Russian sources are distributing a photo of a homemade wooden cross and a plaque attached to it. It says: “Here lie the unidentified remains of a defender of Ukraine, No. 214350”. “And how many of these are there throughout the country?”, this is how Russians are commenting on the image of the alleged burial of an unknown Ukrainian soldier who died during the fighting. In addition, they draw attention to the lack of flowers on the grave - this is supposed to indicate a lack of respect on the part of society for Ukrainian soldiers who give their lives in the war.

However, in reality, this photo is fake. This is reported in the StopFake project. Firstly, the parts of the sentence on the sign do not agree with each other - “here rest (instead of “rest”) the unidentified remains of a defender”. Secondly, despite the fact that the word “unidentified” is appropriate in this context, in real burials of unknown soldiers, it is customary to use the phrase “temporarily unidentified” to emphasize that the identification of the soldier and the search for his relatives are ongoing. In particular, this can be seen in the photo of the corresponding burials of 2015 in Dnipro.

Additionally, using the Forensically tool, StopFake journalists found that the propagandists had changed the inscription on the cross in a photo editor. The Error Level Analysis function showed that in the image of the area, the signs without text look significantly darker, while in the unedited photo, flat surfaces and uniform textures should have the same color.

Finally, in cases where it is not possible to immediately identify the deceased soldier, the body is kept in the morgue for a certain period of time, DNA material is collected from it (to continue identifying the soldier and searching for his relatives), and then buried with military honors. When the deceased is identified, his relatives have the right to rebury the body.

The Black Tulip humanitarian mission also takes care of the dignified burial of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. The search group returns home the bodies of soldiers that cannot be immediately removed from the battlefield due to intense fighting or mining. Accordingly, the propaganda message about the careless burial of Ukrainian soldiers does not correspond to reality.

Earlier, we analyzed a fake about the alleged theft of personal belongings of a Ukrainian fighter at his funeral.

Photos of city lights are being distributed in the Russian segment of the Internet, which depict a soldier with two flags flying above him: the national flag of Ukraine and the flag of the LGBTQ+ community. The response advertising is allegedly accompanied by the slogan “We have something to protect”. Some of the messages distributed by the propagandists claim that the city lights were placed all over Kyiv, while other publications write that this advertising was placed in Sumy.

However, in reality, such advertising does not exist in Kyiv, Sumy or any other city in Ukraine. This is a photo fake. Having paid attention to the details in the photo, in particular, to the building in the right corner in one of the photos, fact-checkers from the Bez Brekhi (Without Lies) project noticed that this building is a residential building for workers of the M. V. Frunze Machine-Building Plant. In reality, a completely different city light is located near this building - not with an advertisement for service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but a memorial one - dedicated to the deceased soldier from the Sumy region, Serhii Myronchenko.

Earlier, we refuted the information that KharkivPride allegedly created an advertising campaign “Better a gay Ukrainian soldier than a straight draft dodger”.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels are spreading photos of the board game “Try to explain”, which is sold in Ukraine. In it, players are asked to explain words on cards, in particular “Moskal (Russian) in captivity” and “deoccupation”.

However, in reality, this is a fake, as reported by the VoxCheck project. Using Google's reverse image search function, it was possible to find out that when creating the fake, the propagandists used the visual design of the Russian board game “Say if you can”. After all, the images of the characters in the fake game completely match the original cover. It is likely that the fakers printed the box with the fake game using the illustration of the real game.

Although there are indeed games called “Try to Explain” or other similar board games sold in Ukraine, there are no games with such visual design.

This is not the first fake concerning board games. For example, we previously analyzed how propagandists manipulated the board game “Risk” for their own interests.

There are reports online that in Ukraine, students “who have not donated money to purchase generators for the school” are allegedly not allowed to attend classes. To confirm this, users share a photo of what appears to be a school board, where a list of students who have not donated money is compiled and who are now prohibited from entering the computer science classroom.

“These students no longer enter the computer science classroom - this is how Ukrainian classes deal with those who failed to donate money for the generator. Now even education is paid in this country”, some Internet users comment.

But in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, namely Article 58 of the Law of Ukraine On Complete General Secondary Education, funding of state and municipal educational institutions is carried out at the expense of state and local budgets, as well as other sources not prohibited by law. In fact, the so-called requirements of the administration to the parents of students to collect funds for school repairs, classroom needs, the purchase of textbooks, detergents, etc. are illegal.

