Russian propagandists spread the information that “it was definitely Ukraine that killed Pryhozhyn (...) This is a terrorist attack by Ukraine on Independence Day. Russian propaganda accuses Ukraine of selling an Embraer business jet owned by Yevhenii Pryhozhyn, on August 23, 2023, near the village of Kuzhenkino, Bolohivskyi district, Tver region. It's fake.

During a press conference with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Ukraine had nothing to do with the crash of a private plane in the Tver region of Russia, in whose passenger lists Yevhenii Pryhozhyn  was.

Also, the American Institute for the Study of War reported on its website that “Putin almost certainly ordered the Russian military command to shoot down Yevhenii Pryhozhyn’s plane”. The President of Russia could take revenge on Pryhozhyn for the attempted rebellion that took place at the end of June 2023.

By spreading this version of the death of the leader of the Wagner group, Russian propaganda is trying to accuse Ukraine of interfering in the internal affairs of Russia and shifting responsibility for the death of Pryhozhyn  to the Ukrainians. Also, the Russians are trying to divert attention from domestic political problems within Russia. Earlier, we told how a video of a plane crash in the Voronezh region of Russia was circulated on the network and stated that this was supposedly the moment of shooting down a plane carrying Yevhenii Pryhozhyn.

His people killed him, he was killed by enemies, he decided to take a break - those are a few versions of the event thrown by propagandists in order to confuse the audience.

Oleksandr Kotenko

On August 23, 2023, an Embraer business jet owned by Yevhenii Pryhozhyn crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino, Bolohivskyi district, Tver region. Later, the Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia published a list of passengers, according to which there were 10 passengers on board, including Yevhenii Pryhozhyn and co-founder of the group Dmytro Utkin. On the morning of August 24, the body of Pryhozhyn among the dead had not yet been identified.

Yevhenii Pryhozhyn is a Russian war criminal, oligarch, founder of the Wagner terrorist organization within the Russian army, recognized by the Ukrainian parliament as an international criminal organization. In the past, a restaurateur, which is why he began to be called “Putin's chef”. The Kremlin provided financial and military support to the Wagner group when the mercenaries performed tasks in Sudan, Libiia, the Central African Republic and participated in Syria and the Donbas, as well as in a full-scale war in Ukraine.

On June 23, 2023, Yevhenii Pryhozhyn reported that the troops of the Russian Ministry of Defense had hit the place of deployment of the Wagner group, as a result of which many mercenaries were killed. He announced the “march of justice”, said that there were 25 thousand Wagner groups, and they were going to “sort things out”, and everyone could join the “march of justice”.

This was the beginning of the Wagner mutiny - an internal conflict in Russia between the Ministry of Defense and the regular Russian army and Wagner led by Yevhenii Pryhozhyn. During this conflict, the Wagner group killed more than 13 pilots of the Russian Aerospace Forces. On June 24, negotiations took place between the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Oleksandr Lukashenko and Yevhenii Pryhozhyn, the rebellion itself was stopped, the criminal case for “armed rebellion” was closed, and the Wagner group and Pryhozhyn himself left for Belarus, and then to Africa.

Russian propagandists, authors of anonymous telegram channels and pro-Kremlin media responded to the death of Wagner group leader Yevhenii Pryhozhyn with a number of messages. We have highlighted some of them.

Pryhozhyn’s plane was blown up, there was a technical breakdown or he was shot down by Russian air defense

After the crash of the plane, on board of which Yevhenii Pryhozhyn was probably on board, the pro-Kremlin media put forward the version that Pryhozhyn’s plane was blown up from the inside - allegedly someone planted a bomb. Also technical breakdown is not excluded. However, the Wagner group telegram channels promoted the thesis that the plane was shot down by the Russian air defense system, and the locals allegedly heard two loud explosions. Also, anonymous telegram channels published a video with a characteristic trail in the sky.

The variety of versions shows that there was no unequivocal attitude towards Yevhenii Pryhozhyn in society. Those who did not sympathize with him tend to believe in a “technical error” or “explosion from the inside” due to the supposedly planted bomb. Prior to the mutiny, official Russian propaganda portrayed him as a tenacious and efficient military leader who had military accomplishments in Ukraine and earlier in Africa. After the rebellion, he was portrayed as a traitor, a thug, and a dangerous criminal element. Despite the change in the official version, some military correspondents and bloggers continued to consider him a hero, so the version of a technical error is unpopular in their media environment.

