Almost every day since the beginning of the war, Russian officials shout from the stands that the West is "pumping" Ukraine with heavy weapons.

The last such statement was made on October 5 - the Russian ambassador to the USA said that the "decision to prolong the pumping of Kyiv" with heavy weapons makes the USA a party to the conflict. Interestingly, at the same time as this statement, a study by The Wall Street Journal was published, which indicated that the number of weapons left by the Russians during the last "regroupings" now makes Moscow the largest supplier of heavy weapons to Ukraine.

For example, the West supplied Ukraine with 320 tanks - and Russia kept 460; The West provided 210 BMPs, and Russia - 448. Moreover, there are even 40 units of missile systems, while Western supplies provide 70 units.

However, the researchers write, not all equipment is caught on video, so the real number of Russian (working) weapons may be more.

Russian media and pro-Russian Telegram channels write it regarding the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmytro Peskov.

They said that there is no final decision on the extent to which the region will be "joined" to Russia, so the opinion of the residents will be asked. It is manipulation.

Before the illegal pseudo-referendums, the collaborator Rogov said that the Zaporizhzhia region would "join" Russia within the current administrative borders. Moreover, the Russian media deliberately coined the term "territories occupied by Kyiv", which is a technology for replacing concepts. Carrying out the so-called "expression of will" in violation of legal norms and "under the muzzles of machine guns" shows that Russia is not interested in what the residents of the temporarily occupied territories want. The situation at the front changes daily, so propagandists manipulate and leave room for an information retreat.

There can be no question of "joining" the temporarily occupied territories to Russia. According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the decision on territorial integrity is made exclusively by the citizens of Ukraine in an all-Ukrainian referendum.

Russian propaganda tries in every way to justify the occupation of Ukrainian territories. To do this, they create the illusion of support for their actions by the residents of the occupied territories. They previously wrote that the turnout for the pseudo-referendum in the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region "exceeded 50%." Foreign "observers" also allegedly confirmed the "transparency" of Russian pseudo-referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

It was prepared in the administration of the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, reports the publication "Meduza", which received such a method from its sources.

According to "Meduza", the document states that Russia won wars "only in the whole world" and only when Russians believed in "people's war".

The mass media should convey the main thesis that "the people of Russia should unite before the threat of NATO." The Kremlin claims that the alliance intends to "dismember and rob" Russia. Therefore, it is forbidden to "put the entire burden of responsibility on the contractors and the people's militia of Donbas."

The manuals contain information that Russia is supposedly at war not with Ukraine, but with NATO. Therefore, by conveying such theses to ordinary Russians, it is planned to reduce the level of dissatisfaction with mobilization.

Obviously, the methods didn`t work. According to British intelligence, Putin's quick recognition of mobilization problems in Russia shows its ineffectiveness.

he Italian newspaper "La Repubblica" wrote about it, referring to the NATO intelligence report. The information was picked up by other foreign and some Ukrainian media. The Center for Combating Disinformation stated that it is not true.

According to the monitoring of the CPD:

As of October 3, 2022, such information has not been published on the NATO website.

NATO has regularly recorded the activity of Russian submarines since the Cold War. The Alliance made statements about the modernization of navigation systems and armament of Russian submarines as early as 2016. The Center emphasizes that such unsubstantiated statements by the media only increase Russia's information terrorism. Even Russian propagandists, who willingly spread the news about the training of strategic nuclear forces, this time cautiously quoted the newspaper "La Repubblica" and believe that the probability of the actual use of such weapons is quite small.

Anonymous Telegram channels promote the thesis that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is the return of territories, not the liberation of people.

For example, the Ukrainian military scares residents with death who do not meet them with flags and pancakes. Moreover, they also do not let people go into the territory occupied by Russia, shooting cars on the road.

Propagandists began to actively reproduce these thoughts after the SSU discovered a convoy of cars shelled by the Russians in the so-called "gray zone" in the Kharkiv region, where 20 people died, including 10 children, as well as after a convoy of cars was shot by Russian missiles in Zaporizhzhia, where were mostly locals who transported humanitarian aid to their relatives in the occupied territory.

People with different views remained alive in the liberated Ukrainian military towns and villages: some were waiting for the Ukrainian army, and others wanted to return to the USSR and spoke favorably of the Russian occupiers. However, no one from the military or SSU persecuted them, moreover, no one threatened them with death for their views. For example, in liberated Izyum, some Ukrainians with pro-Russian views freely gave interviews to Ukrainian journalists, and no one threatened them with violence or harm.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, pro-Russian telegram channels spread information about holding a large-scale "holiday concert" on the occasion of the completion of the "people's will" in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions and their reunification with Russia. The concert is scheduled for September 30th.

