Such a message is being broadcast by propagandists on social networks and in telegram channels with pro-Kremlin rhetoric. It says that the EU and NATO want to unleash a world war. The Declaration of cooperation recently signed between the EU and NATO clearly shows that NATO leads the European Union. Propagandists claim that the leaders of these organizations want to unleash a large-scale war aimed at aggression against Russia. However, this is not true.

According to EU vs Disinfo analysts, on January 10, 2023, the EU and NATO signed a Joint declaration of cooperation that emphasized the strategic partnership between NATO and the EU, condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine, and presented NATO as the backbone of European and American collective defense. The EU-NATO cooperation declaration is aimed at strengthening the mechanism of collective defense, this document does not provide for any aggressive actions against Russia.

Since Russia began aggressive actions against Ukraine, Russian officials have accused NATO of a series of threats and hostilities. NATO is a defense alliance whose main objectives are to maintain peace and protect the independence, security and territorial integrity of its members.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists are trying to demonize Western partners and at the same time nourish the narrative that Russia is fighting not only against Ukraine, but also against NATO or the EU. Like, these organizations are the center of war and devastation, and Russia is only defending itself from the armed aggression of the West. However, the real aggressors are Russia and the Russian military, who unleashed a war on the territory of Ukraine and daily commit terrorist crimes against peaceful Ukrainians.

Propaganda says that Ukraine has become one of the private military companies affiliated with NATO. Like, NATO pays money to Ukraine, supplies weapons and intelligence information. NATO also allegedly points to the targets that Ukraine should hit. Allegedly, Ukrainians suffer from this as they must fight.

Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically elected president and parliament. Ukraine does not fight on behalf of a foreign government or organization. It was Russia that started the war in 2014 by occupying parts of Ukrainian territories. Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The Ukrainian army protects Ukrainian territory and Ukrainians. EU vs Disinfo analysts drew attention to the spread of the message.

Due to the spread of such messages, Russia is trying to discredit the support of Ukraine by democratic states. Previously, similar messages were spread: they say that Ukraine is a tool of the West to undermine Russian statehood; the war in Ukraine is part of a secret Western plan to destroy China. The propagandists also claimed that the West was “coordinating” Ukrainian strikes against Russian military facilities.

Telegram channels supervised by Russian intelligence spread reports that Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov is “rejoicing” that the Ukrainians have “become a shield for NATO”, and all the sacrifices of the Ukrainians “for this”. This is manipulation.

Telegram channels cut out a piece of video from the interview of the Minister of Defense to Olena Froliak, the TV presenter of “Okna” (“Windows”) on STB, where he says that now, finally, after 10 months of war, his colleagues from Europe and the United States recognize what they denied at the beginning of the war: it is Ukraine now defends the civilizational choice of all of Europe and the Western world as such. And now, in fact, it is Ukraine that is fulfilling the NATO mission that the alliance set for itself. Therefore, Reznikov believes, NATO countries are not providing assistance to Ukraine quickly enough, recognizing the fact that Ukrainians, among other things, are saving them from Russia.

A fake was spread to a foreign audience, which said that in December hostages in the center of the German city of Dresden were taken by a refugee from Ukraine, who demanded Ukraine's entry into NATO. In particular, WhatsApp distributed a voice message saying: “[The attacker] who took the hostages in Dresden, German Davyd V., is actually called Davyd Voshchenko, […] he is a refugee from Ukraine, and his demands were that [ . ..] that Ukraine shall join NATO”.

In fact, this incident had nothing to do with Ukraine. According to Correctiv's fact-checkers, they were told at the Dresden Police Department that there were no links to the situation in Ukraine in this case, and that the man was a German citizen. Law enforcement officers also denied that his name was Davyd Voshchenko. In addition, a video with a similar statement about an alleged perpetrator named Davyd Voshchenko was posted on Tiktok. It was made public on the account with the description “Entertainment/satire”, and at the bottom of the video and hashtags it was indicated that it was fake. Despite this, as fact-checkers note, some users took the content of the video seriously and demanded “immediately stop any assistance to Ukraine”.

The spread of this fake to a foreign audience indicates attempts to influence the attitude of foreigners towards Ukrainian migrants and undermine support for Ukraine among the international community. Detector Media has previously written what messages and manipulations about Ukrainian refugees are most often spread by Russian disinformation.