Pryhozhyn was killed by Ukraine, it was a terrorist attack on Independence Day

“It’s definitely Ukraine that killed Pryhozhyn. For Putin, Yevhenii Pryhozhyn is no longer a problem. For Shoihu, Pryhozhyn is no longer a problem. Big bosses do not take revenge, because they have a lot of real problems and real enemies. This is a terrorist act of Ukraine on Independence Day”, Russian propagandists wrote.

The American Institute for the Study of War reported on its website that “Putin almost certainly ordered the Russian military command to shoot down Pryhozhyn’s plane”. Analysts believe that this is how Putin could have taken revenge on Pryhozhyn for the attempted mutiny that occurred at the end of June 2023.

By blaming Ukraine for the murder of Yevhenii Pryhozhyn, Russian propaganda is trying to shift its internal political problem outward, to shift the responsibility to another country. Like, Ukraine interferes in the internal affairs of Russia.

In Russia, Pryhozhyn was not given a promise that they would not be killed

Russian propagandists write: “It was necessary to sit in Africa or Belarus, where Lukashenko gave his security guarantees. Nobody in Russia promised him anything. Or rather, they promised to open all criminal cases and they did”.

This thesis allegedly removes responsibility for the death of the main “Wagner” from Russia. They say that Yevhenii Pryhozhyn himself is to blame for his death, because no one provided him with security guarantees in Russia - they were voiced by the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Lukashenko. In one of his interviews, Putin noted that he could forgive everything except betrayal. He adhered to his principles and punished treason. So, Putin in this situation is depicted as a “man of his word”.

Yevhenii Pryhozhyn did not die, but staged his own death 

The opinion that Yevhenii Pryhozhyn could have staged his own death was expressed both by pro-Kremlin political scientists and propagandists, and by so-called liberal journalists and experts in exile. “But in order to hide forever, taking one of the many spare passports, a burned-out plane is also a good excuse”, they wrote on social networks. 

Allegedly, the leader of “Wagner” was tired in the “service” and decided to leave everything and rest. However, this version is conspiracy theory and resembles a conspiracy theory, according to which Hitler did not commit suicide on April 30, 1945, but fled to Argentina and lived until the end of the twentieth century. Such mythologization only adds mysticism to the figure of Pryhozhyn, which in the eyes of fans makes him an even greater hero. 

Putin killed Pryhozhyn 

“Yevhenii Pryhozhyn, despite being an outspoken enemy of Ukraine in this war, stood out qualitatively against the backdrop of the lazy, stupid top of the Russian Federation”, write anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. But they add, speaking of the death of Pryhozhyn: “Today Putin could not cut his teeth, openly, or rudely, or like a man, but simply using resources that did not belong to him”. 

This opinion is shared by the “Wagner”, but they do not say directly who exactly they mean when talking about the death of Pryhozhyn. In the “Wagner” telegram channels they write: “He died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia. But even in hell he will be the best! A similar thesis is promoted by another Russian propagandist, hinting that Russia did not react properly to the death of two important military figures. In his telegram channel, he wrote: “We shot down a plane with two of those who have the stars of the Hero of Russia - and wait for official information, don’t be nervous”.  

According to this version, Putin could have eliminated Yevhenii Pryhozhyn because of the Wagner rebellion that began on the evening of June 23, 2023. The death of Yevhenii Pryhozhyn may be the beginning of the end of this structure as an independent organization. 

One of the Russian propagandists wrote about this in his telegram channel: “Putin cowardly destroyed not the Wagner group, but a brand that had been created for decades, terrified and was known all over the world”. 

Consequently, Putin is shown as a cunning politician with no honor, a man who does not keep his word, and his style of reprisal against political opponents - “kill in the toilet” - is unchanged. Having eliminated the war criminal Yevhenii Pryhozhyn in broad daylight, having done it defiantly, the Russian dictator also seeks to intimidate political rivals and the Russian elite. They say that everyone who goes against Putin will have a fate like that of Yevhenii Pryhozhyn. 

Yevhenii Pryhozhyn was killed by the intelligence services of other countries 

“Both the CIA and the Mi-6, and the French DGSE and the GUR could well pull off such a thing. The public assassination of one of the most media and influential public figures is a huge blow to the Russian collective unconscious”, wrote anonymous pro-Kremlin telegram channels. 

