Anonymous pro-Kremlin telegram channels began to work proactively, assuring that Ukraine would launch messages that the Russians had tortured civilians in the occupied Kharkiv region. Like, the Ukrainian authorities will do everything to show the whole world the massacres of civilians, and thus stop the decline in support from Western countries.

As of September 9, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired and took control of more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region. Now there is a demining of the territories, after which they will announce the losses among the locals.

According to the head of the Investigative Department of the Kharkiv Region Police, Serhii Bolvinov, the first facts of Russian atrocities have already been recorded in the dismissed settlements. In particular, in the village of Hrakove in the Chuhuiv region, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces sacked in September after half a year of occupation, the police exhumed the bodies of two non-local men killed in March. They have gunshot wounds and signs of torture on their bodies.

“There are two more places in this village, they will be examined after demining,” Bolvinov said.

We remind you that the Kremlin did not take the blame for the massacres in Bucha, where 1,137 people died at the hands of the Russian army in the Bucha region, 461 people died directly in the city of Bucha. Instead, Russian propaganda declared that all the materials from Bucha “are not true and are provocative” and came up with more than ten fakes in the style of alleged Russians “did not kill” civilians as this is the work of the “Ukrainian artillery”, which “looks like a planned media campaign”, they said that mass graves with bodies were made by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and that the corpses on the streets were not really corpses.

In the temporarily Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, the Russian authorities are distributing Russian educational materials in schools. In particular, according to the Institute for the Study of War, pro-Russian authorities from Sevastopol arrived in Starobelsk, Luhansk region, to hand over backpacks and official state symbols of the Russian Federation to local schools. The Russian-appointed head of Crimea, Serhii Aksionov, also urged teachers in Crimea to strengthen the patriotic program in Crimean schools, in particular, to inform children about the decision of Russian President Volodymyr Putin to conduct a “special military operation” in Ukraine. In addition, the first lesson, which will be held in schools in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, is focused on the lesson outline, which is taken from Putin's article "The Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", his speeches on the recognition of the independence of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, as well as the start of a "special military operation". According to the Institute's analysts, in these speeches, Putin rejected the legitimacy of Ukrainian identity, saying that it "is a product of the Soviet era ... and historical Russia was developed on this land." Institute experts call such actions of the Russian authorities an attempt to erase Ukrainian identity in the territories occupied by Russia. Remember that in the temporarily occupied Melitopol, the occupation authorities are trying to resume the work of schools and, according to the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, they want to open 4 schools, for which teachers will be brought from distant regions of Russia. As for pupils, due to the frantic "deficit" of schoolchildren, the occupiers are frightening parents that they will deprive them of parental rights.

Allegedly, such a request was made by the rector of this educational institution. It's fake.

In fact, the educational institutions of Melitopol and Berdiansk received re-registration in Zaporizhzhia and have already announced the conditions for the admission campaign in accordance with Ukrainian law. The propagandists' reports speak of a fake educational institution called "Melitopol University", which the occupiers created on the basis of the premises of the Tavriisk State Agrotechnological University and the Melitopol State Pedagogical University in temporarily occupied Melitopol, as well as universities in temporarily occupied Berdiansk. As StopFake writes, the occupiers appointed a collaborator, anti-Maidanist, police lieutenant colonel Andrii Chuikov, who until 2014 worked at the Kharkiv Academy of Internal Affairs, to lead the fake university. It is the “rector” Chuikov who believes that according to “performance indicators”, the fake university can be considered a full-fledged federal university in Russia.

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.

Russian media write about this with reference to the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmytriy Peskov. Like, it's not Russia holding a referendum, but local residents. Thus, the Kremlin is trying to legalize the processes in the occupied territories.

According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine is the business of the entire Ukrainian people, and issues of changing the territory of Ukraine are resolved exclusively by an all-Ukrainian referendum. Ukrainian law prohibits holding elections or referendums during martial law. Any attempt to hold a referendum in the temporarily occupied territories is illegal and violates international law. The decision on the ownership of Ukrainian territories can be made and recognized by other states only if all the norms of the current Ukrainian legislation are observed.

This information is spread by pro-Kremlin and some Ukrainian media. They said that because the Armed Forces of Ukraine are shelling the Kakhovka HPP, it is operating in an emergency mode and this may allegedly affect nuclear safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

"This information is not true. The Armed Forces are working as carefully as possible, and exclusively for military purposes and logistical points," Yuriy Sobolevskyi, the First Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Council, said in Telegram.

