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.

This thesis is spread by telegram channels administered by Russian special services. Pro-Kremlin telegram channels were spreading similar messages about the blame of "the collective West for everything that is happening in Ukraine" even before the full-scale Russian invasion began. In reality, Ukraine is not in "conflict" with Russia, but in war. Russia launched a war against Ukraine in 2014, first by occupying Crimea and then parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions; in 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukrainian territories. According to the UN, as of April 3, at least 1,417 civilians had been killed and another 2,038 wounded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

Russian propaganda spreads a fake map of uranium deposits on Ukrainian territory as if to prove that Ukraine "carried out nuclear developments to blow up European security. The Center for Counteracting Disinformation countered: "Our state has large deposits of various minerals. But their presence is not equal to the presence of weapons of mass destruction which the Kremlin misinforms the population about. The center specified that with such fakes, Russia is trying to prepare an information field to justify its crimes, and is also trying to split the EU and NATO.

This is reported by the Kremlin media, citing its own sources. This is not true. The U.S. is not talking about any use of Afghans as a military force and is not planning to send American troops to Ukraine.

The Afghan National Army (ANA) disbanded in 2021 after NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan and Taliban fighters entered the Afghan capital. Some Afghan soldiers were evacuated to the U.S., while others joined the Taliban or fled to neighboring countries.

On February 19, 2022, the U.S. reported that all evacuated Afghans had left McGuire-Dix Lakehurst Base, where they had been temporarily housed. There are indeed suggestions in the U.S. that an Afghan Legion could be formed from those willing to serve in the U.S. Army. But experts say that to be eligible for service in the U.S. armed forces, Afghans do not meet one of the basic requirements - that recruits must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States. So there is no discussion of using the Afghans as a military force in the United States at this point.

The U.S. is not going to send American troops to Ukraine, as President Joe Biden has repeatedly pointed out. Throughout Russia's war against Ukraine, the U.S. has been providing Ukraine with all kinds of military and medical assistance.

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

Information about this is spreading in pro-Russian telegram channels by re-posts from the channel of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green from Georgia.

According to ZMIST fact-checkers, the congresswoman accused Ukraine of torturing civilians and Nazism. In her tweets, she refers to a selection of videos in which Troy and ordinary people punish looters by tying them to poles and beating their asses. "The selection itself was presented by a propaganda account, which repeats Russian propaganda word for word and does not provide context for the video. Marjorie Taylor reiterates Russia's propaganda and demands an end to Ukraine's support. But it should be noted that Taylor has repeatedly made contradictory statements, publicly supported the most bizarre conspiracy theories, called for weapons to stop vaccinations against coronavirus - all to attack Democrats and President Biden, so do not trust her words," - said in a statement.

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

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

Russian media, citing the General Staff of the Russian Federation, spread the fake that the Russian army allegedly completely blocked Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mykolayiv. Similar messages are sent to Ukrainian users, but with an expanded list of allegedly captured cities — "Sumy, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Melitopol, Bila Tserkva, Zaporizhzhia", as well as "Kirovograd" and "Kropyvnytskyi" (in fact, these are two names of the same city) and others. Russia has not captured, blocked or controlled any major and strategic city in Ukraine. The Ukrainian military counterattack repulses the occupiers at all points near Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Sumy. Western special services are also recording the Armed Forces' success in the south of the country.

Also, in the messages sent to users, they write about "the destruction of 13 bio laboratories on the territory of Ukraine", "about the bio laboratory at Zmiiny", and so on. Fake about bio labs MediaSapiens has denied before.

Telegram channels administered by Russia's intelligence services are speculating on the US president's visit to Poland. They take various quotes from Biden and other politicians who allegedly claim that Poland, despite NATO's refusal, is still sending troops to Ukraine. Propagandists do not speak unequivocally but only speculate and push.

This information is being disseminated by Kremlin propagandist media. In particular, they publish articles with the headlines “Rally Held in New-York in Support of Russia”. “The protesters were carrying posters “Russia is not enemy for us! NATO and Ukrainian nazi are!”, the articles say.