Russian media are spreading news reports that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is urging the West not to count on a Kyiv victory and to prepare for negotiations, although it is not known when they will begin. This is a manipulation brought to the attention of the StopFake fact-checker project.

Some of Stoltenberg's words were taken from his extensive interview with the BBC's World at One, Radio 4, but he did not say anything about the need to prepare for negotiations or about acknowledging Ukraine's imminent defeat in this war. On the contrary, he said that the West needs to prepare for long-term support for Ukraine because the war is on the verge of attrition, and it will not stop quickly. But both in this interview and in others, Stoltenberg repeatedly said that before sitting down at the negotiating table that ends any war, Ukraine must defeat Russia at the front. And the Ukrainian army has such plans and capabilities that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have repeatedly demonstrated.

The Russian media are spreading the information that NATO is “delivering scrap metal”, that is, old, ineffective weapons to Ukraine, in order to “clean out warehouses” and “recycle old trash”. This message earlier appeared on Russian telegram channels, but this time it has a specific source - the Polish website Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny. But this is a site that was created for the dissemination of Russian propaganda, and has nothing to do with journalism.

As the journalists of the Polish True Story portal found out, most of the publications were copied from other portals. Thus, the impression of a full-fledged media is formed. The few original materials are undisguised Russian propaganda and lies. For example, it was this publication that published fabricated statements by American generals that the Poles were drunkards, drug addicts, and thieves. Most of the texts are written in poor Polish, full of Russianisms, impossible linguistic constructions occur in the texts. According to True Story, this is the result of an unsuccessful machine translation. The editor of the publication, Adam Kaminsky, is a non-existent person. The photo posted on his Twitter and Facebook accounts (both now deleted) is actually a portrait of Lithuanian traumatologist Andrius Zukauskas. Also, real Polish journalists did not find anyone who personally knows the authors of the original articles Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny.

All this proves that Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny is another fake site created solely to spread propaganda messages beneficial to Russia.

Interestingly, almost simultaneously with the message about the “scrap metal” supplied by the West to Ukraine, Russian propaganda is also spreading another one: “Ukraine has become a testing ground for testing the latest technologies and weapons”. This is one of the features of Russian propaganda: not so much to promote some kind of alternative version of reality, but to distribute as many fictional versions as possible so that the audience simply gets confused and stops trying to find the truth or facts.

And they are like this: the West supplies Ukraine with old Soviet-style weapons, which were mainly armed with the Ukrainian army, and new, modern equipment. The first is getting smaller, the second is getting bigger. And this happens for understandable and obvious reasons: the Ukrainian military knew how to fight with Soviet weapons, and therefore they were supplied by countries that still had their stocks. Now there is less and less of it, and more and more Ukrainian soldiers are learning how to use modern Western weapons, while Europe and the United States are supplying more and more of it.

Russian media write about it. Like, if the West helps Ukraine with weapons, it can “help” with strikes on Russian airfields. This is manipulation.

Ukraine did not take responsibility for the attacks on the Russian military airfield “Enhels”. The United States and the countries of the European Union are not parties to the clashes: Russia is waging war exclusively against Ukraine.

As StopFake notes, disinformation about “US coordination of Ukrainian strikes against Russia” began to spread against the backdrop of increased attacks on Russian military airfields. On December 5 and 6, unidentified aircraft carried out a series of attacks on three Russian rear air bases: Diahiliev in the Riazan region, Enhels in the Saratov region and an airfield in Kursk. A repeated series of explosions happened at the Enhels airfield on December 26.

Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility for the attack on the air bases from which Russia is bombing Ukrainian civilian cities. The White House and the Pentagon deny reports of US involvement in strikes on Russian air bases. Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh, commenting on the explosions at Russian military bases, noted that Ukraine is not coordinating with the United States any possible military operations against the occupiers.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads messages that are at war in Ukraine with the “collective West”, NATO, the OSCE or the United States. In this way, they are trying to create the illusion that they are fighting a much stronger enemy than the Ukrainian army, which they ridiculed.

