The court's decision to detain the once leading 1+1 TV channel and others, and now Russian propagandist Zhan Novoseltsev in Ukraine, allegedly demonstrates exemplary punishment of citizens who defend their rights. Propagandists claim this.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security explains that Zhan Novoseltsev is not a journalist or human rights activist, but is known as a distributor of fakes and an ally of anti-vaccination activist Ostap Stakhiv. On July 23, the Security Service of Ukraine detained him for calls for armed resistance against the Territorial centers of recruitment and social support workers and attempts to destabilize the situation in the country. Novoseltsev and his accomplices, including pseudo-experts and administrators of online communities, disseminated false information about the Ukrainian military and published personal data of Ukrainian defenders and law enforcement officers. All of them pretended to be journalists, the SBU reports. Novoseltsev also spread conspiracy theories and fake news about the war and energy situation in Ukraine.

Russian propaganda uses this information drive to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and create distrust in state institutions. This is part of an information war aimed at weakening internal unity and damaging its international reputation.

Russian propaganda is actively using Russia's presidency of the UN Security Council to promote its own narratives regarding Ukraine. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine drew attention to this when on July 25 Russia convened a meeting due to the “problem of supplying weapons to Ukraine”, where diplomats from the aggressor country disseminated propaganda messages.

Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vasyl Nebenzia, repeated several propaganda clichés that were discovered by the Center for Research and Explained and explained by Detector Media.

“The West is robbing Ukraine with colonial schemes”

With the help of this cliché, Russian propagandists are trying to show that the West allegedly really does not help Ukraine, but only uses its resources and capabilities. This statement is aimed at undermining Ukrainians' trust in Western aid and support, presenting it not as help but as exploitation. In this way, Russia is trying to sow doubts among the population of Ukraine and the international community regarding the honesty and selflessness of assistance from the West. Propagandists also want to influence the mood in Western countries so that the population begins to doubt the advisability of supporting Ukraine.

“Corruption in Ukraine has reached unprecedented proportions”

This unsubstantiated statement attempts to discredit the Ukrainian government, undermining its legitimacy and the credibility of its international partners. The purpose of its dissemination is to convince the international community that support for Ukraine is wasteful and ineffective. The exaggeration of corruption at high levels is intended to discourage other states from continuing to provide assistance.

“Volodymyr Zelenskyi has lost legitimacy”

Propagandists are once again seeking to portray the President of Ukraine as an illegitimate leader in order to weaken his domestic and international support. This is done in order to reduce his influence and authority. Russia is trying to increase destabilization in Ukraine and create the impression of chaos, which can be used as justification for its crimes against Ukraine and its inhabitants.

“The Ukrainian peace formula makes no sense”

This cliche is aimed at discrediting Ukrainian peace initiatives in order to present Ukraine as an obstacle to peace. The goal is to impose on the world community the opinion that the Ukrainian proposals are not successful, and thus force them to accept conditions favorable to Russia. Thus, Russia seeks to impose its vision of scenarios for ending the war and its peace conditions, which would ensure exclusively its strategic interests.

The latest meeting of the Security Council once again showed that Russia is using the international platform and diplomats as a propaganda tool, avoiding constructive dialogue. It seeks to convince the international community that it is right and justify its aggressive actions in Ukraine by spreading distorted information and manipulation.

The “information alibi” method consists of proactively accusing the other party of actions that will actually be committed by the accusers themselves. This technique is used to cover up or justify one's criminal actions by creating a preemptive message to confuse the audience and deflect responsibility. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council spoke in more detail about its use.

Its experts showed with real examples how it works. Russian troops launched a missile attack on a railway station in Kramatorsk in April 2022, killing civilians. In anticipation of this attack, Russian telegram channels distributed warnings about the danger of evacuation by rail, blaming the Ukrainian Armed Forces for the concentration of militants at the station. This created the preconditions for accusing Ukraine of organizing the attack. A few weeks before Russia blew up Colony No. 120 in Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners were kept, a telegram spread information that Ukraine was allegedly preparing to destroy the colony. When Russia prepared and carried out mass civilian killings in Izium and Uman, propaganda disseminated information in advance about Ukrainian “provocations” in these cities. The Russians are also still distributing “information alibis”, the formation of which has not yet been completed, for example, about the staging of the mass death of locals in Kherson.

