This is the information spread by the Russian propaganda media. In particular, the publication RIA-news, as well as - pro-Russian telegrams on channels. The reports say that the euro exchange rate "fell" and the Russian ruble "strengthened" because Europeans seem to pay for gas in rubles. The Center for counteraction to disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council denies such information.

"The new scheme that Putin tried to sell to the EU countries provides for the buyers to open a new foreign currency and ruble account with Gazprombank. That is, European countries have to pay for gas to a "passthrough" company, which would convert the currency into rubles and transfer the "wood" to Gazprom's account. Most EU countries refused to participate in such a "scheme. In particular, Italy and Germany - the largest consumers of Russian gas in Europe - refused to pay in rubles, arguing that it contradicted the terms of existing contracts. Among the "European buyers," Hungary and Moldova agreed to the Kremlin's gamble," according to the Center.

This information is spread in the propaganda media and telegram channels. Propagandists claim that the U.S. will not be able to replace Russian gas supplies to the EU if Russia stops doing so. However, this is manipulation. According to the Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, the total volume of liquefied gas production in the USA makes 120 billion cubic meters a year, and by 2025 it will increase by another 70 billion cubic meters. Projects with a combined production of 206 billion cubic meters of gas have already received federal permits in the U.S. Last month, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen announced an agreement with Joe Biden under which the U.S. will increase additional supplies of liquefied gas to the EU to 50 billion cubic meters a year. These supplies will gradually replace EU imports from Russia, which last year totaled 155 billion cubic meters of gas. The task set by Europe to eliminate dependence on Russian gas is designed to level out the intentions of the Russian leadership to use energy supplies to the EU as leverage," the Center said in a statement.

An anonymous telegram channel spread information that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put in his office a rooster from the bombed out house in Borodyanka - he allegedly decided not to buy a popular rooster, but took the surviving figure from Borodyanka. There is indeed a ceramic cockerel in the president's office. However, the figure was given to him by Liera Polianskova, a Kharkiv artist, during a walk in the center of Kiev together with the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, writes "Across the News. At the same time, a rooster from Borodyanka and a kitchen cabinet, which became a symbol of war, were given to the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity with the permission of the owner of the apartment. Read more about the history of the photo that became the meme "How are you, kitchen cupboard?" here.

Russian propaganda media circulated a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense claiming that "Russian air defense forces near Odessa shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane in mid-air, which was delivering a large shipment of weapons to Ukraine supplied by Western countries. On April 18, a senior U.S. Defense Department official denied that Russia had managed to destroy the plane with help for Ukraine.

Anonymous telegram channels insinuate the view that Ukraine is losing, fitting it into old anti-Western narratives and conspiracy theories. Propagandists write that Ukraine "abruptly started fighting for the Donbass," even though Ukrainian troops have been fighting for the country's integrity since 2014 uninterruptedly. In addition, Ukraine is moving toward the EU, and the "collective action," which anonymous telegram channels scare, returns its embassies to Kyiv, allocates millions in aid to Ukraine, and joins investigations into war crimes in Ukraine.

Russians in Kherson distribute false leaflets in which they convince that "the Russian armed forces are not at war with the Ukrainian people," and that the war began because of "Western plans" to destroy the Russian and Ukrainian peoples. The war itself is called an operation to eliminate the anti-people Kyiv regime.

The leaflets blame the Ukrainians themselves and their elected authorities for the Russian aggression: "the grief you have suffered is the result of the criminal policies of the Kiev regime.

Such actions by Russian propagandists are a direct admission that this war has nothing to do with the mythical "defense of Donbass. Its goal is the destruction of Ukrainian statehood and the occupation of all of Ukraine, the press service noted.

Ukrainians are urged to collaborate with the Russians and noted: "Do not think it will be quick and painless." This statement becomes especially relevant given that, according to satellite images from the company Planet Lab, at least 824 new graves have appeared in the city cemetery in Kherson during the occupation.

As of today, Ukrainian and international investigators are thoroughly investigating all the crimes committed by the Russians. They will be evidence for a special tribunal over both the direct perpetrators and the Russian top brass.

The Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels are reporting en masse that U.S. President Joe Biden is suffering from health problems, which is why he will not visit Ukraine. He seems to be a "puppet" and the country is run by those who are in the shadow of his "sick figure".

Such fakes intensified after Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine genocide and that the US president was ready to come to Ukraine.

On 14 April, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Joe Biden said that he was ready to personally come to Ukraine.

Later, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Joe Biden is "ready for anything," he is "ready to go to Ukraine. That's right. He is," but so far the White House is not sending the president to Ukraine.

She said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the eight-hour train ride "through a war zone" to get to central Ukraine. "So no, that's not part of the United States president's plan. We should all, perhaps, feel relieved about that. He's got a few more things to do," Psaki stated.

In March 2022, Biden visited Poland and the town of Rzeszow near the Ukrainian border. He expressed disappointment that he could not enter the country to see the consequences of the Russian invasion.

On April 14, U.S. Senator Steve Daines and members of the House of Representatives Victoria Spartz visited Kiev and its suburbs that have been occupied by Russian troops on Thursday, becoming the first U.S. officials to visit since the war began.

Andrei Isayev, a State Duma deputy from the United Russia party, said that Ukraine will have problems with the supply of food for the population, "the sowing season has failed, the roads are destroyed," "the Kiev regime will not solve this problem, and the West does not care about the fate of ordinary Ukrainians." Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Mykola Solskyi said in an interview to "Ekonomichna Pravda" that Ukraine does not have and will not have any problem with food in the near future. We have reserves of basic products for several years, particularly oil - for many years. Sowing of spring crops continues in 23 regions of Ukraine, except Lugansk. As of April 14, the estimated sowing area of main spring crops for the harvest of 2022 on the territory controlled by Ukraine is 14 013 thousand ha, which is by 2 903.3 thousand hectares less than last year (16 916.3 thousand ha).

Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotskyi said that there will be no shortage of basic foods, particularly eggs, poultry, milk and vegetables in the domestic market of Ukraine. There is no shortage of food in stores, except in cities that the Russians have blockaded or temporarily occupied. No humanitarian aid can be delivered there.

In addition, the World Food Program has already rolled out a large-scale humanitarian assistance to war-affected Ukrainians. So, in particular, contacts have been established with bakeries, flour mills and food industry enterprises in Ukraine to purchase goods in critical regions. We are talking about 40 thousand tons of food products. Seven warehouses were opened in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Chernivtsi, Odessa and Kropyvnytsky. And in Lviv, Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts, cash assistance is provided to resettlers.

The Russian media have been reporting en masse over the past two days, April 14 and 15, that Greece has refused to supply weapons to Ukraine. On April 14, they referred to a statement by Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panayiotopoulos, and on April 15 to a statement by government spokesman Yanis Oikonomos. Both statements are interpreted in favor of supporting Russia, but this is not the case. First, Greece has already supplied Ukraine with weapons - Kalashnikov assault rifles and mobile anti-missile systems - and has no plans to do so in the future. Secondly, the defense minister explained that because of tense relations with Turkey, Greece could not supply Ukraine with additional weapons without risking weakening its own defense capabilities. Finally, Oikonomou's statement is related to publications in the Greek press, which claim that Greece has supplied weapons to Ukraine six times, and started doing so before the war began. It seems that Greece transferred "Stingers" and other weapons to NATO bases in Europe, and from there the weapons were already supplied to Ukraine. Oikonomou, answering questions from local journalists, stressed that Greece provided weapons to Ukraine once, after the start of the war - and actually refuted the inaccurate information.

Greece has also repeatedly stated that although no further arms supplies to Ukraine are planned, the country is trying to reduce its need for Russian gas as soon as possible. That is, statements by Greek officials do not indicate that their government supports Russia and its wars in Ukraine.

At the same time, both Ukrainian and Russian media selectively quote the results of a survey of Greek citizens, citing only the figure indicating that 66% of them are against arms supplies to Ukraine. But they don't cite other figures: 70% support Ukraine in this war, 60% support sanctions against Russia, 52% are in favor of creating an EU armed force.

