In recent days, pro-Russian telegram channels have been spreading information through the network that an offensive from Belarus will take place in the near future. Allegedly, the western regions of Ukraine are massively preparing for defense - trenches are being dug all over the territory and everything is mined.

In fact, the “invasion from Belarus” is one of the most common messages of Russian propaganda. Stuffing with thoughts about preparing Ukraine for an offensive from Belarus into the Ukrainian media space, propagandists are trying to sow panic and strike fears among Ukrainians.

Russian propaganda media, citing The Wall Street Journal, reported that Western and Ukrainian officials and analysts called on the Ukrainian Armed Forces to leave Bakhmut and retreat to a new line of defense while such a withdrawal is possible. They say that the battle for Bakhmut takes place on Russia's terms, because of which the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost the forces necessary for the spring offensive.

In fact, an article in The Wall Street Journal titled “Russia gains ground in east Ukraine as fight for Bakhmut intensifies”, which Russian resources refer to, does not contain any appeals to the Ukrainian army to leave Bakhmut. The article describes the situation on this sector of the front, where, according to the British Ministry of Defense, Russian troops and members of the Wagner Group paramilitary force “now most likely control the majority of Soledar, 6 miles northeast of Bakhmut”. The WSJ writes that the encirclement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by the Russians in Bakhmut is still unlikely.

The article contains quotes from President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, military journalist Yurii Butusov and Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar. Their words boil down to the fact that even with the capture of Soledar, the Russian army will not achieve anything and that the battle for Soledar continues. None of the Ukrainian representatives said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly “continue to fail”.

Bakhmut and Soledar in the Donetsk region remain the site of some of the fiercest fighting between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Russian occupiers. Russian propagandists use the information field in these battles, spreading fakes about non-existent movements or using fake calls for retreat, as in the case of the WSJ article. This is necessary to demonstrate success in the war after a series of defeats from the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Russian military command created a special document for propagandists to cover the events of the war against Ukraine. Now they should praise Serhii Shoihu and not mention the Wagner group.

The document was analyzed by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

General recommendations contain eleven points, the main content of which is:

1) Orientation to information exclusively from sources agreed by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation;

2) Emphasizing in informational materials and comments of “independent” experts on the leading and positive role personally of Serhii Shoihu and Valerii Herasymov;

3) Justifying strikes on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure, referring to the “forcedness” of such actions;

4) Emphasizing the theme of providing Ukraine with Western weapons. In this sense, it is especially recommended to focus on the fact that “Russia is conducting a military operation not against Ukraine, but against the entire NATO”;

5) Refusal to mention the Wagner military group in a positive context. Emphasizing excessive human losses and Wagner meaningless attacks;

6) Tracking and citing publications in foreign media about the successes of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the failure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It is proposed to focus particular attention on the statements of Western and Ukrainian politicians, which can be interpreted in a similar vein.

As explained in the Main Intelligence Directorate, the document indicates a fundamental change in emphasis on covering the course of events in the war against Ukraine and the aggravation of the political struggle within Russia.

This was written by anonymous pro-Kremlin telegram channels. Allegedly, in Ivano-Frankivsk, a local tattoo parlor offers a special promotion: the removal of a swastika for half the price. The proof is the “photo” of the banner with the announcement of such a “promotion”. This photo was also circulated on the Polish forum.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project checked the shared photo using Google and Bing image search platforms and found that photos of the Tattooirograf tattoo studio, located in the Russian city of Biisk, Altai Territory, were used to create a fake.

In the announcement, the propagandists wrote the word “share” in Russian, not as it would be correct in Ukrainian. By spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda once again wants to nourish the narrative that Ukrainians are Nazis. It arose back in 2014, Russian propaganda justified the invasion of the territory of two regions of Ukraine with the so-called Nazism, calling the Ukrainian authorities criminal and illegal. Ukrainians became Nazis allegedly because they “destroy the people of Donbas”, ban the Russian language, hate everything Russian, etc. And the so-called denazification became one of the fictional reasons for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

On December 13, this information was circulated in English on Twitter by the Russian Embassy in London. This post was shared among the English-speaking sector on Twitter. Also, the Russian media published relevant news with reference to the embassy.