By anticipating possible charges, Russia is trying to confuse the international community and divert attention from its actions. By accusing Ukraine of future or already committed crimes, propagandists also try to undermine trust in the Ukrainian authorities and the Armed Forces of Ukraine both within the country and abroad. Creating alternative versions of events helps Russia spread doubt to an international audience, making it difficult to unequivocally condemn its actions and subsequently impose sanctions. Russian propaganda deliberately complicates the establishment of the truth, which is beneficial for the aggressor to continue his criminal actions without due responsibility.

The NATO Washington Summit took place on July 9-11, 2024. Subsequently, Chinese journalists began to write about the results of the summit. In particular, some of them criticized the decision to help Ukraine and spread a narrative consistent with Russian propaganda: “NATO is fomenting confrontation”. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

In addition, the Chinese publication Global Times published an interview with American economist Jeffrey Sachs, who voiced theses on Ukraine that were beneficial to Russia. It should be noted here that this is not the first time he has spread pro-Russian rhetoric.

As for India, its media pays great attention to the visit of the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Moscow, which took place on July 8-9, 2024, and sees benefits from relations with Russia. However, in India they are unhappy that the agreement on the dismissal of their citizens from service in Russia is not being fulfilled.

Also, some Indian publications, without context, are disseminating comments from Russian representatives about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and relaying Moscow’s calls to Washington to stop supplying arms to Ukraine and focus on internal security.

With the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine began to actively develop relations with countries of the Global South. First of all, contacts take place in the context of the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula, because it has a global context. However, Russia doesn’t really like this, so it is trying in every possible way to ruin these relations.

Propaganda telegram channels disseminate a number of manipulations and narratives in the best traditions of Russian propaganda on issues related to Ukrainian energy. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

Thus, as a result of monitoring the information space, the following main disinformation messages were discovered:

– Ukraine is on the verge of an energy catastrophe;

– a black winter awaits Ukrainians;

– the authorities are incompetent in the conditions of the energy crisis;

– Ukraine sells electricity abroad while its population is without electricity;

- The authorities are profiting from raising tariffs.

Moscow is spreading these narratives with the aim of destabilizing the situation inside Ukraine. Also, by spreading manipulations about supposedly “mass protests of Ukrainians against blackouts”, Russia is trying to create the illusion that Ukraine is on the verge of a social explosion.

At the same time, on the TikTok social network, propagandists are artificially promoting the trend about the unbearability of life in Ukraine with calls for citizens to go abroad. Thus, Russia seeks to provoke a new wave of migration by driving Ukrainians out of their homes.

A coalition of investigative journalists from Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Germany, Romania and Poland investigated for VSQUARE how right-wing radical movements in EU countries used the social network TikTok, which spread messages consonant with Russian propaganda as well as themes of Russian aggression against Ukraine. They noted that TikTok's algorithm inadvertently promotes political activism, extremism and propaganda, complicating research due to limited access to data, which requires a combination of API data, web scraping (active search of open sources) and manual collection for conducting investigations.

In particular, it found that the TikTok landscape has become a breeding ground for German right-wing extremists, with a content reach of approximately 23 million users. The investigation shows how easy it is to manipulate TikTok's virality algorithm, which tolerates the creation of fake accounts and misinformation. The German AfD party has particularly benefited from this right, using TikTok to strengthen its pro-Russian position and influence young voters.

Olga, a TikTok influencer from Moscow, shows her Czech-speaking audience moments from everyday life and street interviews, subtly hinting at the “minimal” impact of international sanctions on Russia. After living in the Czech Republic for 12 years, she returned to Russia. Among the reasons for this decision, she names bureaucracy and a decrease in freedom in Europe. On her account Z Ruska s láskou (From Russia with Love), she discusses current events in the Czech Republic. For example, she answers the country's Prime Minister Petr Fial, comparing prices to emphasize lower costs in Russia. With more than 10,000 followers, her audience overlaps with that of Czech and Slovak politicians, a pro-Putin biker gang, and an anonymous extremist account critical of the Czech government and Ukraine.

