Anonymous telegram channels and Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric report that Russian Defense Minister Serhii Shoihu said in an interview that “if the United States supplies Ukraine with cluster munitions, the Armed Forces of Russian Federation will be forced to use similar weapons”. This is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the Center for Strategic Communications investigated this case. In May 2022, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch published a report stating that the Russians use at least 6 types of cluster munitions in Ukraine. Russia bombarded Kharkiv, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and other cities with them. On April 8, 2022, the Russians used a Tochka-U ballistic missile with a cluster warhead and struck it at the Kramatorsk railway station. Then 54 adults and 7 children died.

Thus, Russian propagandists transfer responsibility for Russia's crimes to Ukraine and expose themselves as a constant victim of “aggression”. Like, Ukraine attacks first, so Russia will have to use cluster munitions in return. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the message that Ukraine is making fake attacks on nuclear facilities in order to discredit Russian troops.

This thesis was circulated in social networks, in particular on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that it was actually the Kakhovka HPP that suffered at the hands of the Ukrainian military. Like, they destroyed the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant with their missiles. The propagandists also attach photo evidence of the surviving power plant from the turbine hall of the Kakhovka HPP. According to the conclusions of the authors, this proves that the alleged explosion occurred from outside. They also add that international organizations are aware of this, but are silent in favor of Ukraine.

The fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project worked on the case, and found out that the circulated photo shows only a part of the surviving machine room of the Kakhovka HPP. The other part is completely destroyed. This does not prove that the Kakhovka HPP was destroyed from outside. Fact-checkers showed a photo of the turbine hall before the destruction of the hydroelectric power station and found out that it is much larger than the propagandists showed. In addition, the thesis about the destruction of the hydroelectric power plant by Ukrainians is not true. Earlier, the chief project engineer of the Ukrhydroproject Institute, Mykola Kalinin, explained that the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was indeed designed and built so that it could withstand a blow from outside. He further emphasized that the dam was built so that it could withstand any blow from the outside, but not from the inside. He thinks it was several simultaneous explosions from within. That is, the hydroelectric power station was mined from the inside of the building itself and the entire complex.

Russian troops seized the Kakhovka HPP on February 24, 2022 and used the station as a military facility. Ukrainian troops did not have direct access to the dam. The New York Times also provides evidence of the destruction of Russia's hydroelectric power plant. This is indicated by the access to the dam by the Russian military and the presence of engineering drawings of the hydroelectric power plant from the Soviet times of the construction of the structure.

Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric spread information that on June 27, the Russian military launched a missile attack on the residence of “NATO instructors” in Kramatorsk. It is not true.

According to experts from the Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, the Russians fired Iskander missiles at a café where there were a large number of civilians. The mayor of the city, Oleksandr Honcharenko, said that as of June 28, 11 people had died as a result of the strike, including three children.

Thus, propagandists are trying to shift the responsibility for yet another terrorist attack committed by the Russians onto the victim, that is, Ukraine. The Russians are also trying to prove that they “do not strike at civilian infrastructure”. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the exposure of how the Russians are spreading information that Ukraine is allegedly creating a “dirty nuclear bomb”.

This thesis was spread on social networks, in particular on anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. After the start of the “military operation”, the Ukrainian leadership urged young people and children to flee the war to Europe, reports say. Allegedly, there they can find shelter or guardians. According to the authors of the messages, now the Europeans use young people as labor force, and they are in no hurry to return the children to their native lands.

Fact-checkers EU vs Disinfo took up this case and explained that Europe does not “abduct” Ukrainian children, but on the contrary, it helps to adapt to a new environment, provides resources for learning and a quiet life. All Ukrainians who fled the war can receive refugee status. Both children and families. European countries provide asylum, but people can return at any time without restrictions on movement. That is, the EU is not engaged in either “deportation” or “kidnapping”.

