The Kremlin promotes disinformation through the Nigerian publication THE NATION, the Senegalese SENE NEWS, and the Egyptian El Mostaqbal. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

• THE NATION, for example, published an article about the alleged sale by the Office of the President of Ukraine of land to the Soros Foundation in order to bury chemical waste.

• SENE NEWS publishes “investigative articles” about Ukraine with links to anonymous sources or fictitious journalists.

• El Mostaqbal quotes Russian officials accusing Ukraine and spreading narratives about “biological laboratories” or that “Ukraine is a US puppet”, for example.

Considering that the fakes on the analyzed resources have not received significant publicity among the international community, unlike the Russian information space, we can conclude that Russian propaganda uses these media to increase the confidence of the Russian domestic population in false information. Like, “even foreign media are writing about this!”.

You can read more about how Russia promotes its narratives through African media in a joint study by the Center for Countering Disinformation and the Molfar OSINT agency.

This information is disseminated by pro-Russian media. They argue that reaching the 1991 borders is an impossible goal. Even President Zelenskyi is now supposedly beginning to think about the reality of victory. In the corresponding “news”, the Kremlin media refers to Ukrainian political scientist Konstiantyn Bondarenko.

In fact, this information is not true. This is written about in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. During a press conference on December 19, 2023, Zelenskyi stated that “the strategy cannot be changed, according to our Constitution - these are all our territories”. In a December interview of the same year for The Economist, the President of Ukraine also emphasized that only after the Russian army leaves the 1991 borders will it be possible to transfer the war from a military path to a diplomatic one.

It can be argued that statements about “Zelenskyi’s despondency” are just Bondarenko’s personal speculations, not supported by real facts. The political scientist himself has a rather dubious reputation. In 2021, he collaborated with the pro-Russian blogger Anatolii Sharii, recording a series of lectures in Russian about the OUN, UPA and Ukrainian nationalism for one of his YouTube channels. In addition, already on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he collaborated with the Russian propaganda online publication Ukraina.ru. Previously, we denied information that EU countries are seeking to take control of part of Ukrainian territories.

Propagandists are spreading information in the English-language segment of social networks, allegedly the American media company CNBC published news about a “global” US military operation called “Storm”, which was supposed to take place in 2024. One user posted the screenshots on Platform X (formerly Twitter), describing them as “shocking in many ways” and pointing out that they referred to Donald Trump as the “current president” of the United States. However, this is fake.

The fact-checkers from Reuters drew attention to it. They found that the expression “Storm” is often used by adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Through it, they describe moments when influential individuals are expected to be detained. Also, the authors of this fake falsely claim that Donald Trump has led the US Military since 2020.

The material was published on the now defunct website cnbcusa.com, which is not related to the official CNBC website. A CNBC spokesperson confirmed in a comment to Reuters that the article was not published by them and stressed that cnbcusa.com was never affiliated with CNBC. Reuters also did not find any related articles about Trump as the “current military president” in 2024 or about the “global” US military operation called “Storm” on the official CNBC website. Therefore, this information is false.

Propagandists distribute or support such materials in the English-speaking world to deepen divisions in American society and create distrust in democratic institutions. Detector Media has already written about what methods Russia is using for this in the context of the upcoming presidential elections in the United States.

Propagandists do not stop trying to justify Russian aggression against Ukraine, the motives of which are hidden under the narrative of “the need to fire Russians in Ukraine”. To promote this message, Russian media again claim that the residents of Kherson are supposedly waiting for “Russian liberators” and “supporting” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this.

Russian media used the statements of the governor of the occupation authorities, collaborator Volodymyr Saldo, who cannot be considered a reliable source of information. Although the Kremlin calls him “the governor of the Kherson region of Russia”, this position is fictitious. In Ukraine, Saldo is wanted for high treason and violating the territorial integrity of the country. In addition, Volodymyr Saldo is under numerous sanctions from Ukraine, the EU, Great Britain, the USA, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Canada and Australia.

