Anonymous telegrams are distributing a video report supposedly from the BBC. It, citing Bellingcat, claims that Ukraine sent SBU workers to the Olympics along with the athletes so that none of the participants in the competition would escape.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the BBC and Bellingcat did not disseminate such information, such information was simply made up. For example, the design of the fake video and the real BBC stories is different: the original reports use different fonts, and the video title is usually inserted into a white and red frame.

There are no short videos on media pages with only voice-over music - the BBC adds narrator accompaniment, comments from different speakers, or leaves the original sound from the scene without changing it in any way.

Using a reverse search on Google, it was possible to establish that the fakers selected random photos from the network for a fake story, for example, in one of the frames, demonstrating “current events”, they used a photo from 2018.

Read more: Macron may allegedly resign a week before the Olympics, BBC video

Propagandists have recently begun to spoof stories from well-known media, using their design elements to create the effect of recognition and trust in the viewer of one of the quality media. For example, we recently reported that anonymous people were spreading a fake story allegedly from the French publication Le Figaro, which talked about a “Ukrainian refugee killer”.

Pro-Russian resources are massively disseminating information that all Ukrainian athletes competing at the 2024 Olympics are allegedly required to wear personal GPS trackers on their legs. This should supposedly prevent escape attempts, that is, the non-return of Ukrainian athletes to Ukraine after the Olympic Games in Paris. In reporting this, propagandists refer to the “head of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine” Vadym Hutsait.

In fact, this information is not true, they write in the StopFake project. Neither on the official website of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, nor in other open sources of information, nor in the statements of the ex-Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Vadym Hutsait, there is any mention of the fact that Ukrainian athletes are forced to wear electronic ankle bracelets during the Olympics in Paris. This “news” is disseminated only by propaganda resources. In addition, acting Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Matvey Bedny, and Vadym Hutsait held this post from March 2020 to November 9, 2023. Today Hutsait is the president of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. That is, this is another confirmation of the falsity of the news, because pro-Kremlin propagandists could not even correctly identify the head of the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine.

Moreover, there is no need to track the movements of Ukrainian Olympians abroad using GPS trackers. Many may be exempt from mobilization and travel abroad is permitted for them. Also, despite the possibility of reservation, many athletes voluntarily went to defend Ukraine from the first days of a full-scale war.

In an interview with AFP Minister Deputy of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Matvii Bidnyi said that since the beginning of the full-scale war, the Russians have killed about 500 Ukrainian athletes and coaches, among whom were dozens of world and European champions. The sports infrastructure also suffered significant losses. Russia damaged and destroyed more than 500 sports venues, including 15 Olympic training bases across Ukraine. In the end, Bidnyi added that sports facilities can still be restored, but returning dead athletes cannot be possible.

With this fake, Russian propagandists seek to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and assert, they say, “the authoritarian Zelenskyi has everyone on the hook”.

Previously, Detector Media denied information that on the eve of the 2024 Olympics, the World Anti-Doping Agency planned to introduce anti-doping exemptions for the Ukrainian Olympic team to combat the stress of war.

• Read also: We’ll come to Paris on tanks: how Russian propaganda reacts to exclusion from the 2024 Olympic Games – MediaSapiens.

During this year, Russia has stepped up a disinformation campaign against France and the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, which begin on July 26. In November 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warned about fake news regarding the Olympics on Telegram and other social networks, which was confirmed at the time by the head of IOC communications Christian Klaue. Material with examples of such news was prepared by fact-checkers of the Norwegian organization Faktisk.

According to a June 6 Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) report, Russia has been conducting influence operations for more than a year to influence the perception of the Olympics in France, attempting to “disrupt, discredit and humiliate the international competition in the eyes of participants, spectators and global audiences”. This, in particular, is associated with the fact that Russian athletes are prohibited from competing at the Games under the Russian flag. MTAC gave disinformation campaigns that spread fakes about the 2024 Olympics, the names Storm-1679 and Storm-1099. The Paris Olympic Games have been one of Storm-1679's main targets since last summer. MTAC chief Clint Watts told The New York Times that the cables are often the source of fake news in these campaigns, circulating for several days before disappearing. When fake content is checked by accounts or fact-checking resources with large followings, it gets more views and reaches new audiences. Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins noted that fact-checking may lead to wider dissemination of content, but it does not help Russian propagandists much.

