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.

This news is spreading on social networks, in particular in the Russian segment of Facebook. Reports say that Ukrainian military personnel allegedly failed to succeed in close combat and physical training exercises. They have not learned firearms and tactical training, they have a low level of morale and motivation. Like, the comprehensive standards of military training of NATO and the United States are unattainable for 95% of the Ukrainian military. Attached to the message is the so-called Washington Report. However, the document is generally falsified.

According to the StopFake fact checkers, the document was forged for a number of reasons, in particular:

First, the form on which this "document" is published is not used for such reports. The form template is posted on the official website of the US Army, so downloading it is not problematic;

Secondly, this "report" has many lexical and stylistic errors, which is unacceptable for such documents;

Finally,in the form itself, at the bottom of the first page, it is noted that records are not saved for a long time. That is, if such a document really existed, immediately after processing it would be destroyed.

Propagandists spread this news and try to undermine the authority of the Ukrainian army. It seems that the Russian military does not even have anyone to fight with, since the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are bad warriors. However, the numerous defeats of the Russian army testify to the contrary.

This thesis is spread by Russian propagandists on social networks. It says that NATO allegedly wants to join the war in Ukraine. Like, the statement was made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba at a meeting of the UN Security Council. However, this is fake.

In fact, during his speech at the UN Security Council, Dmytro Kuleba did not say that NATO wants to enter the Russian-Ukrainian war. According to Vox Ukraine fact-checkers, propagandists used this quote to support this thesis:

"I think NATO wants to join Ukraine now." However, it did not concern the intentions of the Alliance to enter the war. After the meeting of the Security Council, during a conversation with the press, a question was asked by a journalist about whether Ukraine wants to join NATO. To which Kuleba replied - yes.

Russian media and anonymous telegram channels actively reacted to the statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi about filing an application for accelerated entry into the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO).

Earlier during the week, Russian propagandists claimed that in the event of a nuclear strike, Ukraine would not retaliate and NATO would not help it in any way. They promoted the message that Ukraine may want to join NATO, but no one will take it there. On September 30, after Putin's speech about the annexation of four regions of Ukraine to Russia and Zelenskyi's statement about joining NATO, the propaganda rhetoric changed dramatically. They presented Ukraine's accession to NATO as a fait accompli.

We have identified several main theses of propagandists.

The application to join NATO is Zelenskyi's pathos.

This opinion is shared by pro-Russian bloggers in telegrams. Like, all this was done so that NATO would give more weapons, since Ukraine fixed the direction. And are the national leaders of NATO member states ready to send their citizens to their deaths?

Ukraine enshrined in the Constitution the course towards the European Union and NATO back in February 2019, when the Verkhovna Rada voted for the relevant bill.

Also during the war, the number of Ukrainians supporting accession to the EU and NATO increased. In a referendum, this initiative would be supported by 76%, against - 10%, 12% would not vote. In March 2022, 68% supported joining the Alliance. This is evidenced by the results of the thirteenth nationwide survey in the conditions of war, conducted by the Sociological Group "Rating" on June 18-19, 2022.

In addition, the United States is realistic about the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO. So Zelenskyi's statement is fully justified and aimed at the result, not provocation or pathos.

This is the counter-message to Russia that it officially takes over four regions.

Like, Bankova interrupted the Kremlin's information about Moscow's victorious reports. Zelenskyi in his statement showed a clear plan for Ukraine - we will recapture all our territories and are ready for negotiations with Russia, but with a different president of Russia.

The statement about joining NATO was made with an eye to at least something in time to grab from the collapse of Ukraine if Kyiv crumbles.

In announcing his application for accession, Zelenskyi urged Western partners to implement Ukraine-prepared proposals for security guarantees set out in the Kyiv Security Treaty. There are no alternatives to security, the President said. Ukraine can stop Russia's aggression only with the help of Europe and the United States.

Zelenskyi’s statement resembles the move with the “acceptance” of Ukraine to the European Union, how much joy there was and everything eventually calmed down, but they filled out a questionnaire for candidacy for the EU.

US President Joe Biden said the US would help Ukraine regain its territories. In response to annexation attempts, the United States along with allies and partners is announcing new sanctions today.

Accession to NATO, as well as to the EU, is not a quick process, but on this path Ukraine is supported and met.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine is eligible to apply for membership, but the priority now is aid.

Ukraine's accession to NATO is dragging the United States into a war with Russia.