After massive shelling of peaceful cities, destruction of civilian infrastructure and mass murder of civilians, the level of self-identification of Ukrainians reached its highest level in all the years of the country’s independence. According to an all-Ukrainian sociological survey by the Rating group, published on January 29, 2024, very high rates of a sense of Ukrainian identity were registered in the Kherson region - the majority of respondents called themselves convinced Ukrainians from a European nation. At the same time, respondents most often noted Ukrainian identity as a conscious choice, aggravated by the war.

Russia regularly shells every district of the city, killing civilians in Kherson and causing enormous damage to critical infrastructure. It was the actions of Russian troops that led to significant material and human losses in Kherson, which caused negative emotions among the vast majority of local residents. According to a survey by the Protection Kherson Society Foundation (2023), only 8% of Kherson residents noted that they were not injured as a result of enemy shelling. Every third Kherson family lost property due to Russian aggression. A third (35%) of Kherson residents had their apartment or private house damaged, 27% of respondents noted that their apartment building was damaged, and another 23% had their property damaged. Significant damage has also been caused to the health of Kherson residents: 35% testify that in their families there are people who have begun to suffer from mental disorders, 3% in the family are injured. However, the worst thing is that people are dying due to shelling of the city. During the survey, 2% of Kherson residents said that there were deaths in their families.

The majority of respondents believe that the restoration of Kherson should occur primarily at the expense of the aggressor state (79%), which should be punished for its criminal actions.

The Russian myth about the “originally Russian southeast” of Ukraine, which, according to the occupiers, should include the Kherson region, has never been confirmed by facts. It should be recalled that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, during the all-Ukrainian referendum on December 1, 1991, 93.13% of the residents of the Kherson region voted for the independence of Ukraine. Thus, they confirmed their desire to live in an independent and sovereign state - Ukraine. And during the 2001 All-Ukrainian Population Census, the majority of Kherson residents (82%) considered themselves Ukrainians.

Detector Media wrote that Russian propaganda is trying to create the impression that life is thriving and being restored in the temporarily occupied territories, while disorder reigns in those controlled by Ukraine.

The Washington Post has gained access to Russian documents proving that Russian propaganda is organizing a large-scale disinformation campaign in Ukraine, Europe and around the world.

As part of this campaign, tens of thousands of manipulative media publications, fake news and messages on social networks have already been published from a kind of army of Russian “trolls”. The purpose of these publications is to discredit the leadership of Ukraine, split the elite, demoralize the Armed Forces of Ukraine and disorient the Ukrainians. It should be noted that the theses from the fake posts of Russians echo the theses of individual political players and bloggers in Ukraine.

One of the main directions of the campaign is an attack on the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The Russians are trying to convince Ukrainians and the world that Zelenskyi is afraid of losing power and is allegedly replacing democracy in Ukraine with authoritarianism. The Russians are also promoting the message that Western countries will soon replace Zelenskyi because he is becoming uncomfortable for them. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council urges not to be fooled by such information, and to trust only verified sources.

• Read on Censor.NET: How Russia tests the mood of Ukrainian society through pseudo-Ukrainian Facebook pages

On social networks in the Russian segment, they publish what appears to be a real cover of Akher Saa magazine, which depicts Western leaders: Olaf Scholz, Joe Biden, Antony Blinken and others. At the same time, their noses are elongated, hinting at the fairy-tale hero Pinocchio, whose nose grows larger as soon as he lies. The word “liars” was also placed on the cover in different languages. “Where is Zelenskyi on the cover? Obviously, they couldn’t put him on the cover, because his nose is too big (deceitful - DM)”, comment the authors of the fake.

VoxCheck analyzed the case and found out that Akher Saa magazine did not produce its issue with such a cover. The primary source of this “news” is an anonymous telegram channel broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. There is no such publication on the Akher Saa magazine website or on its social media pages.

We have repeatedly documented hoaxes involving fake graffiti or covers on foreign magazines, newspaper columns or advertisements. Thus, propagandists seek to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. So it may seem to readers that the public is really dissatisfied with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, hinting that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine, and that the Ukrainian agenda is a reason to laugh.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are distributing videos depicting discreditable posters of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and First Lady Olena Zelenska. This content is accompanied by the caption: “Rome, Italy. Our days. Zelenskyi is shown on all streets. Judging by the posters, he is not liked everywhere”.