The other day, the Ukrainian military disabled a bridge near the Kakhovka HPP. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are striking bridges in the Kherson region to complicate logistics for the Russian army, which is based on both banks of the Dnieper in the region. In order not to admit defeat, Russian propagandists launched "news" about a possible nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhya NPP due to the shelling of Ukrainian military bridges in the Kherson region.

This "news" was invented by the leading media resources of Russia with reference to the member of the European Parliament from Germany, Gunnar Beck, who belongs to the pro-Russian Alternative for the Germany party.

As of August 2022, the Seimas of Lithuania recognized Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. To break the situation in the information field in their favor, Russian propagandists organized an information campaign under the general idea — they say, "the European Parliament did not find evidence of "sponsoring terrorism" by Russia," writes StopFake. The basis of this campaign was the interview of Gunnar Beck, a Member of the European Parliament from Germany, who called the declaration of the Lithuanian deputies allegedly not supported by legal evidence.

Gunnar Beck did not notice the Russian atrocities in Ukraine, because he is a representative of the pro-Russian party and believes that the reason for the war may be that "Russia cannot agree to Ukraine joining NATO", and he calls the sanctions against Russia "economic suicide" for Europe and invalid about Russia itself.

In the Russian media, videos of captured Ukrainian soldiers who allegedly decided to stay in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions because of their reluctance to fight and the fear of being on the front line again are widely distributed. Oleksandr Zhizhyn is among the prisoners who talk about it. Russian propagandists distributed the video with him back in early April. Then he said that his team was at the Mariupol metallurgical plant named after Ilyich, which the Russians occupied on March 5. Zhizhin surrendered and since then became a hero in the Russian media with his fiction about the crimes of "Azov". On August 13, Zhizhyn once again became the hero of the Russian news that more and more Ukrainian prisoners of war are refusing to return home and, they say, are even declaring their readiness to act with weapons in their hands on the side of the occupiers of Donbas.

Russian propaganda spreads such messages from time to time to strengthen the opinion in society that surrendering is better than defending Ukraine from the invaders. And also that prisoners of war live much better in prison than in freedom. In this way, the Russians cover up the fact that hunger, abuse, and murder await Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The other day it became known that Russia is preparing a show trial of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Mariupol. For this purpose, the occupiers assembled prison cells on the stage of the Chamber Philharmonic.

Such information is spread by Russian media and anonymous Telegram channels. They said that this shows that Russia is unfairly accused of "unthinkable crimes against Ukrainian refugees", and that now "another of the main myths of Ukrainian propaganda" has been allegedly refuted by the "dry statistics" of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. It does not.

As StopFake writes, in fact, the Russian agitprop "forgot" to mention that, unlike other countries, data on Ukrainian refugees residing in Russia was provided with a caveat. Indeed, according to UN data, as of August 2, Russia has the largest number of Ukrainian refugees - 1,968,127 people. But the Office notes that "the figure is an estimate, as potential further movements or returns cannot be taken into account at this time." That is, data on the number of refugees from Ukraine who requested temporary asylum in Russia and the number of refugees who then re-crossed the border to return to Ukraine are not submitted to the UN. Therefore, the exact number of Ukrainians in Russia is unknown.

In violation of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population in Time of War, Russia carries out forced deportations, and Ukrainians have to pass through so-called "filtration" camps. Children are taken to Russia and are deliberately separated from their parents. According to the deputy head of the US mission to the OSCE, Courtney Austrian, at least 18 infiltration camps were discovered in Russia on both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian border, which Russia had prepared even before the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, some of the "refugees" ended up in Russia against their will.

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

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

This is reported by the Russian media with reference to the CNN story. He said that the report was a "miscalculation of the Western media", which "suddenly admitted" that "what is happening in Ukraine". This is manipulation.

The Russian media used the CNN story, distorting its essence. As the StopFake fact-checkers write, it is actually about people who are forcibly returning to the territories occupied by Russia for various reasons. At the same time, the Russians do not allow Ukrainians who, on the contrary, would like to leave the occupation. Journalists also say that traffic from the occupied territories was blocked on the day of the shooting. According to CNN, 6,000 people were stuck on the Russian side, only 76 were able to pass through the checkpoint. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine also confirmed that the movement at the Kamianske checkpoint is mostly due to the occupation, but on that day the Russians blocked Ukrainians from leaving. Currently, this is the only way to get to the occupied territories, traffic on other roads is blocked for various reasons. Russian mass media do not talk about it.

