A release of radioactive elements allegedly occurred at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, and a cloud of dust is moving to Kyiv, because this is evidenced by the direction of the wind, they write in the Russian segment of a Telegram. Photos of a special “map” are added to the publications, which should show the movement of the radioactive cloud towards the Ukrainian capital.

Analysts from the StopFake project this case and found that the background radiation in Kyiv and its surroundings as of July 22, 2024 was within normal limits. The State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations also does not confirm the information about the release. Moreover, no Ukrainian media reported this news.

And the photo that was used in the fake publication was taken from stock - and it actually shows data on the density of plutonium contamination in the 30-kilometer zone of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant for the year 2000.

Russian telegram channels write that graffiti with the image of Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly appeared in Kyiv. As “proof”, the messages add a photograph of a wall on which Zelenskyi is drawn with a noose around his neck and the inscription “Zelia - get out!”

StopFake fact-checkers managed to find the location where such graffiti was allegedly painted. It turned out to be the wall of the private museum of the Yakubovskyi family in Kyiv, photographed from Oleh Koshovyi street.

But there was no similar graffiti on the spot, that is, the fakers created this graffiti using special programs.

An alleged cover of an issue of the German satirical magazine Eulenspiegel with the headline “His Finale” is being circulated online. It shows a footballer in a uniform with EU symbols raised to hit Volodymyr Zelenskyi's severed head.

VoxCheck analysts found that the German magazine Eulenspiegel did not publish an issue with such a cover.

Since on the Eulenspiegel website in the section with all published issues, as well as on the magazine’s pages on social networks, there are no issues with such a cover.

The cover circulated online states that this is the sixth issue of the magazine in 2024. However, the cover of the sixth issue for 2024 is different from the fake one. The actual cover features football fans.

Photos of an announcement allegedly from the National Police are being circulated online, calling for people to contact the hotline in case of aggression from people in military uniform. The announcement allegedly again contains the hotline numbers of the National Police in Zhytomyr.

However, this information is not true, they write in the VoxCheck project. Photos of the “announcement” can only be found in Russian and pro-Russian sources. Also, the owner of the phone number 0-800-505-222 is not law enforcement agencies, but the WIZARD company. It supplies equipment for water supply, drainage and heating. Another number (+380 (44) 254-96-96) is inactive. GetContact users mark it as the phone number of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This may be an outdated MIA contact.

In addition, reliable national and regional media did not report the creation of a similar hotline in Zhytomyr. The Main Directorate of the National Police in the Zhytomyr region does not indicate the functioning of such a line.

Propagandists are distributing on anonymous telegram channels a photo of a letter allegedly from JSC National Atomic Power Generating Company Energoatom, addressed to the Minister of Climate and Environment of Poland, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, about their readiness to export electricity to Poland. However, this is fake.

The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council drew attention to it. Its specialists checked the information at JSC National Atomic Power Generating Company Energoatom and found out that the letter being distributed was a fake. This indicates several details. Firstly, in the text of the “letter” there are obvious lexical and grammatical errors that are not typical for the Ukrainian language, especially in its last sentence. In addition, the head of Energoatom does not send official correspondence to government authorities of foreign countries, since this violates ethics and rules of international correspondence. The signature on the so-called document is also fake. Also, at the end of 2023, Energoatom became a joint-stock company, and not a state-owned enterprise, as stated in the “document”.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists are trying to cause public discontent and neutralize Russia’s role in the crisis of the energy system in Ukraine. They say that Ukrainians are sitting without electricity not because Russia is carrying out targeted attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, but because Ukraine allegedly sells electricity abroad.

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that in Sumy, validators on buses allegedly demand payment for travel in rubles. Some sources write that this became possible thanks to a Russian hacker attack, because soon, according to propagandists, “the city may come under Russian control”. A photograph distributed online shows a bus validator, on the screen of which is visible the inscription: “Amounts 33 rubles. Scan your card”.