The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council reports that such posters were posted by the Russian community in Italy to produce propaganda content. The Center learned about this after they submitted a corresponding request to the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The purpose of this slander is to create the illusion of fatigue from Zelenskyi and Ukraine. In addition, Russian propaganda systematically discredits the Zelenskyi family with the hope that Ukrainians will “eventually rise up against them”.

For now, the discreditable posters have been removed, and the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy is already working to prevent similar actions by Russians in the future. Previously, we refuted the information that the journalist who published the “investigation” of the purchase of a villa by the Zelenskyi family was allegedly “killed”.

Propagandists spread information in communities on Facebook that disguise themselves as Ukrainian ones, which allegedly discovered bags with the remains of Ukrainian military personnel near Dnipro. However, this is fake.

Specialists of the NotaYenota project drew attention to it. They found out that the source disseminating this information is a Facebook page created on February 24, 2022. It imitates Ukrainian and, between patriotic content, places enemy stuffing.

The information about military belongings (not the bodies of military personnel, but their belongings) found on the territory of a fish farm in the Dnipropetrovsk region is true. But this happened in 2018. Then the police began to investigate this case. The photo illustrating this news on the page was actually taken in Bucha on April 8, 2022, where the exhumation of bodies buried in a mass grave during the Russian occupation began.

Propagandists are spreading this fake news against the backdrop of other enemy propaganda with staged videos allegedly about neglecting the bodies of Ukrainian military personnel. They do this in order to discredit Ukraine.

Users of social networks and Kremlin media are spreading false information that vacancies for “provocateurs” have appeared in Ukraine. It is noted that they “need to leave negative comments” during the interview of Russian President Volodymyr Putin with Tucker Carlson. Russian propaganda added fake screenshots of “vacancies” from Ukrainian job search sites to these messages. However, this is fake.

After disseminating such information, StopFake decided to check whether similar vacancies actually appeared on Ukrainian sites. It turned out that this is not true.

Propagandists are distributing three different screenshots of similar “announcements”. The first was allegedly made on the website Robota.ua, the second on Work.ua, and the third on Jooble. The job description states that a future employee will have to review Carlson's interview with Putin and then comment negatively on it. Since the propagandists did not leave links to these vacancies, StopFake tried to find them on its own.

From the first fake ad on Robota.ua, it is clear that the vacancy for a “provocateur” - “media strategist” was posted by the company Telemarketing 24. StopFake specialists found such a company on this site, but did not find a vacancy for a “media strategist”. However, among the positions offered by the company there is an advertisement that is very similar to the spread of propaganda - “system administrator”. This announcement coincides with the time of publication, the proposed salary, place and working conditions, but there is no task to leave comments under Putin’s interview. It seems that it was the description of this vacancy that was edited in the fake advertisement.

The second fake ad – “technical support specialist” on Work.ua – was allegedly published by the company New Media Space. StopFake was also able to find this company, but there is no such position among the vacancies it offered. But there is a vacancy for “sales manager”, in which we offer a place of work, the salary and conditions are similar to those indicated in the fake advertisement. There is also no obligation to leave comments under Putin’s interview.

The third fake ad - a “copywriter” from the Jooble website - was published by Recruiting Group. Such a company, as in the first and second cases, exists and is really looking for a copywriter. However, in the original vacancy there is not a word about working with comments under Volodymyr Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson. However, the conditions, place of work and part of the description are similar to what propaganda publishes. StopFake also tried to contact Recruiting Group and Telemarketing 24, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

It looks like Russian propagandists took real vacancies published on Ukrainian job search sites. By changing their description, they created another fake that discredits Ukraine. Detector Media wrote about the main messages of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Putin and his true goals.

On February 6, 2024, during an interview with pro-Russian journalist Tucker Carlson, Russian dictator Putin said that the father of the current President of Ukraine Oleksandr Zelenskyi was a front-line soldier and fought against fascism.