Such information is disseminated in the Russian propaganda media. Reports say that NATO and the EU are preparing another charade for domestic consumption, the protagonist of which is Russia. Like, considering the general corruption of the European Commission and the European Parliament, they urgently need a smokescreen to divert the attention of their citizens from this problem. It is in this way that propagandists call the EU demand put forward by Russia to withdraw from Ukraine as a distraction. Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to the case in the network. According to experts, this disinformation story concerns a future joint EU-NATO statement promising support for Ukraine and urging Russia to stop the invasion and withdraw from Ukraine. However, this statement has nothing to do with the corruption scandal that erupted in December 2022 after several members of the European Parliament were accused of taking bribes from at least one country.

This message is being spread by Georgian pro-Russian resources with reference to German ex-chancellor Angela Merkel. Like, the belligerent position of the West in relation to Russia has existed for decades - the United States and NATO have been planning a war against Russia for years. In addition to Merkel, the article also quotes pro-Russian “expert” Scott Ritter, who said that Berlin's policy provides for gaining time for Ukraine before the war with Russia.

In the article referred to by the propagandists, there is not a single quote from Merkel that confirms the thesis of planning a war. MythDetector fact-checkers note that the article contains only one Merkel quote, taken from an interview with Der Spiegel, where the former chancellor says that 2008 was not the right time for Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO. The words of Scott Ritter echo the statements of Russian officials regarding the Minsk agreements.

This assertion is spread by the Russian propaganda media. The reports say that the aggressor, NATO under the Anglo-American leadership, is to blame for the war in Ukraine, while Russia is allegedly only a victim in these conditions.

However, NATO is not an aggressor in Ukraine. On the contrary, the countries of the West did everything possible to prevent the war, and only reacted to the full Russian invasion. Some NATO members provide Ukraine with military assistance to help defend against a Russian attack, but they do not engage in direct hostilities. Ukraine receives weapons for the sole purpose of restoring its territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders.

Western instructors teach Ukrainian soldiers how to use modern weapons, and NATO officials have frequent political contacts with their Ukrainian counterparts, but NATO troops do not fight at the front. This case was noticed by EU vs Disinfo analysts. This is not the first time Russia has blamed NATO, the US and other countries for the war in Ukraine. Like, they are the aggressors, and Russia was forced to enter the war.

However, in fact, it was Russia that started the war back in 2014, seized parts of two regions and occupied the Crimean peninsula, and in February 2022 launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. It is Russia that is the aggressor, destroying daily Ukrainian cities and villages, killing thousands of Ukrainian women and men, both military and civilian.

The results of an alleged sociological survey among Germans about the war in Ukraine are being disseminated on social networks. 40% of respondents believe that NATO provoked Russia to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The reports also say that allegedly in April only 15% thought so. Like, there are signs that the Germans are tired of the war in Ukraine. This is manipulation.

According to “15min”, in fact, only 19% of those surveyed support such a statement. Another 21% partially agree with it, so it is incorrect to sum up these indicators. Such manipulation significantly distorts the results of the survey.

Russian propaganda systematically manipulates poll results or uses anonymous comments from individual social media users to represent public opinion. In particular, propagandists said that more than 70% of the Germans are against increasing military assistance to Ukraine, and in general, they support Russia.

This is reported by foreign pro-Russian media. They say that an operational group of officers and soldiers of the Polish special forces in Ukrainian uniforms arrived in Marhanets, Dnipropetrovsk region, to detect pro-Russian residents of the city. This unit is under the control of NATO Headquarters. It is not true.

NATO countries do not take part in hostilities in Ukraine. The fact-checkers of EU vs Disinfo drew attention to the spread of this fake. They note that there is no evidence of the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine. Western instructors exclusively teach the Ukrainian military how to use modern weapons supplied to Ukraine by Western partners.

Pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels write about this, manipulating the words of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Like, if Ukraine can join NATO after the end of the war, Russia has no choice but either to carry out "fighting forever" or destroy Ukraine as a state.

In fact, Stoltenberg stressed that everyone is paying the price for Russia's war against Ukraine. However, if the world pays with money, the price for Ukrainians is measured in blood. He also noted that supporting Ukraine is a long-term NATO security interest.

This was written by the Russian media with reference to the British edition of the Financial Times.