However, in fact, the photo was edited in a photo editor, writes the StopFake project. To create the fake image, the Russians used the original photo of the validator from a bus in Kyiv. This photo was published by the mayor of Kyiv Vitalii Klychko on his page on the social network Facebook back in October 2022. In the original photo one can see the inscription on the validator screen “Kyiv, 15:33”,but  not “Sumy, 33 rubles”, as propagandists claim.

The fact that this photo was used to create a fake one is evidenced by their similarity: an identical shadow on the validator screen, as well as a similar interior of the vehicle.

StopFake journalists further analyzed the fake image using the InVID & WeVerify tool to determine whether it had been altered. Analysis of 8x8 pixel blocks using the BLOCK algorithm showed that the grid was locally disrupted. This means that objects in the image have been added or moved. This is also confirmed by other algorithms. In particular, deep learning approaches for detecting manipulation and counterfeiting Mantra-Net and Fusion detected traces of editing in the validator screen area.

This fake aim is to disturb the residents of Sumy, saying that soon the “Russian world” will come to their city.

Propagandists are spreading information about the alleged appearance of offensive graffiti in Munich after the defeat of the Ukrainian national team at the European Football Championship. It is alleged that the graffiti allegedly depicts a player of the Ukrainian national team, being led by the hands of “joyful Territorial center of recruitment and social support employees”. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that in fact there is no reliable information that such graffiti appeared in Munich after the defeat of the Ukrainian team. Checking this image on websites for verification indicates that it was computer generated or altered.

Using the Forensically service, we were able to discover that many details in the image were changed or added to the original photo, which indicates that the picture is not real. Forensically works like a microscope, helping one see those changes in pictures that the eyes would not notice. To detect modified blocks in a published photograph, they used the ELA (error level analysis) section. In this case, the photo consists almost entirely of modified parts: the bicycle, the figures of three men in the graffiti, the frame on the wall and the paving stones clearly stand out in the photo when analyzing the data.

It is also worth noting that the Ukraine-Belgium match, after which the blue-yellows left the tournament, took place on June 26, 2024 in Stuttgart, Germany, and not in Munich. This creates a certain inconsistency and it is not clear why such graffiti should appear in the capital of Bavaria. Previously, the Ukrainian national team was defeated in a match with Romania, which took place on June 17 at the Allianz Arena in Munich, but after this match Ukraine continued to participate in Euro 2024, fighting to leave the group.

All this indicates that the photo is fake and was specially produced by Russian propaganda to discredit Ukraine and undermine the mobilization campaign in the country.

A video from the BBC is being circulated online, citing Bellingcat as saying that Emmanuel Macron may resign a week before the Olympics. The reasons for this decision are the victory of the radical right party in the elections to the European Parliament and the announcement of early parliamentary elections in France, as well as the high risk of terrorist threats and unpreparedness for the Olympic Games.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the BBC and Bellingcat did not disseminate such information. After all, the fake “report” was created from separate frames that were not related to each other.

A reverse photo search on Google showed that propagandists used individual photographs and videos from open sources to create the fake news. In particular, the photo with Emmanuel Macron was taken from the Instagram account of the official photographer of the French President.

A screenshot of a message allegedly from the Help Online chat to PrivatBank is being circulated online. In it, the bank, citing martial law, refuses to provide a loan to the user Dmytro Olehovych. Instead, the user is offered to apply for a loan for a female relative.

“The bank does not want to lose money by approving a loan to a person who could mobilize and kill tomorrow,” comment the propagandists.

VoxCheck analysts analyzed this stuffing and determined that such a change in the lending policy is not spelled out in the bank’s Terms and Conditions, and the interface according to the screenshot of the propagandists differs from the real interface of the Help Online chat. Also, the Ukrainian media does not have any mention of such an “innovation”.

Pro-Russian resources are distributing a video from Brussels showing a building on the walls which allegedly depicts graffiti with a caricature of the President of Ukraine and the caption: “Please invite another bankrupt to the EU”. The voice of a man behind the scenes, who speaks Ukrainian, leads to the conclusion that supposedly Ukraine is not welcome in the EU.