This information is not true. This is written about in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. Oleksandr Zelenskyi was born after the end of World War II - in 1947. Therefore, he could not possibly participate in the “fight against fascism”.

The dominance of neo-Nazism in Ukraine is the same fiction, while in fact its signs: the worship of symbols, the militarization of youth, the restriction of rights and freedoms, the seizure of foreign territories, are found precisely in Russia.

• Read also: Zelenskyi allegedly wore a sweater with Nazi symbols to a meeting with the Pope.

Anonymous telegram channels write that Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal proposed to exclude Slovakia and Hungary from NATO — according to anonymous telegrams, the prime minister said that those countries “are not keeping up with the times”. This is a lie.

The VoxCheck analysts managed to analyze the case and establish that the “news” was originally published in a satirical Telegram channel. Subsequently, the information was circulated in the Russian segment of social networks as if it were true and reliable. At the same time, it is impossible to find information about the official's so-called “statement” in Shmyhal's social networks or by reverse Google search.

Propagandists are spreading information on social networks, especially in their Slovak segment, that pro-Russian blogger Gonzalo Lira allegedly died from torture in a Ukrainian prison. They say the US State Department has confirmed that Lira died in Ukraine. However, this is fake.

The lack of evidence for the propagandists’ thesis was noticed in the VoxCheck project. Fact-checkers have argued that there is no evidence that Gonzalo Lira was a victim of torture in a Ukrainian prison. Moreover, neither Ukraine nor the United States confirmed the blogger’s death.

Gonzalo Lira is a pro-Russian blogger with Chilean and US citizenship. He lived in Kharkiv and actively disseminated Russian fakes on social networks and on his YouTube channel. On May 1, 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine detained him for distributing fake news justifying Russian aggression against Ukraine and an administrative violation, namely illegally crossing the border with Hungary. On January 12, 2024, Keith Klarenberg, a writer for The Grayzone, tweeted about the death of Gonzalo Lira, noting that his family had confirmed this. Subsequently, pro-Russian propagandist Tucker Carlson claimed that Lira died in prison. The authenticity of the alleged letter from Lira, in which he described his state of health, cannot yet be verified. This information is published only on pro-Russian resources. All mentions of Lira on the US State Department website date back to January 22, 2024. No representative of the institution confirmed information about his death.

The topic of Lira is especially actively discussed among Trumpists and cospirologists. In the American information space, it arose again in December 2023, when the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi came to the United States. Then, on Network X, businessman Elon Musk expressed his vision of the rule of law and demanded that Lira be released because the United States is helping Ukraine financially.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit Ukraine. They say that there really is no freedom of speech, and Ukraine neutralizes everyone who criticizes its actions. Detector Media has already refuted other Russian inventions regarding the identity of Gonzalo Lira.

Anonymous telegram channels are distributing a video allegedly from the European media Euronews, which states that a Ukrainian refugee in a Paris museum broke the statue of the Swedish artist Anna Uddenberg “Journey to Self-Discovery”, imitating sexual intercourse with it. It's a lie.

The case was investigated by VoxCheck analysts, who determined that Euronews did not create such a story, and the video was simply assembled from different photos and videos that were not related to each other. For example, no information about such an incident could be found on the official media pages on social networks: on the media website, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.

Using a reverse search on Google, it turned out that all the footage was used in the so-called story - can be found in the public domain. In addition, according to the information presented in the video, the statue was damaged and its limbs (arm and leg) were broken off. However, this was not shown on the video. No additional information about the destruction of the sculpture was found in other media.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU - in order to reduce support for Ukraine. We mentioned this in our own research.

Information is being spread online that the fortune of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi is $596 million, and his rating among the richest politicians in the world according to the YouTube channel Data Sets is 31st place, and according to the website CAknowledge - 36th. However, this is not true.

The VoxCheck specialists drew attention to the fake. They found out that Volodymyr Zelenskyi is not on the list of the richest politicians in the world. The anonymous YouTube channel Data Sets regularly publishes various ratings, including “The richest Jewish actors 2024”, “The richest women in the world 2024”, etc. In April 2023, they posted a video with a list of the richest politicians in the world 2024, but did not indicate the source on which they compiled this ranking.