This version was put forward by Russian propagandists in order to discredit the West and divert attention from other versions and likely killers. Here Russian propaganda applied the tactic of reflection. The leader of the criminal organization is heroized by some propagandists and “Wagner”, romanticizing his “achievements”. 

A cult of personality was created from Pryhozhyn in Russia, but he is a criminal, and Putin saw him as a competitor who, by his actions, raises the vertical of power and violates the state's monopoly on violence.

In the Russian segment of Facebook, they distributed a screenshot of supposedly news from the Deutsche Welle website with the heading “Forced mobilization in Ukrainian regions controlled by Kyiv may be a special operation of the Kremlin”. They also write that such publications are an example of the work of “Western propaganda”, which is trying to whitewash Ukraine and shift responsibility to Russia. It's fake.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project drew attention to the case. The image has been specially edited to spread misinformation. In fact, there is no such publication either on the Russian version of the Deutsche Welle website or in other languages. The publication published only articles about forced mobilization in the territories occupied by Russia. Olesia Halkina is also listed as the author of the news, but the name of this person cannot be found in open sources.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the West and Western media that allegedly whitewash Ukraine. Like, they also distribute fakes in order to create an image of solid evil in Russia. Earlier, we talked about the manipulation that in Ukraine they created a military uniform for pregnant women in order to send them to the front.

Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric spread the information that the Russians carry out precision strikes exclusively on Ukrainian military installations, and do not attack social infrastructure and religious buildings. It is not true.

The fact-checkers of the Center for Strategic Communications drew attention to the case. The UNESCO international organization cites the following figures: as of July 20, 2023, experts have documented 270 cultural sites (temples, museums, historical buildings, monuments, libraries and archives) in Ukraine that suffered at the hands of the Russians. And the Institute for Religious Freedom said it had recorded the destruction, damage, or looting of at least 494 religious buildings.

On the night of July 23, as a result of Russian missile strikes on Odesa, the Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral and 2 architectural monuments were damaged and 6 residential buildings were destroyed.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to whitewash Russia, which is attacking Ukrainian cities. They say that their goal is exclusively military facilities, and the Russians allegedly do not commit war crimes against Ukrainians. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the message that Ukrainian officials allegedly pass off military facilities as civilian ones.

In the Italian segment of TikTok, a video is being circulated in which President Volodymyr Putin says that “he who organized and prepared the military rebellion, who raised arms against his comrades in arms, betrayed Russia”. The video is also overlaid with text stating that the CIA allegedly paid $6.2 billion “for the loyalty of the Wagner fighters” and this could allegedly lead to a civil war in Russia. It's fake.

The fact-checker of the Facta project drew attention to the case. There is no information in any foreign newspaper and among the official statements of the CIA that the CIA paid 6.2 billion dollars to the Wagner group. The leader of the Wagner mercenaries himself has been criticizing the Russian military leadership for several months.

In fact, weapons sent to Ukraine over the past two years have been inflated by $6.2 billion. The figure on the financing of the “Wagner” group follows from this news about military assistance to Ukraine. Moreover, it all started with the fact that several verified users of the popular Chinese social media platform Weibo announced this. The message circulated on Weibo actually mistranslated the title of the Los Angeles Times article from English to Chinese and contains a photo of a paramilitary group that is not actually in the US newspaper article.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the United States and state the involvement of Americans in the rebellion in Russia. Like, Russia is a victim of a conspiracy and illegal actions. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the message that Pryhozhyn's rebellion was allegedly planned in the West.

Anonymous users spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the Georgian segment of social networks claim that “no one has fired the Russian ambassador in Ukraine” and that he allegedly “still works in Kyiv”. These reports are a reaction to the decision of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to send the Georgian Ambassador to Tbilisi for additional consultations on the state of health of Mikheil Saakashvili. However, information on the Russian ambassador is unreliable.

The messages were noticed by MythDetector, the Georgian project. They emphasize that Ukraine severed diplomatic relations with Russia on February 24, 2022 due to Russian aggression against Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian authorities did not break off consular relations with Russia in order to protect the rights of Ukrainian citizens, including Ukrainian political prisoners who are still in Russia. In addition, on April 20, 2023, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitalii Klychko, terminated the agreement with the Russian Embassy on the lease of land and sent a request to the Cabinet of Ministers to return the embassy's land to Ukrainian ownership.