Microsoft cites several examples of disinformation in this campaign, including deepfake videos that were allegedly created by prominent news media and security institutions. One such video, purportedly from French TV channel France24, attempted to show that 24% of Olympic tickets sold were returned due to fears of terrorist attacks in Paris. Another video purportedly from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reinforced this message. It claimed that the CIA was allegedly warning of a major terrorist threat in the Paris metro. A CIA spokesman told American news outlet CBS News that the video was fake and had no connection with the agency. The video was also distributed by the English-language version of the Russian “online newspaper” Pravda, part of the Russian propaganda media network. The propagandists also created a fake documentary called Olympics Has Fallen, using the identity of the streaming platform Netflix and the voice of Tom Cruise, created using artificial intelligence. The video also included fake five-star reviews from prominent media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and the BBC. The mockumentary was subsequently removed from YouTube.

Norway's top fact-checking organization, Faktisk, and hundreds of other media outlets and fact-checkers around the world have been targeted by a Russian disinformation campaign in which a significant portion of emails asking to fact-check Olympics news have been coming from fake addresses over the past few months.

There have been precedents for the concentration of Russian propaganda efforts and disinformation campaigns around the Olympic Games. For example, during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, the opening ceremony suffered a cyber attack carried out by Russian intelligence officers in an attempt to create the impression that it was the work of North Korea.

In this case, the purpose of Russian disinformation is to undermine confidence in France, the IOC and the Olympic Games, as well as to create a negative image of the host country on the international stage. In addition, in this way they want to cause panic and create the illusion that international events without the presence of Russia are not important and relevant.

Pro-Russian telegram channels are disseminating information that the Ukrainian Olympic team may become the first in the history of modern games to receive a relaxation under the anti-doping rules of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). Such an initiative is supposedly aimed at helping Ukrainian athletes deal with stress caused by the war in Ukraine. When reporting this, propagandists refer to the relevant material allegedly from the French newspaper Le Monde and add a screenshot of the article as “evidence”.

However, this is fake. In fact, Le Monde has never published such material. By entering the title of the article in English, which is distributed by propagandists, in a Google search engine: “Paris Olympics: WADA prepares a draft of anti-doping relaxations for Ukraine national team”, one can be sure that neither the Le Monde newspaper nor any other publication published relevant material. In addition, the Le Monde website has a separate section about the Olympic Games, and there is also no article about anti-doping exemptions for the Ukrainian Olympic team. One cannot find information about “helping Ukrainian athletes combat stress” on the official website of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency).

With this fake, propagandists are trying to discredit the Ukrainian Olympic team on the eve of the competition. Let us recall that not all Russian and Belarusian Olympic athletes were allowed to participate in the games in Paris, since in one way or another they expressed support for the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine. Despite this, some of them were still admitted to the Olympics - they will compete under a “neutral” flag.

Propagandists are spreading information about the alleged appearance of offensive graffiti in Munich after the defeat of the Ukrainian national team at the European Football Championship. It is alleged that the graffiti allegedly depicts a player of the Ukrainian national team, being led by the hands of “joyful Territorial center of recruitment and social support employees”. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that in fact there is no reliable information that such graffiti appeared in Munich after the defeat of the Ukrainian team. Checking this image on websites for verification indicates that it was computer generated or altered.

Using the Forensically service, we were able to discover that many details in the image were changed or added to the original photo, which indicates that the picture is not real. Forensically works like a microscope, helping one see those changes in pictures that the eyes would not notice. To detect modified blocks in a published photograph, they used the ELA (error level analysis) section. In this case, the photo consists almost entirely of modified parts: the bicycle, the figures of three men in the graffiti, the frame on the wall and the paving stones clearly stand out in the photo when analyzing the data.

It is also worth noting that the Ukraine-Belgium match, after which the blue-yellows left the tournament, took place on June 26, 2024 in Stuttgart, Germany, and not in Munich. This creates a certain inconsistency and it is not clear why such graffiti should appear in the capital of Bavaria. Previously, the Ukrainian national team was defeated in a match with Romania, which took place on June 17 at the Allianz Arena in Munich, but after this match Ukraine continued to participate in Euro 2024, fighting to leave the group.

All this indicates that the photo is fake and was specially produced by Russian propaganda to discredit Ukraine and undermine the mobilization campaign in the country.