The fake rating by the CAknowledge website was previously refuted by American fact checkers from PolitiFact. CAknowledge did not provide any sources determining the income of the President of Ukraine. The site attributes property and shares to Zelenskyi, but this information is not confirmed.

According to Forbes, as of 2022, Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s fortune was estimated at less than $30 million. The declaration for 2020 shows that the income of the President and his family amounted to UAH 22.7 million. In January 2024, information on income for 2021 was updated, where UAH 10.8 million was noted, and for 2022 - UAH 3.6 million. This is due to the temporary termination of lease agreements due to the Russian invasion.

Forbes also did not include Volodymyr Zelenskyi in the list of the richest people in 2023. The richest people in Ukraine remain Rynat Akhmetov, Victor Pinchuk, Vadym Novynskyi, Konstiantyn Zhyvaho and Henadii Boholiubov. Previously, the fake that Zelenskyi and other politicians became richer by billions of dollars in 2022 was already refuted.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit the President of Ukraine. Like, he makes a fortune from the war while people die. Detector Media also refuted other fakes directed personally against Zelenskyi.

Social media users spreading pro-Russian rhetoric are distributing an image that is described as the cover of the new issue of the Indian edition of Rodip Reb dated December 30. On one side of the cover one sees Ukrainian refugees, and on the other - rodents. It is accompanied by an English inscription: “BATTLE FOR EUROPE. Moles and refugees: the situation in Europe is becoming increasingly tense”. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the MythDetector project drew attention to it. They found out that it was a photomontage. Indian edition called Rodip Reb. None of the search engines, including Google and Bing, have results for this edition. The image being circulated contains the website address www.rodipreb.in, but the said site cannot be accessed. After publishing the cover of the same non-existent publication, MythDetector verified its authenticity with the Indian fact-checking organization FACTLY MEDIA & RESEARCH. It confirmed that an Indian publication called Rodip Reb does not exist. The image is also impossible to find on the Internet outside of the telegram channels and Facebook communities where it was distributed.

Propagandists regularly resort to spreading “fairy covers” to create the false impression that the world is gradually ceasing to support Ukraine. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted other publications with false covers from various world publications.

Recently, generated illustrations have begun to be actively posted on social networks, which some believe reflect on the reputation of Ukraine. In the captions to such images they try to assure that this is exactly how artificial intelligence perceives reality in Ukraine. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the Beyond the News project drew attention to it. They explained that the artificial intelligence generates an image based on the information it has been taught, the user queries entered, and the instructions provided. For example, for the query “Polar bears counting money in the Arctic”, the AI will easily create images with elements corresponding to these words. Understanding this process should convince people of the importance of reviewing content before sharing it, especially if it is accompanied by emotional headlines and AI-generated images.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to identify the author of generated images that present Ukraine in a negative light. According to project specialists, there is a possibility that this may be an initiative of Russian users. Owners of Ukrainian social networking groups that publish such content may even unintentionally help the enemy. They do this for the purpose of gaining reach, abuse and shares, since emotional content is the easiest to attract people's attention during a difficult period.

Propagandists create such information campaigns to test the reaction of Ukrainians and create a negative impression of Ukraine. They say that even the AI, which is led in the West, understands what problems Ukraine has.

Unverified lists of French soldiers who allegedly died as a result of rocket attacks on hotels in Kharkiv have appeared on social networks and publications in both Russian and Western media. The Russians, by distributing such lists, are trying to confirm the thesis about the presence of “foreign mercenaries” in Ukraine. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the Beyond the News project drew attention to it. They found that in justifying missile attacks on civilian targets in Kharkiv, in particular on the Kharkiv Palace and the Park Hotel, the Russians claim that they eliminated “200 mercenaries”. However, the GUR calls this nonsense.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, on January 10, as a result of rocket attacks at the Park Hotel, 13 civilians were wounded; not a single military man was in the hotel. Among the victims were media representatives from Turkey and Georgia.

