Telegram channels and social networks are circulating reports that dangerous Romanian-made cookies have been found in Kharkiv. The messages refer to information from the Kharkiv state food and consumer service. The messages say that supposedly it would not surprise anyone if such cookies were given out as humanitarian aid. They say that only spoiled foreign-made products can be received free of charge. This is manipulation.

The State food service indeed spread information about Romanian-made cookies, in which they found a high content of acrylamide. Such messages were spread throughout Ukraine, moreover, in other countries too. As the Kharkiv anti-corruption center explains, Ukraine, like other states, received a warning about a dangerous product through the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and informed people about it. The Kharkiv anti-corruption center notes that there is no information about whether this brand of cookies was sold at all in the Kharkiv region.

That is, propagandists used messages about potential danger to sow panic among Kharkiv residents. Like, humanitarian aid is either not given out, or dangerous products are offered.

During the air raid on January 26, pro-Russian telegram channels wrote that the Ukrainian air defense system could not cope with massive rocket attacks. They say it shoots down only ten percent of the missiles, the rest allegedly hit the target.

Russian propaganda constantly accompanies massive missile strikes with information attacks, in particular, on the operation of the air defense system. They say that the Ukrainian authorities lie about the number of missiles and forbid showing their hit results in order to hide the real state of affairs. Allegedly, the president's office exaggerates the effectiveness of air defense and “invents” missile attacks. Or they manipulate the fact that if the Ukrainian air defense works as efficiently as possible, the West no longer needs to supply weapons to Ukraine.

The purpose of such information attacks is psychological pressure on Ukrainians in a period of emotional vulnerability. The Russians are trying to intimidate the Ukrainians even more, level out the trust in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and force them to surrender.

Russian propaganda spreads messages to foreign audiences that countries are reducing aid to Ukraine because of corruption. Like, CIA director William Burns admitted this during his visit to Kyiv.

According to EU vs Disinfo analysts, Burns did say that it would be more difficult for Ukraine to get help from the United States. However, this is due to changes in US domestic politics, but not to corruption in Ukraine. Russian propaganda once again distorted the Western official's quote to advance their interests. Support for Ukraine abroad is not decreasing. Moreover, a number of countries, including the United States, announced a decision to provide Ukraine with regular aid packages and military equipment, including tanks.

Russian propaganda is systematically spreading messages to discredit Western aid to Ukraine. Allegedly, Ukraine is being supplied with “scrap”, and it will never receive the desired weapons.

After the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine, Western states supporting the Ukrainians stopped or limited trade with the aggressor; well-known brands left the Russian market; a significant number of European countries closed their airspace and imposed retaliatory sanctions on the criminal actions of the Russian army. To explain why the world reacts this way to the “special military operation”, Russia uses the word “russophobia”.

“Russophobia” is the term for all actions aimed at deterring Russian aggression against Ukraine. According to the messages of the Kremlin media, this is a completely groundless phenomenon, which means hatred for everything Russian: from products to culture.

According to the definition of Russian wikipedia, there is a kind of “russophobia” on a cultural and ideological basis, which arose because of the West's idea of its own superiority in cultural and economic terms, and Ukraine fell under the destructive influence of the West. The main idea promoted by the Russian media - ”russophobia”, that is, all measures to stop Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, has no reason.

In fact, the so-called “Russophobia” is nothing more than a response to the actions of the Russian army, leadership and people. The Russians bear collective responsibility for the aggression against Ukraine, which they supported either by their respective statements or silence. World condemnation and sanctions against the aggressor are the consequences of Russia's criminal actions, and not vice versa, as Moscow is trying to convince everyone.

Russia presents “russophobia” as a separate type of Nazism, which originated in Ukraine and is massively spreading around the world. Anyone who criticizes Russia is a russophobe, and, accordingly, a Nazi. At first, the disinformation message about “russophobia” was aimed more at the Ukrainian audience, but after the international community supported Ukraine in the war, it spread to European countries as well. It even went as far as accusing Israel of Nazism.

