In mid-March 2024, Russian propagandists spread information that Ukraine was allegedly not releasing citizens of African countries and was “forcibly” mobilizing them for military operations. Like, this was reported by the American television channel ABC News, where a Congolese citizen allegedly claimed that he was offered to fight for Ukraine. However, this is manipulation.

After disseminating this information, StopFake decided to check whether a Congolese citizen really complained to an American TV channel that he was not being allowed out of Ukraine and was being “forced” to mobilize for military action. They found out that the news was false.

In the video distributed by Russian propaganda, the foreigner cannot be heard complaining that he is not allowed to leave Ukraine. At the beginning of the video, the voice of a TV presenter talks about a person from the Congo who claims that he was the target of discrimination when trying to board an evacuation train. What follows is the direct language of a foreigner who says that he was offered to fight for Ukraine. After his comment, the video ends. It is impossible to draw conclusions about why he was not released from the country and whether they really tried to “forcibly” mobilize him.

In this regard, StopFake tried to find this news on the American ABC News channel and reconsider whether there was perhaps additional context that could help understand this situation better. The video shows that the Congolese citizen's name is Pira Diantuadi. We managed to find an article about this man on the ABC News website. It turned out that it was published in the spring of 2022 and was dedicated to foreign refugees trying to leave Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion. The authors of the material tried to figure out whether there was discrimination on racial grounds during the evacuation from the country. In particular, Diantuadi complained that, despite promising to put only “women and children” on the evacuation train, he saw Ukrainian men being put on the evacuation train. The material is accompanied by an insert where Diantuadi talks about the proposal to fight for Ukraine, which the propagandists took advantage of. However, the material does not contain any conclusions that Ukraine tried to deliberately not let foreigners out of the country and “forcibly” mobilize them.

The ABC News article also noted that the interview with the Congolese citizen was conducted in Poland. The inscriptions in Polish in the background of the video confirm this. That is, the foreigner still managed to leave Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian invasion. Therefore, Russian propaganda tried to use the story of the “travel ban” and “forced” mobilization of foreign citizens in a new way, publishing an old video of a person in order to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of citizens of the countries of the South.

It should be added that according to Ukrainian legislation, foreigners cannot be mobilized. As the head of the personnel department of the headquarters of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Roman Horbach, explained in a comment to ArmyInform, a foreigner can only want this himself.

“According to the law, foreigners can be drafted into the Defense Forces. But they are not called up for mobilization, but are accepted for military service voluntarily under a contract in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, said Roman Horbach.

In the Ukrainian segment of social networks, information is being spread that the former leader and founder of the Right Sector organization Dmytro  Yarosh, in an interview with Espresso, allegedly called for an uprising against the power of Zelenskyi and his team. But this is not true.

VoxCheck analysts investigated this case and found out that the video to which the propagandists refer was published back in 2020. There were no calls to “overthrow” the government.

Propagandists cut out an excerpt from a long interview, where Yarosh emphasized that the opposition must come to power in a legal way and “restore order in the state”. “But for this, statist forces need to take power and restore order in the state. Take power - I mean, legally, only through democratic elections”, he said. That is, Yarosh did not call for a coup d'etat.

An alleged CNN advertisement in Times Square is being circulated on social networks with the text: “Kyiv is over. Will the Russians stop there or go further? Find out this and more at Political Briefing”. However, this is a lie.

VoxCheck analysts analyzed the case and determined that such advertising had never been shown in Times Square. At the request of fact-checkers of the Reuters news agency, Emily Kuhn, vice president of communications for CNN, responded that “the video was edited and is not an advertisement for CNN”.

We have repeatedly documented hoaxes involving fake graffiti or covers on foreign magazines, newspaper columns or advertisements. Thus, propagandists seek to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. So it may seem to readers that the public is really dissatisfied with Ukraine.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on anonymous telegram channels are distributing a video shown by Lviv residents who allegedly went to a rally against the head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak in March 2024. However, this is a fake video.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. Using keywords on the Internet, they were able to find the original video. It was published on YouTube on November 28, 2014 under the title “Maidan in Lviv - December 1, 2013”. On this day, more than 50 thousand Lviv residents actually protested in the city center, demanding the resignation of Yanukovych, the government and parliament.

