Spilnota Detector Media

Message An "international tribunal" over prisoners of war from "Azovstal" is inevitable

Such messages are spread in the Russian media. They enter the Ukrainian information space through anonymous Telegram channels and social networks.

As the Center for Combating Disinformation writes, the topic of the "inevitable international tribunal" over prisoners of war from "Azovstal" has been systematically in the focus of propagandists since May 2022. In Russia, "Azov" has already been recognized as a terrorist organization and its activities have been banned on its territory. However, any attempt to "convict" the Azov people would be outside the bounds of international law, as the rights of prisoners of war are guaranteed by international conventions. Prisoners of war performed the duties defined by the state and the law to protect the sovereignty of Ukraine.

Disclosure Russian propagandists use 23 names to denote the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Institute of Mass Information investigated how one of the largest telegram channels of the occupied Donetsk region spreads Russian disinformation in the occupied territories and how it changed the main message topics five months after the start of the full-scale invasion.

According to the research, propagandists most often refer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine as "VFU" (Armed Forces of Ukraine; 632 mentions), "Nazis" (601), "militants" (495), "Ukras" (160), "terrorists" (134), "neo-Nazis" (131), "Ukrainian Nazis" (117). Propagandists most often associate the Ukrainian army with Nazism in their word-making experiments, IMI writes.

IMI researchers identified five groups of messages:

  • discrediting the Armed Forces of Ukraine and everything Ukrainian;
  • recognition of the Russian army as powerful and successful;
  • "DPR — a promising region of Russia";
  • "All of Russia is a successful and authoritative country";
  • anti-Western messages.

More details in the study.

Fake The Nazi military base is located in the Zaporizhzhia Palace of Culture

Such information is disseminated in Russian propaganda media. Nazis allegedly gather in this building, and weapons and ammunition are stored. It is not true.

Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov denied the information. He said that on the premises of the Zaporizhzhia Palace of Culture, there is an open space for helping displaced persons from Melitopol and other cities. "This center provides humanitarian aid," Fedorov said. That is why hundreds of immigrants from Melitopol and other cities gather daily near the Palace of Culture building.

It is not the first time that Russia spread information about placing "military bases" where civilian or humanitarian infrastructure facilities are located. Subsequently, these stories are used to justify launching rocket attacks on civilians.

Fake The Vinnytsia Officers' House was a Nazi base

Russian media and telegram channels report this to justify the missile attack on the center of Vinnytsia. It is not true.

Officers' houses are not military facilities in Ukraine. These are establishments created for recreation - there are concerts, plays, children's clubs, etc. They are not used as military barracks. Before the rocket attack, the Officers' House in Vinnytsia was preparing for a charity concert by the singer Roksolana. One of her team members was killed. In total, at least 23 people were killed, three children and more than 100 people were injured due to the Russian missile attack on the center of Vinnytsia. The rockets destroyed a business center, a medical center, and a parking lot and damaged residential buildings and other objects of civil infrastructure. As EUvsDisinfo fact-checkers write, the representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, and the commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, condemned the Russian attack on civilian objects, calling the events in Vinnytsia "the latest atrocity in a long series of brutal attacks on civilians and civilians infrastructure."

Russian propaganda spreads lies about hitting military infrastructure and destroying "Nazis" every time after missile strikes on civilian targets. At first, they reported that they had hit a military unit in the town of Haysyn near Vinnytsia. The alleged "military object" destruction was also said after shelling the shopping center in Kremenchuk.

Fake Sachsenhausen is ready to accommodate Ukrainian refugees on the former concentration camp site

Social networks and Russian websites spread information that the administration of the Memorial of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany has offered Ukrainian refugees to live on its territory. They claim that the Sachsenhausen concentration camp museum provided on its Facebook and Instagram pages to house Ukrainian refugees in a "specially built temporary hotel."

The administration of the Sachsenhausen Memorial denied such information and stated that it never proposed to place Ukrainian refugees on the territory of the former concentration camp. Photos of barracks with the words "Welcome Home" against the background of the Ukrainian flag are a deliberately altered version of a picture previously published on a German tourist site. The Brandenburg Memorial Foundation's press service said everything points to the scheme of the Russian digital propaganda war. The management of Sachsenhausen Memorial has already reported this incident to the police. More details.

Fake Klitschko suggested burying "neo-Nazis" in Babyn Yar.

The Russian mass media and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, are spreading the information that the mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, has proposed to bury "neo-Nazis and fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Babi Yar." It is not true.

