The Russian media once again distorted in their own way the content of an article in the American edition of The American Conservative. They write that, according to an article titled “Winners and Losers in the Ukraine War” by founding editor Patrick J. Buchanan, America is responsible for the escalation in Eastern Europe when a number of countries were accepted into NATO, as well as for the confrontation in Ukraine. StopFake writes about this manipulation.

In the original article, there is not a word about the recognition of the fallacy of American assistance to Ukraine. In his material, Buchanan reflects on who can be considered the winner and who will be the loser in the war in Ukraine. He further writes that a new Cold War has been established between the US and Russia and raises the question of whether it is in the interests of the US and how successful foreign policy was then if the Cold War began again.

The Russian media once again used quotes from the text of a foreign publication in order to fit them to their key messages. The text does not say that the United States regrets the support provided to Ukraine, and the only quote given by the propagandists is inaccurate.

This is not the first time that the Russian media have distorted the content of what was written in order to demonstrate the decline in support for Ukraine by Western partners and the United States in particular. Thus, they personify the propaganda cliché about the lack of unity of the Western countries in relation to Ukraine and the war that Russia unleashed.

Russian propagandists decided not to deny the activity and victories of the Ukrainian army in several directions at once, as they could do before. This time they came up with an excuse and circulated it in anonymous telegram channels. It seems that US Secretary of State Blinken, during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyi in Kyiv, made him understand that "it will not work to divide the EU countries into new tranches until there is at least some success (albeit temporary)".

At the same time, the Russians are not worried that these new tranches will be used against them. They promote the thesis that foreign weapons end up on the black market, and it is easier to write them off during a counteroffensive. And they reassure themselves that, they say, a counteroffensive is no longer beneficial for Ukraine, because the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered heavy losses in the Kharkiv direction.

Thus, they are trying to downplay the success of the Ukrainian military, to attribute the idea of ​​a counteroffensive to the United States or the EU, remembering that the battles were commanded by foreign mercenaries.

This is a typical Russian tactic - instead of voluntarily liberating Ukrainian cities and villages, they are dying on foreign soil, for no one knows why, and they blame the United States and the West for this.

Such news is spreading through the Kremlin telegram channels. Reports say that a tank set of Italian Leopard 2A4 was overturned in the Kherson direction. However, this is not true. Italy and Ukraine do not have such tanks in service.

According to the StopFake fact checkers, the Italian army has got other tanks, namely the Ariete. As of September 2022, Ukraine has not received Leopard tanks from its partners. At the same time, Germany did not make a decision to start production of these tanks for Ukraine.

The propagandists constantly changed their thesis in relation to the supplying country, since the non-existent “Italian Leopard 2A4” and then the “Italian Leopard 2A6” on the battlefield near Kherson were replaced by the “Spanish Leopard 2A4”. This is also a lie because Spain has not used them for a long time as tanks are in a terrible position.

By spreading this news and constantly changing it, propagandists seek to justify the losses and defeats that the enemy army faced in the context of the Ukrainian army's counteroffensive in the south.

As the Center for Counteracting Disinformation writes, Russian propagandists circulated almost identical theses in content, expressed by former CIA officer Andrew Bustamante and Russian State Duma deputy from the temporarily occupied Sevastopol Dmytriy Belik. Bustamante said it's critical for Americans to protest their latest weapons in combat, and in Ukraine, that doesn't mean risking their own military. Bustamante also believes that Putin is winning the "conflict" despite the sanctions. Belik believes that in this way the United States is trying to test the combat effectiveness of the Russian army.

The specialists of the Center believe that the dissemination of these messages is the result of the recognition by the Ukrainian military of the coordination of possible targets in the use of American MLRS HIMARS and their combat effectiveness.

Russia has been systematically spreading the message that “Ukraine is being used as a weapons testing ground” to discredit Western military aid. Propagandists recently said that Germany is using Ukraine to test weapons. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz allegedly let slip about this.

Russian media are spreading such news with reference to US Department of Defense spokesman Colin Kohl. It is not true.