And local governments are responsible for purchasing generators for schools. According to the latest data, more than 80% of Ukrainian schools are equipped with generators. For example, this was stated in the response of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to a request from Hromadske in early August 2024.

And with the help of a special tool InVID&WeVerify, it was possible to detect anomalies in the processes of image creation and compression, which indicates external interference. The analysis showed that objects were added or moved in the image. And also in the image itself, incorrect spelling of a number of surnames, phonetically close to their Russian pronunciation, was recorded. For example, “Lisenko” instead of “Lysenko”, “Petrichenko” instead of “Petrychenko”.

Russian sources are distributing a photo of what appears to be a billboard in New York City, which advertises recruitment for contract service in the Russian army. The text on the banner says: “Join the army of victory! Salary for the first year is 4,500,000 rubles. Sign a contract in Tatarstan!”

However, in reality, this is a fake photo, as reported by the VoxCheck project. Using Google's reverse image search function, the project's analysts were unable to find the photo that the propagandists could have used to create the fake, but they did find it in the Russian search engine Yandex.Image, which is blocked in Ukraine.

Accordingly, a reverse search showed that the photo that is being circulated these days is a still from a video filmed back in 2022. The original still frame does not contain a banner about recruitment for service in the Russian army, but an announcement from the special economic zone (SEZ) Alabuga, located in Tatarstan (Russia). The real billboard says in Russian “Time to go home”. The details of the photos are completely identical: the angle of the frame, the sky with clouds of the same shape, other advertising billboards. So, the propagandists took a screenshot from the old video and edited it.

Commenting on the original banner, Alabuga SEZ representative Daniia Utalieva told the propaganda publication Kommersant-Kazan that it is aimed at bringing back specialists in the fields of aviation, microelectronics and IT to Russia.

We have previously recorded a similar fake, which consisted of the fact that billboards in honor of Victory Day allegedly appeared in New York.

Russian propaganda telegram channels have been spreading a message that on September 26, 2024, a Russian missile strike on the airfield in Starokonstiantyniv allegedly killed a career US Air Force soldier. As ‘proof’, the propagandists are publishing a corresponding message from a certain Melanie Malwin-Parker, allegedly the soldier’s wife.

However, this is a fake, as reported by VoxCheck. Fact-checkers were unable to find a single account named Melanie Malwin-Parker not only on Facebook, but also on the Internet as a whole.

Also, the photo itself, supposedly of the dead soldier, shows some editing – part of his left ear is missing.

Screenshot of the fake message

In addition, the fake publication, apparently by the wife of a military man, indicates the geolocation as “Altus Air Force Base”. This is a U.S. Air Force base located in Altus, Oklahoma. The official website of the base indicates that the 97th Airlift Wing is located there. It consists of the 58th Transport Squadron, the 54th and 56th Air Refueling Squadrons. The units carry out their tasks on the military transport C-17 Globemaster III and on the KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-46 Pegasus tanker aircraft. The list of equipment does not include the F-16 fighter, so there was no need for a specialist for this base in Ukraine.

Russian propaganda is spreading this fake to fuel the narrative about the alleged presence of “foreign mercenaries” in Ukraine. We previously analyzed disinformation that partners allegedly provided Ukraine with faulty F-16 fighters.

Anonymous Telegram channels write that the Angel Cherkasy funeral agency in its advertisement with the slogan “Take care of your husband in advance” offers city residents discounts on burial services.

However, Ukrinform journalists established that such a booklet was forged, since there is no funeral agency called Angel in Cherkasy or the Cherkasy region.

“The template for the so-called announcement can be found on the website of a Russian school for studying the Serbian language. The only thing the propagandists changed was that they drew over one of the elements of the ornament using a graphic editor”, the fact-checkers add.

Read also: Lies on how Ukrainians destroyed the grave of a soldier killed in Mariupol.

Anonymous Telegram channels are spreading a photo of what appears to be a desecrated gravestone. It depicts Azov Brigade fighter Vitalii Oliinyk, who died in Mariupol.

But the burial place of Vitalii Oliinyk differs from what Russian sources are spreading. His grave was not actually destroyed.

Our colleagues,  VoxCheck fact-checkers, investigated that the fake photo depicts a tombstone with the name of Oliinyk Vitalii Ivanovych. The fact-checkers found information about him on the “Memorial” memory platform. It posts information about Ukrainian civilians and soldiers killed as a result of the full-scale Russian invasion.