However, in order to create a picture of “enthusiastic” spectators who will publicly “rejoice” at the occupation, the Russians will use the “administrative resource” - the lists of spectators are pre-approved, and attendance at the “celebration” is mandatory. Also, according to the results of the "celebration", men will be granted a respite from mobilization.

Thus, the Kremlin propaganda is trying to impose on the world community the illusion of popular approval of the occupation of the sovereign territories of Ukraine and to legitimize it. In a similar way, Russian propaganda tried to convince that in Kupiansk they rejoiced at the occupation and celebrated the Day of the Russian flag, while temporarily occupied Mariupol allegedly celebrated the Day of the Metallurgist.

Such messages are distributed in pro-Russian telegram channels. In particular, this was stated by propagandist Anatolii Sharii whose party is banned in Ukraine. This is manipulation.

Sharii noted that on the video of the rallies in Russia, he did not see a single person falling under the announced mobilization. In his opinion, there are no such rallies in Ukraine, otherwise all those present would have been given draft notices randomly.

In fact, since the 21st of September, just in Russia at rallies against mobilization the police disperse and beat the protesters and shoot. Already on the first day of protests in different cities of Russia at least 1,176 people were detained. The detainees are handed draft notices to the military enlistment office, the Russian service of the BBC reports.

There are many women among the protesters, they come out with posters “No to war!” and “Our children are not fertilizer!”.

In addition, military registration and enlistment offices were set on fire in several regions of Russia. In the military registration and enlistment office of the Irkutsk region of the Russian Federation, the head of the draft commission was shot.

At the same time, rallies were also held in different cities of Ukraine, at which participants demanded the return of prisoners of war who had not yet been released from Russian prisons. No arrests were recorded at rallies in Ukraine, there is no evidence that any of the protesters were handed draft notices.

Russian propaganda has begun circulating TikTok videos in various languages that make fun of the energy crisis. This was reported by the Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council in Telegram.

A video appeared on social networks about a frozen hero who decided to add heat to his home, but the police rushed to him. At the same time, videos of the opposite content with the gas or hot water turned on are being distributed in Russian on TikTok.

“Thus, Rospropaganda is trying to influence the audience over the age of 18. Instead of the traditional intimidation, Russian propaganda is trying to create the impression that supposedly Russia is the only energy independent and rich country”, the message adds.

In fact, the share of Russian energy carriers in the world market is less than 10%.

Analysts emphasize that with the onset of the heating season, Russia will only increase the energy blackmail of the population. Note that earlier Russian propaganda in the context of messages about the gas crisis in Europe always mentioned sanctions against Russia. Now the Russians are spreading the thesis that Russia is the only country where you can keep warm in winter and not save on electricity and hot water.

With the onset of a full-scale invasion, the message that the West would suffer from a shortage of energy resources took on a special dimension. Such reports say that Europe is playing with Russia and does not even imagine what kind of crisis awaits Europeans: winter is coming very soon. However, the propagandists are only trying to intimidate the Europeans and promote the narrative of the failed West.

According to the Center for Counteracting Disinformation, RT international, the main mouthpiece of Russian propaganda, has launched a disinformation campaign about the consequences of the alleged energy crisis for Europe.

Active participants in various shows on RT international are promoting messages that the United States is killing Europe, since it is beneficial for them that the West refuses Russian gas. Also, allegedly the United States is indifferent to the problems of the West, but only focused on Ukraine. This all leads to the same narrative that Europe will not survive this year’s winter.

The disinformation campaign aims to undermine Ukraine’s authority on the international stage by isolating it, as well as to reduce assistance from partner countries.

Russian propaganda convinces of this. But this is not the case at all, the Center for Strategic Communications notes.

In fact, Ukrainians are:

going to rallies en masse,

cooperating with the Armed Forces,

fighting the invaders on their own,

In particular, about the fact that explosions in military warehouses are the work of Ukrainian saboteurs who have not yet been apprehended.

A reminder is that on the morning of August 16, an ammunition depot broke out in Crimea near the village of Azovske, Dzhankoi district, a fire broke out at a transformer station in Dzhankoi, and explosions were heard at an air base in the Simferopol district.

The Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine named the main points of the propagandists' comments:

- the main enemy of the Russian Federation is the negligence of the military: the composition of weapons and equipment in general view in the open air without disguise;

- among the Crimeans there are many who sympathize with the Ukrainian regime - it's time to identify and get rid of the "Bandera agents" and sympathizers;

- anti-terrorist measures should begin in Crimea: checkpoints, a ban on the use of drones, personnel purges.

The CPI noted that the emphasis by propagandists on the problem of saboteurs gives the green light to an increase in the number of FSB officers, increased checks on roads in order to search for “sleeping agents of the SBU” and identify pro-Ukrainian Crimeans.

The information that Serhiy Shnurov visited the city of Irmino in the Luhansk Region was spread by the Russian propaganda media with reference to the Russian actor Georgy Bolonyev. Later, a photo in which Shnurov is allegedly in Luhansk Oblast also appeared on the pages of Ukrainian online media. However, this is not true.

The photo turned out to be a fake. Shnurov accused Russian propagandists of having photoshopped his old photo into a picture with Prigozhin and Bolognev. Pro-government Russian media also denied the fake, referring to the words of Shnurov's press secretary Serhii Guguchkin. Like, the singer is currently in Turkey and taking part in a corporate event. Later, Bolonev published other attempts of the same photo on the Russian social network Vkontakte and wrote that Shnurov is being confused with the Russian actor Sergei Garusov. And this is done not only by readers of social networks, but also by residents of occupied Stakhanov who saw Harusov in person.

"Media Detector'' checked the photo. It is impossible to establish the author and the location of the shooting, as metadata about who created the image is erased in social networks. Reverse search of the original image on the Internet through search engines and the TinEye extension is not convincing due to the clutter of image reposts. However, analyzing the image in the InVid application shows traces of editing. Especially, the right part of the image, where Shnurov is supposed to be. This shows that Shnurov is not really in the photo from Irmina. Harusov is only three centimeters shorter than Shnurov, this difference can be muffled by a hat, higher shoes or lifting on the toes. So, they could really be "confused".

The use of photos of celebrities who were not actually in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories is a novelty for Russian propagandists. Previously, they published news about stars who really visited the occupied territories for, apparently, ideological reasons.

Russian media write about this with reference to the online magazine The Federalist article "As Ukrainians Defect To Russia, We Should Ask Whether Our Billions Are Saving Democracy Or Aiding Corruption".

The Federalist publication consists of a series of manipulative theses, which ultimately build a propaganda message about the civil war in Ukraine.

Since 2014, Kremlin propaganda through some American and Western journalists has been actively trying to impose the opinion of the internal confrontation between the Ukrainian citizens, the "civil war" in Donbas, and the "genocide of Russian speakers".

According to a May survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on the perception of the Russian-Ukrainian war among Ukrainian citizens, only 1% of Ukrainians have a "predominantly pro-Russian position". Another KIIS survey, also conducted in May, showed that only 2% of Ukrainian citizens have a good attitude towards Russia, while 92% have a bad attitude. More details.

Russian propagandists write about this with reference to Western media. Apparently, Ukraine does not expect to receive a sufficient amount of foreign weapons, and therefore does not have the opportunity and does not plan counterattacks on any part of the front. As evidence, the Kremlin media manipulates the materials of the Western media. But, it is not so.

The Meduza publication reported that the Kremlin had developed a manual for Russian propagandists by August 1. On this day in 1914, Germany declared war on the Russian Empire.

The authors of the manual say that the West constantly "draws" Russia into military confrontations, and Russia always participates in conflicts to protect "brotherly nations". According to Kremlin, in 1914, Russia "could not leave Serbia to its own devices."

The Kremlin calls the war in Ukraine "the modern Ukrainian crisis." Russian media should also tell their audience that after 2014, the West decided to "sponsor" in Ukraine "the raising of several generations of people who hate Russia and are ready to kill Russians with the help of xenophobic ideology and Russophobia."

A separate section of the manual deals with "Western interference" in Russia's internal affairs. Allegedly, the West sponsored the Bolsheviks and the events of 1917. Now, according to the manual, the West "finances non-systemic opposition, protest movements, and anti-Russian mass media."

It is also alleged that an "anti-American trend" will soon develop, so the United States "will not be able to find not only military Allie but even serious trade partners." The reasons for the spread of the "trend" are not reported.