Despite this, the Russians continue to support the thesis of killed “French mercenaries” to justify the shelling of civilian targets. On January 16, they again attacked the city center, damaging a private hospital and residential buildings and injuring 17 people. This fiction appeared again in the media after rocket attacks on Kharkiv on the night of January 22-23.

Russian propagandists are disseminating information about the supposedly dead “French artillerymen” in Kharkiv, but the project’s fact-checkers have not found any truthful evidence in this. In addition, the published names of the “dead” turned out to be part of the list that Russian propagandists published back in April 2022 as a list of “foreign mercenaries in Ukraine as of 2021”.

Propagandists spread such fake news to justify attacks against civilian infrastructure. Such actions qualify as a violation of international humanitarian law and constitute the legal basis for future liability of the Russians.

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that in 2024 they will spend 3.2 billion UAH from the Ukrainian state budget on propaganda. They say that compared to 2023, propaganda spending in Ukraine has doubled.

This information is untrue, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council. Russians call “propaganda” expenses for the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the National Council for Cinema and Television, the National Commission for State Regulation in the Field of Electronic Communications and the State Special Communications Service. In fact, these departments do not create media content for the state. As for information products directly, 1.5 billion UAH will be allocated from the state budget for the telethon in 2024 - this is 400 million UAH less than last year.

Russian propaganda seeks to undermine the trust of the Ukrainian people in power and force them to rebel against the “Kyiv regime”. Previously, we refuted information that Ukraine allegedly spent $1.2 billion on fake news in 2023.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social networks are distributing a video with the symbols of the British language corporation BBC, which claims that Ukraine allegedly spent $1.2 billion in 2023 to create fakes about the victories of the Ukrainian army at the front. The order, according to the video, was carried out by one of the largest PR companies in Britain. Propagandists claim that, as a result, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andrii Yermak, allegedly “refused to renew the contract for 2024 with the British”, since their activities “did not help in any way to increase the attractiveness of mobilization in Ukraine”. They say that the money went down the drain or “was stolen according to the old Ukrainian tradition”. The video claims that this information was discovered by the independent international research team Bellingcat. However, this is a fake.

Analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that the BBC had never published such a video on its social networks. This video is likely fake. The attackers deliberately crystallized the logo of the British television company and their design for propaganda purposes. To create the video, footage from open sources was used (in particular, an image of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Andrii Yermak) and stock videos (in particular, with people in suits shaking hands). Propagandists used archival photographs of Ukrainian military personnel taken before the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The portion of the video purported to be Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins talking about his “investigation” was taken from his #ConflictZone interview with DW (December 2022 issue), where Higgins is actually talking about the Russian disinformation against Ukraine and the activities of Russian spies in the West. Official information on Bellingcat resources also does not contain any information about the investigation that propagandists refer to. Previously, Higgins noted on his X (formerly Twitter) account that propagandists had already attributed false statements to Bellingcat several times.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, in order to cover up the war crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine and create a false impression among the world public about the failures of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the battlefield, Kremlin propaganda has been actively spreading the narrative that Ukraine is creating fake content about the war in Ukraine. They say that Ukraine lies to its citizens, which means there is no point in trusting it.

In the Ukrainian segment of Facebook, enemy groups and pages that masquerade as Ukrainian, but are actually controlled from Armenia, are again becoming popular. Specialists of the NotaYenota project drew attention to them. For example, on one of the pages there is the same type of text with different emotional photos generated by artificial intelligence. The messages also contain images of military or wounded people, but often these are photographs from open sources depicting people not involved in the war in Ukraine. Examples of the names of such pages are “We are Ukrainians, We are Strong”, “I am from Ukraine”, “Prayer”, “My Ukraine”, “Life is Beautiful”.

Moreover, project specialists pay attention to one of the messages containing the Russian-language caption “It’s a pity that this photo will score less than a naked singer”. This indicates that the pages are maintained by native languages. This message received more than 80 thousand likes, and according to NotaYenota, it was designed to emotionally influence the audience of the page.

The contact information of these pages indicates an email with the Russian domain mail.ru (the same on all pages). In addition, in some messages one can notice the replacement of Cyrillic characters with Latin ones, such as a, u, x, i, k, 0, which allows one to bypass blocking systems.