With the help of Memorial, we managed to find out that Vitalii Oliinyk (call sign - Oscar) died on March 25, 2022 in Mariupol, Donetsk region. He was buried in a cemetery in Vinnytsia region. With the help of a reverse Google search, the fact-checkers determined the burial site which is different from the one that propagandists are spreading. In fact, no one ruined it, it's all a fiction of Russian propagandists.

In this way, Russian propaganda seeks to sow discord among Ukrainians, allegedly they do not honor soldiers at all and are ready to destroy the graves of the fallen.

An image of a postcard allegedly issued by the British Embassy in Ukraine is being circulated online, which advises British citizens to avoid meetings with representatives of the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centre when visiting the country.

“In short: avoid the shopping mall. Cross the street if you see them. If you can't avoid them, don't give in to provocations, racism, pushing, don't look them in the eye. If you're shoved into a minibus, don't panic. Call and wait for help from the embassy. Don't sign anything”, the propagandists write.

The British Embassy in Ukraine reported that they did not print such a flyer, and information about it on the Internet is fake. The embassy also noted that the official recommendations of the British Foreign Office on travel to Ukraine can be found on the department's website.

Read also: Europe will mobilize and send Ukrainian refugees to the front

Propagandists are distributing an image on anonymous Telegram channels, which shows a propaganda poster, allegedly placed in one of the Ukrainian public toilets. The poster calls for joining the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and contains the provocative inscription “Don't piss yourself - join the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. However, this is a fake.

The poster looks evenly placed on the wall. However, paying attention to the overall plane of the image and the corners, you can see that the poster is too perfectly positioned on an uneven surface (in particular, the curvature of the walls). This may indicate that it was added using a graphics editor. The poster in the photo also does not have natural shadows that would fall from it onto the wall. This may be one of the key indicators that the image was superimposed on the photo using Photoshop or another image editing program. The lighting in the room does not match the appearance of the poster surface. The entire plane of the photo has a natural blurriness and low quality, which may be due to the poor quality of the camera. However, the poster looks too clear and bright against the background of the overall interior. Such a contrast may be a sign that the poster was inserted into the image in post-processing. In toilets, such materials quickly deteriorate from moisture or physical impact (dirt, damage), but the poster looks new, which also raises doubts. After all, the phrase “Don't piss yourself - join the Armed Forces of Ukraine” is a tracing from Russian, which is almost never used in official recruitment advertising for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. A search for news about such a poster in the Ukrainian media, as well as this image on other resources, did not yield any results.

The aim of the fake is to discredit mobilization campaigns in Ukraine. The image is used to ridicule patriotic agitation and recruitment efforts into the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It attempts to provoke a negative reaction from the audience, especially people who may be sensitive to subtle provocations and emotional manipulation.

An image of a postcard allegedly developed by the British Embassy in Ukraine is being circulated online. It recommends that Britons avoid meetings with representatives of the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers when visiting Ukraine. If they are unable to avoid a meeting, they should not “give in to provocations, racism, pushes, or look them in the eye”. And if they “force you into a minibus”, they recommend not to panic, not to sign anything, to call the embassy, and to wait for help.

In fact, this is a fake. In a comment to StopFake journalists, the British Embassy in Ukraine reported that they did not print such a postcard, and the information about it on the Internet is false. In addition, the embassy noted that official recommendations for British citizens on traveling to Ukraine can be found on the website of the British Foreign Office. Finally, citizens of other countries are not subject to mobilization in Ukraine.

With this fake, propagandists are trying to discredit the mobilization process in Ukraine. Earlier, we refuted the information that the Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center workers beat up an ethnic Hungarian in western Ukraine.

Russian Telegram channels are distributing photos of ATMs with images of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi pasted on them with the caption “I eat your taxes!”. In the corresponding messages, propagandists claim that the photos were taken in the center of Barcelona (Spain).

The Center for Countering Disinformation, after verifying this information at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Consulate General of Ukraine in Barcelona, reported that this was a Russian-ordered campaign. They took several photos and began distributing disinformation material about Volodymyr Zelenskyi. At the same time, the campaign did not become widespread.

The Center for Countering Disinformation adds that Russia is distributing such fakes as part of the “Black Hole” information campaign, the results of which can be found here.

Earlier, Russian propagandists distributed photos of leaflets with the image of the Ukrainian president asking for money in different languages of the world.

Pro-Russian sources, citing Fox News, CNN and the New York Post, are spreading the “news” that in the American city of Arlington, where the Pentagon is located, graffiti has appeared depicting an F-16 aircraft lost in Ukraine and the caption: “Is this what we pay for?” The work is attributed to street artists OSGEMEOS. The propagandists add that the artists wanted to draw attention to the irrational spending of American taxes to provide weapons to Ukraine.