Russia substitutes the meanings of concepts. The Kremlin media put the meaning of another term into the word “russophobia”, namely xenophobia – a sharp rejection of a foreign culture, language and way of life, which can manifest itself in the political life of the state through discrimination based on national and cultural grounds. The meaning of this word in a much narrower sense, according to Russian propaganda, is hidden behind the term “russophobia”. With so-called russophobia, Russia also justifies the attack on Ukraine.

This is the second text for the new section “Newspeak”, which Detector Media is launching as part of the “Disinformation Chronicles” project. In it, we will tell and explain new lexemes that Russian propaganda uses to distort reality.

We recall that the newspeak is an artificial language from George Orwell's dystopian novel “1984”. In the novel, Newspeak names words that lose their original meaning and have a completely opposite connotation. For example: war - peace. According to the plot of the novel, such a technique was used by the totalitarian party. It was it who gained popularity among representatives of real totalitarian regimes. In particular, Nazi and Russian.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels in the context of the fact that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized that Russia's aggression against Ukraine began in 2014. Russia, thus, uses the tactics of substitution of concepts and shifts the responsibility for the events in Ukraine to the Ukrainian authorities.

Russia in 2014 sent troops to the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Russian President launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. This has been recognized by the whole world. Russia is trying to divide Ukrainians with such messages, sow internal discord, playing with sympathies or antipathies for the current and former president.

Russian propaganda is systematically trying to shift the responsibility for the full-scale invasion and war crimes of the Russian army to Ukraine. They say that it is not Russian missiles that are guilty of civilian deaths, but the work of Ukrainian air defense; the Americans are guilty of provoking Russia to attack Ukraine; Ukrainian officials are to blame, because they are allegedly “asking” Russia to deliver a new strike to the Ukrainian energy system.

Pro-Russian telegram channels write about this. They say that Ukraine itself does not take any decision on military operations. Allegedly, the Ukrainians are assigned the role of “cannon fodder”. Like, this is confirmed by the visit of CIA Director William Burns to Kyiv to give instructions to Zelenskyi. The United States is slowly “pushing through” the decisions they need, affecting the speed of military assistance. Allegedly, sanctions against Russia are introduced gradually as an element of bargaining with Russia.

These messages nourish the “outside governance” narrative in Ukraine that has been going on since before the full blown upheaval. Also, Russian propaganda has repeatedly distributed memes that in Ukraine Russia is at war with the United States, NATO or the “collective West”. Thus, propagandists are trying to undermine the credibility of both the Ukrainian authorities and Western partners and destabilize the situation in the country. The United States is helping Ukraine resist Russian aggression, so Russia is trying to discredit the aid in every possible way.

Earlier, for this purpose, they wrote that the United States is using Ukraine as a testing ground for the development of weapons and the law on lend-lease involves huge debts, and that America is not profitable for Ukraine's victory. Like, Ukraine should fight on behalf of NATO. They also wrote that allegedly the United States is pushing Europe into the abyss.

This was reported in the Center for national resistance. On January 22, Russian propagandist Piehov shared a video allegedly filmed in the battles for Bilohorivka. The propagandist claims that he is “directly in Bilohorivka”. Like, the Russians are trying to break through the defense line “Siversk - Soledar - Bakhmut - Chasiv Yar”. In fact, the video was filmed in the temporarily occupied territory, on the outskirts of the village of Shypylivka, which is located almost eight kilometers from Bilohorivka, which is under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Moreover, the video shows how the Russians are fleeing from Ukrainian shelling.

On January 24, another Russian propagandist, Dambiyev, shared a video on his telegram channel, which allegedly recorded battles in the village of Krasna Hora near Bakhmut. However, this video is staged, it was filmed in Mariupol. This is evidenced by the results of the OSINT check of this video.

The situation in these sectors of the front is really difficult now, there are fights there. Probably, Russian propaganda, due to the spread of fake videos, is trying to demoralize Ukrainians and take credit for the next “achievements”.

Russian propaganda systematically uses fake videos to promote their interests. Previously, they distributed videos of how the Russian military shot sunflowers and boasted that it was a unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; how the Russians allegedly detained “Ukrainian saboteurs” on Russian territory; how they “destroyed” the Ukrainian tank division, etc.