Claudiu Tarziu, a Romanian MEP from the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), posts videos on his account that have been identified as containing disinformation. The authors of the study found that conspiracy theories and xenophobic messages make up more than 41% of its content. AUR and another far-right party, SOS RO, together won eight seats in the European Parliament elections. Context.ro analyzed the TikTok content of seven MEPs affiliated with these parties and found that between 20 and 42% of their videos contained toxic messages. Using automated software, Context.ro analyzed more than 5,800 videos from 36 MEP candidates, finding 2,000 instances of exaggeration, fear-mongering or false content.

In the 2024 European Parliament elections, Poland's far-right Confederation alliance won six seats, marking a significant increase from 2019, when no far-right candidate was elected to represent the country. Their success is largely due to a strong presence on TikTok, where alliance leader Slawomir Mentzen boasts over 850,000 followers and the Confederation's official page has 329,000 followers. Despite the fact that TikTok accounts were created recently, in late 2022 or early 2023, members of the Confederation actively joined the network during election campaigns, but subsequently began to publish less material. In particular, MEP Grzegorz Braun, known for his anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, also gained more than 100,000 subscribers, correlating with his electoral support. In addition, influential figures such as Stefan Tompson, who has more than 100,000 followers, amplify Polish far-right narratives, although such accounts are registered abroad, particularly in Germany.

After the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico, Slovakia saw a surge in disinformation and conspiracy theories on this topic, including on TikTok. Former judge Stefan Harabin, linked to nationalist SNS MP Roman Mihelko, spread a conspiracy theory blaming the attack on someone linked to the country's former president Zuzana Caputova, calling her the “ideological architect” of the attack. Despite TikTok's limited reach in Slovakia compared to Facebook's dominance in the context of political content, a video related to the murder received 60,000 views, and other content on the topic reached more than 300,000 viewers. The Jan Kuciak Investigative Center found that high-profile figures such as President Petr Pellegrini and the Smer party were the driving force behind this narrative, along with lesser-known profiles that spread baseless accusations, for example linking the attacker to LGBTQ activists.

Hungarian TikTok features mainstream, not just fringe, media outlets spreading Russian disinformation. Channels such as M1-Híradó and VILÁGHÍRADÓ ROLI OLDALA attract more than 125,000 and 50,000 subscribers respectively by publishing snippets of news programs with a pro-Russian slant, despite the fact that these accounts are not officially affiliated with copper. Even figures associated with pro-government media, such as Daniel Ferko of Hír TV, distribute similar content, such as statements linking the recent Moscow terrorist attacks to Ukrainian forces.

As Eesti Ekspress found out, Estonian TikTok videos in which their creators expressed fear of possible power outages were part of the disinformation ecosystem in Estonia. Examining conspiracy content related to Russian aggression against Ukraine, the report's authors found that 63% of such videos on Estonian TikTok could be classified as disinformation. Although there are approximately 400,000 TikTok users in Estonia, it is dominated by Russian propaganda aimed at stoking anxiety and fear. Eesti Ekspress found around 50 accounts spreading disinformation, posting monologue-style videos and dark humor about the risks of war in Estonia.

TikTok, owned by ByteDance, responded to queryers by reiterating its efforts to combat misinformation, saying it uses fact-checkers and proactively removes harmful content. They noted that misinformation is rare on TikTok: less than 2% of removed videos in Q4 2023 violated the virtue and authenticity policies, and less than 40% violated the misinformation or civic virtue policies. TikTok ensures that toxic content is either removed completely or its access to users' feeds is reduced. The company denies the accusation that it promotes the spread of misinformation, noting that it has strict policies against the accounts of governments, politicians and political parties aimed at maintaining freedom of expression and creating a “cheerful platform for the community”. However, the report's authors note that these efforts are not enough.

The Russians managed to create a network of their contacts among local journalists and politicians in Israel, who are becoming instruments of influence in the region. Israel Hayom writes about this, citing Israeli intelligence services. These contacts are actively used to spread Russian propaganda and disinformation aimed at undermining stability in Israel.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine notes that in order to analyze the activities of Russians in the Israeli media space, it was discovered that the Kremlin uses a wide arsenal to promote propaganda in it. This includes both traditional and new methods to maximize influence on public opinion.