They found an audio track with shouts against Yermak on another recording that was distributed on March 13, 2020. Then representatives and supporters of the “Voice” party gathered near the President’s Office, outraged by the signing of new agreements in Minsk.

Previously, Ukrainian intelligence reported on the special operation Maidan-3, which was aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian authorities, spreading panic among the population and increasing hostility with foreign allies. These actions were accompanied by fake messages, the main peak of which occurs in March-April 2024. Thus, these messages probably also refer to the Maidan-3 special operation.

A video is being circulated online showing Poles transporting black soil from the Kherson region in trucks. It consists of three parts: the first part shows the earthworks; the second is how a forklift fills a truck with soil; the third is filming the road by a car driver. The video contains the caption: “How was my week. Kherson region”. According to the authors of numerous publications with him, the land is being taken to the Polish city of Myslowice. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that this video first began to be distributed online by predominantly pro-Russian telegram channels and anonymous accounts back in early March 2023. They note that there is no indication in the video that the footage of the earth being loaded was actually filmed in Ukraine. A reverse image search also did not yield positive results due to the low quality of the recording. Only the last part of the video indicates that its author is probably Polish - Polish music and the Polish language can be heard in the background.

And yet, in the first part of the video, a truck is clearly visible, into which earth is being loaded, and in the second, the logo on the steering wheel of the car from which the road is being filmed is clearly visible. AFP Polska journalists, who also drew attention to this fake back in 2023, were able to identify these two vehicles: in the first part of the video a Shacman truck appears (Shacman F2000 or Shacman F3000), in the second - a Scania. This fact indicates that these two video fragments are not related to each other and were presumably combined into one video for the purpose of falsification.

The export of Ukrainian black soil is also unlikely because it is contrary to Polish and EU legislation. In accordance with Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/2072 of 28 November 2019, the import of soil and fertilizers is prohibited. Consequently, trucks with land simply could not cross the border between Ukraine and Poland. In addition, the refutation from StopFake contains a professional commentary on the deterioration of the quality of Ukrainian black soil, which is why its transportation to other countries also seems unlikely.

Propagandists spread such fakes in order to deepen tension in bilateral relations between Poland and Ukraine against the backdrop of recent events, in particular, protests by Polish farmers against the import of Ukrainian products. Detector Media also wrote how Russia is trying to use and support these protests not only in Poland, but also in other EU countries.

On behalf of Ukrainian TV channels, videos containing information are being distributed in TikTok, allegedly the government adopted Law No. 3386 regarding a one-time payment of 14 thousand hryvnia to those Ukrainians who have never left the country since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

In fact, these videos are fake. They are generated by artificial intelligence. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about this. Law No. 3386 itself simply does not exist. Such content applies, in particular, to increasing the reach of anonymous telegram channels, which are linked in the description under the video.

By spreading this disinformation, Russian propaganda aims to split Ukrainian society. Like, “those Ukrainians who remained in Ukraine during the war are “more Ukrainians” than those who left, therefore the state in this way seeks to show the privilege of the former”. It is on this basis that the fake Russian propaganda is based.

• Read also: More money is spent on one prisoner in Ukraine every month than on pensions for Ukrainians

A video is being circulated on social networks in the Russian segment in which a so-called Ukrainian volunteer allegedly received gratitude from the Ministry of Defense for his “active civic position and assistance to the army” - and in addition, he was “handed” a draft notice to the nearest Territorial center of recruitment and social support. In the messages, the authors of the fake conclude that in Ukraine you “shouldn’t” trust anyone, because they still want to mobilize a volunteer who decided to help of his own free will. However, just like the gratitude from the Ministry of Defense, the draft notice is fake.

The case was analyzed by VoxCheck specialists, who explained that the gratitude and the agenda do not comply with state design standards and contain various errors. For example, with regard to gratitude from the Ministry of Defense, in the special order “On departmental incentive awards” they give an example of a sketch of a “certificate”. It is different from the one in the fake video.

