Russian propagandists are distributing a video on anonymous telegram channels in which the author claims that old German maps published in 1881 and 1908 contain no mention of Ukraine or Ukrainians. However, this is a distortion of facts.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the term “Ukraine” designating the territory of the modern state of Ukraine had already appeared on the maps of European cartographers at the end of the 17th century.

Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak explains that the word “Ukraine” as a geographical name was first mentioned in the Kyiv Chronicle of the 12th century as a designation of the territory of the Pereyaslav Principality. The term had different interpretations among Ukrainian historians: Mykhailo Hrushevskyi believed that “Ukraine” meant the Middle Dnipro region, and Agatangel Krymskyi argued that this was the territory where the Cossacks later arose. The term “Ukraine” began to acquire a specific geographical meaning throughout the 16th century, and its final consolidation in cartography occurred thanks to the maps of the French engineer Guillaume de Beauplan in the mid-17th century.

Therefore, if one carefully examines the map in the propaganda video, they will notice that the territory of modern Ukraine is designated as “Malorossia” or “Little Rus”, which was a derivative of the term “Hetmanate” or Left-Bank Ukraine. This approach of Russian propagandists is aimed at discrediting Ukraine, but it has no scientific basis, since the term “Ukraine” has been known since ancient times and was used to designate certain territories.

Accordingly, the thesis of propagandists that there are no mentions of Ukraine on old maps is unfounded.

Pro-Kremlin resources are disseminating information that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has issued a decree on the annexation of Russian territories to Ukraine. With this decree, he allegedly declared the right of sovereignty over the Krasnodar Territory, Voronezh, Kursk, Rostov, Briansk and Belgorod regions.

Thus, on January 22, 2024, Zelenskyi signed a decree “On the territories of the Russian Federation historically inhabited by Ukrainians”, but it does not talk about the “annexation” of these territories to Ukraine or the “declaration of sovereignty” over them. Propagandists resorted to yet another manipulation of facts, because the real purpose of the decree is to begin work to preserve the national identity of Ukrainians living in Russia. This is written about in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

This decree, in particular, is about restoring and preserving the historical memory of crimes against Ukrainians in the past and present; on countering disinformation and propaganda; development of cooperation between Ukrainians and other peoples conquered by Russia; preparation and distribution of materials, as well as updating and inclusion in educational programs of information about the true history of ethnic Ukrainians in Russia.

With this media manipulation, Russian propaganda seeks to fuel its narrative: “Ukraine is the aggressor”, so Russia had no other option but to attack Ukrainian lands. They say that in this way Russia wanted to protect its territorial integrity, as well as Russian-speaking Ukrainians who were allegedly “oppressed” in Ukraine. However, the truth is that this is only a justification for Russian aggression by Moscow, which has been encroaching on Ukrainian territories for centuries and seeking to seize them, today committing a real genocide of the Ukrainian people.

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Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social networks claim that Ukraine is preparing a film “The History of the Black Sea”. They say that this film will show the Ukrainian myth that the Black Sea was dug by the ancient Ukrainians, who, according to assumptions, inhabited the territory of Ukraine. However, this is fake.

Analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that Ukrainian scientists had never put forward such a theory. Moreover, already 9 years ago they refuted a fake paragraph from a Ukrainian textbook, according to which the ancestors of Ukrainians allegedly dug up the Black Sea. Then the project specialists noted that the textbook and its author, to whom the propagandists referred, did not exist. Russian propaganda is trying to spread new narratives on this topic, using fake images and information, including fictitious data about the film's budget and ratings.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to create a false image of Ukrainians as a nation that does not have its own history, but invents it. They say that this is why such projects as a film about the dredged up Black Sea are being made, supposedly financed at public expense. Detector Media has already explained how else Russian propaganda instrumentalizes Ukrainian history for its own purposes.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the media claim that a number of European countries, and especially Ukraine and the Baltic countries, are systematically destroying historical memory. They say that they have forgotten about the lessons of the Second World War, and they worship racist, neo-Nazi and extremist ideas.

Analysts of the EUvsDisinfo project drew attention to this message. They note that the Kremlin media repeatedly scares with the “rebirth of Nazism” in the West and “historical revanchism” against Russia. The myth of Nazi Ukraine is refuted by the fact that Nazi and communist ideologies were banned in Ukraine at the legislative level in 2015.

By spreading such messages, propagandists want to justify Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, providing a false need for “denazification”. By baselessly calling all Ukrainians Nazis, they deliberately portray Ukrainians in a negative light. Detector Media has refuted a number of fakes and manipulations using this message.

Propagandists distribute in anonymous telegram channels with pro-Russian rhetoric a map, which allegedly indicates the places where the UPA was engaged in terrorizing civilians. However, this is manipulation.

Analysts of the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the map does not depict the terror of the UPA, but only the places of its activities on the territory of Ukraine. On it one can see the territory of activity UPA-North, UPA-West and UPA-South. For a reverse search of the map distributed by propagandists, one can find a supplement to the first part of Mykola Lebed's book “UPA. Ukrainian Insurgent Army”. In particular, it shows the actions of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the OUN underground on the territory of Ukraine during the occupation of Ukrainian lands by Nazi Germany.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to emphasize the cooperation of the UPA with the Nazis and justify Russia's aggression against Ukraine. In particular, although Russian “researchers” write about the crimes of the UPA, they do not mention that they were committed by NKVD detachments under the guise of the UPA. Yaroslav Faizulin, a participant in the Ukrainian World War II project, on the basis of archival data, claims that in the western regions of Ukraine, as of July 26, 1945, there were 156 special groups of the NKVD under the guise of UPA units.

Kremlin propaganda media and anonymous telegram channels are circulating a video of Valerii Zorkin, head of Russia's Constitutional Court, showing Putin a copy of a 17th-century French map that doesn't seem to show Ukraine. The Russian dictator said that Ukraine is a quasi-state created by the Soviet authorities. But he added: “Well, we know that these lands were simply part of Rzeczpospolita, and then they asked to be part of the Moscow kingdom”. This is manipulation.

Experts from the Viorstka (Layout) media drew attention to the fake. They found a map by cartographer Guillaume Sanson, a copy of which was shown to Putin. There is Ukraine on the map, it is signed as Vkraine ou Pays des Cosaques (Ukraine or Country of Cossacks). Among the maps of Ukraine is his famous work, created in 1674. This map can be found on the website of the digital library of the National Library of France and its Gallica partners. Moreover, Crimea on the map is not part of Russia, and the peninsula is circled as a separate state. In the 17th century, the Crimean Khanate was located there.

Russian propaganda continues to promote the key propaganda theses that Ukraine did not exist, it was created by Lenin. The Russian president himself speaks of this in order to justify a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Earlier, Detector Media wrote that the occupiers had prepared a pseudo-historical training manual for teaching Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories.

Kremlin publications spread the message that Ukraine and its statehood are in fact an artificially created project of the “collective West”, which has the informal name “Anti-Russia”. This message was echoed by Russian President Volodymyr Putin in his annual federal address. In particular, he stated that the so-called “anti-Russia” was created in Austria in the 19th century and that Russia is fighting precisely against this “anti-Russia”, since the Ukrainian people are “occupied by the West”, especially the United States. Earlier, the President of Russia said that Ukraine was artificially created in Austria-Hungary or other Western countries.

Journalists of the Ukrainian news service BBC drew attention to this message. They note that there is a number of historical evidence that refutes the above claims.

Thus, Russia again wants to shift the responsibility for its crimes to the victim. In addition, this is how the propagandists want to justify their aggression against Ukraine: because of the fight against the “external enemy”. It seems that Ukraine does not matter, because it is “controlled” from the outside. Detector Media has previously explained how Russia devalues Ukrainian statehood with the phrase “Kyiv regime”.

This thesis appeared in anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. In their messages, they used the Gender Zed NGO post about same-sex sex among Zaporizhzhia cossacks. Like, the Ukrainian LGBT community is trying to distort the “real” Ukrainian history and is trying to make all the cossacks “perverts”. Moreover, the Russian propaganda focused on the part of the message about transgender people in the Orthodox Church of that time. This is manipulation.

The message of the organization is not scientific and cannot be perceived as genuine information, as the authors themselves point out. In addition, the material says that in the Zaporizhzhia Sich there were cruel punishments for same-sex sexual practices. The authors of the message do not claim that all cossacks were gay, but simply explain that the fact that gays among the cossacks were quite real. According to a number of studies, the human population is 7-10% of homosexual people. Therefore, it is quite clear that they could be in the Sich as well.

Russian propaganda actively manipulates topics related to the LGBT community in Ukraine and beyond. Russia, using LGBT disinformation, despises the democratic system, opposing it to the Russian world. Detector Media refuted the main myths about the representatives of the LGBT community, and also told how Ukrainian LGBT activists help in the fight against Russian occupiers.