years ago.

Russian propagandists call the tragedy in Bucha, which became known after Russian soldiers left the city, a provocation and compare the situation to the events in the Syrian city of Douma that took place in 2018. Propagandists claim that both in Bucha and Douma, only provocations took place, and in the case of Douma, such a provocation allegedly served as an excuse for the joint bombing of Syrian facilities by military planes and ships of the US, France and the UK. In such reports propagandists find many. seemingly common features between the events in Bucha and Duma, in particular the fact that there are only five letters in the names of both cities, transliterating them into Latin. long and complicated words". The propagandists also emphasize that the events in both cities took place at approximately the same time - in early April. But the biggest similarity, which the propagandists assure us, is that the territory controlled by "terrorists" was chosen, where it seemed possible to arrange anything without barriers. draw parallels between the war in Ukraine and Syria and find so-called similar contexts in them.

Such a thesis is spreading in propaganda telegram channels. The messages claim that the media will soon begin to disperse information about the tragedy in Borodyanka in order to blame the Russian military, which recently left the settlement. The propaganda statements assure that the Ukrainian and Western media will claim that things in Borodyanka are even worse than in Bucha and claim that allegedly, according to eyewitness accounts, it was not the Russians but the Ukrainian army that shelled the residential quarters of the settlement with grads. The reports add that it does not appear from the photos currently coming from Borodyanka that there were any dead, and that is what the national police allegedly said as well, but "if the Western media write, then there will be." In fact, according to Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, Borodyanka is one of the most destroyed settlements in the Kyiv region. Locals tell how planes came in the first days of the war and fired rockets from a low height at these houses. And it was possible to save those people who were under those rubble... But the rescuers were shelled again and after that they had no access to the place. We understand that now there are no living people left here," Monastyrskyi said. As a reminder, after the photos from the destroyed Bucha were made public, after Russian troops left there, propagandists also claimed that it was all just a ruling to discredit the Russian military.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Russia promotes in the English-language information space the thesis that Africa allegedly actively supports Russia's military actions on the territory of Ukraine.

""The Moscow Times Russian website published an article about Africa's increased support for Russia thanks to pro-Kremlin propaganda in social networks and the media. In particular, the author refers to "authoritative" figures loyal to Putin - African pan-Africanist politician Cami Sebu, as well as Ugandan Lieutenant General Muhozi Kainerugabu," according to the Center.

However, the fact that there is mass support for Russia in African countries is a manipulation. On March 2, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding that Russia immediately cease military action in Ukraine, the Center reported. Then out of 54 African member states, only Eritrea voted against it, so one cannot speak of any mass support, given this. "In addition, according to the ITU, as of 2021, only 33 percent of Africa's population used the Internet, so the effectiveness of Kremlin propaganda in the region is somewhat exaggerated," the Center notes.

This information is disseminated in Russian propaganda media and telegram channels. In such reports, propagandists refer to the words of Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center. They say that mass arrests of citizens are allegedly taking place in Kharkiv, and men are being forcibly taken into the terror defense battalions. Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Defense had already spread fake information about the situation in Kharkiv, more precisely about the so-called "flying death squads. However, this is not true. According to StopFake, nothing of the kind is happening in Kharkiv, which is regularly shelled by Russian troops. Statements by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense about life in Kharkiv under martial law are untrue. Neither the reports of local human rights defenders nor the messages on social networks contain information about the "mass terror" that the Ukrainian authorities allegedly organized in the city.

Anonymous telegram channels controlled by Russian special services have been circulating reports that President Vladimir Zelenskyy is allegedly being guarded by foreign mercenaries - supposedly he does not trust Ukrainian ones. This report, as well as the manipulative conclusions, rests entirely on the fact that one of the defenders accompanying the president to Bucha has the Ukrainian flag upside down on his chevron. There could be many explanations for this, from "the wrong chevron" to "the identification mark of a certain group" (e.g., the inverted Ukrainian flag is used by Azov) or "an indication of the state of war." The military also confirms this to Media Detector. In fact, the Ukrainian flag we are used to - blue on top, yellow on the bottom - approved only in 1918. There is also an opinion that the flag is turned upside down as a sign of distress or war. More about this myth was written by "On the other side of the news". In addition, the footage from Bucha shows Zelenskyy's security guard, the first deputy head of the Department - the head of the Security Service of the President of Ukraine of the State Security Directorate, Maksym Donets, constantly visible.