Moreover, in the text of gratitude itself there are many errors: in words “Vasylenko”, “heating means”, etc.

The situation with the draft notice is the same: instead of the current name of Kropyvnytskyi, the fake document used the old one - Kirovohrad. They also wrote a military commissariat, although there should be a territorial center for recruitment and social support.

That is, Russian propagandists wanted to show that in Ukraine they “use” people for their own purposes, for example, for widespread mobilization. In the message, the Kremlin’s minions convinced that the volunteer was doing something useful, helping the army, but the “evil Ukrainian authorities” decided to mobilize him anyway.

However, according to the law “On mobilization preparation and mobilization” and Article 23 of the legislative initiative, the status of a volunteer does not fall under the category of persons who may be exempt from mobilization. First of all, volunteer activity is a voluntary, socially oriented, non-profit activity that is performed by volunteers by providing volunteer assistance. In theory, a Ukrainian volunteer can be mobilized or served with a draft notice if there are specific grounds for this.

Russian propagandists are disseminating information in anonymous telegram channels that a mass death of birds was allegedly recorded in Poland after they allegedly ate Ukrainian grain that spilled from freight cars. “The Poles are afraid that they are next, because they are bringing poisoned grain from Ukraine”, they write in their public posts. Some propagandists also say that we are talking about grain that was allegedly grown in the radiative zone around Chornobyl, and that it is now being sold to Europe.

However, there is no factual evidence that somewhere in Poland a mass death of birds was recorded specifically through Ukrainian grain. Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. They found that the first video being circulated by propagandists as evidence of these claims showed several dead birds, mostly crows, lying next to railway tracks in the Polish city of Zamość. No research has been conducted into the causes of death of these birds. There is no information about what happened even in the local media. There was only a message about this on social networks, where this video was published. Polish fact-checkers from the Demagog project also drew attention to the spread of fake news among Poles and took a comment from an ornithologist who confirmed that without toxicological and veterinary studies it is impossible to say that the birds died due to poisoned grain.

Local bloggers also commented on the situation, noting that there are no freight trains running in the place where the video was filmed. In addition, the birds in the video lie in amazing poses, some with broken wings. It is also surprising that in the video there are only crows, and not pigeons, sparrows or other “urban” birds.

Regarding the quality of Ukrainian grain exported to Europe, it is very carefully checked by buyers. They not only control the quality indicators of the grain, but also make sure that the products have the necessary international certification.

“Each batch is accompanied by an analysis by an independent surveyor nominated by GAFTA”, said Serhii Orlovskyi, founder of the Agrooiltrade trading company, in an interview with Latifundist.com. According to him, any discrepancy in quality could become the basis for lawsuits.

This fake is spreading against the backdrop of protests by Polish farmers against European agricultural policy and the blockade of checkpoints from Ukraine, as well as blockades of roads and highways in some provinces demanding a ban on the import of agricultural products from Ukraine. The protests are accompanied by disinformation campaigns and inciting hostility between allies, which obviously benefits the Kremlin. Detector Media has already written about how Russia is fueling and exploiting farmer protests across Europe.

Russian resources are disseminating information that allegedly during his last visit to Russia, the current commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, “confessed to his mother, that he is with the Ukrainians in the same headquarters and cannot stand them, because they are cunning and unpleasant”. As proof, Russian propaganda is distributing a video in which a neighbor of Syrskyi’s parents allegedly recalls how the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told his relatives about hatred of Ukrainians.

This information is fake, and the video is staged. This is reported by VoxCheck. Statements from Russian media contradict each other. Syrskyi said that he hated Ukrainians during his last visit to his relatives, but now he continues to communicate with them. At the same time, the “neighbor” in the video does not remember when the new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that he hates Ukrainians and, accordingly, it was the last time he visited his relatives. One Russian resource reports that this happened between 2008 and 2010. Another propaganda resource, citing the words of his brother, the head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, claims that Syrskyi does not keep in touch with his relatives. Independent media do not indicate when the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces last saw or communicated with relatives. This information cannot be verified on the basis of open data, so the allegations about Syrskyi’s “Ukrainophobia” are unfounded.