On July 14, the Kyiv City Council approved the decision to create a military cemetery and places of honor for the defenders of Ukraine next to Babyn Yar, and not in Babyn Yar itself - the area of the largest mass burial of victims of Nazism in Ukraine, shot in 1941-1943.

According to Klitschko, permission for the development of the land management project was granted along Olena Teliga Street in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv - we are talking about a place next to the Babyn Yar tract.

Klitschko said that Kyiv is ready to take on all the costs associated with arranging the military cemetery. However, the project needs support at the national level.

Manipulation Ukrainians mowed down the swastika on a field in Germany

Similar messages are spreading on social networks that allegedly Ukrainian refugees created a massive swastika on an area in the suburbs of Brandenburg. The reports refer to German journalist Julian Röpcke and Bild newspaper. But it is manipulation. According to the German newspaper Bild, their reporter Julian Röpcke noticed a swastika with an area of ​​about 360 square meters during a flight over Brandenburg and reported it to the local police. The police suspect a resident who, according to neighbors, has repeatedly hung the Reich flag in the window of his house to create the prohibited symbol. The German law enforcement officers do not have any information that Ukrainians were involved in creating the swastika. As StopFake writes, the message about the involvement of Ukrainians in this situation is deliberately spread by Russian propaganda to discredit Ukrainian refugees in Germany. Previously, fakes were spread that Ukrainian refugees, trying to burn the Russian flag, caused a fire in the house of a German family that sheltered them.

Fake Ukrainian activists pasted over the Memorial in Auschwitz with anti-Russian stickers

Information was spread on social networks that on June 22, the anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Ukrainian activists pasted over the walls and fences of the Memorial in Auschwitz with anti-Russian stickers. Along with these posts, there were also circulated photos of a red, white, and black sticker with such words "Russia and Russians, the only gas you and your country deserve is Zyklon B (poisonous gas used in Nazi death camps - Edit)."

According to Reuters Fact Check, the Auschwitz Memorial said that no such stickers were found in the places depicted in the photo: "Everything points to the fact that the photos are simply manipulation, and this incident should be seen as primitive and crude propaganda." A museum representative said security cameras also did not catch anyone applying the stickers in June 2022 or earlier. However, Hani Farid, a computer science professor specializing in image analysis and digital forensics at the University of California, Berkeley, said he believes the images were likely faked. So this fake is part of the message about alleged "Russophobia." The US State Department has previously said that claims of "Russophobia" appear in several threads and are used whenever the Russian government wants to portray itself as the victim when it is the aggressor.    

Fake "Nationalists" raped women at the "Azot" plant in Sievierodonetsk

Russian mass media, referring to the so-called people's police of the so-called "LPR," are spreading information that allegedly fighters of the nationalist "Aidar" battalion (banned in Russia) regularly raped women who were held hostage at the "Azot" plant in Sievierodonetsk. According to their version, dozens of women were injured; now, they are safe, receiving medical and psychological help from specialists. The media do not provide evidence; they only spread a loud statement about the crime.

On June 18, the head of the Luhansk RMA, Serhii Gaidai, reported that the people hiding in the shelters of the "Azot" plant in Sievierodonetsk refused to evacuate. During the communication with the population, the National Guardsmen recorded the refusal on video. Previously, the Russian media distributed video recordings of interviews with women who escaped from the "Azot" bomb shelter, where they talked exclusively about foreign mercenaries. In fact, the world has already learned more than once about the sexual crimes of the Russian military in Ukraine.

Rape has become a characteristic feature of the Russian occupiers, says the adviser to the head of the President's Office, Oleksiy Arestovych. We will remind that after the liberation of Bucha near Kyiv from the Russian occupiers, it became known about dozens of cases of sexual violence committed by Russians. Former Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Lyudmila Denisova, reported that in Bucha, Russians systematically raped 25 girls and women aged 14 to 24, nine of whom were pregnant. More details.

Fake In Zaporizhzhia, a list of "volunteers" is being formed for "protection against the Armed Forces of Ukraine"

According to the Kremlin media, in this way, the region's residents want to "secure themselves" and "liberate their territories." StopFake wrote that the statement about the "formation of a battalion of volunteers to protect against the Armed Forces" in Zaporizhzhia was made by a collaborator of Balytskyi, who has nothing to do with the official Ukrainian authorities.