The network is disseminating information that the famous sports journalist Larry Merchant allegedly called the victory of the Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk in the fight with the British Tyson Fury “political”, and the attention to the boxer’s figure as “theater for the tired Ukrainian people”.

“When you have no hope, but you need to be forced to fight, a hero like Usyk is perfect”, some netizens allegedly quote Larry Merchant.

StopFake fact-checkers add that such news was invented, because there are no publications about Usyk’s “political victory” on BBC Sport. Moreover, as experts explain, the sports commentator is 93 years old. Recently, due to health reasons, especially after he was admitted to the intensive care unit in 2023, Larry Merchant does not appear in public and does not make any comments.

Information is being spread online that a new “Women’s Day” campaign has appeared in Ukrainian gyms. It seems that only women and men with homosexual orientation are allowed to train on such promotional days, and the trainers are representatives of the LGBT community. As evidence, they add advertisements from Instagram of one of the fitness clubs in Zhytomyr, SportFit.

“Is this really the Europe that people were so eager to get to?”, propagandists comment.

VoxCheck analysts determined that there is no announcement on the Instagram page of the SportFit fitness club about holding promotional “Women’s Days”. In the propaganda note you can see the date on which the announcement was supposedly published - April 10. The gym's page posted only one message that day and not a single so-called announcement.

Russian propaganda presents any attempts by Ukraine to create a tolerant environment as a threat to the younger generation. Allegedly, children suffer from the dominance of “Sodom”, which, according to the Kremlin, is turning Ukrainians into homosexuals. We described the horrors of Western “homodictatorship” and how Europe allegedly influences Ukraine in this way in a large study about homophobia on social networks.

Moreover, homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality.

By the way, how Russia is trying to protect children from the “undesirable influence of LGBT people” - read here. And how it also justifies its invasion as an LGBT invasion - find out in a study based on the results of an analysis of messages during the year of a full-scale invasion.

Russian propagandists and media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric spread information that the Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, President of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine Vadym Huttsait said that Ukraine is ready to go to the Olympic Games together with Russians and Belarusians. It's fake.

The case was studied by the fact-checkers of the Center for Strategic Communications. In fact, Vadym Huttsait, in an interview with the Japanese news agency KYODO NEWS, said that after the International Olympic Committee did not invite Russia and Belarus to the Olympics, Ukraine decided to compete for licenses for the Olympics in all international competitions where there are no Russian and Belarusian flags. The National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOC) has a clear position that “peace in Ukraine is non-negotiable”, and the Olympic Games “should not be a platform for whitewashing or legitimizing actions that are completely contrary to these values”. Also, there is still no final decision on the participation of Ukraine in the Olympics in the event that Russians are admitted to them.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and sow discouragement among Ukrainians. We have previously talked about the tactics of how Russian propaganda uses sports to spread anti-Ukrainian narratives. 

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that French satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo recently allegedly featured an illustration on its cover of the recent situation at the World Fencing Championships in Milan. Then the Ukrainian saber fencer Olha Kharlan refused to shake hands with the losing rival from Russia. In the messages they add that the authors ridiculed the act of the Ukrainian athlete. It is not true.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project investigated this case and determined that such a cover does not exist. According to the archive, there is no magazine with this cover on the official website. At the same time, the false cover was made using Photoshop.

Thus propagandists seek to show that their rhetoric is also being repeated in the West. So readers can get the impression that the whole world is opposed to Ukraine and supports Russia.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that Dmytro Kuleba is “afraid” of the victory of Russian and Belarusian tennis players at Wimbledon, as the tournament authorities recently lifted the ban on the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes. Like, Dmytro Kuleba “banned” Russian and Belarusian female tennis players from defeating Ukrainian women. As evidence, the authors of the messages refer to the material of the British edition of Express. It is not true.

The experts of the StopFake project drew attention to the case and found that this quote was invented. In a commentary to Express, Kuleba noted that the admission of Russian and Belarusian tennis players to Wimbledon would be a victory for Russian propaganda and a sign that the West “can be shaken”.

Tennis players from Russia and Belarus will be able to play at the Wimbledon tournament in 2023. The decision to admit athletes was made by the organizer of the tournament, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC). At the same time, only neutral athletes will be allowed to compete in the tournament, and only those who do not receive any state funding from Russia or Belarus. First of all, athletes should not support Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to the BBC, the players and their team members will sign an appropriate declaration with the specified conditions of participation. Violation of the declaration entails a fine or disqualification.