However, this is manipulation. According to the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the material doesn’t point out any references to the source of the information; it goes that “the rally has been reported by the local mass media”. They only share a piece of text and a photo with 5 people in an unidentified place (3 persons are holding the poster and 1 person is holding the symbol of the Temporary Occupied Territories of Donetsk and Luhansk). The monitoring has shown that on February 27 propagandist media already shared similar news about the rally in New York with no photo from the scene.

This statement is being spread by Russian propagandists, mentioning that the U.S. president Joe Biden himself admitted that he was afraid of hypersonic Kinzhal missiles and allegedly stated that the U.S. military is not able to stop a hypersonic missile.

According to StopFake, all of this is not true, because Joe Biden said that the use of Kinzhal missiles is a sign that "Putin is pressed against the wall" due to the lack of success of the Russian army in Ukraine. He also stressed that these missiles are not fundamentally different from those already known, except that it is difficult to shoot them down by air defense systems.

A video of so-called deathly beating is being spread on social media. This was reported by ‘Europeiska Pravda’ with reference to German Bonn’s police department. In this video, allegedly, a crowd of Ukrainians beats a 16-years old boy in Euskirchen, a town in North Rhine-Westphalia. Language of video — Russian.

At first, the video was published on Telegram-channel, which spreads Russian propaganda about the Russian-Ukrainian war. A fake news report that 16-years old volunteer “Daniel” was beaten only for speaking Russian. The police say they have no information about this cruel attack that caused death. Law enforcement officers ask people not to spread this video and check the information carefully, especially on social media.

Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels report that the Ukrainian military allegedly fired on Rubizhne in the Luhansk region to "create a picture for the West" about the Russian aggression. The head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, Serhii Haidai, said that the Russian occupiers were cynically destroying residential areas and killing civillian Ukrainians. According to him, in particular, at least 27 houses in Rubizhne were caught fire on the night of March 17.

In addition, the National Guard of Ukraine refuted Russian media reports that the city was allegedly controlled by the Russian military. "Our guardsmen send greetings from Rubizhne in Luhansk region. They were genuinely surprised and laughed a lot when they saw a circus show in Russian news that the city had been "cleansed" by Chechens and terrorists from ORDLO (the uncontrolled portions of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts). They say that the city was guarded, is guarded and will be guarded by Ukrainian servicemen, border guards and police, and they do not surrender it to the occupiers," the statement says.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine warned that the Russian Ministry of Defense had spread fake information—that the Azov regiment was preparing a series of terrorist attacks against the U.S. and other diplomatic missions in Lviv to "create levers of influence on NATO countries to close the sky over Ukraine."

Anonymous telegram channels controlled by Russia's intelligence services report that President Volodymyr Zelensky remains in Ukraine because he has nowhere to escape to. This is a lie, because even at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States and other western countries offered Zelensky to evacuate to a safe place to ensure the continuity of his leadership. However, the Ukrainian president refused.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels also accuse Zelensky of allegedly starting the war because he "supported Poroshenko's course to NATO" and "refused the Minsk agreements." In fact, it was Putin who "tore the Minsk agreements into pieces," as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, when Putin recognised terrorist groups “Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spread a fake message that Ukraine had allegedly failed to implement the Minsk agreements, so it was preparing to seize its temporarily uncontrolled territories, which was to be accompanied by "terrible bloodshed." Putin "tore the Minsk agreements to pieces," as US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield said when she acknowledged the "L / DNR" terrorist group. The very fake thesis about the "capture" of the occupied territories has been spread before. In particular, as proof of "Ukraine's preparations for the offensive in the Donbas in March 2022" , a document was distributed on the Lviv region's training camp. Or that Joe Biden allegedly ordered an attack on Donbas and so on.

Russia's Defense Ministry is spreading a fake message that the Security Service of Ukraine is allegedly "preparing a provocation with the use of toxic substances against civilians with the support of Western countries."

The SBU denied the report and noted that the fake spread after the occupiers fired on a peace column near Mariupol and dropped a bomb on the city's drama theatre building. « "Such statements by the invaders are just an attempt to divert attention from another war crime. But no fakes will cover the genocide of civilians and the humanitarian catastrophe in Mariupol, which is being destroyed by Russian missiles and bombs,"the SBU said.