Propaganda media and pro-Russian telegram channels spread the information that the US is not handing over the heavy Abrams tank to the Ukrainian Armed Forces because it cannot move in the snow. This is evidenced by the video, which shows how the Abrams tank unsuccessfully tries to climb a snowy hill. This is manipulation.

The video used by the propagandists does not give grounds to draw general conclusions about the possibility of using tanks in Ukraine. As the fact-checkers of The Insider project note, there are videos of winter exercises involving Abrams tanks in social networks, in particular in 2016 in Norway. The video shows how Abrams tanks move without problems in deep snow and icy roads, and when quickly descending from a snowy hill, one of them demonstrates an extreme driving technique - a controlled skid.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said at a briefing that so far, Abrams tanks have not been handed over to Ukraine because they are demanding to be maintained and need aviation fuel.

Thus, the propagandists are trying to convince the audience that any supply of Western weapons will in no way affect the military course of events. Propagandists are also trying to disrupt the supply of German Leopard tanks.

Telegram channels spread messages that there is a problem with humanitarian support in the Kharkiv region. Allegedly, problems arise in different settlements after the de-occupation. Volunteers seem to be unable to deliver aid for various reasons. They also write that the Kharkiv regional military administration reported that they had received a large batch of humanitarian aid from the UN, but people did not receive anything. Like, the products hit the shelves of stores. This is manipulation.

On the website of the Kharkiv regional administration, information is published on the provision of humanitarian assistance to the population. In particular, over the past week (January 16-22), about fourteen thousand food packages were handed over to the communities of the region. The website of the Humanitarian coordinating center has a map for tracking humanitarian assistance to the population. As the Kharkiv anti-corruption center notes, there may indeed be problems with receiving humanitarian assistance in some settlements of the occupied territories. However, Russian propaganda distorts the real state of affairs, in particular, humanitarian aid from the UN. It contained mattresses, bed linen, solar lamps, dishes, hygiene products and other household items, and not food, as the propagandists claimed.

Thus, propagandists are trying to create the illusion that Ukraine not only does not help people in the de-occupied territories, but is more comfortable with “hell for civilians”. Like, people are allegedly arrested for organizing sporting events or baking bread during the occupation; or they do not issue humanitarian aid and punish others for receiving it from the occupiers.

Messages are circulating on social networks that allegedly due to the difficult energy situation in the country Ukrainians are provided with a one-time payment of 2,300 hryvnias from the Red Cross.

Fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Liar) project checked the information and found that it was a scam. The scammers use a fake telegram channel called the Red Cross society, which has only 170 subscribers. At the same time, the official telegram channel of the organization has five thousand readers. Information about “assistance in connection with the energy situation in the country” is not there. Links to the pages of Ukrainian banks in messages are also fake. There is no information on such payments on the official pages of these banks. Fraudsters manipulate the limited registration time (only until 10:00 pm or only until 02:00 am) and ask to “hurry up to leave personal details” in order to receive “assistance”.

Also, to receive fake assistance, you need to enter your personal data, including your bank card number. This is a sign of phishing - the collection of personal data.

Fraudsters systematically use the difficult situation of Ukrainians because of war and offer a variety of “help”. The goal is different: from manipulative advertising of telegram channels to gaining access to bank cards of Ukrainians. In particular, earlier the scammers offered 6,000 hryvnias of “New Year's” assistance, 5,000 hryvnias of assistance from PrivatBank, financial assistance in conjunction with the Uappl project, and winter payments from the European Union.

Russian media are spreading reports that supposedly Russian intelligence has received confirmation that the Armed Forces of Ukraine store weapons and ammunition that have departed from the West at nuclear power plants. In particular, this allegedly concerns the HIMARS MLRS and large-caliber artillery shells. Like, Russia will not strike at nuclear facilities, and if the weapons are detonated, this can be blamed on Moscow. It is not true.

According to EU vs Disinfo analysts, Russia has not provided any evidence to support such reports. According to analysts, the purpose of such messages is to divert attention from the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which was captured by the Russian military.

