Spilnota Detector Media

Fake A bus with the “Zelensky is a black hole” inscription was seen on a video from an interview with a German official

Russian propaganda media are spreading an excerpt from a video from an interview with a German Bundestag deputy, where a bus with the inscription “Zelensky is a black hole” is allegedly visible. According to the Kremlin media, such transport appeared on the streets of Berlin.

Also, messages on the network say that the driver has already been fined for the inscription on his transport. However, this whole situation is a fiction of Russian propaganda.

According to Vox Ukraine analysts, the video shows an interview with German MP Nina Scheer for Die Welt, which she shared on her Facebook page. The clothing and location are identical to those in the bus video. In the recording from the interview, at about the third minute, the bus already known to us appears, but it is clearly visible that the inscription there is completely different: Busmobil 24.

Also in the German media there is no mention of the existence of a bus with the inscription “Zelensky is a black hole”, as well as no reports of a driver's fine.

With such fakes, Russia is trying to discredit the Ukrainian authorities. With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, this happens all the time. Recently, the enemy media spread information that the Minister of Defense allegedly rejoiced that the Ukrainians had become a “shield” for NATO. The Russian propaganda does not ignore Volodymyr Zelenskyi either, reporting on cartoons on the covers of foreign magazines or that he and other officials increased their fortune in 2022.

Disclosure A deepfake with Yurii Lutsenko is being circulated online

In the Ukrainian segment of social networks, a video with allegedly featuring Yurii Lutsenko is being shared after a hard battle in Soledar, Donetsk region. In particular, the Volyn politician Volodymyr Bondar published a screenshot from the video on his personal page. However, according to the fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Lier) project, this video is a deepfake.

According to the fact-checkers, with the help of special programs, the authors created a so-called deepfake, because the video footage shows a man in military uniform, who really looks like Ukrainian politician Yurii Lutsenko. In the video, the hero's face moves a lot, it increases or decreases in size, which is not typical of a live, non-supporting video. Analysts are convinced that the authors of the video took a photograph of a military man and, using computer technology, superimposed Lutsenko's face on it.

Moreover, the video was recorded for several seconds and contains only musical accompaniment, although the military himself is silent in the video and does not add a single comment.

Fake Pregnant Ukrainian women launched a “patriotic” flash mob

Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels spread information about the flash mob “Meet me on the battlefield”, which was allegedly launched by pregnant Ukrainian women. Photos and videos are circulating on the net, in which women write “meet me on the battlefield” on their stomachs. Like, this is how Ukrainian women demonstrate that they are ready to educate future military men. According to another version, supposedly this is how unborn children talk to warring parents. It's fake.

Russian propaganda came up with this flash mob. According to StopFake, a photo of an  allegedly pregnant woman who left for Italy due to a full-scale invasion is in the public domain. It first appeared on the Russian social network back in 2021. There are no inscriptions on the woman's stomach, they were made later to create a fake photo.

The video, allegedly from the Italian publication Il resto del Carlino, also uses editing. This footage is taken from the documentary “Mother Ukraine / Pregnant during the war”. The film tells the story of a girl who is going through pregnancy, and her husband is a soldier of APU.

Thus, Russian propagandists are trying to show the international community that Ukrainians are an aggressive nation. Previously, propagandists manipulated the topic of mobilizing women and children, and also said that pregnant Ukrainian women are given draft notices.

Fake In Volyn, a church was set on fire, the rector of which refused to go to the Orthodox church of Ukraine (OCU)

Russian media and pro-Russian telegrams are spreading videos of church fires. Allegedly, a fire occurred in the Holy Ascension church in the village of Ovadne, Volodymyr district, Volyn region. They say that the church was set on fire, because in Ukraine there is a “struggle against Orthodoxy”, and the priest “refused to leave the Moscow Patriarchate”. It is not true.

Information about the fire was denied by both rescuers and local authorities. The fire was not registered in the regional department of the State emergency service. According to the head of the Ovadne community, Serhii Panasevych, the video does not show their church.

Fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Lier) project found out that this is a video of a fire in the church of St. Theodosius of Chernihiv in the village of Novooleksandrivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which occurred on January 19, 2021.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads messages about “harassment” and “discrimination” against the Moscow Patriarchate Church in Ukraine. Previously, reports of an attack on a priest in a temple were used to nourish this message. They also wrote that the transfer of churches from the Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is “a struggle for influence on the minds of people”; allegedly Ukraine is “destroying” the greatest religious denomination; and that allegedly Ukraine needs to be “desatanized” and “deshaitanized”.

Fake Ukrainian refugees robbed the apartment of an elderly woman in Poland

A video is circulating online in which an elderly woman allegedly complains to the Polish authorities that she was “robbed” by Ukrainian refugees, whom she settled in her apartment. In different versions of the story, either the woman’s children or the city authorities persuaded the 73-year-old Polish woman to give shelter to a Ukrainian family. It seems that the Ukrainians robbed a woman, smashed the apartment, ran into debt for housing and disappeared. The victim allegedly vainly demands compensation from the authorities. It is not true.

The video has nothing to do with Ukraine. StopFake fact-checkers found out that this video first appeared online on April 24, 2018. An elderly woman in the video complains that she was not provided with the promised services - the replacement of all equipment with the Internet and television. The video was probably filmed at the customer service office of the company "Vectra", which provides telecommunications services in Poland.