Russian propaganda spreads a fake that "Western countries supply low-quality and outdated weapons to Ukraine," or that "it is simply impossible to stop cruise missile strikes with Javelin and Stinger. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council denied these reports, recalling that since February 25, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has regularly reported on downed Russian cruise missiles: over the Vinnitsa, Kherson, Kharkov, and Nikolaev regions. "In this way the aggressor is trying to sow panic among the population. Having met resistance in the temporarily occupied territories, the enemy resorts to information terrorism in order to demoralize Ukrainians and stop their resistance, the Center said. - In this way, the enemy is probably already preparing the information field for victorious messages about "new liberated settlements in Donbass, which will be presented as territories under temporary occupation since 2014".

Russian propaganda is spreading fake reports that Ukraine is allegedly blocking dozens of foreign civilian ships in its ports. According to StopFake, according to the International Maritime Organization, as of March 30, 86 merchant ships and approximately 1,000 sailors are blocked in Ukrainian ports and waters because of the Russian war. Earlier, the International Maritime Organization stated that it is Russia, not Ukraine, that is attacking commercial vessels, merchant ships and search and rescue ships in the Black and Azov seas. US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman confirmed on 29 March that Russia had attacked civilian foreign ships in the Black Sea. According to her information, Russia also bombed at least three civilian ships that were transporting goods from Black Sea ports.

The fake story about Russian troops installing antennas to listen to the phone conversations of Ukrainians is actively spreading in the network again. We already wrote about it and gave a rebuttal. So far there is no confirmation about the installation of such equipment and the possibility of wiretapping the conversations of Ukrainians, reports the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection. Chairman of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection Yurii Shchyhol said that all such statements turned out to be fakes and part of information and psychological operations, which were intended to intimidate Ukrainians, as well as to make Ukrainians stop reporting information about places of movement of enemy equipment. this is not the only case of spreading misinformation among citizens, previously spreading fakes that Ukrainians would receive phone calls at night from unknown numbers to target for airborne bombing.

Censorship in Russia is trying to block almost the only resource that is still delivering truthful information about the war against Ukraine. That is why yesterday Roskomnadzor reported that it made a protocol on the Russian Wikipedia for not removing "unreliable information" about the war against Ukraine. On March 29, for the second time, Roskomnadzor demanded that Russian Wikipedia remove the article "Russian Invasion of Ukraine (2022)." The Roskomnadzor press service called it "false content aimed at misinforming Russian users" - because the article indicated the number of dead and wounded Ukrainian civilians, with references to UN data, as well as the number of destroyed Russian soldiers (according to the General Staff of the AFU), and also for the fact that the article calls the war a war. It was authored by Russian wikipedist Oleg Yunakov; the article was viewed 5 million times in the first week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For refusal to remove this article, Roskomnadzor is threatening Wikipedia with a fine of 4 million rubles (about $50,000), and almost from the beginning of the war the agency is also threatening to block Wikipedia in Russia.

Earlier, it was reported that a well-known Russian wikepedist Mark Bernstein was detained for 15 days in Belarus for allegedly resisting the police. His personal data, as well as hundreds of other Russian wikepedists after the war are published by anonymous telegram channels to put pressure on them. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine reports that Russian authorities and propagandists are discrediting Wikipedia in order to convince the public that any information about the war in Ukraine is fake.