People who entered the territory occupied by Russia said that they did not want to leave their relatives there. However, pro-Kremlin media made their own "conclusions". In their opinion, these people finally decided to leave Ukraine. This is allegedly indicated by the large number of things they carry with them. Some of the cars in the plot do carry a large number of personal belongings. However, most of them are not. This is visible in the general footage present in the CNN story. Therefore, the conclusion that everyone returns to the occupied territory for permanent residence is an exaggeration. The CNN journalist does not draw such conclusions but notes that those who want to stay on the Russian side may not admit it. The stories of the heroes of the plot also do not contain grounds for such conclusions.

Russian media and users of social networks write about this. They said that the company cannot guarantee the pumping of gas, in particular to Germany, due to sanctions and "technical problems" with the Siemens turbine. Therefore, Russia absolves itself of responsibility for reducing gas supplies to Europe. He said that the "unfriendly policy of the West" and the lack of "maintenance" of the gas pipeline are to blame for everything. It does not.

The sanctions are not the reason for the reduction of gas supplies to the EU, since there is currently no gas embargo and there are no obstacles to the return of the turbine to Russia. A significant reduction in supplies is due to political reasons.

The executive director of the company "Siemens Energy" Joe Kezer believes that Russia is deliberately seeking to involve their company in the conflict because even the repair of the turbine cannot cause such a drop in gas pumping volumes. According to StopFake, even before the start of repair work, deliveries were reduced by 40%.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after a personal inspection of the turbine, concluded that there are no technical reasons for reducing gas volumes. The press secretary of the European Commission, Eric Mamer, denied the information that the EU sanctions against Russia prevent the supply of turbines for the Nord Stream gas pipeline. He says Russia is using energy supplies as leverage to blackmail Europe over its opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russian media spread a distorted quote from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba. They said, there will be no "new Hague" — the European Union "refused" to create a tribunal, and the International Court of Justice "does not want" to recognize the Russian "special operation" as aggression. It is not true.

During the interview, Dmytro Kuleba answered questions about holding a special tribunal over Russia. The diplomat said that today there is a discussion about the legal format of the investigation and punishment for Russia's war crimes in Ukraine — the creation of a tribunal or the sessions held by the International Criminal Court. Discussion of the legal subtleties of the future process continues, there is no mention of Europe's refusal to recognize Russia's war in Ukraine as aggression or don’t investigate and prosecute those responsible for the war. Ambassador-at-large Anton Korinevych explained that currently there is no international court or tribunal that could judge crimes of aggression, from which genocide, crimes against humanity,d war crimes are derived.

In mid-June, the EU, USA, Great Britain, Japan,d other countries supported Ukraine in opening a criminal case against Russia at the International Court of Justice. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly,d the OSCE Parliament supported the creation of a special tribunal. According to StopFake, three possible models for conducting such a tribunal are currently being discussed.

The Russians spread such a fake in the temporarily occupied territories in the south of Ukraine. Enemy propaganda continues to sow panic among the population, OC "South" reported.

This information is spread by pro-Kremlin sites, and for illustration, they used photos of the Iversky Convent destroyed during the fighting for the Donetsk airport in 2014.

The Iversky Convent belonged to the so-called Moscow Patriarchate and suffered as a result of the battles for the Donetsk airport in 2014-2015. Videos of Convent’s damage, which the Russian propaganda is using today to illustrate new lies, appeared as early as 2015.

Instead, the Russian occupiers are purposefully destroying Ukrainian cultural heritage, including churches and temples. According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the Russians damaged 101 objects of valuable historical buildings and destroyed or damaged 145 religious buildings. More details.