Fact-checkers drew attention to the fact that the occupiers appointed former regional People's Deputy Yevhen Balytskyi as the head of the administration. On May 26, the SSU announced that he was suspected of treason. According to the Armed Forces, the city of Zaporizhzhia is under the full control of the Ukrainian army. In addition, Russia violated the Geneva Conventions by mobilizing Ukrainians in the occupied territories, the fact-checkers added. Read more.

Fake "Ukrainian nationalists" disrupted the evacuation of the civilian population from Sievierodonetsk

Social networks and Russian websites spread information that "Ukrainian militants disrupted the humanitarian corridor from the bomb shelters of the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk."

Russia said it would open a humanitarian corridor for civilians from Sievierodonetsk to the occupied territory on June 15, but only if the remaining Ukrainian military surrendered. Ukraine rejected this condition. Russia constantly disrupts the evacuation of the civilian population, either by offering impossible conditions to the Ukrainian side or by not stopping shelling during the declared evacuation.

Fake Taira may have been involved in black transplantation in Ukraine

Such an assumption in the stream of Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov written in a telegram by a militant of the self-proclaimed "DPR" Vladlen Tatarsky (Maksym Fomin), who now calls himself a military correspondent. He noted that she was "exchanged for our underground in Kyiv."

On June 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening address that paramedic Yuliia Paievska (Taira), whom the Russians had captured in mid-March in Mariupol, had been released from captivity.

Yuliia "Taira" Paievska is a volunteer paramedic who saved the lives of military and civilians in Donbas for eight years.

Taira's husband Vadym and daughter Anna-Sofia lost touch with her on March 14, 2022. Since then, nothing has been known about the paramedic except the fakes spread by Russian propaganda. Taira has the title of People's Hero of Ukraine, President of the Aikido Federation "Mutokukai Ukraine," in 2013, with the beginning of the Revolution of Dignity, she became a doctor on the Maidan. She taught tactical medicine in the projects "People's Reserve" and "Protection of Patriots."

Later, Yuliia Paievska organized and headed the volunteer medical evacuation unit "Angels of Taira," which was based near Mariupol. From 2014 to 2018, she was a paramedic volunteer. From 2018 to 2020, she served under contract in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in eastern Ukraine and headed the evacuation department of the 61st Mobile Hospital in Mariupol. Then she was demobilized.

Fake At the Kharkiv Hospital №28, the Ukrainian military set up an artillery depot

Russian propaganda media spread this information. In particular, the publication RT. In Kharkiv, the Ukrainian army deployed artillery and MRL in the city hospital №28. In their texts, the journalists refer to the head of the National Defense Management Center of Russia, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev. However, this is a fake. Journalists from the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center asked the city council for comment, where they denied Mizintsev's words and called them nonsense. Recently, similar information about weapons depots has been spread about other hospitals in the city. The Department of Health of the Kharkiv City Council also noted that there is no army or terrorist defense in medical institutions in Kharkiv. We will remind the Russian propaganda, not for the first time invents stories about warehouses of the weapon in Ukraine placed on civilian objects, particularly in hospitals, schools, and shopping centers. Recently, the fake about the placement of firing points in Odesa schools was refuted by the head of the Odesa RMA, Serhiy Bratchuk.

The Azot plant in Sievierodonetsk is blocked. Ukrainian "nationalists" are looking for contacts for negotiations

Russian propaganda media and telegram channels spread the "news," referring to the so-called ambassador of the terrorist group in the temporarily occupied territories of the Luhansk region Rodion Miroshnyk as if about 400 Ukrainian soldiers are hiding in the territory of "Nitrogen" and can not get out. Allegedly, some of them are trying to get in touch with units of Russia and the so-called "LPR" and even put forward their conditions - to release them to Lysychansk with "hostages," and they are told to lay down their arms and surrender.

Information about the blockade of "Nitrogen" is a lie spread by Russian propagandists. The head of the Luhansk regional military administration Serhiy Haidai reported about it. All other "details" described in a box - Miroshnyk's sick imagination. For reference: Rodion Miroshnyk is a Kremlin litter and a liar," Haidai wrote on Facebook. He stressed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are holding the Sievierodonetsk industrial zone and destroying the Russian army in the city.

Disclosure In Popasna, the Russians attributed Bohdan Khmelnytsky to the "national battalion"

Russian occupiers were so impressed by the district museum of local lore in Popasna in the Luhansk region that they shot a video about it and disseminated it in the pro-Kremlin media, including Ria Novosti. According to them, the museum has a whole hall about one of the most common inventions of Russian propaganda about Ukraine - the so-called national battalions. To which, to their ridicule, they attributed Bohdan Khmelnytsky. In the video, the Russians show part of the exhibition dedicated to the anti-terrorist operation and the events of 2014-2017, in the center of which are the books "History of Ukraine," "Battle for Konotop" by Vladyslav Karnatsevych from the series "Famous Events of Ukrainian History" and "Archaeological war." The last book is a methodological recommendation of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, which is designed to guide the military in a situation where the threat of destruction of archaeological heritage and how to minimize it.