Allegedly, Lieutenant colonel John Harris who is in charge of training Ukrainians said that they are poorly mastered in “weaponry, battlefield tactics and cyber security” and that “the Russian armed forces makes it difficult” to resist.

We are talking about the article «Ukrainian army recruits join British boot camp to prepare for combat» in the Financial Times.

As the fact-checker Stopfake noted, the Russian propaganda completely distorted the essence of the article in the Financial Times, because the material just praises the high motivation of Ukrainians and their willingness to learn.

“They are the most motivated, determined, hungry-to-learn trainees that I’ve worked with across the world in my 20 years of soldiering,” Harris said. “That they train in water up to their knees for 36 hours and can still laugh, joke and quickly answer questions says it all for me.”

The conclusions are completely opposite to what the Kremlin propaganda writes about.

Russian propagandists are spreading manipulations about the “failure” of the Ukrainian military in exercises abroad, because they are actually afraid of motivated opponents trained according to NATO standards who will launch a counteroffensive and push Russian troops out of Ukraine.

A video with the same title is circulating online. Its author is allegedly the European Security & Defense College, an EU body that provides training in the field of general security. The video says that the EU will allegedly be forced to stop the reform of "green" energy, since the funds provided will be used to restore Ukraine; it will pay for assistance to Ukraine from NATO at the expense of state medical programs, fight the growing Ukrainian corruption.

It is not true.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation, European Security & Defense College is not the author of this video. Also the claims that are circulating in the video are false. Ukraine's accession to NATO and accession to the EU are not interrelated processes. NATO includes not only EU countries. Therefore, the authors of the video manipulate causal relationships.

The Center emphasizes that all information, even the one published by allegedly well-known Western institutions, requires careful verification.

Last week, the third demonstration in the last two months took place in the Czech Republic, organized by the ultra right, the Communist Party and fringe groups. Among the demands of the protesters: to start negotiations with Russia on the purchase of gas. To do this, they believe, it is necessary to cancel sanctions and stop the supply of weapons to Ukraine. They also demand to ensure the status of neutrality, that is, withdrawal from NATO and the EU. More than 100,000 Czechs took part in these protests, organizers say. This is manipulation.

In fact, eyewitnesses say that this demonstration was the weakest, with no more than 10-20 thousand people taking part in it. According to the fact-checkers of the NotaYenota project, according to the results of the poll, 8 out of 10 Czechs do not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, in support of Ukraine, many more demonstrators once again come out to Prague squares than to pro-Russian rallies. These actions are held under the slogans "Czech Republic against fear" and "We can cope".

Anti-government rallies in the Czech Republic are organized by pro-Russian leaders. One of them is Ladyslav Vrabel, known as "an ardent admirer of Putin." The day before, he noted the need to go to Moscow and conclude gas agreements. Vrabel repeatedly gave interviews to Russian propaganda media and rejoiced at pseudo-referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The action was filmed by Czech videographer Zharko Yovanovich who previously worked on the Russian army TV channel “Zviezda” (Star).

The Czech government has already taken action to deal with the crisis by capping energy prices and launching broad support for families and individuals struggling with rising gas prices. The government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala is taking a hard line on the Russian invasion and is an important partner for Ukraine. The Czech Parliament declared the Russian regime a terrorist one. Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov announced more than 50 projects with the participation of the Czech Republic to strengthen the Ukrainian army.

After Saturday's "attack against ships of the Black Sea Fleet" in Sevastopol, Russian resources spread several messages. Russia is allegedly withdrawing from the "grain agreement" due to "an attack against ships of the Black Sea Fleet involved in guaranteeing the safety of vessels delivering Ukrainian grain within the so-called Black Sea Initiative." Because of this, on October 31, Russia will initiate a meeting of the UN Security Council. A ship is a combat unit of a fleet that is a legitimate target in wartime. The Kremlin claims the attack was on ships, not civilian sea transport vessels.

The humanitarian corridor for grain export from Ukraine was allegedly used to cover the attack on the Sevastopol raid. The Ministry of Defense of Russia stated that this attack was a terrorist attack by Kyiv with the participation of specialists from Great Britain. There is no evidence for this. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for this attack.