This assertion is promoted by Russian propaganda media and pro-Russian TV channels. Such reports state that the so-called crisis in Ukraine came about because of U.S. and NATO policies, which allegedly "pumped weapons into Ukraine" in circumvention of agreements and laws. In reality, there is no crisis in Ukraine, as Russian propagandists call it, but a full-fledged war in which military and civilians are being killed. It was Russia, not the United States or NATO, that unleashed the war in Ukraine. As ZMIST fact-checkers, who pointed out this message, wrote, this is how Russia tries to justify its war crimes. "Again we see the transfer of responsibility to others. It's not NATO and the U.S. that have stormed into Ukraine. It's not NATO and the US destroying Ukrainian cities. It's not NATO and the US killing Ukrainian men, women and children. This is all Russia's doing," the message reads.

Such messages circulated en masse in social networks during the air raid in the evening of March 31. People spread information like explosions and shelling. However, there was no shelling, said the head of the Regional Military Administration (OVA) of Lviv region Maxim Kozitsky.

"As it turned out, in one of the localities of the region workers of a gas extraction tower produced a controlled release of adjacent gases. During the release, a sound similar to an explosion was heard. There was also a partial fire. These events coincided with the announcement of an air alert," the Center for Strategic Communications reports with reference to the head of the Lviv OVA."

This is the information disseminated by Russian propaganda media. The reports claim that the Ukrainian Motor Sich Concern is developing the new bayraktars. They add that such devices will spray viruses from the air. ""In fact, we are talking about the development by the Kiev regime of means of delivery of biological weapons with the possibility of use against Russia,"" the reports say.

However, this is not true. As Ukrainska Pravda writes, no documentary or visual evidence of such a request has been cited in Russian propaganda. However, the activity of the so-called biolaboratories Russian propaganda recently cited as another reason for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. You can read more about the so-called biolaboratories at the link."

According to the Center for Counteracting Disinformation, this is the message spread by Russian propagandists who claim that the Ukrainian government seeks to starve Ukrainians to death and remove grain from the country. The propagandists also assure that "food security of Ukraine is under threat," "disruption of the sowing season and military operations will lead to starvation in Ukraine. According to the Center's report, these theses were invented by the Russian UN office.

"Humanitarian problems are in the temporarily occupied territories, where the enemy does not allow humanitarian supplies. In Ukraine, the Kremlin's famine message is promoted by the sub-sanctioned Telegram channel "Country Politics" and pseudo-expert Dmytro Vasilets (the "State" party, whose activities have been stopped by the decision of the NSDC)," the Center explains and adds that in fact Ukraine has supplies for domestic consumption for at least 2 years.

The Russian media spread a report about the murder of Ukrainian sniper Olena Belozerskaya. A video is added to the reports, showing the body of some woman dressed in civilian clothes. In fact, Olena Bilozerska is alive. "Who died is unknown. It looks like a civilian," Olena Bilozerska wrote on her Facebook.

Russian propagandists disseminate the thesis that a fake history has been created for Ukrainian children. They draw such conclusions from the statements of Russian specialists who allegedly conducted a study and found that more than 300 Ukrainian textbooks contain false, fake historical facts. As ZMIST fact-checkers, who pointed out these reports, write, Russian propagandists complain that the modern Ukrainian educational system has been stripped of the remnants of Soviet propaganda and presents students with real historical facts.

For example, the Russian education minister said in a statement that Ukrainian schoolchildren are even "deprived of the opportunity to know that they can be proud of the shared history of Ukraine and Russia and figures like Yuri Gagarin" or proud of the feat of "common victory." "The argument about the 'inability to know about Yuri Gagarin' makes no sense at all, because the two most important people in the Soviet space program, the people who enabled Gagarin's flight - the Korolyov and Glushko - were Ukrainians, and whole sections of Ukrainian history textbooks are devoted to them," write ZMIST fact checkers. Ukrainian textbooks also have sections devoted to World War II. However, there are also sections about the crimes of the Soviet government against Ukraine and the Ukrainians. For example, we are talking about the subject of the Holodomor.