Putin has repeatedly threatened a nuclear attack on Ukraine. The US and the West understand that this is possible and that Putin needs to be stopped, so they support Ukraine and participate in this war with their help, although officially without their military on the territory of Ukraine.

"Bloody butchers go to the NATO trash can".

Such a message has appeared over the past week in anonymous telegram channels that systematically disseminate Russian propaganda narratives. Reports say that NATO is most likely preparing to invade Russia.

Correspondents draw such conclusions due to the fact that the US Embassy in Moscow called on its citizens to immediately leave Russia. "I understand that a decision is being prepared at the decision center," the messages said. Propagandists also claim that the governments of European countries, including Poland and Estonia are calling on their citizens to leave Russia, not because they have begun to mobilize, but because of the likely invasion of Russian territory.

Thus, propaganda seeks once again to shift the responsibility for its crimes on the territory of Ukraine to Western countries and show that they allegedly pose a threat to Russia itself. However, there is no real reason to believe that a NATO invasion will take place.

On the contrary, representatives of the Alliance have repeatedly stated that NATO is not a party to the Russian-Ukrainian war and will not enter into conflict. However, the Russians have repeatedly stated that it is not the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but the NATO military that are fighting the Russian military on the territory of Ukraine.

Allegedly, Macron's quote is being distributed through pro-Russian resources. He seems to be claiming that “all of NATO has already come to the Russian borders,” but it is still not clear what Putin wants from NATO. This quote is fake.

Emmanuel Macron did not make such a statement. Fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project note that not a single French media wrote about this. On the contrary, in his speech at the Madrid NATO summit on June 30, 2022, Macron rejected all claims that the war and its consequences allegedly depend on the hypothetical desire of the West. “Only Russia is responsible for this war, as well as for the serious consequences that it brings to the whole world, in energy security and food security in particular,” Macron said.

Russian media report that the head of the NATO Military Committee, Rob Bauer, allegedly admitted that several years ago the Alliance was preparing for its expansion near the borders with Russia. Like, now NATO is implementing these plans. It is not true.

Admiral Rob Bauer did not mention plans for NATO expansion. According to StopFake, the meaning and even the translation of his words have been distorted by the Russian media. In fact, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee spoke about the revision and overhaul of military structures, which was planned several years ago.

The NATO Military Committee met on 16-18 September 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia. At a joint press conference, Chief Rob Bauer said that NATO would be conducting "the largest overhaul of military structures since 1949", which they began planning several years ago but it is now under way. In the original speech, the verb overhaul was used, which means to carefully inspect or overhaul. However, Russian propagandists saw in these words direct confirmation that the Alliance was planning to expand to the East years before a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Thus, allegedly Russian claims to NATO about the danger of expansion near the borders with Russia are allegedly quite justified. In addition, pro-Kremlin telegram channels also wrote that Rob Bauer's statement supposedly proves that Finland and Sweden planned to join NATO in advance, and the war in Ukraine became only a formal reason for this.

In pro-Russian public pages, messages are circulating with testimonies of alleged eyewitnesses who saw dark-skinned, heavily armed foreign mercenaries in Izium. And in Kozacha Lopan, they allegedly speak only English.

According to the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, the propaganda narrative “Western weapons are only prolonging the conflict in Ukraine” gradually grew into “NATO has come, otherwise we would have piled on the Ukrainians.” There is no evidence that NATO troops are in Ukraine. In Ukrainian public and social networks, videos are being distributed from cities and villages liberated from Russian infidels, where it is clear that it is the Ukrainian army that is repelling Russian invaders.

Previously, propaganda attributed the dismissal of Vovchansk to NATO troops. By spreading fakes about NATO or US troops in Ukraine, the Russians are trying to justify their defeat and hide their shame, because at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the propagandists devalued and ridiculed the Ukrainian military and planned to “take Kyiv in three days.”

Russian media write that a military ship from Romania, which is a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, exploded in the Black Sea on a “Ukrainian” mine. Like, this is the first case after the start of the so-called special operation. Allegedly, the Ukrainians randomly installed mines in the Black Sea “in panic and fear”. This is not true.

In fact, according to StopFake, the Romanian minesweeper Locotenent Dimitrie Nicolescu exploded on a drifting mine which was being tried to neutralize in the Black Sea. The crew, consisting of 75 people, was not injured by the explosion and safely arrived at the military port of Konstantsa. The ship needs to be repaired at the shipyard.