In fact, such graffiti does not exist in the Belgian capital, Ukrinform journalists report. Using Google Maps, they were able to establish that opposite the graffiti allegedly with a caricature of Zelenskyi there is a pet store called Zinneke&Kats.

After Ukrinform journalists contacted this pet store, its owners confirmed that the video distributed by propagandists is fake. At the same time, it was indeed filmed in Brussels, but there is other graffiti on the house, which can be seen in the photo above.

By the way, the fake video was first uploaded to the network on June 25, 2024 - precisely on the day when the first Intergovernmental Conference on Ukraine’s accession to the EU started in Luxembourg, which gave the official start to accession negotiations. Previously, we refuted the information that in Berlin they allegedly created graffiti with Zelenskyi in the image of a maniac.

A report from the Euronews TV channel is being distributed on social networks. It claims that in western Ukraine, the Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers beat an ethnic Hungarian when they tried to mobilize him.

Fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project established that Euronews did not publish such a video. It was assembled from videos that were not connected to each other.

Through a reverse photo search, it turned out that for the fake Euronews video, propagandists used excerpts of individual videos from open sources. Thus, the footage of the Territorial center of recruitment and social support employees was taken from the report Investigation. Info for April 2024. The video does not mention representatives of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

Information is being spread online that supposedly in Vinnytsia the head of the local shopping center and joint venture banned the sale of wigs to men so that they would not try to hide from mobilization by dressing up as women. As proof, publications add a photo of the “announcement” from the Territorial center of recruitment and social support.

VoxCheck analysts investigated the case and found out that the head of the Vinnytsia regional Territorial center of recruitment and social support did not give such an order.

In fact, checking the “announcement” photo in Forensically using the ELA tool showed that the photo contained signs of editing. So, the announcement text was created and added to the photo using a photo editor.

Moreover, a reverse photo search on Google showed that for the fake they used a photo of the Topwigs wig store for 2019, which is located in Kyiv. After all, in this advertisement in the photo it is said about a paid fitting of wigs.

Pro-Russian resources are distributing a photo showing Ukrainian graduates at the last bell celebration ceremony, dressed in graduation ribbons. And, according to propagandists, this year the ribbons seemed to depict a map of Ukraine without the temporarily occupied Crimea.

However, this is a fake photo. The photo has been edited, because in the original photo the map of Ukraine on the ribbons is shown including Crimea. This was reported by specialists from the VoxCheck project. Using the PimEyes program, which performs a reverse face search, they found a photo of one of the girls in the feed - she was present at the Ukrainian Greco-Roman wrestling championship in Ternopil.

Then, thanks to a search using the words “last call celebration Ternopil”, it was possible to find original footage from the graduation. In fact, they were made not in Lviv, but in Ternopil - they were distributed by local media on May 31, 2024. In the photo of all graduates, the ribbons of all graduates depict Ukraine within the internationally recognized borders of 1991, including the temporarily occupied Crimea.

In addition, on the fake photo one can see signs of editing, probably with spot correction: on one ribbon in the place of Crimea there is a noticeable darkening, on the other there is a gap in the outline of the map.

Also, in all online stores where such graduation ribbons are sold or produced to order, Ukraine is depicted within the internationally recognized borders of 1991. In the end, this “news” is spread mainly by Russian websites and telegram channels. There is no mention in the Ukrainian media of the incident, which would certainly provoke outrage in the Ukrainian-language segment of social networks, because such situations are reacted sharply in the media space.

Russian telegram channels are distributing an alleged cover of The Economist magazine with the image of former Russian Defense Minister Serhii Shoihu. The “cover” bears the title “The Last 120 Days” and the message adds that “the final phase of the conflict has already begun”. Propagandists claim that the magazine allegedly published material about decisive events that will lead to Russian victory in the coming months. In fact, this is a fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that on the official website of the magazine in the All Issues section there is no issue with a picture of Shoihu. Additionally, there is no publication date on the cover. Russian and pro-Russian outlets began circulating the cover on May 14, although The Economist did not publish any new issues that day. The covers for May 4, 11, and 18 are significantly different from the fake ones, and the topics in these issues do not concern ending the war “in 120 days” or any other time frame. This image of Shoihu is also missing from The Economist's social networks.