Key technologies include:

- creation of websites masquerading as Israeli media. They look like real news outlets, but they actually spread pro-Russian information and disinformation;

- dissemination of pro-Russian messages in the comments of popular political groups on social networks. This allows one to form public opinion and support the necessary narratives among the population;

- Distribution of anti-Ukrainian publications, including interviews with Israeli military and political figures calling for continued cooperation with Russia. These materials should undermine support for Ukraine and justify Russian aggression.

Israeli intelligence services are actively monitoring these influence attempts and working to neutralize them, but the problem remains relevant and requires constant attention and counteraction.

A recent Bloomberg report highlighted how Russia is using Western bloggers to spread its propaganda. With an audience of more than two million subscribers, they either moved to Russia permanently or traveled there after the start of the full-scale invasion. In their content, these bloggers mostly ignore the topic of the war in Ukraine. In turn, they focus on the supposedly insignificant impact of sanctions and the creation of a positive image of Russia.

There is no direct evidence that these bloggers are part of a coordinated pro-Kremlin campaign. However, the Russian propaganda machine often uses social media to spread disinformation, and bloggers have become an important part of this mechanism.

Specialists from the Beyond the News project analyzed this using the example of Russian blogger Elina Bakunova, known as Eli from Russia, who promotes Kremlin narratives due to her travels around Russia.

She has a YouTube channel with over 700 thousand subscribers, some of her videos have received millions of views. In them, Bakunova shows Lake Baikal, Mount Elbrus and other sights of Russia, creating the impression that her content is dedicated exclusively to travel.

She positions herself as an ordinary girl from Perm, although her education and access to professional equipment indicate otherwise. She began her career by talking about studying in Italy, where she studied English and PR. Her videos include professional drone footage and time lapses.

Her connection with propagandists is evidenced, in particular, by her interview with an American working for Russia Today about the advantages of living in Russia. In addition, in June 2022, it joined the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), whose honorary president is Shoihu and whose supervisory board is headed by Putin. The organization has become an instrument of hybrid warfare in the international arena and in the field of education. They use cartography to create false maps that label temporarily occupied territories of other countries as Russian.

In its videos, Eli from Russia shows different peoples as part of “great Russia”, focusing on landscapes and cuisine and only briefly mentioning culture and customs. She constantly emphasizes Russian as the main language for everyday use. The YouTuber avoids discussing the past and contemporary problems of these peoples, keeping silent about their true history of “annexing” to Russia, trying to create an attractive image of the state.

While traveling through countries that Russian propaganda calls post-Soviet, such as Georgia and Kazakhstan, she ignores anti-Russian sentiment and focuses on nostalgia for Soviet times. The YouTuber talks about life under the Soviet Union as “the best of times”.

In the comments to the video, she is reproached for keeping silent about Russian aggression against Ukraine. However, her supporters argue that the blog is dedicated to nature and cultures, so she should not talk about political topics. She continues to move freely around the country and travel abroad. After February 24, 2022, she published a video about her trip beyond the Northern Circle, without uttering a word about Russian aggression.

Also, she doubts the fairness of international sanctions against Russia, arguing that they only harm ordinary people, and not Putin and his circle. She focuses on the difficulties that the sanctions created for her personally, without mentioning the reasons for their introduction.

On her travel channel, Elina made several videos that even her fans considered inappropriate. Like the one where she talks about “Victory Day” and praises her grandfather who “fought” “Ukrainian nationalists” during Russia’s modern war against Ukraine.

Eli from Russia disseminates pro-Kremlin narratives to Western audiences who know little about history and life in Russia. They see a beautiful picture that creates the impression of a different Russia and reduces the critical perception of its aggressive actions. She keeps quiet about the war in Ukraine and avoids critical topics, furthering the goals of the propaganda machine, despite the lack of direct evidence of coordination with the Kremlin.

In its digest of anti-Ukrainian messages in Russian media, the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine highlighted the manipulation and fake news spread by Russian propagandists.