There is no evidence that the mine on which the Romanian minesweeper blew up was left by the Ukrainian military. On the contrary, Ukraine, together with other countries, is engaged in clearing mines in the western part of the Black Sea. After the Russian invasion on February 24, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine destroyed 28 such mines in the Black Sea.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported that these are sea mines, which at the beginning of 2022 were not registered with the Ukrainian Naval Forces. These mines were captured by the Russian armed forces in 2014 during the invasion and temporary occupation of Sevastopol.

Thus, Russia resorts to provocations and discrediting Ukraine in front of international partners. Previously, propagandists accused Ukraine of blocking foreign ships in ports.

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.

This thesis appeared on propaganda channels in Telegram. Blogger and officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Anatolii Shtefan (“Shtirlits”) drew attention to the same type of fakes.

Russian “military correspondents”, who write daily about the war in Ukraine, actively disseminate information that “NATO troops” entered not only Vovchansk, but also Kozacha Lopan. There are practically no Ukrainian military in these cities, “many blacks and English speakers”.

Anatolii Shtefan recalled who exactly fired Vovchansk, adding a photo of Ukrainian soldiers against the backdrop of the Ukrainian flag over the administrative building of the city.

In the south and in the Kharkiv region, the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, announced at the end of August, continues. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, since the beginning of September, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated about 2,000 square kilometers. As of September 11, Ukrainian units have de-occupied more than 40 settlements in the Kharkiv region.

Russian propagandists regularly throw messages about discrediting the Ukrainian military, and if they can no longer keep silent about the successes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, then they attribute them to foreign mercenaries and that the counteroffensive is carried out to the order of the United States or the West.

Such a statement is spread by pro-Kremlin channels against the backdrop of ongoing events on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant seized by the Russian military. Propagandists claim that NATO intends to use the tense situation at the nuclear power plant in order to fully enter the war with Russia. They draw such conclusions on the basis of a statement by British MP Tobias Ellwood. However, this is manipulation.

According to EU vs Disinfo analysts, in August Tobias Ellwood, a member of the UK Parliament, did speak out about the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. He stated that due to radiation leakage there is a real threat to life, therefore Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty, which provides for joint defense in the event of a military threat, will automatically come into force. Russian propaganda uses this very warning as confirmation of the war with NATO.

However, in the context of the politician’s statement, it is clear that any deliberate actions by Russia that will lead to the spread of radiation in NATO countries should be considered an attack on them and encouraged to common defense, as, in fact, this is provided for in Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty. That is why NATO is not going to enter the war, but will defend itself in case of a possible threat. That is, the words of the British official concerned the defense of NATO member countries.

Russian media write about this regarding the report of the NATO Defense College. They said that NATO analysts "confirmed" that Russia "uses only a small part of its resources and does not use its main trump cards" in the war against Ukraine. This is manipulation.

On July 27, the NATO Defense College published an analytical report on Russian tactics of waging war against Ukraine. However, there is not a single mention in the report that Russia is not fighting at full strength in Ukraine. Instead, it says that Russia has limited use of certain military tactics against Ukraine, but this is explained by the intention to preserve part of the forces for attacking NATO countries. The main point is that Russia did not properly prepare for the invasion of Ukraine and made a significant miscalculation regarding Ukraine and its Armed Forces. Experts write that during the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army showed a strong material weakening of the troops and significant discipline violations. Now, Russia is deploying older weapons more often to strike the territory of Ukraine, which may indicate both the gradual depletion of the stock of high-precision weapons and the planning of a future war against NATO. The report also states that as of July-August 2022, Russia has probably reached the limit of conducting major offensive operations.

Analysts conclude that despite Russia's current apparent inability to defeat Ukrainian forces, the Kremlin still has an opportunity to correct its mistakes, strengthen its army and attack NATO countries in the future. Therefore, the Alliance needs to actively strengthen its defense, because "Russian strategic ambitions are not limited only to Ukraine."

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, Russian propaganda systematically uses the materials of the world media for disinformation about the future defeat of Ukraine and its partners. The department cites several new examples of the use of this tactic. Propagandists are spreading quotes from pro-Russian US military analyst Scott Ritter, who said in an interview with the Kremlin media that Ukraine and NATO have no chance of preventing a complete military victory for Russia. Regarding Daily Shincho, Russian media spread information that the US is losing to Russia in the new "Cold War". In fact, the article compares the political regimes of Russia and the United States and the reaction of society to the actions of the authorities. And through theses taken out of context from the interview of historian Neil Ferguson, Russia is trying to create the false impression that he believes in Russia's victory. In fact, Neil Ferguson opposes prolonging the war in Ukraine.