In addition, a link to the telegram channel “The Economist” was added to the fake message. This channel is not the official channel of The Economist, since the publication does not have a telegram channel at all. The fake channel imitates the British publication, copying its description and logo.

This is not the first time Russians have used Western brands to spread misinformation. They take the name of a Western publication, its logo, and through fake photos and videos they promote narratives that are beneficial to Russia. The authority of the publication gives information to fictitious “legitimacy” and creates the impression that supposedly even Western journalists recognize the inevitability of Ukraine’s defeat.

Information is being disseminated online, allegedly due to a lack of qualified personnel, the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center is forced to hire veterinarians. As proof of publication, they add a photo to a specialist who allegedly gives conclusions about the liability and photographs of the “office” as in one of the Kyiv Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center .

VoxCheck analysts analyzed the case and explained that a situation where a Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center  hired a veterinarian instead of a doctor is impossible. A Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center does not engage in hiring medical workers at all to conduct military medical examinations.

Military medical commissions for those liable for military service are formed due to the involvement of doctors from civilian health care institutions.

And the propagandists took the photo from the website of the Lassie veterinary clinic - they probably took a photo of the office door with the Surgeon sign.

Propagandists spread information that in Ukraine one can buy bracelets with prayers that protect you from the territorial recruitment centers. The text on them calls on the Mother of God, Archangel Michael and the Guardian Angel, as well as a request to all saints. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. A reverse search for the photo showed that similar bracelets are sold in Ukraine, but with a different prayer - “Our Father” in Spanish.

The text of the correct prayer does not mention the Territorial centers of procurement and social support and the religious figures mentioned in the misleading description. Similar bracelets are also sold in Russian stores, AliExpress and Alibaba.

In addition, the “text” on the bracelets is likely translated from Russian, since the phrase “my favorite” in the propaganda text should be translated as “my beloved” in Ukrainian.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and the mobilization process as a whole. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted other fakes against it.

Propagandists accused the Ukrainian military of plagiarism. They began to spread information that the Third Separate Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly used the words of the self-proclaimed Russian President Volodymyr Putin in its recruitment advertising. When publishing this “news”, Russian propaganda adds a photograph of an advertisement for the brigade with the words “Why do we need such a world if there is no Ukraine there?” and Putin's interview with almost identical words.

After disseminating this information, StopFake checked whether one of the Ukrainian Armed Forces brigades actually took Putin’s words for their advertising campaign. They found out that the propagandists themselves added a “quote” to the advertisement, accusing the Ukrainian military of plagiarism.

A reverse image search on TinEye showed that the photo distributed by propagandists appeared online in late April 2024 on the French news site France24. On the website one can see that it was taken by Reuters correspondent Alina Smutko on April 23, 2024 in the Kyiv metro. The original is also available on the Reuters photo bank with a full description. The original photo is different from the one used by Russian propaganda. Putin's quote was added to the image in the photo editor. In the original photograph, completely different words are visible: “Zazhyhai (ignite) in the third assault brigade” (zapaliui - in Ukrainian).

StopFake also ruled out the possibility that the photo used by the propagandists could accidentally show advertisements in different places of the Kyiv metro. If one compares the details of the fake photo and the Reuters photo, one can be sure that this is the same image. Looking closely at the wall in the background, one can see the painted elements positioned the same in both photographs.

Propagandists spread such fakes to show the false closeness of Ukrainians and Russians. Like, we think the same and act the same. However, in reality, Ukraine and Russia are completely different.

Russian propaganda resources are disseminating information that on the cover of its latest issue, the German magazine Handelsblatt depicted a bloody Ukrainian passport, as well as a severed hand, and signed it all with the words: “Yes, dead. But with a new passport”. This is how the publication allegedly responded to the decision of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to restrict Ukrainian men abroad from receiving consular services.