The Russians again distorted the words of the American official, in fact, Colin Cole did not say this. According to StopFake, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Colin Kohl noted during a briefing that the United States will continue to help Ukraine resist Russia's unjustified invasion. He also said that the assistance will take into account the actual needs of the Ukrainian army in the battlefield. Answering a question about future deliveries of HIMARS to Ukraine, Kol noted that the Ukrainians are doing a good job with the number of systems that the Americans and other countries have already provided. Now, according to the official, the priority is to provide the Ukrainians with enough ammunition to keep them fighting. There are no any questions about termination of deliveries of HIMARS systems to Ukraine. Allies of Ukraine only note that their number is now assessed as sufficient, and ammunition for them is a priority.

The Ministry of Defense of Russia disseminates such information on social networks. The head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional council, Mykola Lukashuk, assures: "Of course, the church never had and does not have any RSZV (reactive salvo fire systems). The Russians once again prove that the Russian Federation is a terrorist country that always spreads lies to justify its crimes. We will never understand it. But you don't have to understand - you have to win and rebuild the state."

This is reported by anonymous Telegram channels. Allegedly, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz accidentally said that Ukraine is being used as a testing ground for new weapons. It is not true.

In an interview with the Canadian edition of The Globe and Mail, Olaf Scholz said that Ukraine was given some weapons systems that the Bundeswehr does not have. However, Scholz did not call the transferred weapons experimental and did not talk about the fact that they are being tested in Ukraine. He also said that German specialists teach Ukrainians how to use this equipment correctly.

This is stated in the film Arming Ukraine on the American TV channel CBS News. It was announced by the pro-Kremlin media, and in Ukraine, it was published by the website "Strana". The film says that the US loses control over military weapons after crossing the border, that only 30-40% of supplies from the West reach the front, and the rest goes to the "black market". That is why a system of weapons supervision should be created.

Rustem Klupov, a veteran of military intelligence, a participant in the First Chechen War, and a Hero of Russia, said this on a pro-Kremlin show on the Telegram channel.

According to him, the Russian army destroyed a lot of ammunition for this system, and the missiles’ deliveries are carried out by Ukrainian public transport, in particular in buses and trams.

Recently, the USA announced new military aid for Ukraine - the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive four HIMARS rocket launchers and other military equipment.

These modern rocket launcher systems are actively used by the Armed Forces, and this brings military victories. HIMARS proved so effective that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered commanders to make their destruction a priority. Thus, Russian propagandists regularly launch fakes about the alleged HIMARS destruction. Earlier, they reported the fake destruction of two, then another, then six more HIMARS installations, and also gave burnt straw for the destroyed missiles for these installations.

 Anonymous Telegram channels write about this with reference to The Guardian article. Allegedly, the Western publication "without mincing words" describes "all the weakness of the remnants of the Ukrainian army." Like, the Western military is trying to teach Ukrainians at least something. This is manipulation.

Ed Rahm's article for The Guardian makes no mention of "anti-Russia". Messages that the West wanted to create an "anti-Russia" out of Ukraine are spread exclusively by Russian propagandists. The article is devoted to the story of how a "Mozart Group", volunteers, former foreign soldiers, conducted training for the Ukrainian military in the use of Western weapons. Ed Rahm is indeed talking about separate problems regarding financial support and insufficient training of Ukrainians. However, the article talks about this not as the "weakness of the remnants of the army", but in the context of the fact that people from various professions joined the army and stood up to defend their country. The author notes that only every tenth of the current defenders was a soldier before this war, but due to Russian aggression, they had no other choice but and took up arms. Speaking to the journalist, foreign instructors say that Ukrainian troops lack experience, but they make up for it with enthusiasm and determination. They respect the Ukrainian military, who, despite the circumstances, study, train, and do not lose their sense of humor. Russians systematically use out-of-context and distorted quotes from Western media to spread manipulative messages. 

This is reported by Russian propagandists and anonymous Telegram channels. Allegedly, the "military formations" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are located on the roof of the Odesa Theater of Musical Comedy, and heavy weapons and armored vehicles are located on the territory of the University. It is not true.

Both institutions denied the reports of Russian propagandists. Administration of Odesa Academic Theater of Musical Comedy named after Vodianyi called the message "an insolent and cynical fake of the occupiers". The Rector of Odesa State Environmental University, Serhiy Stepanenko, invited all interested parties to a field trip to the training ground, where training meteorological stations are located for the practical training of meteorology students.

Russian media are manipulating about the transfer of T-72 "third generation" tanks to Ukraine, Insider writes. They said that they are transferring scrapped equipment from the 70s to Ukraine.