For two days, on April 14 and 15, after the news of the damage to the flagship Moskva surfaced, Russian media and government officials persistently promoted the message that the ship was okay. And if it was not, the reason was an accident. First there were reports that a shell had detonated on the ship, but the fire was localized, the ship was afloat, and the crew had been evacuated. The cause was said to be an accidental explosion or even smoking by the crew. On the evening of April 14, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the ship sank - but this was due to a storm during towing, although it was previously reported that the damage to the cruiser was minor.

Today, the Russian media, quoting State Duma deputy Zatulin, already reported that an unknown number of the crew "went with the ship," possibly including the captain of the Moskva among them.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military immediately reported that the cruiser was hit by a Ukrainian Neptun missile. The Pentagon found it difficult to say why the cruiser died, but said that other ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet had withdrawn at a distance from the Ukrainian coast. The Washington Post also confirmed today, citing a Pentagon official, that the ship had been hit by an anti-ship missile.

Despite the fact that Russia has not officially acknowledged that the Moskva was let down by the Ukrainian military, Russian telegram channels are spreading messages en masse about the "cruiser's death during the battle" and promising "revenge for the cruiser." Why it is necessary to take revenge for the ship, I on which someone had an unfortunate smoke, the messages do not explain. The reports also promote the thesis that the ship was not hit by a Ukrainian-made missile, but was hit by an unknown foreign-made NATO missile. Thus, the Russian media and propagandists, Alexander Kots among them, are spreading the narrative "Russia is not at war with Ukraine, but against NATO.

The Center for Strategic Communications of the ICMP reports that by constantly changing messages, Russian propaganda is trying to reduce the psychological effect of the defeat of the cruiser.

This was the thesis recently circulated by pro-Russian telegram channels. The messages said that "attitudes toward Ukrainians have already turned cold everywhere. They say that the attitude towards refugees from Ukraine will now significantly worsen, as well as the amount of support they receive. "Three to four more months and the situation will become even worse towards Ukrainians," the reports say. However, their authors do not specify the bad attitude in which countries they are talking about and draw their conclusions referring to some anonymous sources. The reports also add that it is now very difficult for Ukrainians to find work in the West, although there are seasonal jobs in the agricultural sector, but there are "hellish conditions" and low pay. In fact, such information is spread in order to discredit countries that are allies of Ukraine and to devalue their assistance to Ukrainian refugees. In fact, in many EU countries Ukrainians can receive state aid as refugees. Moreover, Ukrainians are also helped by residents of those countries. As a reminder, during the month, Russian propaganda had already spread several fakes about "bad refugees" from Ukraine, which were refuted.

Attackers have launched a fraudulent scheme in Facebook: offer Ukrainians 8,900 hryvnia "assistance from the EU" when passing the survey. As the factchecking project "Brekhunets" writes, the advertising of the fraudulent site with the "survey" is targeting, in particular, Volyn residents. According to "Rayon.in.ua", this scheme is used for the fourth time - previously recorded such cases in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Fraudsters ran ads on Facebook from the page under News of Ukraine, which was created on March 30. This ad uses stolen branding TSN, flags of Ukraine and the European Union. "The message itself is not on the page, which means that it was published through an advertising office. Under the message - only one positive comment from a user who allegedly has already received funds," - told the project "Brehunets".

Russian and pro-Kremlin media have spread a fake that the Russian military allegedly captured a military instructor who was training the Azov battalion, the commander of the NATO Joint Ground Forces Command, Lieutenant General Roger L. Cloutier Jr. of the US Army, writes Georgian portal. myth." Cloutier posted a message on his LinkedIn account and said he was at the European Joint Forces headquarters in Izmir, Turkey. The Facebook page of the NATO Joint Land Command also published a photo from Izmir in which Cloutier was present.