But Russia is vice versa deporting Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories. It calls it salvation, but this is only a substitution of concepts. On March 15, 2023, UN international experts published a report containing the results of the investigation into Russian aggression against Ukraine. The report contains war crimes committed by the Russian occupiers. A separate block of the UN report is devoted to the results of the investigation into the forced displacement and deportation of Ukrainian children by Russian occupiers. That is, this is indeed a war crime, which is why the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, children are taken out not only from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but also from other occupied territories of Ukraine. In particular, children were taken out of Kherson. As of December 29, 2022, 13,876 Ukrainian children are known to have been expelled by Russia. Ukraine regards such actions as the abduction of its citizens. Analysts of Detector Media conducted their own investigation on how Russia justifies deportation and other war crimes in Ukraine. You can read it here.

In a propaganda TV report, the Russians told fake news about the “shelling of Donbas by Ukrainians”, where they showed footage of a destroyed house in Uman. Allegedly, “Ukrainian militants” are once again shelling the Donbas and Luhansk region. According to the authors, the AFU shelled the town of Yasynuvata and two villages: Nikolske and Yakovlivka. Moreover, they note that during the massive shelling, Ukraine allegedly fired more than 20 missiles.

Journalists of “Ukrainska Pravda” (Ukrainian Truth) drew attention to this, referring to the material of the “Nastoiashcheie Vriema” (Current Time) project - created on the initiative of Radio Svoboda (Liberty) and Voice of America. Actually, in the footage in the propaganda story, there is no shelling of Donetsk, but the consequences of the shelling of a residential building in Uman. The authors stole the video from the telegram channel of the press service of the State Emergency Service. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ihor Klimenko, said that the occupiers hit with a Kh-101 missile. As a result, a whole entrance collapsed, where 109 people were registered. 27 apartments were completely destroyed. More than 33 cars were also burned or damaged.

At the end of April 29, the search and rescue operation was completed. The press service of the State Emergency Service reported that as a result of striking at a multi-storey building, 23 people died, including 6 children. 19 people were injured, and 17 were rescued from the debris.

Russian propaganda media disseminate information that they are allegedly going to “seize and destroy nuclear power plants located on the territory of the Russian Federation” in Kyiv. Such a statement was allegedly made by Serhii Kryvonos, the former deputy commander of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the air of Channel 5. It's fake.

The case was noticed by specialists from the StopFake project. In fact, on Channel 5 a major general Serhii Kryvonos answered a journalist’s questions about the Zaporizhzhia NPP and said that the Russians also have NPPs, “perhaps it’s even easier not to liberate the Zaporizhzhia NPP, but to seize the NPP or disable the NPP on the territory of the Russian Federation”. Serhii Kryvonos acted as a military expert, is now out of service and does not represent the official position of the Ukrainian army. And the pro-Kremlin media presented his considerations as the official position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the announcement of the attacks although this was not about it.

Thus, the Russian propaganda is trying to show that Ukraine is an aggressor country and it threatens the security of the whole world, but not Russia. Earlier, Detector Media denied the fake that Ukraine “refused to create a protective zone around the Zaporizhzhia NPP”.

Propagandists are spreading a quote from a Polish deputy from the Confederation party, Janusz Korwin-Mikke. He claims that Ukraine does not want to create a commission to investigate the tragedy in Bucha, hinting that the events in Bucha were staged. It is not true.

Analysts of the Polish project Demagog drew attention to the quote. They found out that this is not the first statement of the deputy on the subject of Bucha. In particular, earlier he said that the Ukrainian military is responsible for the tragedy in Bucha. In addition, an Investigative Commission on crimes in Ukraine (including the events in Bucha) was created on March 4 last year at the initiative of Ukraine. Then the Commission concluded that the Russian armed forces killed civilians in 17 settlements of the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Sumy regions with the largest number of victims in the Kyiv region (in particular, in Bucha). In June 2022, Commission Chairman Eric Moese stated that the Russian military had committed these war crimes.

In addition, in February 2022, Ukraine initiated the creation of an international group responsible for collecting materials on crimes committed by Russians on its territory. The initiative was joined by Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania, the USA, the International Criminal Court and the Eurojust, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation. Within the framework of the Eurojust, the ​​International Centre for Prosecution of the crime of Aggression (ICPA) was created, which collects evidence to bring perpetrators of crimes to justice.