The T-72 tank was developed in the USSR in the 1970s, but it has undergone at least 14 modifications that are still relevant today. Modified T-72s are still in service in more than 40 countries of the world (among them Serbia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland, Uzbekistan, Syria, and others).

North Macedonia announced plans to dispose of its 31 T-72 tanks but linked it not to their unsuitability, but the transition to NATO standards. Ammunition for the main armament of the T-72 — 125 mm guns — is not produced in NATO countries. 

Pro-Kremlin media and social networks spread information, citing the representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, that the military and space forces destroyed "more than a hundred rockets to the HIMARS multiple-launch rocket system" in Lyubimovka, Dnipropetrovsk region. Allegedly, as a result of the attack, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost about 120 soldiers, and that the Russians killed "foreign mercenaries and technical specialists". "However, the strike was carried out on the agricultural enterprise hangars, in which at that time, more than 800 tons of straw were stored (according to Konashenkov, it would be possible to make from it about 100 missiles for HIMARS). In addition, one child (obviously a foreign mercenary) was injured," a fake exposed journalist Roman Tsymbalyuk.

The Russian media spread the statement of the head of the National Defense Management Center, Colonel-General Mykhailo Mizintsev, about the stronghold of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at school No. 23 (Yavornytskyi Avenue) in Dnipro. However, "artillery and armored vehicles were placed near the educational institution." It is not true.

The address of school No. 23 in the city of Dnipro is Dmytro Yavornytskyi Avenue, 14. The Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum is located at Dmytro Yavornytskyi Avenue, 16. Its complex includes the "Battle for the Dnipro" diorama, and near its building, there is an open-air military equipment display, The Insider reports.

So, there are artillery and armored vehicles. However, all this was placed not by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as General Mizyntsev claims, but by the Soviet Army at the initiative of Air Marshal Volodymyr Sudets. The order to place the equipment was signed by the Minister of Defense of the USSR Andriy Grechko, and it happened in 1975.

The Russian media wrote about this with reference to The New York Times article (NYT). Allegedly, skepticism is growing in the West regarding Russia's "attrition tactics" they have initiated.

Russian propagandists selectively quote the original article, and also add to the retelling non-existent quotes, writes VoxCheck. The original article cited by Russian media ran under the headline "Ukraine tries to prove it can win, recalling recent strikes." "Rejecting skepticism that Western weapons will allow them to turn the tide against Russia, the Ukrainians point to successful attacks using new long-range missile systems," the introduction reads.

Its author, Andrew Kramer, was formerly a correspondent of the NYT's Moscow and now he is a correspondent of the Kyiv bureau. His publications for the NYT already contained manipulations and messages consistent with Russian propaganda.

At the beginning of the article, Cramer does note that "support for the West has softened", but he doesn’t provide any specific examples that would indicate this. He does not give examples of those who expressed "skepticism that Ukraine will be able to win a war of attrition." More details.

The Russian media report it concerning the press secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova. The missiles allegedly destroyed the warehouse of Harpoon anti-ship missiles provided by the USA and knocked out the production facilities of the Ukrainian warship repair enterprise and the warship. It is not true.

On July 22, in Istanbul, Ukraine, Turkey, the UN signed an agreement concerning unblocking ports and exporting Ukrainian grain. Russia signed a mirror agreement with Turkey and the UN. All parties have undertaken obligations on the world stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to world markets.

The next day, July 23, the Russian army hit the port of Odesa, where grain intended for export was located, with four Kalibr missiles. Anti-aircraft defense forces shot down two missiles. Two rockets hit the infrastructure of the port - the pumping station. The shock wave damaged the houses around the port. The grain storage itself was not hit.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the strikes by the Russian military on the Ukrainian port in Odesa.

After the missile strike, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar noted that he had spoken with the Russian side. They told him they were allegedly not involved in the missile strike and were "investigating the issue."

Meanwhile, on July 23, anonymous Telegram channels were already spreading different versions of the causes and consequences of the attack on the port in Odesa:

1) if Russia has nothing to do with the attack, then it may be that the Armed Forces of Ukraine themselves loaded the planes with anti-aircraft missiles for provocation;

2) it flew over the Zavodska harbor, where there are Ukrainian military boats, not grain;

3) Ukrainian military air defenses were stationed in the port - this was the target of the shelling, so "the topic of grain can be closed." Russia has never once admitted its crime, but every time it invents fakes, why does it massively hit Ukraine with missiles.