Fake Militants were brought up at the Republic Pilgrim Children's Center in Mariupol

This information was spread by Russia's representative in the UN, Vasily Nebenzya. He said that soldiers from the Azov Regiment recruited children aged 7 to 18 and "trained future militants." In particular, according to him, such work was carried out in the Mariupol "Pilgrim," too.

However, this is not true. In fact, the institution was a center for helping children in difficult life circumstances. Yesterday, June 1, the pupils of the Pilgrim held a rally dedicated to Children's Day in Zaporizhzhia. During the rally, according to Mariupol Mayor's Adviser Petro Andriushchenko, the participants called the propaganda of Vasily Nebenzya's words that they were allegedly training "militants" in the children's center. Pupils of the Center also reminded that children die daily due to Russian aggression in Ukraine and called on the world community to help protect them.

Fake The deputy head of the Kyiv police has a Nazi tattoo

Information about this is spreading on social networks. The messages say that a man named Artem Bonov, who has a tattoo with Nazi symbols, is allegedly the deputy chief of the Kyiv police. A photo of a man with a swastika in the uniform of the police is attached to the fake posts. VoxCheck's photos show a real user, Artem Bonov, who maintains his Vkontakte page and YouTube channel. Bonov wrote that in the summer of 2014, he was a member of the Azov Volunteer Battalion and was then imprisoned on suspicion of killing a neighbor. Later, he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in Lviv. However, this information is confirmed only by Bonov's own letters. However, Bonov does not hold the position of Deputy Chief of Police. His name is not among the Kyiv or Kyiv region police leadership. "In fake posts, photos of Artem Bonov in police uniform are added. This photo can be found on Bonov's Vkontakte page. The chevron on Bonov's hand belongs to those worn by Ukrainian police units that were subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs until 2015. However, in 2015 the National Police of Ukraine was established. Since then, chevrons on police uniforms have also changed, ”the fact-checkers write.

Fake "Militants of national battalions" are preparing a provocation in Sumy using poisonous substances

It is alleged that the Russian Ministry of Defense received such information from captured Ukrainian soldiers. The report used a standard set of Russian propaganda: "Neo-Nazi" plan to fire on Russia's border area from a residential area of ​​the city, provoke a retaliatory strike, and then blow up containers with chemically hazardous substances. Journalists of foreign news agencies are in Sumy for photo and video shooting. And, of course, the goal is to accuse the Russian military of allegedly using chemical weapons and striking civilians who are not being evacuated but left in the city for "maximum resonance."

Such nonsensical Russians are throwing into the media to either intimidate people in the region where they announce the provocation or plan to commit a war crime and absolve themselves of responsibility.

The Security Service of Ukraine reminds us that the Russian military regularly shells peaceful Ukrainian cities, kills civilians, uses them as a "living shield," rapes women in the occupied territories, takes children to "filtration camps," and tortures men.

Fake Cigarettes and alcohol in packages with swastikas are dropped from helicopters on Ukrainian military positions

 Such a fake is spread by the Russian propaganda media. In particular, the publication RIA-news. "Soldiers of the composite regiment of the LNR Interior Ministry, who are serving in Cossack Lopan near Kharkiv, told RIA Novosti that alcohol and cigarettes are dropped from helicopters on Ukrainian military and nationalist positions, whose packages are stylized as food supplied to the German-Fascist troops. Some of these gifts have accidentally fallen on the positions of the Russian forces. The cigarette packages have swastikas and symbols of Nazi Germany on them," the propagandists write. As the fact checkers of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center project write, this interview begs the question why the Ukrainian military would risk helicopters at all in the Russian air defense zone (after all, Kozachya Lopan is a settlement right on the border with Russia), if there is a road to the AFU positions from Kharkiv. "Other than that, not a single photo was provided by the propagandists. Neither alcohol nor cigarettes. Also in Ukraine since 2015 there is a law "On the condemnation of the communist and national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols." According to it, the symbols of the National Socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regime are prohibited for use in Ukraine, including: symbols of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (NSDAP), the national flag of Nazi Germany 1939-1945, the national emblem of Nazi Germany 1939-1945, the name of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (NSDAP), images, inscriptions on events related to the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (NSDAP)," - write the fact checkers.  