Russia seems to be offering a “peace agreement” rather than issuing an ultimatum to Ukraine.

Russian propagandists are spreading information that Russia is offering Ukraine a peace agreement to end the war. Thus, Russia is highlighted as a peacemaker, a party desiring peace. At the same time, propagandists claim the “unwillingness” of Ukraine or the West, which “leads Ukraine”, to end the war.

In fact, Russia issued an ultimatum to Ukraine. The Russians’ demands included: the transfer to Russia of the territories it occupied and international recognition of Ukrainian territories as part of Russia, the non-aligned and nuclear-free status of Ukraine, and the lifting of sanctions against Russia.

Russian propagandists have resorted to replacing concepts in order to portray Russia not as an aggressor, but as a peacemaker. Such propaganda affects both Russian and foreign audiences. It demonizes the West, portrays Russia as morally superior, and instills doubts in Western society about the wisdom of continuing to support Ukraine.

Ukraine allegedly uses cargo ships for military purposes

Propagandists baselessly claim that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are allegedly launching missile attacks on Sevastopol and Crimea using dry cargo ships on which launchers with ATACMS missiles are placed. Thus, the ship is supposedly capable of entering the Black Sea or Odesa cargo port after an attack and merging with the dry cargo ships stationed there.

However, this is a fake, since a cargo ship is a transport vessel designed to transport dry cargo and is not suitable for installing weapons on it. Moreover, Russian propagandists cannot provide any evidence of the use of such vessels by Ukraine.

The dissemination of such a fake is an attempt to legitimize Russian attacks on non-military vessels that are allegedly used for military purposes. So the Russians are blowing up maritime security and jeopardizing one of the trade routes for Ukraine. In addition, in this way, Russian propagandists are spreading fear among Ukrainians and, in general, undermining trust in Ukraine.

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that Ukrainians are supposedly receiving bills to pay for the telethon. As “proof”, propagandists add a photo of a “receipt” from the Rivne Regional Energy Supply Company, which, in addition to electricity charges, allegedly shows charges for the telethon amounting to 40 UAH.

However, this information is not true, write experts on the VoxCheck project. In fact, the United News telethon is financed exclusively from the state budget.

A sample invoice for services from the Rivne Regional Energy Supply Company is presented on the company’s official website. There is no payment for the telethon. Also, the Bereznivskyi district, which is mentioned in the receipt, no longer exists for a long time - as a result of the administrative-territorial reform, four districts were formed in the Rivne region, the former Bereznivskyi district became part of the Rivne one.

Finally, the telethon is broadcast on a dozen national television channels, available on digital airwaves, satellite television and online for free. It is technically impossible to separate “Unified News” into a separate package of services. Citizens of Ukraine either watch it for free or pay providers for a package of channels, which may include channels broadcasting the marathon. Accordingly, when purchasing such a package, the money goes directly to the provider and cannot be combined in one bill with utilities.

Previously, we refuted the information that in Rivne those who evade are disconnected from public services.

Journalist for the American online publication The Washington Post, Lee Hockstader, claims that Russia began actively spreading disinformation in Europe even on the eve of the European Parliament elections. In his column, Hockstader writes that in 2022, Europe was already experiencing a large-scale Russian disinformation operation: “The Moscow-controlled organization cloned the websites of newspapers, magazines and news services, including the British Guardian and the German Bild, posted copies under similar domain names and filled them with Kremlin”.

The main attacks of Russian disinformation are directed against Ukraine: “A website posing as the French Ministry of Defense announced that 200 thousand French recruits will be sought for service in Ukraine. A prominent German TV journalist known as a “Putin expert” and Moscow sympathizer was found to have received more than $600,000 from a Kremlin-linked Russian billionaire”.

Russia's war against Ukraine has removed obstacles to Moscow's use of various disinformation tools. The United States may face a similar or even greater challenge this fall on the eve of the presidential election. If Europe does not respond to this challenge, Hockstader said, which is looking increasingly likely, then the picture will look even bleaker in some places. Particularly in the United States, where dysfunctional policies and First Amendment protections make tracking Russian mischief even more difficult.