In fact, this information is fake, because the German magazine Handelsblatt did not publish an issue with such a cover. One can verify this by looking at the official website of the publication. In addition, the cover distributed by Russian propagandists shows the magazine issue number 87 dated May 4, 2024, but the actual issue of the magazine under this number is dated May 6, 2024 and has a different cover.

This fake is a reaction of Russian propaganda to the temporary cessation of the provision of consular services to Ukrainian men abroad. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasized that the decision to suspend the process of providing consular services to a category of Ukrainian citizens defined by law is a temporary step, due, in particular, to the need to resolve the issue of military registration of citizens of mobilization age abroad.

Social networks in the Russian segment are disseminating information that the Ukrainian bank Monobank has sent out a warning to users about limiting a number of financial transactions for “evaders” - that is, individuals who may evade mobilization.

As “proof”, the fake robs attached a screenshot from the phone that allegedly received such a message.

This case was investigated by StopFake specialists, who determined that the Ukrainian bank Monobank did not send clients notifications about restrictions for “evaders”.

Moreover, in a comment to StopFake, bank representatives denied sending such messages. In addition, the text of the message itself was compiled with numerous errors and inaccuracies.

Russian resources are disseminating information that allegedly in the village of Kozacha Lopan, Kharkiv region, officers of the 121st battalion of the 113th separate territorial defense brigade beat an elderly man. This allegedly happened because he refused to leave his house. As a result of the beating, the man's leg was allegedly broken.

In fact, this information is not true, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. This is another fake by the Russians, based on a photograph from the official Facebook page of the 113th separate territorial defense brigade. In fact, the military of the 121st separate battalion of the Troops Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine evacuated an elderly man from his house destroyed by the Russians.

By spreading disinformation of this kind, propagandists are trying to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and sow distrust of them on the part of the people of Ukraine. In addition, in this way, propagandists also seek to incline to the idea that perhaps the elderly man did not want to leave because he was waiting for “liberation” by the Russians. Previously, we denied information that the Ukrainian military is planning to seize the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Social media users are circulating a screenshot that allegedly shows Tucker Carlson. Like, it reports the capture and imprisonment of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi. However, this image is a fabrication created using existing images of both men.

Fact-checkers from Reuters drew attention to it. A spokesman for Carlson told Reuters that the posts were fake and his name and image were used without his permission.

The screenshot appeared on social media with the caption: "SENSATION! TUCKER RELEASED VIDEO OF ZELENSKYI'S ARREST... HE IS TRANSPORTED TO BLACK DOLPHIN PRISON (RUSSIA) WITH A LARGE NUMBER OF SECURITY..." The fake screenshot contains an image of Zelenskyi holding a sign with the number “003856” along with the Ukrainian text “V.P. Holoborodko”. However, this is a scene from Zelenskyi's television series “Servant of the People”, which appeared in the first episode of the third season and was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the series on April 9, 2019.

Zelenskyi then played the role of Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko from 2015 to 2019 in the series “Servant of the People”, where, according to the plot, a school teacher is elected president of the country. The logo of Zelenskyi's film company Kvartal 95 Studio is visible in the modified image in the upper right corner. The image of Carlson, located at the bottom right of the fake screenshot, was taken from a video posted by his official social media account X on June 6, 2023. This video was the first episode of Carlson's new show on X.

The President's Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Propagandists spread such fakes in order to personally discredit Zelenskyi, using an authoritative figure among conservative circles. Detector Media has already written about how Tucker Carlson repeats the messages of Russian propaganda in his own content.

Russian propagandists on anonymous telegram channels are distributing a photo purporting to be graffiti from the streets of Jerusalem, where a Ukrainian is depicted in poverty in his bed after a Jew allegedly took all his money. However, this image is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to the fake. They found out that the image had been modified using a graphic editor, and these photos were being distributed mainly because of Russian-language and some English-language resources sympathetic to Russia.