A significant part of his life and military career is connected with Ukraine and the confrontation with Russia. After the start of a full-scale invasion, the current commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine became one of the key persons in the country's defense. In addition, he considers Kharkiv to be his hometown, where he graduated from school.

This fake appeared as part of a large-scale campaign aimed at discrediting the new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, the purpose of such lies is to sow discord among Ukrainians, undermine confidence in the country’s top leadership and make them despair of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Previously, in the Newspeak section, we wrote about how and why the word “virus” was again remembered in Russia after the appointment of Oleksandr Syrskyi to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The social network TikTok is distributing a video in which a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly died during hostilities received a draft notice from the Territorial center of recruitment and social support. The video with the relevant documents was allegedly recorded by the close family of the deceased woman.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security claims that the video is fake and created by the Russians. This is evidenced by several factors.

Firstly, from the pronunciation one can hear that the Ukrainian language is foreign to a person, he makes a huge number of mistakes and has a specific accent.

Secondly, one senses inept acting – the woman is clearly overacting with negative emotions.

Thirdly, the draft notice states that the military man is an “ordinary” one, but there is no such rank in the Armed Forces of Ukraine; in Ukraine it is a “soldier”.

Fourth, the “documents” date back to May and June 2022, but the video appeared online on February 23, 2024—on the eve of the anniversary of the full-scale invasion.

It should be noted that in Ukraine there were indeed cases when people who had already died received draft notices. However, they are not associated with the “arbitrariness of the Territorial centers of recruitment and social support”, as propagandists claim, but with a certain confusion in the databases. For example, the district administration may not have informed the Territorial center of recruitment and social support about the death of a person, which is why it was on the agenda list.

This fake appeared as part of a large-scale propaganda campaign to discredit mobilization in Ukraine. Propagandists speculate on a sensitive topic for many Ukrainians and resort to such fabrications that are intended to demoralize, mislead and intimidate society. Previously, we refuted the information that Silpo’s receipts allegedly issued draft notices.

Propagandists are distributing a video on anonymous telegram channels where a Ukrainian volunteer allegedly received a gratitude letter and a draft notice to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Ministry of Defense. However, this is fake.

Fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the sample of a gratitude letter is clearly regulated, but the gratitude letter on the video has a completely different design and does not contain the necessary information about the order of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. In addition, the text of the gratitude letter  contains grammatical, spelling, punctuation and lexical errors, and there is no official seal on it.

Also, the draft notice in the video is drawn up with errors: it has an incorrect template and application number, the photo also lacks a draft notice number, the outdated name of the city is used, and also it contains grammatical errors and does not have a seal.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit the mobilization process in Ukraine.  Detector Media has previously refuted other Russian fakes regarding mobilization in Ukraine.

Russian telegram channels are distributing a video in which allegedly soldiers of the Third Separate Assault Brigade (3rd Separate Assault Brigade) shot Russians in a trench who were trying to surrender.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine stated that this video recording was obviously staged. Firstly, in the video one can trace the artificial Ukrainian actors - “fighters”. Secondly, the “killed man” suddenly began to move. In fact, Ukraine adheres to the Geneva Conventions and treats prisoners humanely. The Russian army has repeatedly shot Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered.

Thus, propagandists encourage the Russian military to kill every Ukrainian, even unarmed ones, without hesitation, they say, “look, they do this!” In addition, in this case, Russian propaganda uses tactics of reflection, that is, they bring forward the same accusations against Ukraine as it does against Russia. Only the Ukrainian side has real grounds for this, unlike Russia, because, for example, only on February 18-20, 2024, cases of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian occupiers near Avdiivka, Vesele and Robotyne were recorded.