Russian propaganda messages were also denied by the IAEA. The head of the agency, Rafael Grossi, said that the IAEA has established a permanent presence at all Ukrainian nuclear facilities. Also, on January 24, IAEA experts conducted an inspection at Ukrainian nuclear power plants and did not find a single military equipment.

Earlier, propagandists spread fakes that the head of the IAEA was “against” the demilitarization of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, and Ukraine plans to protect the nuclear power plant from itself. The propagandists also wrote that the alleged IAEA resolution allows Ukraine to fire at the ZNPP.

Russian propaganda spreads the message to the Western audience that allegedly Poland can receive part of the Ukrainian territories as “compensation” for paying the “Ukrainian debt” to the United States.

This message has no legal basis and is an invention of Russian propaganda. Thus, they are trying to promote the narrative about Poland's plans to seize part of the Ukrainian territories. EU vs Disinfo analysts drew attention to the spread of the message.

Earlier, as part of this narrative, propagandists spread messages that Poland considers the West of Ukraine to be its “colony”, that Poland needs the territory of Ukraine without Ukrainians. The propagandists also spread fakes about the referendum on the accession of the West of Ukraine to Poland and photos of voting ballots for the secession of the Lviv region from Ukraine and joining Poland.

Russian propagandists are spreading messages that Germany will become a “direct participant in the hostilities” and “a legitimate target of Russia” if it allows the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Thus, propagandists are trying to intimidate the Germans and prevent the supply of necessary weapons to Ukraine. Despite the fact that on social networks, at the initiative of German activists, “Viche” launched a flash mob to protest against the German government’s delay in supplying Leopard tanks to Ukraine, propagandists spread fakes that the Germans did not support the supply of weapons to Ukraine.

Russian propaganda used similar tactics of intimidation and emotional pressure earlier in relation to France. Propagandists spread messages that France was an “accomplice in genocide” in the East of Ukraine, as Ukraine was shelling Donbas from the French Caesar self-propelled guns. Allegedly, the use of French weapons makes France an accomplice in “crimes” against the civilian population.

Since the beginning of the great war, Russian propaganda has been spreading messages that: “Western weapons only continue the war and increase the number of victims”; “actually” in Ukraine “Russia is at war with NATO”; “The West supplies Ukraine with obsolete and low-quality weapons”. Read more in the Detector Media investigation.

The Russian media are spreading a quote from Swiss official Guy Parmelin. Allegedly, he said that Switzerland refused to commit suicide over the transfer of Russia’s frozen financial assets to Ukraine and believes that there are no legal grounds for confiscating Russian money. This is manipulation.

The Swiss official said nothing about Switzerland's refusal to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. Moreover, Swiss foreign minister Ignazio Cassis, in an interview with Tages-Anzeiger, confirmed that he supports the idea of confiscating frozen Russian funds and using them to restore Ukraine. StopFake fact-checkers note that currently the funds are not transferred to the Ukrainian side due to the lack of an appropriate legal framework, but this issue is already being discussed by a number of countries.

Thus, Russian propaganda nourishes the narrative that Ukraine is a weak state that will not win the Russian-Ukrainian war. Also, with such messages, propagandists are trying to demoralize the fighting spirit of Ukrainians and encourage Western states not to send weapons to Ukraine.

Some Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels are spreading the photo allegedly from Stuttgart Airport in Germany. Reports say that posters appeared at the airport calling on the authorities not to transfer tanks to Ukraine. The posters allegedly say: “Let the leopards stay in Germany! Stop the robbery of the Bundeswehr!”. It is not true.

Poster images have been edited in photo editors. StopFake journalists received confirmation from the press service of Stuttgart airport. They said the monitor seen in the photo only broadcasts commercials or occasional messages to passengers about security checks or other operational changes.

Thus, Russian propaganda nourishes the narrative that foreign citizens do not support Ukraine. Propagandists are also trying to influence the situation with the supply of Leopard tanks, in respect of which Germany must make a decision in the near future. Earlier, Russian propaganda wrote that the transfer of Leopard tanks by Poland was a “theatrical performance” that would not affect anything. This allegedly seems to have even been recognized by Zelenskyi.

On February 23, a few hours before a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and during Putin's official address, the Russian president declared that a clash between Russia and “nationalist forces” in Ukraine was inevitable. After that, the so-called special military operation was officially announced.