In addition, at the end of March this year, Ukraine hosted the Bucha Summit, which was convened to strengthen international cooperation in the investigation of the tragedy. As a result of the meeting, the Bucha Declaration was created on strengthening responsibility for crimes committed against Ukraine.

Using such statements, politicians from different countries want to shift the responsibility for the actions of the aggressor onto the victim of aggression. This is skillfully used by propagandists, spreading narratives that the tragedy in Bucha is a staging.

Such information appeared in the Polish segment of social networks, in particular, on Twitter. Reports say that Ukraine itself is to blame for war crimes, because it did not “initiate the creation of an international commission to investigate violations of human rights”. Like, in this way Ukraine wants to hide its crimes and whiten itself. However, this is not true.

The case was investigated by the Polish fact-checkers of the Demagog project, who determined that the fake quote belongs to Janusz Korwin-Mikka, a Polish right-wing politician and publicist. Janusz considers Ukraine “the main enemy of Poland”. However, his quote is not true. As the fact-checkers explain, the UN Human Rights Council created an international commission whose task was to investigate violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian mission also made efforts to create an international team to investigate war crimes. Six EU countries have joined the cooperation, including Poland and the USA. Therefore, the thesis about Ukraine's inaction in identifying war crimes is untrue.

Evidence from the Commission of the UN Council on Human Rights shows that it was the Russians who committed the deliberate killings of civilian Ukrainians in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia. In addition, the Commission found numerous cases of rape, sexual and gender-based violence committed by Russians. That is, Ukraine is not trying to hide the so-called “its war crimes”, but rather wants to show the real aggressor - Russia.

Such information was disseminated in Russian propaganda media and on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. The report says that the International Criminal Court in the Hague allegedly acquitted the Russian army. Like, the court did not find war crimes committed by the Russian military in Ukraine. However, this is not true.

The propagandists’ reports also said that since the court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Volodymyr Putin concerns the suspicion of committing only one war crime: the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine. That is, propagandists conclude that the deportation of children is the only thing Russia is generally accused of. Like, this means that neither Russia nor its military is to blame for anything else.

In fact, according to StopFake, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Volodymyr Putin exclusively in the case of illegal deportation to Russia of children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Fact-checkers add that this does not yet apply to other possible crimes, since the court, according to lawyer Dmytro Koval, selects only the highest priority cases.

By spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda seeks to create the appearance that the Russian army is doing everything right and it does not harm civilians in Ukraine. This allegedly confirms the thesis of the Russian propaganda that the Russians bring peace.

Russian propaganda is again spreading the message that civilians in Bucha during the occupation were shot by Ukrainian artillery. Like, foreign experts came to such results, but they “keep silent” whose artillery killed local residents.

EU vs Disinfo analysts drew attention to a new wave of message dissemination. In the spring of 2022, Russian propaganda said that the Ukrainian military allegedly shelled people's houses in Bucha because they accepted help from the Russians. For this, a specially edited video of eyewitness accounts was used.

The New York Times journalists investigated and identified dozens of soldiers of the 234th airborne assault brigade of the Russian army, who in March 2022, during the temporary occupation of Bucha in the Kyiv region, deliberately killed civilians.

By spreading such messages, Russian propaganda is trying to shift the responsibility for the death of civilians to the Ukrainian army. Propagandists deny the numerous war crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine, despite the existing evidence.

Pro-Russian media disseminate such messages to foreign audiences. Like, reports of Russian crimes, including crimes against Ukrainian children, were deliberately invented by the US State Department. Allegedly, the State Department funded a Yale University study on the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia for the sole purpose of holding Russia accountable for “fictional crimes”. They say that the studies deliberately focus on the fact that children in Russia are placed in camps, appealing in association with concentration camps. “In fact” children are placed in comfortable conditions of children's camps.