In fact, this “news” is not true, writes the StopFake project. Screenshots from the media that allegedly spread information about the graffiti are fake. A search on the websites of Fox News, CNN and the New York Post for the headlines given in the publication yielded no results. Also, no other authoritative media published the corresponding news.

There is no photo of this graffiti on the website or Instagram page of Brazilian street artists OSGEMEOS. It is also worth noting that the works of brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, who are behind the OSGEMEOS project, have a different visual style, completely different from the graffiti from F-16. Their graffiti usually depict surreal scenes, rather than commenting on current political events.

Recall that one of the F-16 fighters crashed on August 26, 2024. The pilot of the plane, Oleksii “Moonfish” Mes, died in the crash. During his last combat sortie, the military man managed to destroy three cruise missiles and one attack drone. The investigation is clarifying the causes of the incident and is considering a number of versions. The previously put forward assumption that the F-16 could have been shot down by friendly fire from a Patriot complex is considered unlikely by US military officials interviewed by The New York Times.

With such fakes, Russia is trying to spoil relations between Ukraine and its Western partners in order to cast doubt on the need to provide military assistance. Earlier, Detector Media refuted information that Ukrainian refugees in Wroclaw created graffiti saying “Our Father Bandera - children, do not learn it in Polish, but learn it in Ukrainian”.

A photo of what is supposedly the cover of the German magazine Handelsblatt is being circulated on social networks. The cover shows a road sign with the inscription “Kursk” and the headline “Ukrainian soldiers have occupied Russian territory”. The sign shows crosses buried in the ground and Ukrainian military helmets thrown over the crosses.

Fact-checkers of the Georgian project MythDetector have established that such a cover does not exist. The fake photo published has the publication date: “Saturday-Sunday, August 23/24/25”. In fact, the cover of the real issue, published on that day, shows Armin Pappergeri, director of the largest German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. In addition, the distributed photo incorrectly indicates the issue number; currently, only issue 163 has been published, not 164, as indicated in the fake cover.

We have documented fakes many times, whether they involve fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or advertising videos. In this way, propagandists aim to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. This may make readers think that the public is really unhappy with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, implying that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda is a reason for Europe to laugh.

A photo of what appears to be an announcement on the wall of the Sumy Regional Clinical Hospital is being circulated online. It states that the medical institution urgently needs donor blood for the wounded in the Kursk Region. A photo of the “announcement” is added to the publications.

“The need for blood is so acute that it is taken 24 hours a day. This is how Zelenskyi's PR campaigns end”, the propagandists comment.

VoxCheck analysts analyzed the case and found out that the propagandists had faked the photo by editing it in a photo editor. And the original photo shows the daily schedule for patients in the otolaryngology department.

There was no information about the urgent need for donor blood for the wounded in the Kursk region on the official website of the Sumy Regional Clinical Hospital or its social networks. But, for example, on August 6 and August 13, the DonorUA organization announced the need for donor blood in different regions, but Sumy region was not among them.

In addition, the Sumy Regional Clinical Hospital is not on the list of medical institutions accredited to collect donor blood. In Sumy, only the Sumy Regional Blood Service Center does this.

Propagandists have been systematically spreading fakes and manipulations on the topic of an alleged blood shortage in Ukraine. In this way, the authors of the messages are trying to convince that everything is bad in Ukraine and that there are many wounded who are not receiving adequate care because “there is not enough blood”.  We managed to refute several fakes on this topic. For example, one of the fakes said that Ukraine is banning all foreign citizens from becoming blood donors. We also checked the authenticity of a message on social networks about a Ukrainian woman abandoning her husband because he was “transfused with Muscovite blood”.

Pro-Kremlin media are distributing a screenshot of news allegedly from Ukrainska Pravda about the cancellation of school certificates and higher education diplomas for men who have not updated their data in the Territorial centers of procurement and social support. These changes allegedly occurred in accordance with a Cabinet of Ministers resolution. 

But VoxCheck fact-checkers took up this case and found out that it was a fake photo. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine did not issue a resolution with such content. The fakers forged a screenshot of the Ukrainska Pravda article, replacing the title and illustration of the original material.

There is no corresponding article on the website or in social networks of Ukrainska Pravda. At the same time, the screenshot indicates the time and date of publication of the “news” - August 14, 15:11. Currently, the publication has published an article by the author Valentyna Romanenko under the title “The General Staff called on Ukrainians and foreigners not to enter combat zones without permission”. It did not talk about the cancellation of certificates.