This is the message that has been circulating in pro-Russian telegram channels in recent days. Specifically, it is claimed that Ukraine received $3.5 billion from financial structures in March, and now must pay back this money in the equivalent of $5 billion. Some messages also add that Ukraine must pay back its other debts, and the Ukrainian authorities, unlike former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, cannot negotiate a debt restructuring in war conditions, as the ex-president negotiated during the ATO. We can assume that the message is being spread in order to discredit Ukraine's allies - the EU countries, which will support us in the fight against Russia, and to show that they are not such allies if they demand the return of debts. In reality, the issue of debt repayment is complicated and ambiguous and it is almost impossible to find out all the information about full assistance and support from allied countries in war conditions. The Media Detector recently already described why the media should not have the whole truth about the war in war conditions. This includes what the allies are doing to support us.

Russian propaganda media wrote about it. In particular, RIA Novosti. The reports said that journalists received an audio conversation by Rzhavsky, in which he tells why, in his opinion, Ukraine does not need to join the EU. One of the reasons is that Ukraine, in his opinion, means nothing to the EU. However, Rzhavsky, a pro-Russian politician, died on March 27 in his home in Bucha when he was shot by a drunken Russian soldier demanding alcohol. Russian media publications do not mention Rzhavsky's death or his circumstances.

This was stated by the deputy Russian ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy. He states that there is no question of forming an international investigative group "on the provocation" in Bucha yet, and also said that "we do not believe in principle in any 'independent' investigations to be conducted by Western states and Ukraine." As a reminder, Russian authorities previously called the tragedy in Bucha only a provocation and a production for the Western media to discredit Russia and its army. The UN, Amnesty International and many other international organizations spoke about the need to investigate war crimes in the Kiev region committed by Russian troops, representatives of different countries also stated about it, hundreds of journalists from all over the world visited the site of the tragedy, EU representatives, evidence of the crimes. are collected by international human rights activists, foreign specialists-criminologists, representatives of the International Criminologist on trial.

Russian media are spreading reports that EU chief diplomat Josep Borrel allegedly "wished for a military solution to the conflict. StopFake writes that Russian propagandists spread part of his tweet about the results of his trip to Ukraine: "This war must be won on the battlefield. In fact, the full version of the quote is: "This war will be won on the battlefield. We will allocate an additional 500 million euros. Weapons supplies will be tailored to Ukraine's needs." In the following tweet, Borrell explains that the reason for the increased support for Ukraine is Russia's war crimes, in particular the shelling of Kramatorsk by Russian troops. Borrel sees sanctions as the main means of "pressure on Russia." "We need to continue to increase the pressure on Russia. We have already imposed large-scale sanctions, but we need to do more in the energy sector, particularly oil."

Russian propaganda media are spreading reports that the Ukrainian authorities, with the support of Western countries, are allegedly "preparing an action with mass extermination of civilians" in the occupied areas of Luhansk Region, "preparing a shooting provocation with shooting of ambulances" in Severodonetsk District, "blowing up the reserve area. This is all allegedly to accuse the Russian military and Russian-controlled militants. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security noted that Russia is again trying to shift responsibility for the crimes committed to Ukraine. "Given that during the 8 years of war in eastern Ukraine not a single Ukrainian government has considered the military option of returning the temporarily occupied territories, accusations of provocations by the Russian Federation are meaningless. Russia will have to take responsibility for the extermination of the civilian population of Ukraine, as the International Courts are already working on the investigation of the crimes committed by the occupiers on the territory of our state," the Center added.

According to the Center to Counter Disinformation, Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov urged his own audience to generate emails about alleged abuse by Ukrainian servicemen of POWs from the Russian army. The propagandist also provided detailed instructions on how and what to do. In particular, he provided a list of e-mail addresses of leading Western media outlets, to which, in his opinion, the letters should be sent; an accompanying text of the letter in case people do not speak English; links to fake materials about the brutality of the Ukrainian army towards Russian prisoners and civilians; videos, which allegedly are evidence of the brutality of the Ukrainian army. "In such a simple way the Russian Federation seeks to reverse the course of events and to bend the West to its side, but civilized society has long understood everything," the Center said in a statement.

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.