EU vs Disinfo analysts drew attention to the spread of the message. Russian propaganda is spreading these messages against the backdrop of the publication of a report by American researchers on how Russia is deporting and “re-educating” Ukrainian children. It states that Russia is committing “serious violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons”, that is, committing war crimes against Ukrainian children. There are at least six thousand children, the report says.

However, researchers from Yale University are not alone in drawing conclusions about crimes against Ukrainian children. This was confirmed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. He believes that Russia violates the fundamental principles of protecting children in time of war by providing children in the temporarily occupied territories with Russian passports and permission to be adopted by Russian families.

Russian propaganda thus tries to hide its crimes and shift the responsibility for them to others. They say that the United States deliberately “come up with” evidence of Russia's crimes.

Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels spread information that a Ukrainian air defense missile had allegedly hit a residential building in Kramatorsk on February 1. They also wrote that Ukraine allegedly organized this attack on purpose. They say that it would be easier for “Zelenskyi and his company” to ask for fighter jets and other Western weapons. One of the representatives of the self-proclaimed authorities in the temporarily occupied territories said that this explosion was allegedly staged by the Ukrainian army in order to form a “successful” agenda at the summit on Ukraine's accession to the EU. It is not true.

According to Stop Fake fact-checkers, the CNN team recorded a Russian missile hitting a residential building in the center of Kramatorsk. As a result of the strike of a Russian Iskander-K missile on a residential building, four people were killed and eight more were injured.

The propagandists used the same tactics when a rocket hit a multi-storied building in Dnipro. Then the propagandists also claimed that the building had been destroyed by a missile of the Ukrainian air defense system. In reality, the Russian X-22 supersonic cruise missile was the cause of the tragedy.

This fake is part of a campaign to discredit the Ukrainian army on the Ukrainian air defense system. Thus, Russia transfers responsibility for the consequences of shelling from Russia to Ukraine. Also, the Russians are trying to intimidate the Ukrainians even more, level the trust in the Ukrainian army and force them to surrender.

In closed Russian telegram channels, a message was circulated that it was allegedly possible to “agree” on several hours of intimacy with an “orphan from Ukraine”. Like, the cost of such a “service” is 250 thousand rubles. These messages also made their way into the Ukrainian segment of the telegram. The messages also supposedly contained screenshots of “correspondence” about the “transaction”. In particular, it was about the participation of the child in the filming of porn videos. The interlocutors describe the age of the boy as “going to school soon”.

Dmytro Lubinets, an Ombudsman, published a post with screenshots on his telegram channel and turned to the National police with a request to find out the details of the case. The National police denied the information. From the primary sources, the message about the “sale” of the child was deleted.

The cyber police of Ukraine found out that the child, whose photo was used to create a fake, was really born and lives in Russia. The boy, under the supervision of his mother, works as a model and advertises clothes and shoes, so his photo is freely available.

Earlier, Detector Media told how Russian propaganda justifies the deportation of Ukrainian children. According to the latest data, the Russians forcibly deported at least sixteen thousand children (according to other sources, this figure reaches more than seven hundred thousand). The crimes of the Russian army, including those against Ukrainian children, are being investigated by the UN.

After the events in Brovary on January 18, Russian propaganda began to spread messages that Russians sympathized with the death of Ukrainian children. Allegedly, this emphasizes the “humanity” of Russians, in contrast to Ukrainians, who “hate” all Russians, including children. They say that the Ukrainians are calling for the destruction of Russian children so that “they will not turn into orcs”.

Thus, Russian propaganda uses the tactics of “disuniting the enemy”. That is, he deliberately depicts Ukrainians as extremely aggressive and vengeful. This nourishes the propaganda messages about the “Nazism of the Ukrainians”. Russian propaganda used a similar tactic, in particular, when covering the explosions in the Crimea. They wrote that supposedly Ukrainians are happy that war has finally come to Crimea.

In fact, Ukrainians showed sympathy for the Russians even after 2014. For example, they carried flowers, candles and toys to the Russian embassy in 2015 after the crash of the Russian plane. Or in 2018 after the tragedy in the Kemerovo cinema. However, the full-scale invasion significantly affected the emotions of Ukrainians. As of January 2023, due to Russian aggression in Ukraine, at least 459 children were killed, more than 909 were injured of varying severity. These figures are not final, since the recording and investigation of Russian war crimes, including those against children, in places of warfare and in the liberated territories.