Propagandists have recently started to fake stories and materials from well-known media outlets, using their design elements to create the effect of recognition and trust in one of the quality media outlets. For example, we recently reported that anonymous people were spreading a fake story from the supposedly French publication Le Figaro, which spoke about a “Ukrainian refugee-murderer”.

Russian resources disseminated information that Ukrposhta allegedly presented a stamp called ‘On your knees before Ukraine!’ depicting Russian prisoners of war in the Kursk region. As evidence, the propagandists cited a corresponding screenshot from the company’s page on the X social network.

In fact, Ukrposhta did not issue stamps about the Kursk operation, they wrote in the StopFake project. In the original post on social network X, the company’s SMM manager asks: “Yes, who did this?”, thereby making it clear that they did not create such a brand. In the Ukrainian information space, the Ukrposhta publication was perceived as a joke (since it was one), but Russian propagandists took this message seriously.

There is no such product in the “Wartime Postage Stamps” section on the Ukrposhta website. Alternatively, it could be a fake created in a photo editor. Or someone who actually ordered such a stamp using the “Own Stamp” service, which allows you to order postal products - stamps, envelopes, postcards with your own design for personal use.

Recently, a similar situation occurred with a stamp dedicated to Iryna Farion, who was killed on July 19, 2024. A number of Russian and Ukrainian media spread the news about the release of such a stamp, but later representatives of Ukrposhta clarified that the products were ordered by the relatives of the deceased as part of the ‘Own Brand’ project.

Previously, we analyzed a fake, they say, Ukrposhta issued a stamp with a veteran of the Waffen SS Galicia division Yaroslav Hunko.

A photo of the poster is being circulated online and claims that it belongs to the advertising campaigns of the Ministry of Defense. The poster depicts a motorcyclist and a call to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine to help the country win.

“In Ukraine, motorcyclists are offered to immediately be sent to the front. Well thought out”, the propagandists write.

VoxCheck specialists were able to analyze the case and establish that such a poster does not bear any signs of information campaigns of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense or military brigades. And a reverse photo search on Google showed that for the fake ad, the propagandists used photos of the Ukrainian military and the motorcyclist, which are in open sources.

Also, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine does not conduct an information campaign with such slogans. There are no similar calls on the official website of the Ministry of Defense, as well as on its social networks on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have a specific brand book: guidelines for the use of graphic style in visual communication of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At a minimum, the fake poster does not even meet the design requirements of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

An alleged cover of the British publication The Independent is being circulated on telegram channels. It allegedly contained the inscription “Prime Minister: “While we were watching Ukraine, we lost our country”, and also referred to a statement by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who spoke about “suicidal thoughts” while commanding the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

But VoxCheck specialists analyzed the case and determined that such a cover does not exist. The original cover features the words of the British Prime Minister about the far-right riots in the country. And instead of a photo of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the page contains an image of Meghan Markle.

Moreover, the authors of the original issue wrote “Prime Minister warns far-right thugs: “You will regret taking part in the riots”, and the Duchess of Sussex and actress Meghan Markle are actually talking about “suicidal thoughts”, and not Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The text of the article relates directly to the unrest and does not contain any mention of Ukraine.

We have repeatedly documented hoaxes involving fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or commercials. Thus, propagandists seek to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. So it may seem to readers that the public is really dissatisfied with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, hinting that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda for Europe is a reason to laugh.

Anonymous telegram channels are distributing a video story supposedly from the French publication Le Figaro, which tells about the murder of a twenty-year-old woman on the closing day of the Olympic Games at the “hands of a Ukrainian refugee”. A screenshot of news material from the publication’s website is added to the publications.

However, this video is fake. In the original story there is no insertion that the suspect for committing the crime is a “Ukrainian refugee”. In general, the nationality of the accused is not indicated in the video material. There is only information that this is a forty-nine-year-old man who does not speak French. No additional information was added in the interests of the investigation.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU - in order to reduce support for Ukraine. We mentioned this in our own research. Since the beginning of the big war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda has been trying to discredit refugees who were forced to leave Ukraine in order to save their lives. Propagandists regularly spread fake news about them; call refugees dependents; they claim that they went abroad not for safety, but for profit; they convince that residents of countries that have accepted Ukrainian refugees are dissatisfied with the behavior of Ukrainians. Propagandists need this in order to stake out the opinion that Ukrainians are pagans who do not value the help that residents of other countries provide them; take advantage of the kindness of people in other countries.