Russian media disseminated a quote from EU High Representative Josep Borrel that the Russian ruble allegedly "resists sanctions well. на своей специализированной радио COPE." Это , Borrel did не express a passion для российской экономики," Center explained.

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".

Anonymous telegrams controlled by Russian special services spread the message that "Ukraine has already lost those who were forced to go abroad. These manipulative messages state that "data from sociologists" show that Ukrainians who were forced to leave for Western countries because of Russia's war do not plan to return. In fact, Razumkov Center polls show that 79 percent of refugees plan to return to Ukraine after the war ends, 11 percent of Ukrainians are hesitant and only 10 percent do not plan to return. According to the UN, as of April 3, the number of Ukrainian refugees exceeded 4.2 million.

This is the thesis spread by Russian propagandists, citing the words of American political analyst Jim Jatras. According to StopFake, Jim Jatras is one of the regular "talking heads" on Russian propaganda resources RT and Sputnik, and since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Jatras has stated that Ukraine is unlikely to exist as a state, and President Zelenskyy is likely to be president in exile. As the fact checker writes, he also claimed that Russian arguments in this war were more "weighty" and defended the Moscow Patriarchate and spread Russian disinformation about the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. "Thus, Jatras' comments are not something strange, but go along with Russian propaganda narratives about atrocities in Bucha and other cities in the Kiev region found after the region was de-occupied," StopFake fact checkers write. In addition, according to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Russia continues to use so-called Western experts to spread its propaganda about Ukraine. Among them is former U.S. Army officer David Payne, who has cooperated with the Kremlin for many years. As the Center notes, during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, this "expert" disseminated theses in the foreign media that "The event should stop supplying weapons to Ukraine so as not to provoke Russia into even more aggression" and "Ukraine should give Russia Crimea and Donbass to avoid World War III." "All of these statements have nothing to do with reality. The Kremlin has been building its propaganda campaign to discredit the civilized world for years, resorting to bribing and recruiting even Western officials," the Center adds.

The Russian Defense Ministry, Russian propaganda media, and telegram channels are actively working to justify the situation in Bucha, where at least 400 murdered and tortured residents were found after Russian troops left. Russian propaganda does not have a unified approach for this case, so it spreads completely different messaging and manipulative messages, from versions about staging and fake photos to the version allegedly killed by the Ukrainian military "for the picture" for foreign media. "The Media Detector recorded 18 variations of propaganda messages. Not all of them are related, but all of them are aimed at justifying Russia.

The most popular message promoted by the Russian authorities is a "staging" or "provocation" by the Ukrainian authorities to force the West to give weapons and aircraft, discredit the Russian army, disrupt peace agreements, and incite violence.

Along with this message spread allegedly:

- "not a single civilian was harmed while Russian troops were in town";

- "residents of Bucha were able to leave the city while Russian troops were there";

- "photos of the dead in Bucha were shown only on the fourth day after the Russian troops left";

- "the video from Bucha shows the dead moving their arms and removing their limbs in order to avoid being hit by the wheels of military equipment, and getting up".

Another group of messages is based on a technique that Russia has already tried - shifting responsibility to the Ukrainian defenders. Among other things, they spread the theses that:

- "the residents of Bucha were killed by the local terrorists";

- "the residents of Bucha were killed by artillery fire from the AFU and Azov when they entered the city";

- "there are white bandages on the bodies of the dead - they were used by the Ukrainians";

- "tying hands is the handwriting of the Ukrainian military and terrorists".

Bucha had been under the occupation of the Russian army since the beginning of March, only on April 1 the AFU reported liberation of the city. After Bucha was returned under the control of the AFU, hundreds of dead were found there. These crimes by the Russian military are already referred to as the "Bucha massacre. President Vladimir Zelensky visited Bucha on April 4 and said that Russia committed war crimes and genocide in Ukraine. The European Union accused Russian authorities of committing atrocities.

"Detector Media" urges readers to take care of their mental health and try not to distribute the photos to their acquaintances and loved ones, because the purpose of such activities of the Russians is to terrorize the Ukrainian population. They seek to intimidate and break the spirit to make it harder for Ukrainians to resist.