Russian media write about this. Like, in any tragedy that takes place in Ukraine, the West always unjustifiably blames Russia. But, in this case, American weapons were allegedly used, so the Western press keeps silent. It is not true. Fact-checkers of the StopFake project checked the reaction of the Western press to the events in Olenivka. In particular, publications such as CNN, The New York Times, Guardian, AFP, Le Monde, Il Fatto Quotidiano, and others quoted the representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell. He said the EU condemns the atrocities committed by the Russian military, which are "inhumane, barbaric acts and seriously violate the Geneva Convention". The European versions of Politico published the words of French President Emmanuel Macron that France would support the investigation of the events in Olenivka and would seek to hold Russia accountable for the mass murder of prisoners of war. Information about the involvement of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the investigation in Olenivka was covered by Reuters, The New York Times, and Deutsche Welle. Materials on the killing of Ukrainian prisoners of war were published by The Guardian and CNN. Therefore, the report of the Russian media about the "silence of the West", which allegedly confirms the Ukrainians’ guilt, is false. Earlier, propagandists were convinced that the US justified the Ukrainian strike on Olenivka, using a distorted quote from a Pentagon representative. In this way, Russia tries to hide its crime. 

According to the Russians, the Biden administration is responsible for the missile attacks on the civil infrastructure of Donbas and other regions, which caused the mass death of civilians. Also, Russians believe that the political, criminal, and moral responsibility for the massacre in Olenivka and other war crimes in Ukraine, is borne by the Biden administration together with Zelensky. The position of the Russian Ministry of Defense was reported by the Center for Combating Disinformation.

As the press service of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports, in the temporarily occupied cities of the southern part of the Zaporizhzhia region, representatives of the self-proclaimed authorities are searching for collaborators to create a "mass" for the so-called "spontaneous actions" in referendum support. The occupiers believe that such television stories will reduce the degree of dissatisfaction with the war among Russians. Despite the "material incentives", the local residents are not active enough, so the "mass" is brought from the occupied Crimea.

Russian media and anonymous telegram channels write about this. He said that the goal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was to put psychological pressure on Ukrainian soldiers who "have already laid down their arms" or may become prisoners in the future. It is not true.

StopFake fact-checkers checked the quotes of the captive Serhii Volynsky, which are used by propagandists. In fact, he described the events in Olenivka as an explosion, not as shelling. Volynsky does note that the tragedy will affect the condition and psyche of the prisoners, but not in the context suggested by Russian propagandists. Volynskyi also says that he doesn't know the cause of the fire. There are no accusations against the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the prisoner's words.

Russian media write about it. They said that representatives of the Pentagon believe that the Armed Forces of Ukraine could have "unintentionally" struck the building of the pre-trial detention center in Olenivka. This was allegedly reported by a high-ranking official from the Pentagon. It is not true. Fact-checkers of the "On the other side of the news" project checked the quote. In response to journalists' questions, the American representative says that the last thing he would think about in the context of this event is the Ukrainian attack on Olenivka. He also suggests that such messages are an attempt by the Russians to "derail them from the information path", which is one more fake.

The Russians also claim that the colony in Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were held, was fired upon by the Armed Forces of Ukraine with American HIMARS missiles. As evidence, they showed the fragments of rockets. However, the rocket fragments' origin is unknown. There is no evidence that these fragments were discovered in Olenivka. Military experts reported that the video from the colony shows damage from the fire. Such damage is not inherent in the principle of HIMARS’ operation. The Russians do not allow Ukrainian representatives to the scene of the tragedy, nor did the Red Cross and the UN representatives, who acted as guarantors of the withdrawal of the Ukrainian military from Azovstal and their safe detention. 

Pro-Kremlin media and social networks spread information, citing the representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, that the military and space forces destroyed "more than a hundred rockets to the HIMARS multiple-launch rocket system" in Lyubimovka, Dnipropetrovsk region. Allegedly, as a result of the attack, the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost about 120 soldiers, and that the Russians killed "foreign mercenaries and technical specialists". "However, the strike was carried out on the agricultural enterprise hangars, in which at that time, more than 800 tons of straw were stored (according to Konashenkov, it would be possible to make from it about 100 missiles for HIMARS). In addition, one child (obviously a foreign mercenary) was injured," a fake exposed journalist Roman Tsymbalyuk.

This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine emphasizes that this is a fake. The Russians claim that the Ukrainian military plans to "blow up and accuse units of the Russian military of allegedly indiscriminate strikes on civilian infrastructure." Russian propagandists regularly announce "provocations by the Armed Forces of Ukraine" to later justify their missile strikes and crimes against the civilian population of Ukraine. 