By spreading messages allegedly about “sympathy”, Russian propaganda is trying to hide aggressive anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, an example of which is the statements of Russian propagandist Anton Krasovskyi about Ukrainian children and the positive reaction to them on pro-Russian resources.

On Saturday, January 14, during another massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine, one of the enemy missiles hit a multi-storey building in Dnipro. After the hit, the whole entrance collapsed. According to the latest data, the bodies of 40 dead, including three children, were found at the site of the explosion, as reported by the press service of the State emergency service.

Molfar OSINT community analysts and Our Money.Lviv jointly conducted an investigation to identify all those involved in the terrorist crime.

They published all those involved in the rocket attacks, including those who refueled the planes and rockets before launch. Additionally, persons directly associated with this aviation regiment, but not belonging to its personnel, were identified.

Experts cite a telegram post by Hennadii Korban, the head of the territorial defense in Dnipro, who said that the 52nd Guards heavy bomber aviation regiment based in the city of Shaikivka committed the crime. At the same time, analysts made an effort to identify every person from the regiment.

In addition, fact-checkers add that it was this regiment that was previously involved in the terrorist shelling of the Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk on June 27, 2022.

This is the message propagandists use on social networks and telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. It says that the Office of the President made Oleksii Arestovych a scapegoat. They say that the entire leadership already knew the truth about the fall of a Ukrainian missile from air defense on a residential area in Dnipro, and a freelance adviser to the Office only told the truth. Consequently, the information space is overflowing with footage of a destroyed house in Dnipro. The report notes that officials did this on purpose in order to shift the focus in the information space and hide the real situation in the Bakhmut direction, in particular in Soledar.

The Ministry of Defense in the latest report reported that the occupier really does not leave attempts to capture the Donbas, Soledar itself and Bakhmut. Tough battles are going on. Ukrainian soldiers successfully repel attacks “both day and night”.

The explosion of a residential building in Dnipro, which occurred through the fault of Russia on January 14, is indeed a tragedy. However, information about it got into the information space not to shift the focus or hide something, but precisely because Russia launched a rocket that killed Ukrainian civilians destroying their home. The Command of the Air Defense Forces emphasized that it was the Russian missile that hit the building.

By spreading such messages, Russia is trying to justify itself and shift the responsibility to Ukraine for the terrorist act that was committed by the Russian army against the Ukrainians. At the same time, the enemies allegedly give specific examples of why it was not the Russian army who did this. Let's say Russia had no reason to attack civilians, but let's look at Ukraine, which successfully used this situation to hide its defeats. Also, such messages help Russia to shift informational accents. Allegedly, it is better to talk and write about the important: the situation in Bakhmut and Soledar, and not about Dnipro.

On January 14, a Russian military rocket attack on an 18-entrance building in Dnipro, where more than 1,100 people lived, killed at least 9 people, including a 15-year-old girl, and injured 64. Russian propagandists have spread a number of messages, whitewashing Russia's crime and blaming the Ukrainian military and government for the tragedy.

Russia has never struck civilians

Pro-Russian bloggers claim that the Russian military's missile strikes are accurate and always hit the target. This time, the targets were energy infrastructure facilities and Ukrainian air defense positions.

An air defense missile hit the building

Like, an air defense missile destroyed the whole entrance of a multi-storey residential building in Dnipro. Allegedly, as a result of the hit, a secondary detonation took place, most likely the result of a gas explosion. Neither the air defense missile itself, nor even the Russian cruise missile could cause such fatal destruction.

No one will know the truth, independent experts will not be invited

Allegedly, Ukraine blamed the Russians, and Russia blamed Ukraine. This controversial case could be resolved by sending independent experts, but during the war no one will do this and everyone will blame each other.

For the sacrificial death of Ukrainians, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive the latest tanks from the West

Allegedly, the Ukrainian authorities use a hit of the house in order to beg military assistance from the West. Like, Zelenskyi is safe and ready to fight to the last peaceful Ukrainian.