Project analysts also note that Russia has not had a full-fledged ambassador to Ukraine since 2016, since then this function has been performed by temporarily appointed persons. Until mid-February 2022, Oleksandr Lukashyk was acting as Chargé d'Affaires. After the termination of diplomatic relations, Volodymyr Zhehlov heads the embassy, but in his official position he is an adviser to the ambassador. Although he was presented with his credentials by Russian President Volodymyr Putin in August 2022, due to a break in diplomatic relations, Ukraine does not recognize him as an ambassador.

By spreading such disinformation, its authors want to destabilize the internal political situation in Georgia, cause skepticism about the sequence of actions of the Ukrainian authorities and aggravate the crisis in relations between Georgia and Ukraine.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that Xi Jinping declared his readiness to support Russia “in the course” of World War III. They say that the whole world helps Ukraine, but no one helps Russia. It needs help too. The authors add that Xi Jinping is sure how Russia will lead the “world order”. It's a lie.

Analysts of the VoxCheck project analyzed the case and found out that the quote was just made up. Xi Jinping didn't say that. Fact checkers verified the information using a Google search for keywords about support for Russia and World War III. They did not find such information in any authoritative publications.

Such a fake is part of the conspiracy theory that the Third World War is already ongoing or is about to begin. This is beneficial to Russian propaganda, in particular, to explain the duration and failures of the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine. Like, Russia is at war not only with Ukraine, but also with the “collective West”.

The thesis that Russia is trying to end the war that Ukraine started in 2014 was promoted by Putin at meetings with military corps. He stated that “we are not the aggressors, the aggressors are they [Ukrainians], but we are trying to end the war by force of arms”. However, such conclusions are unfounded.

Russian propaganda is systematically spreading the thesis that allegedly Ukraine unleashed a war back in 2014, began to conduct hostilities against itself, and subsequently refused to sit down at the negotiating table. Since 2014, Russian propagandists have used the tactics of substitution of concepts and talked about the “civil war” in Ukraine. Behind this term, Russia's participation in the hostilities in the East of Ukraine was hidden. Now the Russians are conducting a “special military operation” on the territory of Ukraine.

By spreading such messages, Russian propagandists are trying to justify their actions and shift the responsibility for them to the victim. Allegedly, Ukraine started the war in 2014, and Russia is now trying to stop it. However, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, started a war in the East and annexed Crimea. Earlier, Detector Media reported that a war broke out in Ukraine over the ban on the Russian language.

Propagandists are spreading materials on social networks with the message that during the Cold War the United States was the main democracy, and the Soviet Union was a totalitarian regime with expansion ambitions. However, with its completion, the opposite is now true - the United States has become a police state, and Russia has become a real democracy. Russian propaganda argues that US foreign policy is the main threat to world peace, global security and stability.

Analysts of the EUvsDisInfo project drew attention to the message. They argue that such messages are examples of the standard anti-Western narrative of Russian propaganda. It idealizes the observance of the freedoms and rights of Russian citizens. Project specialists note that hundreds of thousands of Russians migrated from the country in search of better guarantees for their rights and freedoms. The project also cites an article in Foreign Policy magazine, which believes that Russia's actions are exacerbating the decline of democracy even in Africa, as it ignores the rule of law and an independent judiciary in its activities on the continent.

Thus, the propagandists are trying to justify the war against Ukraine with the fact that Russia wants to spread “real democracy”. Like, the United States has long planned to attack Russia, because it is a real stronghold of democratic values. Therefore, Russia seems to have started the war - to protect itself from the threat to its security. However, the only threat to the security of the region and the world is the actions of Russia itself, namely the aggression against Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.

Propagandists are spreading the message that the United States lied about the leaks of the Kremlin's plans for the Baltic countries. They claim that the US did this to divert attention from leaking documents from the Pentagon. It is the States that allegedly catch up with russophobic hysteria in the Baltic countries.