A former military man from France, Adrien Boke, repeatedly exposed for lying and spreading Kremlin propaganda, appeared in the Russian media again with a statement about the alleged atrocities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the staging of mass killings of civilians in Bucha, which he saw with his own eyes. In an interview with the pro-Kremlin news agency RIA Novyny, Adrian Boke said that the Ukrainian military was allegedly specifically looking for Russian officers and shot them in the head and that in front of him, bodies of people were taken out of trucks and placed next to the bodies lying on the side of the streets.

Adrian Boke's stories about Ukraine were previously refuted by StopFake, Liberation, and other international media, but the Kremlin media continues to reproduce them.

Data received from Ukrainian border guards indicate that Adrian Boke made only short-term visits to the Ukrainian territory during April. He entered Ukraine for the first time through the Sheghini checkpoint on April 4 and left the same day. His second visit took place from April 5 to 6. These two visits are confirmed by the data provided by the charitable foundation "Sheptytskyi Hospital", which Adrian Boke visited twice. Later, he returned to Ukraine only on April 17, entering through the Krakovets checkpoint, and left the country on April 19 - this is the longest visit of Adrian Boke, which also took no more than 72 hours. Boke's last crossing of the Polish-Ukrainian border took place between April 19 and 20. These data refute the trip possibility to Bucha, which is located 7 hours away from Lviv (taking into account roadblocks, the road in April would take about a day for one way).

Numerous testimonies of local residents and satellite images of the Bucha district confirm the fact that the population on the Kyiv outskirts was subjected to violence by the Russian military. And the atrocities of the Russian occupiers in Bucha became the main topic of the world media and social networks. More details.

Information about this is spread by propaganda media concerning the Ministry of Defense of Russia. The Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly could have received incorrect information and hit the colony in Olenivka, Donetsk region, occupied by Russia until February 24, 2022. It is not true.

On the morning of July 29, the Russian media announced the shelling of the colony in Olenivka. Propagandists report that the Kyiv regime killed and maimed a large part of the 193 Ukrainian prisoners of war who surrendered and were held there in Mariupol.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports that Russia shelled the colony in occupied Olenivka to cover up the torture and murder of prisoners and to accuse the Ukrainian Armed Forces of committing "war crimes."

According to the information of the General Staff, Ukraine did not launch either missile or artillery strikes on the Olenivka. People's deputy and member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security Fedir Venislavsky explained that any missile and artillery strikes carried out by the Armed Forces take place in very close cooperation with the entire intelligence community. There could not be an accidental hit, let alone a regular hit.

The SSU intercepted telephone conversations in which the occupiers confirm that Russian troops are responsible for the explosion in the Olenivka colony. There are several such audio recordings at the disposal of the Security Service of Ukraine - all of them will be included as evidence in the relevant criminal proceedings.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine believes that the killing of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka was organized by the mercenaries of the private military company "Wagner" on the personal instructions of Yevhen Prigozhin, without coordinating it with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

The Kremlin-sponsored news agency RIA Novosti published a video from the colony showing fire damage. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) points out that the fire damage is not inherent in the principle of operation of "HIMARS" and that the propagandists have not provided evidence that the fragments were found in Olenivka.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has spread another fake: it seems that Ukraine is shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP, and because of this threatens Europe with an industrial disaster.

"With maniacal tenacity, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest in Europe, not caring about its preservation and violating the resolution and decision of the IAEA general conference. It is obvious that the Ukrainian side is deliberately leading the case to a large-scale industrial disaster. We see that the USA and its European allies are completely satisfied with this," said the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ivan Nechaev.

It is another accusation that has no evidence. On the contrary, it is the troops of the Russian Federation that are creating the prerequisites for an industrial disaster at the nuclear power plant by bringing heavy weapons to the territory of the station. StopFake writes about it.

Thus, on July 21, the Energoatom company reported that the Russian occupiers brought at least 14 units of heavy military equipment with ammunition, as well as weapons and explosives to the engine room of the 1st power unit of the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The company said that an arsenal of imported heavy equipment with all ammunition is located next to the equipment that ensures the operation of the turbogenerator - and the use of the weapons could lead to an explosion at the station. Earlier, Energoatom, which controls all operating nuclear plants in the country, has repeatedly stated that Russian forces are turning the ZNPP into a military base and using it as a shield. In addition, the occupiers constantly capture local workers, and there is evidence of their torture. Read more about the situation at the ZNPP here.