Read also: While studying in Germany, Ukrainian soldiers allegedly boast about the atrocities they commit against Russians

Propagandists on anonymous telegram channels that spread pro-Russian rhetoric are publishing a video that in the United States a student was allegedly expelled from the University of Florida because he publicly sang a song about Volodymyr Putin in Russian. A deduction letter is included with the video. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. Based on the phrase “Did a brave thing at Campus Square today”, which is shown in the video, they found the original video on Tiktok. In it, the man sings a different song, not in Russian, and the video does not contain any mention of expulsion from the university.

In the tags for the video, the singer indicated that there is a South African singer, University of Johannesburg and UJ student, which indicates that he is likely a student at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.

In addition, in the video, the man noted that he performed the song near Campus Square. A Google Maps search revealed that there is a shopping center with the same name in the city of Johannesburg. The image of the location on Google Maps matches the location in the video - this is indicated by blue and black signs and inscriptions on them, a black iron fence and the presence of sand on the street.

Therefore, there is no talk at all about the University of Florida or expulsion from it because of the performance of the song. To forge the expulsion letter, Russian propagandists used a real university admission letter, which can be found in open sources. This is confirmed by identical signatures on both documents.

Propagandists spread such fake news to discredit Ukraine’s Western partners and create a false impression of a better situation in Russia. They say America is a hypocrite because it censors its students.

Russian resources are spreading the news that allegedly the American media Bloomberg released a video in which American economist Robert Kiosaki called investments in Ukraine pointless. According to propagandists, Kiyosaki made the corresponding statement at a meeting of the international investment company Traderfriends.

In fact, this information is not true, they write in the VoxCheck project. The video published by the propagandists is not on Bloomberg’s official channels - website, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Kiyosaki himself also did not call investments in Ukraine pointless on his pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Propagandists edited the video from several videos that are unrelated to each other. In particular, using keywords, VoxCheck specialists were able to find an excerpt from an interview with the YouTube channel “Finance With Sharan”, published on September 6, 2023. In it, Kiyosaki discussed finance, politics and the like. We were also talking about Ukraine. Kiyosaki said that the United States is printing dollars to support Ukraine, and therefore does not recommend saving in this currency. However, the economist did not say a word about the absurdity of financial assistance to Ukraine.

In addition, Kiyosaki could not make a corresponding statement at a meeting of the international investment company Traderfriends, as propagandists write. Traderfriends is actually a company that provides educational trading services. VoxCheck's colleagues were unable to find any evidence that Robert Kiyosaki recently spoke at the company's invitation. The last publication with an economist on the Traderfriends YouTube page dates back to January 14, 2018.

After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Kiyosaki supported Ukraine and stated that if he were in Ukraine, he would also fight for freedom. The economist also believes that the impact of the war on the economy will give impetus to the development of cryptocurrency.

Russian propaganda seeks to interfere with the decision-making process of high-ranking officials on the allocation of financial support to Ukraine in many countries of the world, in particular the United States, and therefore resorts to such fakes. Previously, we denied information that French activists were allegedly conducting an anti-Ukrainian campaign, calling on citizens to stop supporting Ukraine.

A fake is being spread on Georgian social networks and the American edition of The Chicago Chronicle, which was refuted in Ukraine two weeks ago. Fact-checkers of the Georgian project Myth Detector told about its appearance.

In the first week of February, Ukrainian social media users circulated a video about the alleged death of 40 children in Ukraine as a result of vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine. In the video, a woman who introduced herself as an employee of the Kyiv office of Pfizer claimed that children in Ukraine were being administered an experimental vaccine under the guise of a flu vaccine. The fact-checkers contacted the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, where they objected that the heroine of the video works for them, and also did not confirm the information from social networks.

An employee of the Kyiv office of Pfizer, Anna Sakhno, claimed that children in Ukraine are being administered an experimental vaccine as an immunization against influenza without the knowledge of parents and medical personnel. In the video, the woman shows documents that show that during the second stage of trials, the mortality rate among vaccinated people was 4-5%. Considering that more than 1,000 children were vaccinated, the number of deaths must be at least 40-50 children.