Analysts of the EUvsDisinfo project drew attention to the message. They note that this is the reaction of propagandists to the investigation by LRT, Delfi Estonia, Expressen, Center Dossier, Kyiv Independent, NDR, Frontstory.pl, Suddeutsche Zeitung, VSquare, WDR, Yahoo News and Re: Baltica. The journalists of these media found out that Russian officials are planning to increase their influence in the Baltic countries through various strategies. The plans were created even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Resource analysts note that there is no evidence that the United States is behind the leak of information used in the investigation. In addition, in their opinion, there is no logical reason in the United States to divert attention from the showers of documents from the Pentagon, since the suspect in the case has already been arrested.

Thus, propagandists want to shift the responsibility for the crimes of the Russians to the “collective West”. They say that Ukraine is not enough for him, now he is “rocking” the Baltics too. In addition, Russian propaganda portrays the Baltic countries as “puppets of the West” using this message.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that the United States allegedly “allowed Ukraine to strike at new regions of Russia”. According to the authors of the message, this was stated by the White House coordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby. It is not true.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project investigated the case and found out what a statement from John Kirby was. White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby, in response to Russian President Volodymyr Putin's recent statement that “Western intelligence agencies” are involved in so-called “terrorist attacks” in Russia, said that the US does not “enable nor encourage" Ukrainians to strike outside the country.

Such a message appeared in the Kremlin propaganda media. Like, Russia is fighting not against Ukraine, but against NATO. The reports said that last year the Russian army was forced to fight on its own, fought against NATO, and it seems to have succeeded, because Ukraine and its allies will lose this fight. The authors of the reports argued that the United States is to blame for the war as a whole, thinking about the deployment of NATO forces in Ukraine. It seems to be part of Washington's plan to create a unipolar world without governments it doesn't like.

Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to the case. In general, the thesis that Russia is at war not with Ukraine, but with NATO and the countries of the West, is a recurring disinformation message. They say that Ukraine is a puppet of Washington, which seeks war, while Russia only fights against the “pagans”.

In fact, neither the US nor NATO is involved in the war in Ukraine. Kyiv does not fight on behalf of a foreign government or organization. Ukraine is acting in self-defense against Russian invasion, as enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter. Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically elected president and parliament.

Western countries only support Ukraine, providing both military and financial assistance for effective self-defense. However, Russia started the war against Ukraine and it destroys Ukrainian cities and villages, kills civilians, etc.

With the help of such messages, Russia is trying to shift the responsibility for what is happening to the countries of the West, to NATO. Read more about how Russia justifies the war in the Detector Media investigation.

Russian media and officials are spreading reports according to which French President Emanuel Macron allegedly admitted that he wanted to “overthrow” the government in Russia. Propagandists are sure that he said this during the Munich security conference.

Analysts of the StopFake project drew attention to this message. They analyzed Macron's speech at the Forum and found out that he did not say this. In fact, he emphasized that regime change in Russia seemed to him an unrealistic idea, since the previous experience of regime change in other countries, in his opinion, did not bring an effective result. At the end of his speech, Macron said that he did not understand who the next leader of the regime would be and how to do it.

Thus, Russia again wants to shift the responsibility for its failures to “external forces”. In addition, propagandists often resort to conspiracy theories and in this case we are talking about the theory in which the West wants a power coup in Russia, knocking the country off a successful course. However, this is how the Russian government is trying to make up for its failures, namely the demographic crisis, terrible poverty and the absence of a number of freedoms.

Russian media are spreading the message that Ukrainian President Zelenskyi and Moldovan President Sandu have conspired to escalate the situation in Transnistria. Propagandists claim that it is they who are trying to provoke Tiraspol to aggression, and it is for this that Maia Sandu wants Moldova to join NATO. In addition, the Russian media are convinced that the ex-Prime Minister of Moldova was replaced precisely at the direction of the US State Department and Zelenskyi.

Analysts of the EUvsDisInfo project drew attention to the message. They note that the pro-Kremlin media continue to perceive Moldova as part of the sphere of Russian influence. With this in mind, they are spreading narratives that criticize the current pro-Western government of Moldova. In particular, Russia accuses the Moldovan government of ending the dialogue with Russia on the discount on gas supplies, as well as supporting Ukraine. Last July, President Sanda announced her intentions to strengthen Moldova's combat capability while maintaining neutrality.

Thus, the Russian propaganda wants to destabilize the situation in Moldova in order to use it to escalate the situation in Transnistria. Also, because of such messages, propagandists want to convince Ukrainians that even the closest allies have turned their backs on Ukraine, but reality proves the opposite.