In fact, a building in Dnipro was destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile strike. According to Mykola Lukashuk, chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council, he was released from a Tu-22m3 long-range bomber. It was at this time that air raids continued throughout Ukraine, and Russian missiles were hit not only in Dnipro, but also in other settlements of Ukraine. In particular, in the Lviv region. However, Russian propaganda once again seeks to justify the crimes of Russians against Ukrainian civilians and accuse Ukraine of killing civilians. Propagandists use this technique almost every time after people die as a result of Russian strikes. For example, Russia denied its involvement in the deaths of people in Kramatorsk or Vinnytsia, who died as a result of rockets falling on public places. In addition, Russia regularly claims that it hits only infrastructure facilities. However, this is not true, because Russian missiles have repeatedly hit both residential buildings and led to tragedies, as well as shopping centers, train stations and so on.

By the way, in one of the propaganda telegram channels at the time when the air raids continued in Ukraine, a message appeared that there were 80 missiles in the sky over Ukraine at that time. The message also said that not all of them will fall into infrastructure facilities. Later, propagandists began to spread the words of Oleksii Arestovych, an adviser to the President's Office, who allegedly agreed that the explosion in the house was due to air defense. Allegedly, a rocket flying over Dnipro was shot down and it exploded when it fell on the entrance of a residential building. These words of Arestovych were massively shared by Russian propagandists, claiming that Ukraine itself admitted its guilt in the death of civilians. However, the words of Oleksii Arestovych are not the official position of Ukraine on this issue, and the Office Advisor himself has not yet commented on the situation that has developed as a result of his statements.

However, according to the project NotaYenota, according to the speaker of the Air Force of Ukraine Yurii Ihnat, the missile was launched over Dnipro from a Tu-22M3 long-range bomber from the Kursk region and the Sea of Azov. In total, there were 5 launches of such missiles. The X-22 is called the “carrier killer”. The missile, warhead 950 kilograms, can be equipped with a nuclear warhead. It is designed to destroy aircraft carrier groups at sea. Such missiles are not used in cities, but it was Russia that launched them over Dnipro. Later, Arestovych spoke about his words on the Facebook page. The adviser to the Office of the President did not deny that he really spoke on the air about the fall of the air defense missile. However, he noted that no one would accuse Ukraine of blowing up the house, because the world would understand everything correctly. Such words of the adviser were perceived ambiguously, so in the comments to the message he was asked if the tragedy really arose because of the Ukrainian air defense. Arestovych noted that the explosion occurred as a result of Russian actions. The Air Force Command of Ukraine once again reacted to the situation and reported that the radar facilities had found the approximate launch site, altitude, and flight speed. “There is no doubt that it was the X-22 missile. The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not have fire weapons capable of shooting down this type of missiles”, the ministry said.

Russian propaganda tells a foreign audience that the State Bureau of Investigation and the SSU (Security service of Ukraine) allegedly organized excavations of graves in the villages of Kozacha Lopan, Velykyi Burluk, Shypovate and Khatnie in the Kharkov region. Like, they are digging up the burial places of local residents who died of natural causes during the stay of Russian troops in these settlements. As if, after the exhumation, the bodies of these Ukrainians were mutilated and thrown into special pits in the vicinity of the villages in order to create false evidence of “torture” and “execution” of civilians by Russian soldiers. Allegedly now, Secret Service and police agents are photographing and filming these bodies and “imitating the work of forensic and other experts in front of fake “witnesses”. The fact-checkers of EU vs Disinfo drew attention to the spread of the message.

In the Kharkiv region, the exhumation of those who died as a result of Russian aggression and the recording of Russia's war crimes are indeed continuing. At the end of October 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported that they had already recorded about forty thousand war crimes. Therefore, Russian propaganda is once again trying to hide what they have done and expose Russia as a victim of provocations.

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.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. Comments are added on social networks, such as “why is there such massive diarrhea abroad”.