In general, according to NotaYenota, such groups are used by Russians for information interventions aimed at dividing society on trigger topics, testing the audience for vulnerability to patriotic and emotional fakes. People interacting with such content can then be used to target advertising campaigns and plan further information attacks using the discovered vulnerabilities.

Russian propagandists are spreading information in the media that Egyptian investigative journalist Mohammed Al-Alawi, who published material about “Zelenskyi’s mother-in-law’s villa”, was allegedly killed. They say that the relatives of the “deceased” are sure that he was killed because of his professional activities. However, this is fake.

This was found out by specialists from the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. In fact, the information about the “murder” is as fictional as the very existence of the so-called Egyptian “investigative journalist”, since there is no information on the Internet regarding such a person, except for the above-mentioned fake article about the “villa of the mother-in-law of the President of Ukraine”.

By disseminating such fakes, according to the Center, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit Ukraine and, in particular, President Zelenskyi personally, and is also spreading the myth about the “absence” of freedom of speech in Ukraine and large-scale censorship.

According to information distributed by propagandists, Forbes allegedly published an article that Ukraine has created a tank brigade that has limited combat readiness and practically no tanks. However, this is manipulation.

The analysts from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that we are talking about the article Ukraine Has Formed a New Tank Brigade by David Ax, published on December 3 in Forbes. In it, the author writes about the 5th separate tank brigade (STBr).

He does not indicate the low combat readiness of the brigade or the absence of tanks in it. David Ax discusses the position of the 5th Tank Brigade, which was formed in 2016. He notes that the unit existed largely only on paper, but has recently begun to recruit and train, as evidenced by photographs published on December 2, 2023.

In his article, Ax also points out that Western partners provided Ukraine with different tanks, but in the photographs published on social networks they are not visible in brigades. However, he does not claim that the unit has no tanks at all, but only points out the lack of information about what tanks are used. The journalist also considers possible options for equipment that the brigade could be equipped with, such as the T-72, Leopard 1 or Abrams.

It is important to note that Ax does not use the term “incapacitated” to describe the brigade. On the contrary, in his material he draws attention to changes in the tactics of using tanks in general, pointing to their use as short-range artillery due to the presence of minefields and the use of drones. This modification of the use of tanks is associated with more complex combat conditions and the use of other technologies.

The 5th Brigade is part of the Reserve Corps. In 2018, the Commander of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Colonel-General Serhii Popko, announced that the 5th Separate Tank Brigade of the Reserve Corps was fully equipped with T-72 tanks. However, after a certain period, the brigade was demobilized, and only in February 2022 it was resumed. However, due to losses in other armored and mechanized brigades, tanks and personnel of the 5th Tank Brigade were used to replenish other units. Today it is known that in March 2023 the unit was restored again, it is equipped with equipment, and personnel are undergoing training.

By manipulating the texts of foreign media, propagandists want to strengthen the myth about the incapacity of the Ukrainian army, as well as the theft of Western weapons. This is not their first fiction concerning the Ukrainian Armed Forces — Detector Media has repeatedly refuted others.

This information is disseminated by pro-Kremlin resources. It’s as if on the cover of one of the issues of the German magazine Titanic, instead of socks for gifts, the severed legs of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers are depicted. It's fake.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council investigated this case. They found out that in fact there is no issue with such a cover, as evidenced by the pages of the German edition on social networks. The latest, December issue of the magazine was published under number A 4352 and has a different cover.

By spreading disinformation, in this case, propagandists are trying to discredit Ukraine and its armed forces. We have repeatedly refuted such fakes, when Russian propaganda creates false covers of the world's leading publications for its own purposes. Here, for example, is an analysis of misinformation about the already mentioned German magazine, which allegedly published a cover with a caricature of Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

A number of Russian media have disseminated information that the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) refused to broadcast an interview with the Russian Ambassador to Bulgaria Eleonora Mytrofanova at the request of Ukraine. In their publications, the publications refer to a post by journalist Peter Volgin on Facebook. They say this is “an act of political censorship”. However, this is manipulation.

The analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that on December 14, on the page of the Politically Incorrect program on the social network, an announcement was published that the Russian Ambassador to Bulgaria, Eleonora Mytrofanova, would be a guest in one of the episodes of the program, the topic of which would be the effect of the destruction of the Soviet Army monument on Bulgarian-Russian relations; what needs to happen to end the hostilities in Ukraine”,  etc. The reason for the interview was the beginning of dismantling the figures of the Soviet Army monument in Sofia.

In fact, the decision to demolish the monument, located in the center of the Bulgarian capital, was made 30 years ago, but work began only on December 12, 2023, and then taking into account safety - according to the governor of Sofia Viara Todeva, the monument has not been repaired for 70 years, and examination showed that it was dangerous and had large cracks. Once removed from the pedestal, the figures will be restored and exhibited in the Museum of Socialist Art or another suitable location.

The dismantling of the monument caused a sharp reaction from Russia, and the press secretary of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mariia Zakharova, said: “We consider the destruction of the monument to our common past as another hostile step by official Sofia, complicating the already stalemate on the bilateral track”. She threatened Bulgaria that “she herself will have to pay for the consequences of this shame”, and Zakharova’s statement was distributed on the Facebook page of the Russian Embassy in Sofia.

Against this background, the announcement of an interview with the Russian ambassador in the BNR program Politically Incorrect caused a protest from the Bulgarian public. The Ukrainian Embassy in Bulgaria has published an official position, which notes that providing the opportunity for the Russian Ambassador to Bulgaria to speak “is a kind of complicity in the Kremlin’s armed aggression and hybrid war not only against Ukraine, but also the entire democratic world”. Subsequently, the press center of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms released a statement by the head of the parliamentary group, Delyan Peevski, in which he noted that he considers the participation of the Russian Ambassador on public radio as “a gross demonstration of disrespect for national sovereignty, the pan-European position and values, as well as disregard for national interests of Bulgaria”. Peevski also called on the Electronic Media Council (EMC) and other bodies to pay attention to “prevent such a provocation on the national airwaves”.

It is interesting that the publication by radio host Peter Volhin, which Russian media refers to, does not contain accusations against Ukraine or the Ukrainian embassy - the journalist’s post does not mention them at all: “Delyan Peevsky denied the participation of Ambassador Eleonora Mytrofanova on National Radio. The BNR Program Council banned broadcasting an interview with him. Management said there was no connection between the two events. What do you think? The Ukrainian Embassy is mentioned in another Volhin publication in the following context: “I learned that Mr. Delyan Peevsky, as well as the Ukrainian Embassy, were very outraged by the appearance of Ms. Eleonora Mytrofanova as a guest in our program Politically Incorrect”. In the same publication, the presenter reports that “neither a deputy, nor a minister, nor a prime minister can tell National Radio what to broadcast and what not to broadcast. What will be broadcast on the radio is decided by the people working on it”.

These words of Volhin coincide with the statement of the leadership of the BNR, published on the media website on December 16, which notes that “insinuations about censorship are unacceptable and speculative”. “BNR, as a public broadcaster, strictly adheres to the principles of freedom of speech, objectivity and independence of media content, pluralism of points of view, in compliance with high professional and ethical standards”.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to accuse Ukraine of failing to meet freedom of speech standards. Like, therefore Ukraine is not actually a European state. But in reality, it is Russia that actually does not have the institution of independent media and is trying to adjust the media in other countries to its own interests, ignoring the basics of journalistic ethics. Detector Media has already written about how Russian propaganda is spreading in the Bulgarian media.

The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council stated that Russia is planning a series of disinformation publications against the military-political leadership of Ukraine, which will be published on English-language resources. The materials are prepared by foreign journalists who have experience working in Russia, in particular, during the beginning of Putin’s power. The key goal of such actions by Russian propaganda can be considered an attempt to sow discord among Ukrainian society, discredit the government of Ukraine and demotivate Ukrainians to fight against Russia. Previously, we analyzed the manipulation that supposedly it was time for the Western world to admit Ukraine’s defeat in the war against Russia.