Anonymous telegram channels are spreading information that Ukrainian refugees planted a pig's head in one of the mosques in Germany. The post claims that employees of the Berlin mosque found a pig's head inside the temple, wrapped in a Palestinian flag with the inscription: “Ukraine supports Israel”.

VoxCheck analysts explained that Berliner-wochenzeitung is a fake site created by the Russians. For example, a German police spokesman and a mosque representative reported that this was fake news.

Using a reverse search on Google, it was possible to establish that the site has only 10 pages with publications - the first news was added on June 18. After July 5, the news on the site was not updated. The publication does not contain any information about the team of authors and editors, owners, as well as contact information, in particular mail and social networks.

In its own materials, the Berliner-wochenzeitung disseminates anti-Ukrainian narratives, in particular, creating the image of Russia as a victim, allegedly Ukraine is striking at civilians, and not at Russian military targets.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are distributing the cover of the French newspaper Libération. On it one can see athlete Tyler Mislavchuk, who was bored during competitions at the Olympic Games, and a photo of Volodymyr Zelenskyi below.

VoxCheck project analysts investigated this case and found out that the column images had been edited. On the original binding, instead of a photo of triathlete Tyler Mislavchuk, there was an inscription about Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Iran.

On August 1, 2024, the Libération newspaper actually published a new issue, on the front page of which, in particular, there was a photo of Volodymyr Zelenskyi with the headline “Restore our territorial integrity, but not only with the help of weapons”. However, missing from this issue is an image of triathlete Tyler Mislavchuk, who was exhausted after swimming at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

In fact, we recorded many fakes aimed at discrediting Volodymyr Zelenskyi: propagandists used false advertising banners, magazine covers, graffiti, created individual cartoons, and placed Zelenskyi’s faces on various consumer goods (for example, condoms). With the help of Russian propaganda, Zelenskyi was able to appear in various roles, in particular: a vain person who spends all budget funds only on himself; a punitive satanist destroying Ukrainian church property; a person with drug addiction; theft of Western money; a puppet controlled by the West; a monster who throws “everyone in a row” to the front, etc.

Photos of an alleged advertisement for the Armed Forces of Ukraine with an appeal to join their ranks are being circulated online. It depicts a gray-haired military woman, as well as the supposed inscription: “Son, I need your help”. Propagandists write that this is “a typical Ukrainian mobilized over 60 years old”. This advertising of the Armed Forces of Ukraine seems to call young people to the front.

In fact, this is a photo fake. When checking this image in the FotoForensics tool using ELA analysis (Error Level Analysis), which identifies areas of the image with different levels of compression, it was possible to identify signs of text editing on the advertisement. They are highlighted in bright colors.

With this fake photo, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the mobilization process in Ukraine. Previously, we refuted information that in Ukraine they are calling on people to mobilize into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as whole families.

The propaganda telegram channel, in its section #нам_пишуть  (they write to us), distributed a message from a reader. The woman sent a photo of a sign containing the inscription “Ukraine is not a state”. According to her, she took this photo on vacation in Turkey.

However, the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, having verified this information with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, reported that this was another fake.

Having additionally analyzed the image using the FotoForensics tool, we found a clear light fragment in the area of the sign. Thus, the inscription on the sign was probably artificially superimposed.

The Center adds that such stuffing can be used to create tension between Ukraine and other states. Ultimately, propagandists seek to weaken the Ukrainian position both internally and externally and feed their narrative of a 404 country.

A screenshot of an advertisement from the popular Airbnb rental service is being circulated on social networks, in which they note that apartments are not rented out to Ukrainians “even for additional rent”.

“Paris no longer wants to rent housing to Ukrainians”, they write in propaganda publications.

StopFake analysts took on the case and determined that the ad photos were compiled using graphic editors. But in the real advertisement on the website there was no mention of Ukrainians.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU - in order to reduce support for Ukraine. We mentioned this in our own research. Since the beginning of the big war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda has been trying to discredit refugees who were forced to leave Ukraine in order to save their lives. Propagandists regularly spread fake news about them; call refugees dependents; they claim that they went abroad not for safety, but for profit; they convince that residents of countries that have accepted Ukrainian refugees are dissatisfied with the behavior of Ukrainians. Propagandists need this in order to stake out the opinion that Ukrainians are pagans who do not value the help provided to them by residents of other countries; take advantage of the kindness of people in other countries.