However, Pfizer, at the request of StopFake, denied that Anna Sakhno works for them. In addition, Pfizer reported that it does not conduct clinical trials in Ukraine that could lead to the death of children. The main source of the allegation about the death of 40 children in Ukraine due to experimental Pfizer vaccination is a video on TikTok, where a woman in medical clothing and with a mask on her face claims that the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and even President Zelenskyi personally closely cooperate with Pfizer know about this, providing the company all necessary data on electronic registers of Kyiv hospitals.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security of Ukraine also denied this information as false.

The dissemination of such information is part of an information war aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian authorities and misleading the public.

Russian propagandists are spreading information that the son of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, supports Russia. The so-called “ataman of the Cossack society of Australia” Semen Boikov recorded a video from the Russian Consulate General in Sydney, in which Ivan Syrskyi, allegedly the son of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, “congratulated the Russian army on the defeat of the Ukrainian military in Avdiivka”.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Security analyzed this information. In fact, Ivan Syrskyi, who became the “hero” of the video, is not the son of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He is the son of Oleksandr Syrskyi's ex-wife from her other marriage. The commander-in-chief did not adopt Ivan, and broke up with his mother back in 2009.

The ex-wife of Oleksandr Syrskyi left with her children and new husband for Australia 14 years ago. Colonel General Syrskyi does not maintain any relations with her family. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council has already written about this.

In this case, propagandists seek to discredit Oleksandr Syrskyi. In addition, the purpose of such stuffing is to demotivate Ukrainians and make them despair of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Previously, in the Newspeak section, we wrote about how and why the word “virus”  was again remembered in Russia after the appointment of Oleksandr Syrskyi to the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Propagandists in Russian-language telegram channels published a video claiming that the statement of the Ukrainian Embassy in France outraged French farmers. The video, which bears the logo of the media company Euronews, shows a document that, according to the authors of such messages, indicates that the Ukrainian Embassy called on farmers to end their protest and unite as Ukrainians in favor of their Motherland. According to the video, the leader of the farmers' union responded to this by saying that Ukraine has no right to demand anything from France and should keep its opinion to itself. They say that because of this statement, farmers threw manure at the Embassy. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the MythDetector project drew attention to it. They found that although the Euronews logo was used in the video, the media had never published such content. Also, the information that farmers threw manure at the Embassy was not confirmed. Local media such as France 24 and Le Monde did not write about this. The initial footage of the video shows the farmers' protest, but they were not filmed in front of the Ukrainian Embassy, but in front of the regional council building in the city of Dijon. The authors of the video claim that the statement from the Ukrainian Embassy is dated February 7, and therefore farmers should have tested in the following days, but the video used has been circulating on social networks since December 2023. In addition, the statements that the propagandists are talking about are not on the official resources of the Embassy.

Open's fact-checkers also verified this video with the Euronews logo. The organization compared the signature on a fictitious document attributed to Ukrainian Ambassador Vadym Omelchenko with his real signature. It turned out that, among other inaccuracies, the signature shown in the video did not match the Ambassador's real signature. The video also falsified a commentary by Arnaud Rousseau, the leader of France's largest farmers' union. The images, which show Rousseau’s false statement on screen, were cut from an interview published on February 2.

Since the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine, videos with logos of various foreign media have appeared. They mainly concerned events in Ukraine and the West and had the goal of discrediting Ukraine and the EU countries. This is especially true in the context of farmer protests across Europe, which Russia is trying to fuel. Detector Media recently published a study on exactly how Russian propaganda does this and what role right-wing movements play in this.

A video is being circulated online where several women in military uniform claim that they were sent to fight near Avdiivka because of the decision of the Zelenskyi regime. They say that the reason for this is Zelenskyi’s desire to create a “picture” for the Munich Security Forum. However, the video is most likely staged.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. Firstly, the women in the video are unlikely to actually be military personnel - makeup, long hair and manicure usually interfere with the performance of combat missions. Also, they do not have the equipment that is necessary during the battle. In addition, there are no identifying marks on their uniforms.

Secondly, in the video the Ukrainian language of the woman trying to speak it is noticeably “broken”. This may indicate that she is not a native speaker.