This resource disseminates fake news, in particular, about “the death of soldiers of the French Foreign Legion in the war in Ukraine”, criticizes the French government, publishes caricatures of President Macron, promotes pro-Russian fakes and supports right-wing radicals. They write about this in the Center for Strategic Communications and Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

Resistancerepublicaine.com is registered and hosted in Moscow - that is why the .com domain was chosen rather than .fr, intended for French online resources. This was determined by researchers from Insight News Media.

According to investigators, the materials on this site are intended to spread chaos, despair and protest sentiments in France, to blow up the French government and support right-wing radicals committed to Moscow. Previously, we denied information that France had allegedly made an official decision to send its troops to Ukraine.

According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, the Russian intelligence services are planning a new campaign to discredit the country’s military leadership, aimed, in particular, at Ukrainian military intelligence. This was reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

Russian propaganda has prepared a number of articles and films that reveal the data of employees of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine involved in coordinating the combat work of special forces of the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine.

Propagandists have already received instructions to organize paid creation and distribution of relevant materials in the media space of Ukraine and Western countries. The Russians allocated $15 million for this, intelligence officials said.

Russia's next information attack has the following goal:

• discredit Ukrainian military special forces, their officers and employees;

• block the work of departments developing and carrying out combat and special missions against Moscow;

• create another factor of social tension in Ukraine.

Previously, we wrote about how the Russians are recruiting people for Maidan-3 on Telegram.

Pro-Kremlin media, citing the British television channel SkyNews, disseminated information that the rate of production of artillery ammunition in Russia is three times higher than that of all Western countries combined. In turn, SkyNews referred to data from the consulting company Bain & Company. According to “forecasts”, the Russian Federation will produce about 4.5 million artillery shells in 2024, while the United States and European countries will produce a total of approximately 1.3 million.

However, this information is not true. The head of the Conflict Intelligence Team, Ruslan Leviev, pointed out the mistake of the consulting company and, as a result, the British television channel that trusted its assessment:

“The problem is that they [the Bain & Company analysts. - ed.] name the number of shells that the USA and Europe will make, they are talking about shells of the same caliber, the main one is 155 mm. And when they say that Russia will produce 4.5 million of its shells, they count all artillery shells, that is, the main 152 mm, and some kind of 122 mm rocket, and all other shells too”.

Russian propagandists did not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the mistake of Western analysts to exaggerate Russia's production capabilities in the manufacture of shells.

Russian resources are distributing a story on behalf of the BBC that allegedly Bellingcat journalists found out the following: “The funeral business in Ukraine was monopolized by a company whose main shareholder is the personal eccentric of Hunter Biden, the second son of Joe Biden”.

However, this information is not true. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council. In fact, this story is another fake by Russian propagandists. There are no materials on this topic on the official Bellingcat pages. In addition, there is no corresponding story on the official BBC resources.

This is not the first time that Russian propaganda has spread its fake news on behalf of reputable Western publications in an attempt to give them more credibility. All fake videos have similar templates using international media graphics and captions without voiceover of the text. Previously, we analyzed a similar video fake on behalf of the same BBC about the Bellingcat investigation, in which journalists allegedly found out that the head of the Presidential Executive Office Andrii Yermak paid $27 million for a place in Time’s ranking of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Russian telegram channels are distributing an alleged cover of The Economist magazine with the image of former Russian Defense Minister Serhii Shoihu. The “cover” bears the title “The Last 120 Days” and the message adds that “the final phase of the conflict has already begun”. Propagandists claim that the magazine allegedly published material about decisive events that will lead to Russian victory in the coming months. In fact, this is a fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that on the official website of the magazine in the All Issues section there is no issue with a picture of Shoihu. Additionally, there is no publication date on the cover. Russian and pro-Russian outlets began circulating the cover on May 14, although The Economist did not publish any new issues that day. The covers for May 4, 11, and 18 are significantly different from the fake ones, and the topics in these issues do not concern ending the war “in 120 days” or any other time frame. This image of Shoihu is also missing from The Economist's social networks.

In addition, a link to the telegram channel “The Economist” was added to the fake message. This channel is not the official channel of The Economist, since the publication does not have a telegram channel at all. The fake channel imitates the British publication, copying its description and logo.