The special military operation is one of the most eloquent examples of how Russia uses newspeak to hide and distort reality, and at the same time absolve itself of responsibility under international law.

Special military operation (in Russian - SVO) is a term that has entered the dictionary of the Russian new language and is used to refer to Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine. In other words, the war that the aggressor country started. With the help of a combination of these words, the true meaning of the concept of “war” is blurred among people, because this is just an “operation” that is not associated with something bloody. And it seems to be done well. Propagandists have repeatedly noted that this “operation”, for example, is designed to save the Russian-speaking people, enslaved under the yoke of Ukraine. That is, the occupiers appear as some kind of liberators who allegedly carry out an “operation” for the sake of salvation.

However, there is a war going on in Ukraine, and this is clear without any announcements. However, international law is not focused on words and statements, but on specific actions. Therefore, what is happening from the point of view of international law is an obvious war. The terrorist country, masquerading as the concept of “SVO”, actually carried out a large-scale offensive on the territory of the whole of Ukraine and has been committing war crimes since the invasion. However, calling what is happening only an operation, Russia is blurring reality in order to hide its true goals in Ukraine.

This text is the first in the “Newspeak” section, which Detector Media is launching as part of the Disinformation Chronicles project. In it, we will tell and explain new lexemes used by Russian propaganda to distort reality.

We recall that the newspeak is an artificial language from George Orwell's dystopian novel “1984”. In the novel, Newspeak means words that lose their original meaning and have a completely opposite meaning. For example: war - peace. According to the plot of the novel, such a technique was used by the totalitarian party. It is this technique that has gained popularity among representatives of real totalitarian regimes. In particular, Nazi and Russian.

Russian media are spreading information that Ukraine plans to ban calling a hare “rusak”  (gray hare). Like, this name is associated with the Russians and Russia. As evidence, the propagandists cite an alleged video recording of a live broadcast on the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1. On it, during a story about the defense of the Donetsk airport in 2014-2015, the news feed allegedly noted: “The gray hare” will be forbidden to be called a “rusak-hare” - the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It's fake.

StopFake's fact-checkers discovered that an excerpt circulating online had been edited. The official account of the TSN program on Facebook has a full version of the broadcast of the news marathon for January 16 with a report by journalists from the Rada TV channel about the battles for the Donetsk airport, which was used by propagandists. The original video in the news feed contained information that the White House believes that Russia's attempts to demoralize the Ukrainians failed again, citing CNN.

In this way, Russian propagandists are trying to nourish the narrative that Ukrainians are Nazis and russophobes who hate everything related to Russians.

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.

The Russian media are massively spreading the news that American analysts “counted” Western volunteers participating in the war in Ukraine. The news claims that “the West is not only providing weapons, but also sending the military”. It's fake.

All this “news” refers to an article by The Washington Post, from which it is obvious that Western countries not only do not send their soldiers to Ukraine, but will also have a lot of problems in the future with people who voluntarily left to defend Ukraine. Firstly, because of the laws of some European countries that prohibit fighting for money in other armies (it is also prohibited in the USA). Secondly, the journalists of the American edition, after talking with volunteers, came to the conclusion that many of them ended up at the front, because their own states could not provide their veterans with the necessary level of support. That is, it is obvious that all these people went to war for personal reasons and no one “sent” them to Ukraine.

In addition, the article indicates the approximate numbers of warring foreigners - from 1,000 to 3,000, since the beginning of the war, about 1,000 were wounded, one hundred died.

All these data are approximate, the journalists could not get official data. But some Russian publications began to write that “out of 20,000 foreigners in Ukraine, only 3,000 remained”. This is another fiction: the figure of 20,000 volunteers and volunteers at the beginning of the war was voiced by representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, who claimed that approximately the same number of people responded to the call to defend Ukraine. In fact, this figure has never been confirmed by anyone. The Washington Post writes that most people who came to Ukraine have already returned home, but it is not known exactly how many of them.