Thirdly, the video appeared for the first time on a TikTok profile, which was probably created specifically for the distribution of this video. This is the only message on this page that indicates its inorganic appearance. The video is being circulated exclusively by pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels and pro-Russian groups on Facebook, but even users of these channels express doubts about its authenticity.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit the Ukrainian government and Zelenskyi personally, especially against the backdrop of active public discussion of possible changes in the mobilization process. Detector Media has already written about other Russian inventions regarding mobilization in Ukraine.

Information is being spread online that the Ministry of Defense has launched a campaign to recruit women into the army: “serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine helped me lose weight, contact the nearest Territorial center of procurement and social support, you deserve to be the best!”, says this video. At the same time, the video itself was allegedly published on the “TikTok account” of the Ministry of Defense. It's a lie.

The VoxCheck specialists analyzed the case and came to the conclusion that the video was fake and compiled from any footage. Moreover, the video does not serve as a video campaign for recruiting women into the army. After all, the Ministry of Defense doesn’t even have a TikTok account. The video about weight loss was also not found on other social networks of the ministry.

In general, only doctors and pharmacists must register with the military from October 1, 2023; however, military registration does not mean mobilization or the establishment of restrictions on travel abroad. The Ministry of Health notes: registration is necessary only to summarize data on the existing reserve of doctors in the country. The travel of this category of women is unlimited. To register for military service, this category of women will have three years - until December 31, 2026.

The social network TikTok is distributing a video message from supposedly servicemen of the 117th separate territorial defense brigade of the 153rd battalion, calling for the overthrow of the constitutional order in the state.

In fact, the people in the video have never had and have no connection with the 153rd  battalion, as reported by the 117th separate territorial defense brigade on its page on the Facebook social network. This video was created using deepfake technology based on artificial intelligence. That is, it is fake. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council is already writing about this.

Thus, the creators of this video seek to discredit the Ukrainian military and demoralize Ukrainian society. Previously, we analyzed a fake video message from the ex-commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi, in which he allegedly called for a military coup.

Propagandists are distributing a video on social networks in which allegedly a Ukrainian military man serving near Avdiivka discovered sharp blades in pies. Like, a local grandmother treated him to these pies. The video was seen by thousands of people, it is actively distributed on social networks with captions like “a grandmother near Avdiivka treats Ukrainian soldiers with delicious pies” and “they hate Ukrainians in this place”. However, this is a staging.

This was found out by specialists from the “Beyond the News” project. They explain that it is doubtful that after the round-the-clock shelling, a multi-storey building with electricity and intact windows remained in the city or its surroundings. However, this is the environment in which filming takes place. In the video, we see two people (one holding a camera) standing in front of a window in a lit room during night time. From a security point of view this is very dangerous. The Ukrainian military would be unlikely to commit such actions. The military clothing that we see in the video has no signs of identification, and the chosen shooting angle does not allow us to see the face of the “victim” from the grandmother. At 6-7 seconds one can see that the man is breaking an already broken product. Probably damage to the “theater prop” was done before filming to insert a blade into it. The audio of the video also has its own characteristics. Firstly, we hear the Russian pronunciation at the 10th second. In addition, the phrase “and here are the blades” sounds strange to denote the singular; it is more likely that a Ukrainian military would say “and here is the blade”. The Russian intonation is especially heard at the end of the video.

It appeared around February 5 on resources publishing Russian propaganda. The video appeared in the domestic segment within a day or two. Unfortunately, it was picked up and spread on some Ukrainian-language pages on social networks.

Propagandists spread such fake news to show that local residents do not really want Ukrainians to fight for them. They say that’s why they feed the Ukrainian military pies with blades.

Users of social networks broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric are distributing a video allegedly produced by the American media company Bloomberg, with statements attributed to economist and author of the best-selling book “Rich Father, Poor Father” Robert Kiyosaki. Like, he called any financial investments in Ukraine “nonsense”. “He believes that helping Ukraine means passing money through a shredder, because Ukraine will disappear in the near future”, propagandists write. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They noticed that the video material distributed online imitates the design of videos from the Bloomberg news agency, including the company logo in the upper right corner of the frame. However, there is no corresponding material either on the official website or on the social networks of the American media company. Even if attackers use a media company’s logo, a mismatch in the video’s design (font and caption design) indicates that it is a fake. It should also be noted that most Bloomberg videos are published without a logo.