The South's defense forces assume that the explosions in occupied Sevastopol could have been caused by the Russian invaders' failed launches of air defense missiles. Propagandists assure Kyiv's fault that Europeans will be left without grain because it was not delivered to Africa. As you know, 72% of wheat went to Africa, Asia, and Turkey in two months. In fact, before this "attack," Russia threatened to withdraw from the "grain agreement" if its requirements were not met.

As the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, noted, Russia found a fictitious excuse for withdrawing from the agreement.

After the Russian occupiers announced an attack by drones on their ships in Crimea on October 29, messages on this topic appeared in anonymous propaganda channels.

NATO forces were allegedly engaged in a drone attack in Sevastopol Bay. It was allegedly their military training under cover of Ukrainian strikes. Once again, propagandists repeat the message that Ukraine has become a testing ground for Western and American weapons.

Allegedly, revenge is expected for this, and the Ukrainians will receive a response in the form of strikes on the energy system. Whenever the occupiers report an attack on the occupied sites, they resort to intimidation tactics against the civilian population. Propagandists spread similar messages on October 8 after the attack on the Crimean bridge.

The window of opportunity has allegedly opened for Russia to start a "full-scale war." However, Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has been ongoing since February 24, 2022.

The Russians terrorize millions of Ukrainians daily, destroy entire cities and villages, and attack the energy system. In this way, they want to sow panic among Ukrainians to start protests and force the Ukrainian authorities to negotiate with Russia, which means meeting the Kremlin's requirements and capitulating.

The shelling of the power system and residential buildings only angers Ukrainians more, and more Ukrainians say there can be no negotiations with a terrorist country.

The video of French police brutally suppressing demonstrations in Paris is circulating on social networks. Posts under the video claim that these allegedly protest against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Russian-Ukrainian war. It is not true. The protest in Paris on October 16 had nothing to do with NATO or the war in Ukraine. The reason for the rally was the rising cost of living and global warming.

French fact-checkers of the Logically project found the video from the rally using a reverse search. The original video caption says French police use tear gas to disperse a march against high prices and climate inaction in Paris. The Associated Press also uploaded a YouTube video of the same fight from a different vantage point on October 22, 2022. At the beginning of the video, one of the protest banners read "March against dear life" in French.

Pro-Russian bloggers and Telegram channels spread this thesis. Reports claim that Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on NATO countries to launch a pre-emptive strike against Russia before it uses nuclear weapons against Ukraine. However, Zelenskyy didn't actually call on NATO to use nuclear weapons.

According to the EU vs Disinfo project analysts, the claim that President Zelensky called for pre-emptive nuclear strikes on Russia is fake and arose from a misinterpretation of a translated interview. As analysts write, in fact, neither the US nor the EU is interested in a nuclear scenario in Ukraine. Any nuclear explosion can have unpredictable consequences for the whole world. Nuclear fallout from the explosion at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986 also reached the United States, although its concentration was lower than in Europe.

Instead, Russia constantly hints at the possibility of using nuclear weapons in a war against Ukraine. Ukraine's counterattack at returning its territories gave rise to a new wave of nuclear blackmail on the part of Russia. It is Russia that is trying to keep the international community in tension with contradictory statements about the use of nuclear weapons.

The exercises allegedly have an anti-Russian orientation. The annual Steadfast Noon exercise on nuclear deterrence using strategic bombers will last from October 17 to 30. They don't pose any threat to Russia. These exercises aren't related to current events in the world, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization emphasizes.

The military maneuvers of the Alliance are routine, and NATO announced the holding of these exercises in advance, and third countries were also notified about the maneuvers in advance. Steadfast Noon is a regular annual nuclear deterrence exercise in which dozens of aircraft from across the Alliance practice defending NATO's European allies rather than attacking third countries. By spreading such "news," Russian propaganda tries to justify threats of a nuclear attack in Ukraine and demonstrate that Russia doesn't wage a war of aggression against Ukraine but is defending itself against NATO aggression. More details.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels spread this information. Volodymyr Zelenskyy allegedly signed an application for accelerated accession to NATO, "calls" for a nuclear attack on Russia and thereby "gives Russia an excuse" for aggression. Instead, it is alleged that NATO again "makes it clear" to Ukrainians that Ukraine isn't a member of NATO and, therefore, won't support Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities supposedly understand that they are "playing with fire," but they allegedly "don't care" about the results of such "games."