Russian propaganda spreads the message to a foreign audience that before the start of a full-scale invasion, there were no Russian military personnel on the territory of Ukraine. Like, before the start of the special operation, Russia did not offer military assistance to Donbas. But Moscow noticed the militarization of Ukraine and the mood for a forceful resolution of the conflict. EU vs Disinfo analysts drew attention to the spread of the message.

This narrative is not new. It has been periodically distributed since 2014, when Russia seized Crimea and part of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. A new round of its distribution should once again present Russia as a victim of the “collective West” and emphasize to the Russian audience that “the motherland is in danger - it must be defended”. Russia systematically uses the tactics of substitution of concepts to distort reality and advance its own interests.

Viktor Medvedchuk, a former deputy of the pro-Russian OPZzh (Opposition platform — for life) party, whom Ukraine accuses of treason and deprived of citizenship, published an article in the Russian media Izvestiia (News) about the “anatomy” of the modern military confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, as well as about the role of the West in this war. In order to prove the “guilt of the West” in the destruction of the Soviet Union, he used a fictitious quote from former United States President Bill Clinton. Insider drew attention to this.

“Using the mistakes of Soviet diplomacy, the extreme self-confidence of Horbachov and his entourage, including those who openly took a pro-American position, we achieved what President Truman was going to do with the Soviet Union with the help of an atomic bomb”, Medvedchuk quotes Clinton in the article. But, as the checkers found out, the quote allegedly belonging to Clinton was published both in Russian and in English only on Russian resources, for example, on the pages of users on Vkontakte. And also in one of the Russian history textbooks for history teachers, which contains a lot of fakes, propaganda, errors and unproven facts. Secondly, the quote appears to have been taken from Bill Clinton's speech at the meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on October 24, 1995 - but the fact checkers found no evidence that Clinton spoke or even attended this meeting. There is also no quote or mention of this speech in the English-language media or historical articles about Bill Clinton.

We recall that in his article Medvedchuk promotes a lot of disinformation messages that reproduce the position of Russian propaganda. Detector Media has prepared a selection of them.

The Russian military command created a special document for propagandists to cover the events of the war against Ukraine. Now they should praise Serhii Shoihu and not mention the Wagner group.

The document was analyzed by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

General recommendations contain eleven points, the main content of which is:

1) Orientation to information exclusively from sources agreed by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation;

2) Emphasizing in informational materials and comments of “independent” experts on the leading and positive role personally of Serhii Shoihu and Valerii Herasymov;

3) Justifying strikes on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure, referring to the “forcedness” of such actions;

4) Emphasizing the theme of providing Ukraine with Western weapons. In this sense, it is especially recommended to focus on the fact that “Russia is conducting a military operation not against Ukraine, but against the entire NATO”;

5) Refusal to mention the Wagner military group in a positive context. Emphasizing excessive human losses and Wagner meaningless attacks;

6) Tracking and citing publications in foreign media about the successes of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the failure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It is proposed to focus particular attention on the statements of Western and Ukrainian politicians, which can be interpreted in a similar vein.

As explained in the Main Intelligence Directorate, the document indicates a fundamental change in emphasis on covering the course of events in the war against Ukraine and the aggravation of the political struggle within Russia.

Pro-Russian and propaganda telegram channels write that the 56th US ex-secretary of State argues that Ukraine should be left alone and not be included into any institutions and organizations such as the EU and NATO. Like, if Ukraine joined NATO, the borders of the North Atlantic Alliance would be within 500 kilometers from Moscow. Propagandists say that then Russia will experience a constant threat and danger from NATO.

Such a message is distributed through social networks and hostile telegram channels. It says that Russia is defeating Ukraine, and this was even noted in the United States. Allegedly, the United States is convinced that Ukraine will lose. As evidence, propagandists refer to the material of the Reuters news agency, in which they allegedly talked about this. However, this is not true.

In fact, as StopFake experts say, the US Department of Defense did not note the total success of Russia, and even in some areas. However, it is true that the latest briefings by the US Department of Defense said that although heavy fighting is underway for Bakhmut, Ukraine continues to hold the city. Consequently, the United States did not recognize the actions of the Russian troops as completely successful.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. Like, censorship has become the main tool of power for concealment of corruption, criminal orders or command errors. It seems that the situation with the shelling clearly demonstrated this - the Ukrainian authorities are “rejoicing” at the shelling of Makiyivka, but they are silent about Druzhkivka.