If a publication uses someone else's videos or photographs, the source must be indicated in the story. The video circulating online is a compilation of various video clips from old interviews with Robert Kiyosaki, but nowhere in the story is it mentioned where these clips were taken from. For example, a video clip in which Kiyosaki allegedly expresses his opinion about the absurdity of financial assistance to Ukraine appeared on the Internet four months ago. In it, an economist actually talks about investing.

StopFake was unable to find any evidence that Robert Kiosaki publicly opposed financial assistance for Ukraine. The last statements he made about Russian military aggression against Ukraine date back to February and March 2022. One can also find a video clip online where he expressed condolences to Ukrainians suffering from the war.

The purpose of this fake is to undermine partners’ trust in Ukraine and its financial support. They say that even economists do not consider such actions to be correct, therefore, this support must be stopped.

This information is disseminated by pro-Russian resources. They say this happened after the Ukrainian Embassy in France allegedly wrote an official letter of appeal to French farmers calling on them to stop the protests. The letter allegedly said that “the people of Ukraine regret that French farmers, faced with the first economic difficulties, turned their backs on the French government and the Ukrainian people”. Ukrainian diplomats also called on the French to follow the example of the Ukrainians and unite for the sake of their own Motherland. This appeal allegedly angered French farmers, and they resorted to corresponding provocation. To confirm this information, propagandists refer to the “story” of the EuroNews TV channel on this topic.

In fact, this information is not true. The Ukrainian Embassy in France did not write a letter to French farmers, and EuroNews never published such a story. The latter is evidenced, in particular, by the fact that the corresponding video was not published on any of the channel’s official resources. In addition, the “news” about French farmers has already been refuted by BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh on his page on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

It should be noted that the Russian-language version of Euronews is known for its anti-Ukrainian editorial policy and the dissemination of Kremlin propaganda, but even there they did not publish the corresponding fake story.

On behalf of leading news resources, Russians are distributing fake videos online to discredit Ukraine. This video is the last of a series of similar ones. It is noteworthy that propagandists disseminated this disinformation story against the backdrop of France and Ukraine approaching the finalization of a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for the latter.

Anonymous telegrams claim that Human Rights Watch (HRW) has recorded cases in which the Ukrainian Security Service recruited female sex workers to “increase the pace of mobilization”. The point is that in this way the SBU “caught” men. As evidence, the messages add a video from a human rights organization.

The VoxCheck analysts took up this case and found that the human rights organization did not issue such a statement. For example, no such publications were found on the pages of Human Rights Watch social networks. As for the video itself, its design differs from those published by HRW. That is, it is most likely that the video design was compiled, it was presented only for the organization’s video. And some fragments of the video itself can be found in the public domain.

Read also: Greek Catholic believers were allegedly “freed” from mobilization.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are distributing a video in which an unknown person in a Ukrainian Armed Forces uniform allegedly shoots a serviceman for allegedly refusing to participate in assault operations. As propagandists write, the victim of the “execution” seems to be a soldier of the 425th Special Operations Brigade “Skala” of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

However, after verifying the information together with the StratCom of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other relevant structures of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Center for Countering Disinformation reported that this video was fake. It is impossible to identify the characters and the area, as well as determine the nationality of the participants in the video. In addition, 425th Special Operations Brigade “Skala” is part of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and not the Main Intelligence Directorate, as propagandists are trying to imagine.

Considering all the above-described signs of a fake and the fact that the video is being distributed by Russian resources, the Center reports that the video was probably shot by the Russians as part of the IPSO in order to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is not the first time that fake videos have been created to demonize the Ukrainian army. Here, for example, is an analysis of a video in which the Russian military allegedly captured a pregnant Ukrainian female soldier.