It was said by the European Police Office (Europol) spokesman, Jaap Op Gen Oort. His comment was spread by German, Ukrainian, Russian, and other mass media. According to the spokesman, investigators from EU countries have found "signs of trade in heavy military weapons" on the black market and "a risk that the weapons will end up in the hands of organized criminals or terrorists." His statement caused a significant response.

A few hours after the information "dump," Europol clarified that they were discussing a potential threat and not specific cases. "Europol works closely with Ukrainian officials to reduce the threat of arms sales to the European Union. We have full confidence in them as they implement new measures to monitor and trace these firearms," ​​Europol said in a statement.

According to Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Mary Hakobyan, information about the potential risks of arms smuggling from Ukraine against the background of the war may be a fact of dishonesty or unprofessionalism of the media or deliberate action of the Russian special services.

The British Daily Mail published a story about armed migrants entering Great Britain through the English Channel. The Center for Combating Disinformation draws attention to the fact that the Kremlin media referred to this material, although there is no mention of Ukrainians. The Russian mass media added the assumption that due to the increase in the supply of weapons to Ukraine, Great Britain would have to face armed Ukrainian refugees in the future.

The purpose of such a message, according to the conclusion of the CPD, is to create the impression that helping Ukraine with weapons will threaten the security of allied countries. The official position of Great Britain to support Ukraine remains unchanged, as does Russian propaganda on the British front. In particular, messages about fatigue from Ukraine and Zelensky are spreading on social networks.

The Russian media report it concerning the reports of politicians. They said that the Russian army has nothing to do with the destruction of cultural objects - historical buildings are deliberately destroyed by Ukrainians themselves with "Western weapons." It is not true.

Ukraine's UNESCO experts and international partners recorded Russian attacks on 160 cultural objects: 72 religious objects, 12 museums, 32 historical buildings, 24 buildings for cultural events, 17 monuments, and 7 libraries. The occupiers also destroyed 2,100 buildings of educational institutions in Ukraine. Three-quarters of destroyed cultural objects are located in Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions. However, there is destruction all over the country. The Russians are looting museum exhibits and other cultural values in the temporarily occupied territories. According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the number of destroyed objects has increased to three hundred. The fact of the destruction of Ukrainian cultural values ​​by the Russians was confirmed by the UN Security Council during a special meeting, "Destruction of cultural heritage as a result of Russian aggression against Ukraine," the holding of which was supported by 38 UN member states. Other international organizations recognized the destruction and promised Ukraine to help overcome the war's consequences. StopFake writes about this in more detail.

Russia, on the other hand, continues its tactics of denying deliberate missile strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine. Moreover, Russian politicians accuse the West of hypocrisy, as they allegedly first provide weapons to destroy cultural heritage and then funds for its restoration. In this way, Russia is trying to avoid punishment for crimes committed in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Serhiy Lavrov said that due to the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine, Russia changed the offensive's objectives on Ukrainian territories, expanded the geography of hostilities, and decided not to limit itself to the capture of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. In particular, he mentioned HIMARS, saying that because of this weapon, Russia should "move away from the current line" of the front.

In fact, the fighting is currently taking place in those regions of Ukraine that the Russian military attacked back in February-March 2022, except for the Kyiv region. It's about Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions. Therefore, theses about the "expansion of geography" through HIMARS is a manipulation, which is part of the message that the supply of weapons by the West seems to indicate the desire of Western countries to "continue the war in Ukraine for their benefits." In this way, Russia tries to demonize the "collective West" and present itself in a "positive" context, saying that it is "defending itself, not attacking."    

Russian propagandists report this "success" concerning the Ministry of Defense of Russia. It is a fake.

HIMARS is an autonomous complex, and there is no transport and charging machine for it. "At first, the propagandists reported about the "destroyed HIMARS," and later explained that it was a Ukrainian military bath and laundry complex based on the ZIL-131," reports the Center for Combating Disinformation. According to the department, HIMARS became a significant demoralizing factor for the Russian military, showing high effectiveness on the battlefield. Therefore, propagandists try to discredit this type of weapon in every possible way.

Previously, the Russian media spread fakes that the Russian army allegedly destroyed two American HIMARS salvo fire systems. The propagandists are also convinced that the Ukrainian military allegedly refuses to use Western weapons because they are "ineffective."

The Russian propaganda media spread this message.