In the Russian information space and pro-Russian telegram channels, they are discussing the attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Makiyivka at midnight on January 1, as a result of which up to 10 units of enemy military equipment of various types were destroyed. Also, according to preliminary data, it was the death of about 400 Russian servicemen and about 300 more wounded. According to the latest reports, the Russian General Staff acknowledged the death of only 89 soldiers.

Russian propaganda depicts the dead military as “innocently killed” and calls for revenge on Ukraine for the death of “sons and men”. At the time of death, the armed Russian military were in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and were directly involved in the war against Ukraine. That is, according to international law, they were a legitimate target for the Ukrainian army, defending its territory and its people.

Despite the fact that Russia started a war against Ukraine, Russian propaganda systematically spreads messages about revenge on Ukraine for any successful military actions and denies the right of Ukrainians to defend their state.

Photos of new Russian tanks, which are placed in a special hangar, are being circulated on social networks. In the comments to the photo, they scoff, saying that “Russia has run out of tanks” and praise the military might of Russia.

However, this photo is old. It was made in October 2012 during Volodymyr Putin's visit to the “Uralvagonzavod”, an enterprise for the repair of military vehicles and the production of military tanks, located in Nizhnyi Tagil. Fact-checkers of the Delfi project found the original source of the image - an article by the Russian portal “Kommersant”, its author is Dmytro Azarov, the photographer of this publication. The photo has nothing to do with current events and does not reflect the real state of affairs with the equipment of the Russian army.

Pro-Russian telegram channels write that the Americans are allegedly satisfied with the state of affairs in Ukraine, in particular, the course of the war. Like, the Americans understand that statistically there are four times more Russians than Ukrainians, but they “like everything”.

To promote the message, the Russian propaganda took the words of US Senator Lindsey Graham out of context. Graham said that he likes the way the United States is now supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia and this is very important. It was about the fact that US assistance allows Ukraine not to give up. The propagandists are shifting the focus to the literal perception of Graham's words about “struggle to the last Ukrainian” and manipulate the reference to statistics.

Pro-Russian telegram channels are spreading the news about the attack on the priest of the Moscow Patriarchate Church in the Vinnytsia region and accusing the “politics” of Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the “tacit consent” of Ukrainian society with it.

Russian propaganda is using reports of an attack on Archpriest Antonii Kovtoniuk to promote a disinformation message about the “persecution” of the Moscow Patriarchate church in Ukraine. There is no official information about the motives of the attacker yet - an investigation is underway. Propagandists are trying to give greater significance and “systematicity" to a single crime, so they write about “attacks in temples”.

The Kremlin sent the Russian media a methodology on how to write about the results of 2022. According to Meduza, the first thing the Russian media should do is emphasize that Volodymyr Putin, by unleashing the war, was saving Russia from an attack by NATO and Ukraine. There is also the thesis that since 2014, Western countries have been going to “divide and conquer the Russian people”. The war, that is, the “special operation”, should be called successful, and an example of achieving goals is “increase in lands”, that is, occupied territories. The methodology does not mention defeats at the front.

The document is divided into four parts: “Main”, “Strengthening of Russia”, “SVO” (Special military operation) and “New World Order”. In the “Strengthening Russia” section, it is recommended to write about how high Putin’s rating is and about the “unconditional support of the special operation” by the Russians. The “New World Order” section says that the media should talk about Russia as “leaders of countries” who “do not recognize the exclusivity of the West” and call it “the leader of a just, democratic and multipolar world”. At the same time, Putin “gives Europe a chance to come to its senses” and stop “being a US vassal”.

These are all the most common theses of Russian disinformation of the last 10 months. Propaganda is constantly trying to convince the Russians and the anti-NATO world to justify the defeats inflicted on them by the Ukrainian army. Propaganda also claims that Putin's rating is growing, and all Russians support the war, but the real picture, even from studies of Russian-controlled sociological services, is different: Putin's rating is falling, the number of supporters of the war is decreasing. In world politics, Russia is now as far from “leading positions” as its closest partners - Syria, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. And thanks to the sanctions imposed against Russia by dozens of countries around the world, it is becoming increasingly dependent on really influential countries, primarily China.