Russian propaganda constantly speculates on the topic of foreign volunteers: since the beginning of the war, it has written that almost no one has come to Ukraine. Then, especially during the defeats at the front, the Russian media began to write that only foreigners were fighting against the Russians in Ukraine, and they were defeating the Russian army. The last such fake was spread by representatives of the illegal DNR group, claiming that it was foreigners who were fighting against them in Bakhmut. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to convince the audience that Russia is fighting against NATO countries, and not against Ukraine. Although in any article devoted to foreign volunteers in Ukraine, it is immediately emphasized that the number of Ukrainian military is such that a thousand or even three thousand foreign volunteers cannot significantly affect the situation at the front.

Russian media, as well as social media users, are spreading information that President Zelenskyi allegedly admitted that the supply of Western tanks will not be able to change the situation at the front and turn the tide of the war. This is manipulation.

As StopFake writes, in an interview with the ARD TV channel, Zelenskyi said that Germany still cannot decide on the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. He also said that the decision of an individual country to transfer or not to transfer a dozen tanks cannot significantly affect the course of the war:

“When they (the Russians) have a thousand tanks, not a single country that can give us 10 tanks, 20 tanks, 50 tanks, solves the problem. But they do one very important thing: they motivate our warriors to fight for their values, because they show that the whole world is with you”.

That is, it was about the decision of one country, specifically Germany, to provide or not provide tanks to Ukraine, and Zelenskyi's words are essentially a response to Olaf Scholz's frequent statements that Germany cannot provide Ukraine with heavy weapons because it is afraid to become a “party to the conflict”. Thus, Zelenskyi responded precisely to Scholz's words that Germany's decision would indeed not significantly affect the course of the war,  but the course of the war is influenced by the decisions of dozens of Ukraine's allied countries, and it is collective efforts (including providing tanks to Ukraine) that will help Ukraine win the war.

And it is even known exactly how many tanks Ukraine needs to return the territories occupied after February 24: in an interview with The Economist, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi said that this requires 300 tanks, about 700 infantry fighting vehicles and 500 howitzers.

By manipulating Zelenskyi's words, Russian propaganda is trying to convince the audience that Ukraine will not be able to win the war, despite any help from Western partners, and thereby influence public sentiment in Ukraine.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels after the meeting in the Ramstein format. Like, if earlier the President of Ukraine spoke about the liberation of the territories occupied by Russia, now he asks for weapons in order to “at least stop Russia”.

In fact, the rhetoric of the Ukrainian president has not changed. Russian propaganda manipulates Volodymyr Zelenskyi's quote from Ramstein speech. The propagandists took out of context a part of the speech with a call to “start a principled supply that will stop the Russian evil”. However, Zelenskyi's calls to guarantee the kind of artillery and air defense that would break terror and ensure victory were ignored. “So, let your decisions hit exactly! Just like our heroes are on the front line”, the President of Ukraine said.

Propagandists are systematically trying to discredit Volodymyr Zelenskyi both in Ukraine and abroad. Previously, they claimed that Zelenskyi signed the act of surrender during a visit to the United States. Allegedly, Zelenskyi could stop the war, but the West did not let him do it.

Pro-Russian and occupation telegram channels say that the Security service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested a resident of Kupiansk for baking and selling bread to locals during his stay under Russian occupation. Like, this is another act of the “terror of the Kyiv regime”. This is manipulation.

In fact, the former chief engineer of the Kupiansk bakery plant is accused of collaborating with the aggressor state. The detainee is accused of helping the Russians to export Ukrainian grain to the territory of Russia, to Rostov-on-Don.

As StopFake writes, the man not only openly supported the occupation authorities, but also forcibly took away the seals, stamps, statutory documents and personal files of employees from the chief accountant of the enterprise, and then handed them over to representatives of the occupation administration. For this, the occupation administration of Kupiansk appointed him the chairman of the “Food resources” enterprise created by the Russians, which exported Ukrainian grain from the temporarily occupied territory to Russia.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads fakes about the situation in the liberated territories of Ukraine. Earlier, they said that a pensioner from Kupiansk would be judged for organizing football matches during the occupation, and in Kherson, the Ukrainian military began repressions against civilians.