In fact, in this way, Russian propaganda ridicules mass actions, the purpose of which is to draw the attention of foreigners to the war crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine, in particular, numerous rapes in the temporarily occupied territories. During actions, people are dressed in “bloody” underwear and with bags on their heads. This image symbolizes the victim, the crime and its consequences. In particular, the actions were held in Austria, Latvia, and Estonia.

On December 21, an explosion occurred in a restaurant in the temporarily occupied Donetsk, as a result of which the former head of “Roskosmos”, the head of the Russian military advisers group, Dmytro Rohozin, and the head of the so-called “government” of the Donetsk occupied territory, Vitalii Khotsenko, were injured. After that, Russian propagandists began to intimidate Ukrainians with new shelling in telegram channels.

They say that American satellites track high-ranking officials of the Russian leadership and bring in the Ukrainian military, who only follow their instructions. Allegedly, such explosions ignite a war and now Ukraine will be hit in response. It seems that Russia will begin to strike at the places where the Ukrainian top officials of law enforcement agencies are located. As a result, civilians will also suffer.

Russian propagandists use such messages to increase the ideological informational pressure on Russian society so that they want to destroy Ukraine with even greater cruelty. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine with massive attacks throughout the territory, including law enforcement agencies. Russia doesn't need a reason to launch hundreds of missiles in one day into Ukraine. At the same time, by presenting Ukraine as the executor of American instructions and that these actions of the Ukrainian military provoke the outbreak of war, propagandists shift responsibility for their crimes and unleashing the war.

Journalists from The New York Times analyzed the email archive of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VDTRK), broken by hackers, and found that Russian TV channels, in particular Russia 1 and Russia 24, used materials sent to them by the FSB. The entire dump has a volume of 750 gigabytes, the vast majority of which is related to preparations for the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the start of the war - the correspondence took place from January to March 2022. The researchers were able to confirm the addresses of the mailboxes, as well as the faces of the people who received the letters.

As the journalists found out, Russian propagandists created content on topics that were discussed in letters from the FSB and the Russian Ministry of Defense. In the letters, the FSB representatives called the employees of the Russian channels “colleagues”. One of the materials sent by the FSB officers through Russian channels is the story of a woman who claimed that the Mariupol Drama Theater was allegedly blown up by the Ukrainian military.

In addition, in order to give viewers the impression of numerous “victories” of the Russian army and politics in general, they used materials from conservative Western media, in particular Fox News, Chinese media publications with beneficial narratives, and also used little-known accounts on Telegram and YouTube, which also made it possible to create a distorted picture of Russian “greatness”.

Russian media write about it. Like, the Kremlin will condemn any attempts to create a tribunal. Also, Russia does not recognize any of its war crimes, blaming Ukraine for them.

The EU vs Disinfo fact-checkers drew attention to the spread of this message. Russian war crimes, including torture and civilian killings, are well documented and must be punished. This was discussed at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Polish city of Lodz on December 01, 2022.

Anonymous pro-Russian telegram channels write that soon Ukraine will start “playing the card of the Russian trace” in cases of sending letters with explosives, packages with animal eyes, etc. to Ukrainian embassies and consulates. Like, Ukraine will tell that in this way they also tried to intimidate the Europeans so that they would not help Ukraine.

In early December, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported on a targeted campaign of terror and intimidation of Ukrainian diplomatic institutions abroad. In 12 countries of the world, Ukrainian embassies and consulates received threats of various types, a total of 18 cases were recorded. Now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is cooperating with foreign law enforcement officers to identify the perpetrators.

Immediately after the appearance of invincibility points, which were introduced for Ukrainians suffering from the lack of light and heat due to Russian shelling, Russia launched a disinformation campaign against them. At first, Russian propagandists and anonymous telegram channels wrote that the points were not effective at all, and even “provoked” the enemy to strike, because they were unprotected and they had a lot of people. Then - that three people have already died at the invincibility point in Kharkov - although this is a refuted fake. Now, telegram channels supervised by Russian military intelligence are spreading unconfirmed information that men are issued a draft notice at points of invincibility.