Russia's Defense Ministry has spread a fake that the Ukrainian military allegedly uses as a shelter for a synagogue in Uman. Russian propagandists also spread a photo where the military allegedly took weapons and ammunition from the synagogue.

The United Jewish Community of Ukraine has refuted this fake, saying that all synagogues and Jewish sites in Ukraine are used exclusively for their intended purpose, to carry out religious activities, or to help members of Jewish communities and the local population. "Even based on a photo published for provocative purposes, it is evident that the synagogue gates are closed, and no one is in it. The Rabbi Nachman Foundation in Uman confirms that the second-largest synagogue in Ukraine was closed from Rosh Hashanah (celebrated in September 2021) and has not been used since," the statement said.

Those statements are spread by russian propagandists in mass media and social networks stating that on March 28 the Ukrainian side started fire from small arms and mortars in the Summy and Zaporizhzhya directions, disrupting the evacuation of civilians.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, this is not true as there were no humanitarian corridors on that day. “Iryna Vereshchuk, the minister for Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories claimed that due to the security reasons on March 28, 2022 the humanitarian corridors will not be open”, the center reports.

Russian propagandists are spreading this message en masse online. They quote US President Joe Biden in publications that allegedly say that Ukraine has done too little to defend itself. "We talked for three months about the Russian attack; the Ukrainian authorities ignored us. 28 (remember this number), that's how many reports we passed to the Ukrainian side, and we were called panickers," — network users quoted the US president.

Biden did not say this phrase during his speech in Warsaw or in other public speeches. The StopFake team analyzed public speeches and transcripts of meetings with the US President's press from February 24 to March 26, 2022, and found no such statements.

Member of Parliament of Ukraine and one of the participants in the talks between Ukraine and Russia, Rustem Umerov, denied reports of his alleged poisoning. "I am just fine. Please do not trust unverified sources of information. The information war in our country is actively continuing," he said on Facebook.

Russian propagandists write that the head of the Odessa regional military administration, Maxym Marchenko (whom propagandists call the "Nazi governor"), allegedly ordered the mining of the Khadzhibey Dam. Fake reports about the mining of the Hadzhibey Dam say that "a closed meeting was allegedly held in Odesa, at which Maksym Marchenko ordered sappers to mine the Hadzhibey Dam. In case of an active attack of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from Mykolaiv or a city siege, the dam will be blown up. To the objection of the representative of the water utility and the Ministry of Emergencies that the water will very quickly reach a densely populated area located in the lowlands and it will be difficult to pump it out, the governor said that the blast would be attributed to Russian saboteurs".

According to StopFake, Sergiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the operational headquarters of the Odessa OVA, denied this statement and pointed out that the sources of this information belong to the Russian units of the IPSO.

Telegram channels spread information that the government had approved a certain amount of payments to each Ukrainian during the war. According to the fact-checking project "Liar", in particular, the reports were published by the channels "All about the war" and "News of Ukraine 24/7".

However, this is a manipulation, as the authors of the reports note that it seems that the Ukrainian government has approved a certain monthly amount of cash benefits that all citizens will receive without exception. Some publications have stated that the number of payments will depend on the age group of people. There are several of them. Volodymyr Zelensky announced a large-scale program of assistance to Ukrainians, covering three main areas: money, housing, and work. However, according to the official statement of the authorities, it will apply to those citizens who were forced to leave their homes due to the fighting, and not all, without exception, Ukrainians.

Such information is spread by Russian propaganda. However, this is not true. According to the head of the youth and sports department of the Izium City Council, Maksym Strelnyk, the enemy is spreading this due to the lack of military success on the Izium front.

"It's a lie. Our army heroically defends Raisins and does not allow the enemy to enter the southern part of the city. The demarcation line now runs along the Seversky Donets River. Still, with the help of local collaborators, the Russian occupiers learned about the ford across the river and are now able to reach the southern shore. However, our defenders immediately meet them and send them all to hell," the statement reads. Information about the fake was also confirmed by the head of the Kharkiv OVA, Oleh Synegubov.