This was reported by the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova. Quotations from her briefing were published by the Russian media. According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, this shows that the Kremlin is afraid of an official decision and therefore resorts to direct threats. The Kremlin is also trying to shift the responsibility for such messages to the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is threatening or publicly insulting other countries on TV, not for the first time. The Russian top leadership has so far refrained from public statements on this topic. The recognition of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism further isolates it from the civilized world.

According to the wife of the President of Ireland, the Kremlin media write that "the conflict in Ukraine will continue until Moscow and Kyiv agree on a ceasefire." Through the ex-chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schröder, the Kremlin is trying to inform Western society that Russia is ready to sit down at the negotiating table. This is manipulation.

It was reported by the Russian media with reference to the Russian Minister of Defense Serhii Shoigu. It is not true.

Pentagon Press Secretary Todd Breasseale called Shoigu's message false and said that the Ukrainians "use with striking accuracy and efficiency every high-precision missile system that the United States and partners have provided to defend against the brutal criminal Russia invasion." The commander Andriy Kovalchuk also confirmed that the Russian invaders did not manage to destroy a single HIMARS system. At the beginning of August, the number of HIMARS in service with the Ukrainian military officially reached sixteen systems, and shortly there should be twenty-two of them. The publication Texty.org.ua writes about this in more detail.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry said this at the UN conference. Allegedly, as a result of such actions against Russia, the situation in world strategic stability is rapidly deteriorating.

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:

More details in the study.

Russian propagandists continue to talk about Russia's invincibility in the war, including because of its economic power. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security writes that Russia is a mediocre player in the international market. In particular, more than 75% of Russian exports are raw materials, more than 53% are energy carriers, and only 8% are high-tech products. A raw economy is a feature of a colony, not an empire, the Center summarizes.

 “The Meduza” reports that it has received from its sources two manuals developed in the Kremlin for Russian propagandists and public figures. According to them, the basis of "Russian civilization" was the Orthodox faith, which teaches compassion, love of neighbor and, patience with others. "Special operation" should be compared with the Christening of Russ, and Putin with Alexander Nevsky. The manual’ authors write that the Christening of Russ, as well as the war in Ukraine, lay the "national foundations" as well as "the foundations of the Russia development for the next century." Allegedly, this is due to the "unification of society around the army and the strategic course of the president", and Russia's mission is "to protect the oppressed". One of the goals of the special operation is the "war against the godless," who "use women and children as human shields." They are characterized as "rapists, robbers and, murderers." The Kremlin proposes to use such theses to describe the Ukrainian military. He said, "there is no morality" for them, because most of them are "open Satanists and followers of philanthropic cults." The war was started by "the collective West, which is confident in its rationalism". Propagandists are recommended to use the alleged words of Alexander Nevsky that there is strength in the truth. However, Russian soldiers are convinced of their rightness, because they are continuing the work of their grandfathers - destroying Nazism. As a matter of fact, the theses about love for neighbor and tolerance proposed by the manuals are nullified by the atrocities of Russian soldiers in the occupied territories. Russia accuses Ukrainians and the whole world of Nazism, ignoring the fact that the Russians are the closest to Nazism today. More details. 

Russian propagandists spread such messages by using, in particular, a quote from the American economist Jeffrey Sachs, who has pro-Russian views.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, the Kremlin media took the words of former US military officer Murphy Donovan out of context and spread false reports that the population of Odesa will come under Russian control on its own. Donovan's article generally talks about the importance of Odesa for Ukraine.

 Facebook users told about the mailing. The reports say that allegedly Ukrainian politicians short-sightedly hand over national interests to Poland, and Poles "do not consider us as people, they are Polonizing and will soon "take away" the western regions". They are also trying to convince Ukrainians that "Ukrainian children will be stolen and turned into Poles"; the "absorption of Ukrainians by the Polish nation" is taking place; "our children will not remain Ukrainian in Polish schools"; it is already allegedly about a "Ukrainian-Polish federation or confederation, and in Poland, Ukrainians are increasingly not welcome." It is also alleged that ordinary Poles harass volunteers who collect money for Ukrainian refugees and want to return the western regions of Ukraine under their control, telling at their official events that Lviv is a Polish city." Bandera and the Volyn tragedy are also mentioned in the reports.

In the posts, topics and messages that affect the reader's emotional state are deliberately used. Messages are sent from Russian numbers. Subscribers with the numbers +7 (950) 869-0734 and +7 (908) 186-7552 are served by the operator T2 Mobile in the Rostov region of Russia. In this way, the Russians are once again trying to destroy friendly relations between Ukrainians and Poles and discredit Poland's assistance to Ukraine during the war. 

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."