In fact, pro-Russian propagandists began pushing this message again after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution calling Russia a terrorist regime. The amendment was also included in the resolution calling for air defense systems to be provided to Ukraine.

After Russia's massive missile attacks on Ukraine on October 10-11, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that strengthening Ukraine's air defense would be NATO's top priority. Other Western partners also reported new arms deliveries to Ukraine.

By spreading such messages, Russian propagandists are trying to justify the war crimes of the Russian army and promote the narrative that Russia is alleged "only defending itself" or that "the West is provoking Russia to war in Ukraine."

The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, saw the three-month-old news that a hologram of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "attended" the Viva Tech conference in Paris. She wrote, "stupid Zelenskyy didn't understand that NATO made a digital mummy of a person, which will be shown instead of the living president of Ukraine when they decide to get rid of him." Maria Zakharova is known for her strange statements, but now she has outdone herself.

NATO didn't make the holographic broadcast, but four companies, Talesmith, Garden Studios, Evercoast, and ARHT Media, located in Europe and the USA, specializing in digital technologies. With the help of this broadcast, Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the representatives of tech giants to support Ukraine and help Ukrainians in digital transformation.

This fake is part of a larger propaganda narrative that Ukraine is a non-independent state under external control and Zelenskyy is a "puppet of the West." Zakharova wrote that he is not a puppet but an "avatar." Propagandists need these messages to convince their population that Russia is not at war with Ukraine but with the West. Recently, propaganda has promoted these and similar messages, inventing fakes on this topic especially actively because they cannot allow their audience to wonder whether the "superpower" won't lose the war to a small neighboring country.

In Ukrainian social networks, there are widespread reports that allegedly three years ago the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko was fired to "prevent him from applying for Ukraine's accession to NATO." The contributors claim that Zelenskyy deliberately did this "while Muzhenko was on his way to the summit", "so that he would not have the authority". The message became viral in the context of the public signing by the president of Ukraine's application to join NATO in an accelerated manner. This message is fake. The summit of the leaders of the member countries of the Alliance was indeed held in December 2019. However, Viktor Muzhenko could not be a participant, because he was dismissed from the post of Chief of the General Staff by the decree of the President of Ukraine № 301/2019 dated May 21, 2019. Therefore, he could neither represent the country at the summit nor submit any documents on its behalf.

Viktor Muzhenko confirmed in a StopFake comment that he was in Brussels in May 2019. At that time, a meeting of the NATO Military Committee was held, in particular in the Ukraine-NATO format (May 21). At this meeting, Muzhenko was supposed to represent Ukraine (AFU), but on the eve of the meeting, the Decree of the President of Ukraine was signed on his dismissal. By the decision of the Military Committee, Muzhenko was allowed to make a speech as a representative of Ukraine. There was no mention of an application to join NATO.

In January 2019, there was another meeting of the military leaders of the member countries of the Alliance, in which Muzhenko took part - the meeting of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels. At that time, Petro Poroshenko was still the president of Ukraine. However, there was no discussion of applying to join NATO at this meeting either. Russian propaganda tries to devalue, ridicule, and discredit Ukraine's desire to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Russian media and anonymous Telegram channels actively reacted to the statement of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy about applying for accelerated accession to NATO with numerous fakes and manipulations.

This was reported by the pro-Kremlin media regarding the retired colonel and former senior adviser to the US Secretary of Defense Douglas McGregor. He believes that most members of the alliance don`t want to enter into an open armed confrontation with Moscow, and no one in NATO, except for Poland, is interested in a war with Russia. McGregor predicts the disappearance of NATO if support for Ukraine continues. It is not true.

Douglas McGregor has been talking about the "inevitable defeat of Kyiv" and spreading the Kremlin's message about nuclear weapons almost since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine.

Russian propaganda often uses the opinion of some former American military officer and presents it as the official position of the United States. Russians have been recently confused by Ukraine's application to join NATO and the fact that NATO has officially declared its readiness to help Ukraine. To neutralize these statements, propagandists spread the thesis that it is a provocation and a counter-message to Putin.