As the Center for Combating Disinformation writes, similar messages are being spread in the media space of Russia after the terrorist attack in Vinnytsia. The Center believes that the occupiers struck the city center, not by accident, and that these actions are revenge for the successful use of HIMARS surface-to-air missiles, due to which the Russians suffered losses along the entire front line. "The destruction of Russian weapons depots, oil depots, and disruption of their logistics routes caused panic in the ranks of the Russian army. Because of this, the enemy resorted to terror tactics to cause a riot in Ukraine, which would force the leadership of our country to sign "peace" on the terms of the Russians. Moreover, Russian propaganda uses methods of intimidation and blackmail to stop the supply of HIMARS surface-to-air missiles, as well as other heavy equipment," the Center reports. President Zelensky called on Ukraine's partners to recognize Russia as a "terrorist state" as soon as possible and to approve new sanctions against Russia after the attack on Vinnytsia.

Such a fake was spread by Russian propaganda. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security notes that reports of the release of heptyl began to apply after the enemy attack on "Pivdenmash" in the Dnipro. But all of them are fakes.

On July 15, in Dnipro, the Russians hit the Southern Machine-Building Plant and the street nearby with six rockets.

The Center for Strategic Communications said that the Russians could have caused the leak of heptyl and carried out a terrorist attack comparable in scale to a nuclear disaster.

However, even at the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, heptyl and its derivatives were urgently disposed of in Pivdenmash, the local ground defense headquarters reported.

"There was no leak. And rumors are spread by enemies to spread panic. Heptyl is a hazardous component of rocket fuel for humans," the Center said in a statement.

Such information is disseminated in social networks and on Russian Internet resources. However, many projects to test biological weapons in Ukraine were implemented in the interests of the Central Medical and Sanitary Service of the German Armed Forces. The information is disseminated concerning the chief of radiation, chemical, and biological defense forces of the Russian army Igor Kirilov. He says that allegedly German specialists in Ukraine paid attention to the causative agent of Congo-Crimean fever and conducted screening for the sensitivity of residents to this infection. It is not valid.

The press service of the Bundeswehr denied the information in response to the request of the StopFake fact-checkers. The agency reported that it is probably the Ukrainian-German Biosafety Initiative aimed at controlling the risks of zoonotic diseases near the EU's external border. However, this project did not conduct any research related to biological weapons. In addition, similar projects have been implemented in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, and five other African countries. Moreover, representatives of the German agency said that a German-Ukrainian cooperation project has been implemented in Kharkiv since 2016 due to the danger of the emergence and spread of infectious diseases in the temporarily occupied territories of eastern Ukraine. This project has nothing to do with the development of biological weapons.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads fake messages about the work of biolaboratories and the development of biological weapons on the territory of Ukraine, allegedly to harm Russia. Such statements do not correspond to reality and are used by propagandists to justify a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. More details.

The Russian mass media spread the fake of the Ministry of Defense of Russia that allegedly, "in the laboratories of the Pentagon" in Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers were subjected to "experiments on the assessment of the transfer of infectious diseases." The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that "every third of the recently captured Ukrainian servicemen has hepatitis A, and a fifth has West Nile fever." It indicates that "servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine volunteered for experiments" at the Pentagon.

This fake is another in a series of fictions of Russian propaganda about non-existent laboratories for developing biological weapons in Ukraine. Earlier, they stated about "insects and birds" that supposedly had to infect Russians (still impossible, since there is no difference between Russians and non-Russians for bacteria and viruses). Moreover, they wrote about medical experiments in the same defunct laboratories on people with mental illnesses. Now they spread a fake about experiments on the military.

In fact, there is no single refutation of these fictions - there are too many of them. For example, it is unknown why experiment with the hepatitis A virus since this disease is well studied. There is a vaccine against it; it is well treated and cannot be used for military purposes. It is transmitted only through contaminated water or, in some cases, sexual intercourse. Even if a soldier gets hepatitis A, he will not be able to infect the enemy with it. Moreover, West Nile fever is not transmitted from person to person at all - insects spread the pathogen, although a disease from which almost 5% of those who get sick die.

Finally, it follows from the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation that the Russians test every Ukrainian prisoner of war for dozens of diseases, including those rarely recorded in Ukraine, such as West Nile fever. On the other hand, it is known that Ukrainian prisoners do not receive the necessary medical care, not to mention elaborate complex tests.