Fake Eurovision spokeswoman Ida Novakowska "bent" during the live broadcast to announce the results.

Russian propagandists and various anonymous telegram channels spread information that Ida Novakowska, the spokeswoman for Eurovision from Poland, allegedly used a Nazi salute during the announcement of the evaluations by the Polish jury. In particular, information about Ida Novakovskaya's use of the so-called zig appeared on the channel of Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov. The Nazi salute in the Third Reich consisted of raising one's right hand and shouting "Long live Hitler!" (German: Heil Hitler!). The hand was raised at an angle of 45 degrees with the palm straightened: among the higher ranks - half-bent, ordinary and before the senior rank - fully straightened. However, Ida Novakovska did not use the Nazi salute, but raised her hand to show the V sign - Victoria, which symbolizes victory or peace, and shouted "Glory to Ukraine". The presenter also had a yellow and blue ribbon attached to her clothes, the permission to use which was previously agreed with the Eurovision spokesperson and spokespersons with the organizing committee of the contest. However, it is advantageous for Russian propagandists, and in particular Solovyov, to remind their audience once again that Ukrainians are Nazis, and that those countries that support Ukraine are Nazis.

Fake . Russia is at war against the descendants of the Nazis in Europe.

Russian propaganda has taken the narrative about "European politicians with Nazi descendants" out of the closet and is actively promoting it on social networks, mostly in European languages. Recent publications referred only to the grandfather of Polish President Andrzej Duda Michal, who was supposedly a friend and associate of Stepan Bandera (which would prove the Nazi connections of Duda) - but it is a ridiculous fake: propagandists could not even find the real name of the Polish president's grandfather - in fact his name was Aloise.

Now the same fakes are spread about the grandfathers of three key German politicians - but German fact-checkers from the Correctiv project proved, that all these claims are false: the grandfather of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was not Fritz von Scholz, Wehrmacht General Gerhard Lindner is not the grandfather of Finance Minister Christian Lind Obergruppenführer SS Hartmann Lauterbacher is not the grandfather of Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. As the investigators write, the source of these fakes is a single person - "Putin's cook" Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose fictions were quoted by the press service of his company Concord.

All these fakes are part of a propaganda campaign against Ukraine and Europe to prove to Russians that the Russian army is liberating the world from Nazism.

Fake Andrzej Duda's grandfather was a friend of Stepan Banedra.

The Russian and pro-Kremlin media have spread an old fake about Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose grandfather was allegedly Michail Duda, a friend of Stepan Banedra. These reports are, expectedly, accompanied by accusations of Nazism against the Polish leader. Mythdetector fact checkers reminded us, that Duda himself refuted this fake back in 2015. Then he said that his grandfather's name was Alojz Duda. He was a fur expert who died in 1992.

Manipulation Since May 9 was abolished in Ukraine, people were dispersed to their homes on that day.

Russian propaganda media once again manipulated the topic of Victory Day, which was celebrated there yesterday, May 9. According to StopFake, Russian propaganda media have once again spread a series of manipulative materials saying that the Ukrainian authorities "finally banned people from celebrating May 9," and in some regions "deliberately" imposed a curfew because of "fear" that "many people will get. May to honor the feat of the Soviet soldiers who defeated fascism." Such reports add that the Ukrainian authorities allegedly "officially cancel Victory Day and drive people home." In fact, there were no mass events in 2022 due to Russia's large-scale invasion and heightened danger of missile attacks in Ukraine. However, we are not talking about "banning Victory Day." Previously, the thesis of the abolition of May 9 was dispersed by Russian propagandists. In particular, Vladimir Solovyov reported in his telegram channel that in Ukraine they decided to cancel May 9, and in confirmation of this fact he added that the Verkhovna Rada allegedly registered a bill according to which May 8 is Memorial and Victory over Nazism Day, and May 9 is a working day. Apparently, we are talking about the bill "On amendments to some laws of Ukraine on the commemoration of the victory over Nazism in World War II," which MPs registered on April 18. The bill indeed proposes to commemorate the Day of Remembrance of all victims of Nazism during the Second World War on May 8, and to celebrate Europe Day on May 9 together with other EU countries. In fact, Ukraine is not cancelling May 9. However, this time in Ukraine, as in the past few years, they did not celebrate Victory Day, choosing to celebrate May 8 - Memorial Day.