This is not the first time Russians have used Western brands to spread misinformation. They take the name of a Western publication, its logo, and through fake photos and videos they promote narratives that are beneficial to Russia. The authority of the publication gives information to fictitious “legitimacy” and creates the impression that supposedly even Western journalists recognize the inevitability of Ukraine’s defeat.

An alleged new cover of the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo is being circulated online. The drawing depicts a French military man in the form of a dead man. The picture also has the caption: “Cold, smelly, full of holes, made in France, but not cheese”.

VoxCheck analysts analyzed the case and found that such a cover was not in any issue of Charlie Hebdo magazine. The cover of the magazine indicates that this is issue No. 1659 dated May 7, 2024 - but on the official website of the publication there is the original issue of the magazine for the specified period, which was also published under number 1659.

The cover may be linked to calls by some French MPs for a boycott of the participation of Israeli athletes in the Olympic Games in Paris.

Anonymous telegram channels write that Ukraine has allegedly become a hub for drug trafficking in the world, citing an article in a German newspaper. The author of the article asks the question about the ultimate goal of “legalizing marijuana” in Ukraine and makes the reader wonder whether Volodymyr Zelenskyi legalized this substance due to his own “capture”. At the same time, the authors of the fake news allegedly cite data from the report of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC) to support such theses. In it, the organization allegedly writes that against the backdrop of failures, the Ukrainian military is becoming easy prey for drug lords.

VoxCheck analysts explained that GITOC did not call Ukraine a “hub” for drug trafficking in its report. At the same time, Ukraine legalized not recreational marijuana, but medical cannabis, which contains almost no narcotic substance.

At the same time, the publication Junge Welt actually published material filled with Kremlin anti-Ukrainian narratives. After all, it is the pro-Russian media that is spreading fake news not for the first time.

Propagandists are distributing a report allegedly created by Deutsche Welle, which states that Polish journalist Agata Grzybowska was fired because she published her own investigation in the publication Rzeczpospolita. Grzybowska allegedly said that European media heavily edited videos of Ukrainian soldiers to hide Nazi symbols on their uniforms. However, this is not true.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to the fake. They found out that Deutsche Welle did not actually publish such a video on its official website or social networks. There is also no such investigation on the website of the Polish publication Rzeczpospolita.

A reverse image search on Google revealed that clips from other videos were used for the fake report. For example, the image of Agata Grzybowska is taken from a presentation of her work at the cultural institution Dom Spotkań z Historią in Warsaw. The photo of police detaining her was taken in 2020 during women's protests against an abortion ban in Warsaw. The video with the 59th brigade was filmed in Kramatorsk in February 2024.

Agata Grzybowska is a Polish photographer. On her Facebook page she covers events in Ukraine, in particular the Revolution of Dignity and the Russian full-scale invasion. In a comment to the Belarusian Intelligence Center, Grzybowska denied information about her dismissal and the publication of the investigation. She explained that she does not write articles because she is a photojournalist by profession.

Propagandists are spreading this fake news to once again reinforce their message about “Ukrainian Nazis” and the “need for denazification”. Thus, they justify the crimes of Russians against Ukrainian civilians.

American intelligence agencies note that in recent months, Russian propaganda has intensified discrediting messages against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. This was reported by European Truth with reference to CNN.

Russian disinformation focuses on two topics - the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Avdiivka, as well as the postponement of the presidential elections in Ukraine. The Russians are trying to present the first not as a strategic decision, but as a defeat, and the second - that supposedly Zelenskyi is no longer legitimate. At the same time, we have repeatedly refuted reports about the illegitimacy of the current President of Ukraine.

US intelligence agencies believe that Russian intelligence services are behind the campaign and are spreading disinformation through pro-Kremlin media, fake websites and social networks.

Russia uses various means to influence public opinion both in its own country and at the international level. These means include not only “positive propaganda” but also complex “information operations”. The Jamestown Foundation wrote about this in more detail.

For a long time, the main line of Russian propaganda was to propagate the idea that truth is different or even non-existent. The main methods of such operations include spreading disinformation, manipulating ideas, exacerbating existing social conflicts, and discrediting the fundamental values and institutions of democratic societies.

The combination of cynicism and ideology led to the emergence of a unique Russian phenomenon known as “ideological cynicism”, where “geopolitics” became a cult without regard to moral guidelines or principles.

In addition, Russian propaganda uses contradictions in Western countries and between governments, as well as politicians' avoidance of real problems, to cause discord and deepening social polarization.

The most effective tools in these information operations have become “ideologies for export”, the essence of which is the creation of “mini-ideologies” — individual, often self-contradictory worldviews for different social groups. However, they can be countered through exposure and refutation.

By identifying the underlying strategies that underpin Russian propaganda, the West can develop more effective methods to counter Russian information operations and reduce global support for Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Journalists from the Finnish publication Yle claim that in May the Russian Federation seeks to use Eurovision and the World Hockey Championship as a platform for propaganda. Then the Russians plan to use similar narratives in the summer at the European Football Championship in Germany and the Olympic Games in France.

The publication adds that a similar campaign was previously recorded in the Latvian segment of social networks. Then a group of hockey players from Latvia took part in a tournament organized by Putin in Kazan. After this, the Hockey Federation introduced a number of bans, and thousands of bots suddenly appeared on social network X, speaking out in defense of hockey players and demanding to “separate sports from politics”.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine reports that Moscow is going to take advantage of large-scale measures in EU countries to weaken Europe and slow down support for Ukraine. Previously, Detector Media wrote about how Russian propaganda reacts to the exclusion from the 2024 Olympic Games.

Russian propaganda resources are disseminating information that on the cover of its latest issue, the German magazine Handelsblatt depicted a bloody Ukrainian passport, as well as a severed hand, and signed it all with the words: “Yes, dead. But with a new passport”. This is how the publication allegedly responded to the decision of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to restrict Ukrainian men abroad from receiving consular services.

In fact, this information is fake, because the German magazine Handelsblatt did not publish an issue with such a cover. One can verify this by looking at the official website of the publication. In addition, the cover distributed by Russian propagandists shows the magazine issue number 87 dated May 4, 2024, but the actual issue of the magazine under this number is dated May 6, 2024 and has a different cover.

This fake is a reaction of Russian propaganda to the temporary cessation of the provision of consular services to Ukrainian men abroad. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasized that the decision to suspend the process of providing consular services to a category of Ukrainian citizens defined by law is a temporary step, due, in particular, to the need to resolve the issue of military registration of citizens of mobilization age abroad.

On the social network TikTok, videos of some “bloggers” are being distributed who promote the thesis about the alleged “illegitimacy” of the Ukrainian authorities with calls for Ukrainians to go to protests. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about this.

This is happening as part of Russia's massive disinformation campaign called Maidan-3. Its goal is to destabilize the situation in Ukraine as much as possible, discredit the military-political leadership of the state, and also sow chaos and an atmosphere of mistrust in Ukraine.

The Center adds that such calls correspond to the interests of Russia, which is preparing for an offensive at the front and is interested in disorganizing the situation in Ukraine. And the main efforts aimed at this are being prepared for the 20th of May.

Specialists of the NotaYenota project have found out that recently propagandists have been waging an anti-Ukrainian information campaign on Ukrainian Facebook, masquerading as government agencies. At the end of December 2023, a page called “Information Defense Center” appeared. This page has nothing to do with government organizations, but creates the illusion of officiality. In fact, it gently discredits the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the authorities. Although the number of subscribers on the page is small, the publications have a large reach, and comments are left by real users, not bots.

The authors of the page use painful topics for society, such as mobilization, telethon, elections and others. True facts are spread, which then turn into absurdity and only support the credibility of the telethon. For example, one of the publications is about conflicts between the Territorial centers of procurement and social support and civilians. The topic is controversial and scandalous, but messages on the page claim that all incidents related to the Territorial centers of procurement and social support are fiction and Russian propaganda.

Media that publish true facts are also discredited by adding reductio ad absurdum comments to claim that this is just a Russian propaganda narrative.

The problems discussed on the page do exist and are difficult to refute. Therefore, NotaYenota specialists urge people to keep a cool mind and not be fooled by provocations.