They conducted an analysis on the likelihood of editing using the FotoForensics service. Using error level analysis (ELA), which detects changes in an image by highlighting over-processed parts, they noticed that areas of the image where the Ukrainian man is without money and Israeli symbols on the man's clothing were likely added to the image after it was created.

Russian telegram channels regularly spread similar cases of disinformation to show that people abroad are supposedly tired of the topic of Ukraine.

Propagandists are disseminating information on social networks, citing the German publication Deutsche Welle, allegedly graffiti has appeared in Berlin depicting the severed heads of the presidents of Ukraine and France, Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Emmanuel Macron. According to these reports, the author of the work is allegedly the famous German artist Van Ray. However, this is fake.

StopFake journalists, using a reverse image search on Google, discovered that this photo is being distributed exclusively through anonymous Russian telegram channels and websites expressing a pro-Russian position. They also found out that not a single reliable publication reported the appearance of such graffiti in Berlin.

To confirm this information, propagandists add a screenshot of news allegedly published on Deutsche Welle. However, StopFake journalists were unable to find material with that title on the publication’s website. The screenshot notes that its author is journalist Lucia Schulten, but there is no such thing among the materials she published on Deutsche Welle.

There is also no information about this graffiti on the artist Van Ray’s website or on his social networks. At the time of publication of this text, the artist’s representative had not yet responded to StopFake’s request.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to strengthen their message that Europe is supposedly tired of Ukraine and does not want to support it anymore. They say that the topic of Ukraine has become toxic, and all those who actively support it also suffer from public hostility.

Russian propagandists began disseminating information on social networks that in Lviv local residents allegedly refuse to rent out housing to internally displaced persons from the east of the country. In such messages, propagandists add supposedly real images from Ukrainian portals of rental advertisements and comment: “It seems that history is repeating itself: in Lviv they are not ready to provide housing to refugees from Kharkiv and Sumy, in some cases demanding twice as much from them. This splits the unity of the people”. However, this is fake.

In response, the StopFake organization conducted its own investigation into the presence of such advertisements on Ukrainian platforms for searching for housing. They found that this information was not true.

Propagandists publish screenshots, hiding the names of resources and contact information of landlords. However, StopFake was able to find these advertisements by checking well-known Ukrainian rental sites. One of them was allegedly posted on Nedviga-Pro, and the second on Rieltor.ua, as indicated by the same photographs, addresses, prices and characteristics of apartments, as well as website design. The descriptions of rental conditions in the screenshots of the promoters and in the advertisements found on the websites differ. In the original advertisements there is no mention of the refusal to rent out housing to residents of the eastern part of Ukraine.

StopFake also contacted the realtor through an ad on Rieltor.ua, asking about the possibility of renting an apartment by people from Kharkiv, and received the answer that “there are no problems with this”. They did not contact a realtor regarding the advertisement from Nedviga-Pro, since the apartment had already been rented out at the time of publication of the material.

So, Russian propagandists took genuine advertisements from Ukrainian real estate portals and, changing their description, tried to concoct another fake, the purpose of which was to discredit Ukraine and deepen the rift in society.

Kyiv is allegedly massively filled with “posters” with the image of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the words “expired”. A video with such content and three photographs is being distributed on pro-Russian telegram channels and on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

However, this is a fake, they write at the Center for Strategic Communications and Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. The printouts were most likely made by the author of the photo and video material specifically to create political “content”. In addition, the video was created unknown where and when, and is presented as a sign of “mass dissatisfaction of Kyiv residents” with the lack of elections during the war. This is an exaggeration, as is calling A4 printouts “posters”.

This case of disinformation is part of the Kremlin’s special operation called Maidan-3 to destabilize the socio-political system in Ukraine. One of its components is speculation on the topic of Zelenskyi’s “illegitimacy”. At the same time, not a single Ukrainian political force questions the powers of the head of state. Previously, we refuted information that Zelenskyi was allegedly preparing to leave for the United States on Washington’s orders before March 31, 2024, that is, after he allegedly became illegitimate, but this did not happen.