Message A real Victory Day returns to Mariupol, Kherson and Melitopol. The St. George Ribbon is gaining popularity.

Pro-Kremlin media actively spread the opinion that the temporarily occupied cities of Ukraine are preparing to celebrate Victory Day openly for the first time in many years and that the St. George Ribbon is becoming increasingly popular among the local population, especially among children. A video circulated on social networks shows a Victory volunteer in Mariupol tying a St. George's ribbon to children's clothes and asking what it means. The girl replies: "It's beautiful" and says that she has never worn such ribbons before.

The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmila Denisova reported that in Melitopol, temporarily occupied by Russian troops in Zaporizhzhia, children are forced to wear St. George ribbons and learn poems about the war. "From the media it became known that in the occupied Melitopol of Zaporozhye region forced children to wear St. George ribbons and learn poems about the war. Such actions are committed by school principals cooperating with the occupation troops," she stressed. According to Denisova, teachers distribute children's thematic drawings and videos of schoolchildren reciting poems about the war with St. George ribbons on their chests online. There is information that this is happening without parental consent. The ombudsman stressed that school is one of the means of educating a child, the formation of the worldview, which is continuously connected with the upbringing in the family. According to her, "this imposition of the racist ideology in educational institutions is aimed at destroying the Ukrainian identity in the minds of children". Denisova stressed that these actions of the Russian invaders are a violation of Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This document stipulates that the education of a child should be aimed at fostering respect for the child's parents, cultural identity, language and national values of the country in which the child resides, his country of origin. The above is direct evidence of genocide against the Ukrainian people.

According to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, the "St. George's Ribbon" is an element of Russian propaganda. The formation of the symbol "St. George's Ribbon" has a long and complicated history. It first appeared on the Order of St. George, founded in 1769 by Empress Ekaterina II. The Order became the highest military award of the Russian Empire and was given to officers for special courage in battle. Later, a whole set of awards associated with St. George was formed: the Order, the medal, the cross and the flag. They were accompanied by the St. George ribbon, which, according to official statutes, consisted of three black and two yellow stripes. It was also allowed to use orange instead of yellow.

The most likely version is that the gamma of the ribbon was taken from the black-yellow-white flag of the Russian Empire. Another version is that the color symbolizes the fire and smoke, which emphasizes its military nature. Read more here.

In 2015, instead of the "St. George's Ribbon" as a symbol of remembrance of victory and honoring the victims of World War II, Ukrainians were suggested to use the red poppy flower. Striped black and yellow ribbon in the perception of Ukrainians became a negative symbol, which is associated with danger and terrorism. Since 2015. On May 8 and 9, Ukraine celebrates Memorial and Reconciliation Day and Victory Day over Nazism in World War II. The traditional slogan of these commemorative days "We Remember - We Win!" this year is somewhat modified at the state level and sounds like "We defeated the Nazis - let's defeat the Rashists too!.

Fake The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is planning a provocation using chemical weapons in Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Security Service of Ukraine was preparing provocations using chemical weapons. Another Russian fake is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council in Telegram.

"The Russian Defense Ministry said that "according to available information, the SBU is planning chemical weapons provocations in a number of settlements in the Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk regions for further accusations from Russia. We warn you: this is a fake!", the report reads.

The Center specifies that the Russian Defense Ministry's statement that "on the instructions of the US and UK handlers, units of the AFU and the National Security Forces are setting up fortifications at the Luhansk chemical enterprises is yet another fake. At the same time, neo-Nazis were replacing chemical tanks to destroy them when leaving their positions.

This is not the first Russian lie about the use of chemical weapons by the Ukrainian security service. In April, the Russian Ministry of Defense already reported that "the SBU is planning chemical agent provocations near the Yuzhny port in Odessa to accuse Russia of allegedly targeting civilian infrastructure.

In March, Russia spread a fake that the SBU was allegedly "preparing, with the support of Western countries, a provocation using toxic substances against civilians."

Officially noted: The SBU cannot even in theory prepare any provocations with poisonous substances. Because we do not act by the methods of kafirs! Our task is to protect Ukraine. And we carry it out successfully together with all the people. And the invaders and kafirs will surely answer for their atrocities!", - stated in the SBU.

The Ukrainian service pointed out that theses about "SBU provocation" appeared in March after the Russians shelled a peaceful convoy near Mariupol and dropped a bomb on the building of the city drama theater, where hundreds of women and children were hiding. The SBU notes that such statements are only an attempt to distract attention from yet another war crime committed by the Russians.