“Substitution of concepts” is one of the most common tactics of Russian propaganda. Propagandists artificially substitute commonly used terms (concepts) that evoke mostly negative emotions with new ones that are perceived neutrally or positively.

Propagandists use this tactic primarily to form a modern new language. Since 2014, Russian propaganda has been talking about the “civil war” in Ukraine. Behind this term, Russia's participation in the hostilities in the East of Ukraine was hidden. Like, citizens of one country are fighting. The term “war” has stable negative associations. To avoid the sharp dissatisfaction of Russians with the fact that Russia is starting a full-scale war against Ukraine, they came up with a new, more neutral term - “special military operation”. Thus, the substitution of concepts was used to calm down the Russians.

Using the tactics of substitution of concepts, Russian propaganda called the retreat from the Kyiv region, Chernihiv region, the liberation of Zmiyinyi island a “gesture of good will”. That is, the Russian media covered the defeat on the battlefield as a voluntary withdrawal of troops, moreover, as a favor done to the enemy (that is, Ukraine). Thus, the emotions of strong disappointment were replaced by more neutral ones.

Russian propaganda widely uses the substitution of concepts to highlight the participation of foreigners in the war on the side of Ukraine. They call all foreigners fighting in Ukraine mercenaries. In fact, foreign citizens who receive financial rewards for participating in hostilities are required to enter the service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and they are subordinated to its command. Otherwise, they fight as volunteers. Now Russian propaganda says that supposedly the fighters of the Wagner group are “courageous selfless volunteers”. Actually, the Wagner militants are mercenaries. The private company is not part of the Russian army, but receives financial rewards from Russia for participating in the war against Ukraine and coordinates its operations with the Russian military command. That is, Russian propaganda deliberately replaces one concept with another in order to confuse and change the attitude towards Ukrainian foreign military personnel and Russian mercenaries.

This text is the first in the “Tactics and tools” section, which Detector Media is launching as part of the Disinformation Chronicles project. In it, we will explain how the most common tactics, technologies, and tools that Russian propaganda uses to spread disinformation work.

This is the message propagandists use in their telegram channels and in the pro-Kremlin media. The report says that the propaganda TV company “Russia Today” is massively shut down in European countries. In particular, the enemies cited the example of France and said that there is no “freedom, equality and fraternity” there, hinting that the countries of the European Union do not profess the foundations of freedom of speech and the EU states comprehensively regulate their own media. It seems that one will not find out any truth from local media.

In fact, Russia Today is the center of Russian propaganda that spoke to a multinational audience by spreading Russian propaganda narratives against Europeans. The TV company was repeatedly accused of spreading lies, including about the war in Ukraine.

At the same time, on December 7, 2022, the European Commission made a proposal for the ninth package of sanctions against Russia, which provides for a restriction of almost 200 individuals and legal entities. In addition, the EU sanctions provided for the blocking of propaganda of the Russian Federation in Europe. As suggested by the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the ninth package provided for the impossibility of broadcasting four Russian channels. That is, the broadcasting of channels in Europe is stopped in order to prevent the spread of propaganda by Russia, which is waging a bloody war in Ukraine, and not because of the lack of freedom of speech.

This is the message propagandists use on social networks and on enemy telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. It says that Ukraine “provoked an ecological catastrophe” by allegedly lowering the water level in the Dnipro river lower and lower so that the river would freeze faster. As “evidence”, the authors of the messages publish various photographs and videos in which you can really see the shallow Dnipro and dead fish.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project investigated the case and found that the drop in the water level in the Dnipro was not at all connected with the work of the Ukrainian army, but with Russian shelling, as a result of which the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was damaged. On January 19, the Zaporizhzhia regional prosecutor's office opened criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Art. 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “On violation of the laws and customs of war”. Currently, priority investigative actions are underway to establish the amount of damage caused to the environment.

“Due to the hostilities and terrorist activities of the occupying troops, it is impossible to plan and carry out any repair and restoration work at the Kakhovka HPP. But everything needs to be fixed and the losses must be counted. According to preliminary data, the amount is already about 105 million hryvnia. The revealed facts have all the signs of a crime against the environment. The aggressor country must answer for them in full”, said Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration.