In some schools in Mariupol, which is temporarily under occupation, brochures with anti-Ukrainian content are being distributed. This was reported by the Mariupol City Council and the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

The postcards feature Russian propaganda clichés, namely Ukraine's “gay troops” and false comparisons. They say that Russia and its supporters are good, but Ukraine is a “wrong choice” and fascism.

The main goal of these materials is to justify and glorify the Russian occupiers and discredit the Ukrainian military. The main target audience of such postcards are children, which means that with their help they want to shape their civic position.

You can also read about how Russian propaganda uses residents of (de)occupied territories and what to do about it in another material of the Detector Media.

In the Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric, they are spreading an alleged document of the Ukrainian embassy in Turkey. It refers to the allocation of budgetary funds to exceed the amount of living expenses in Turkey for five defenders of Mariupol released from Russian captivity. It's fake.

The fact-checkers of the Center for Strategic Communications drew attention to the case. The Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Turkey officially denied this information on the official website. The fact that this document is fake, “is evidenced by non-existent registration numbers, an invalid Embassy form was used, in particular, a long-defunct website of the Embassy is indicated (current website: turkiye.mfa.gov.ua), other rules for maintaining official correspondence are violated”.

Thus, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the Ukrainian military and complicate the cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey, aimed at the release of the Ukrainian military from Russian captivity. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the manipulation that Russia destroyed the entire fleet of Bayraktar drones in Ukraine.

Journalists from The New York Times analyzed the email archive of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VDTRK), broken by hackers, and found that Russian TV channels, in particular Russia 1 and Russia 24, used materials sent to them by the FSB. The entire dump has a volume of 750 gigabytes, the vast majority of which is related to preparations for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the start of the war - the correspondence took place from January to March 2022. The researchers were able to confirm the addresses of the mailboxes, as well as the faces of the people who received the letters.

As the journalists found out, Russian propagandists created content on topics that were discussed in letters from the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Defense. In the letters, the FSB representatives called the employees of the Russian channels “colleagues”. One of the materials sent by the FSB officers through Russian channels is the story of a woman who claimed that the Mariupol Drama Theater was allegedly blown up by the Ukrainian military.

In addition, in order to give viewers the impression of numerous “victories” of the Russian army and politics in general, they used materials from conservative Western media, in particular Fox News, Chinese media publications with beneficial narratives, and also used little-known accounts on Telegram and YouTube, which also made it possible to create a distorted picture of Russian “greatness”.

This thesis was spread by Russian President Volodymyr Putin, after which it was replicated by Russian propaganda media. Putin is convinced that Mariupol is an ancient Russian city. He also claims that the city was founded by Peter I and created his first military flotilla there. However, it is not so. In fact, in Russian historiography, Mariupol as a city in the Russian Empire was founded in 1778, already under Catherine II. Then the city was called Pavlovsk. However, this was preceded by the existence on this territory of the Kalmius settlement - the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Cossacks - with the settlement of Domakha with the Kalmius fortress as the center. The fact-checkers of The Insider project write about this. In 1778-1779, the Russian authorities evicted the Christian population from there to the Crimea and settled Russians there.

Accordingly, they face up to 15 years in prison. This is how the Russian occupiers intimidate the residents in order to prevent them from going to the controlled territories of Ukraine.

The Mariupol City Council reports: "Ukraine is waiting for all its citizens who live in the temporarily occupied Mariupol. They are ready to support and provide maximum assistance in the controlled territories. For this help, there was created a network of "Ya Mariupol" centers. Here you can get humanitarian, legal, psychological, and social assistance."

Russian propaganda has been spreading such theses since at least August 2022, manipulating a sensitive issue. Most of the people in the temporarily occupied territories live on the edge of survival and are forced to receive Russian humanitarian aid, dismantle rubble and rebuild houses for receiving food.

Ukrainian law does not provide for responsibility for receiving Russian humanitarian aid in the occupied territories. Such statements are made in order to intimidate the residents of the temporarily occupied territories, allegedly after the de-occupation, the residents will face criminal liability.

Such news is spreading on social networks, in particular in the Telegram channel of the so-called emergency service of the enterprise "Donbass Water". In fact, the occupation administration hides the most important thing: the water does not meet sanitary standards and is unsuitable for drinking.

According to Voxcheck fact-checkers, water supply remains one of the biggest problems in temporarily occupied Mariupol. Earlier, the Mariupol City Council published a study by the Zaporizhzhia Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Volunteers received a water sample for testing, which was later handed over to the center.

The test revealed signs of water mixing with fecal matter, which means that such water should not be drunk: there is a risk of contracting diarrheal infections. Residents of Mariupol are advised to boil water to avoid poisoning.

The occupiers tried to refute the fact that the water was insufficiently purified. The mock Ministry of Defense of the DNR claimed that it was carrying out epidemiological surveillance of water. However, no documents confirming these facts were published.

According to the fact-checker of the EUvsDISINFO project, this message was promoted by propagandists in a four-episode documentary series called “Mariupol: Chronicles of a Russian City”, which was broadcast by RT Spanish in August 2022. This thesis is part of a disinformation campaign to justify the illegal occupation of Ukrainian territories by Russia.

Mariupol cannot be considered a Russian city. From its foundation in 1776 to this day, Mariupol has always been and remains a Ukrainian city. Due to its geographical location, the city is of strategic importance. In April 2014, it was occupied by Russian troops and pro-Russian militants. In June 2014, the city was de-occupied. Since March 1, 2022, the city has again been under the blockade of the Russian occupation forces.

As in 2014, so in 2022, the Ukrainians put up heroic resistance to the invaders in Mariupol. As a result of Russian aggression in 2022, tens of thousands of Mariupol residents were killed, the city's infrastructure was practically destroyed. In particular, the entire infrastructure of public transport has been destroyed, 90% cannot be restored.