On the embassy’s page, a video was circulated as evidence, in which the Ukrainian military is working with drones, attaching details with the inscription “OB” to them. Russian propagandists in the diplomatic mission believe that the Ukrainian military is apparently preparing to use chemical weapons, probably phosgene. Allegedly, the video shows gas cylinders with the inscription “OB”, which means “poisonous ammunition”.

In fact, the Russians distributed edited excerpts of a video published in a telegram by the Ukrainian military, the commander of the Madiar Birds aerial reconnaissance group with the call sign Madiar. He showed how Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance officers assemble the Molfar folk kamikaze drone with a warhead on their own. In another video, Madiar demonstrated how kamikaze drones work near Soledar at a Russian military point.

Russian propagandists are stuffing with fakes into the information space about the possible use of chemical weapons by the Ukrainian military in order to change the topic from their own failures near Bakhmut and Soledar, which they planned to capture before January 1, 2023.

Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of using and distributing banned weapons. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry recorded an alleged chemical attack on the Russian military from a Ukrainian drone and unmanned vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were found for spraying chemicals.

Ukraine ratified the international Chemical Weapons Convention, which includes phosphorus, in 1998. Then the entire chemical arsenal that Ukraine inherited from the USSR was destroyed. At the same time, Russia is using banned weapons in Ukraine.

In social networks and enemy telegram channels, a message is spreading that a probable photo of Stepan Bandera along with the German Nazi leadership has got into the network. Like, he is dressed in the uniform of the Wehrmacht, and even the reward is visible on the bust - supposedly the Cross of military merit. The authors of the message add that this photo is prohibited in Ukraine. It is not true.

Analysts of the Lithuanian project “15min naujenos” say that in reality in the photograph is not Bandera, but Reinhad Hellen, a well-known figure in the army intelligence during the Second World War, and later the founder of the German federal intelligence service. Fact-checkers say that the photo appeared on the web after 2014, in Livejournal, a blogging platform that is popular in Russia.

Propagandists have repeatedly spread fake stories about Ukrainian figures, including Stepan Bandera. The purpose of the fake is to nourish the narrative that Ukrainians are Nazis and are aimed at creating an idea of Ukrainian historical figures as exclusively Nazis and collaborators, which at the same time undermines the image of modern Ukraine and its authorities.

Pro-Russian telegram channels distributed information about allegedly secret training of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, police and fire protection of the Lublin voivodeship of Poland. They reported that Kyiv is preparing for a humanitarian catastrophe and is conducting exercises aimed at “preventing a massive uncontrolled flow of migrants”. Allegedly, Poland is afraid of the flow of refugees from a neighboring country.

In fact, according to VoxCheck, the study was reported publicly. On December 16, they were reported on their official pages by the State Emergency Service of the Volyn region, the State Migration Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The local media also wrote about them. There was no secret in the conduct of the training.

The purpose of the event was to work out the main actions in case of crowding at the border. Also, interaction with Polish colleagues was worked out to help citizens temporarily located at checkpoints across the state border.

Since the beginning of the war, the Russian media have been constantly writing about Ukrainian and Polish relations. In particular, that allegedly in the near future Poland will begin the occupation of the west of Ukraine, or that the number of HIV-infected people in the country has increased due to Ukrainian refugees. Thus, Russia is trying to sow discord between Ukraine and Poland.

The network disseminates information about the allegedly arrived at the National Institute of Surgery and Transplantation named after Shalimov of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, seriously wounded soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The report claims that the military is sorely lacking in blood. However, this is fake.

The fact-checkers of the NotaYenota project drew attention to the case on the network. According to fact-checkers, the information quickly gained popularity and was shared more than two thousand times. Reposts were made by such famous personalities as, for example, Israel army officer Yigal Levin and Ukrainian TV presenter Natalia Moseichuk.

In fact, this information is false. On the official pages of the National Institute of Surgery and Transplantation named after Shalimov of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine there is no information about the arrival of the seriously wounded. It should also be added that since February 24, 2022, there has never been a shortage of blood and its components in Ukraine. More than 100,000 volunteers have already been registered on the DonorUA platform, making it possible to meet all the needs of blood, both military and civilian.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists seek to sow panic and show that the situation at the front is very bad, because there are many wounded and they are critically lacking blood.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. Allegedly, the Pentagon has reservations regarding the transfer of weapons to Ukraine. The reports claim that the samples received by Ukraine always work under the control of American instructors, since there is a threat of disclosure of technology. There is also allegedly a risk that the weapon will fall into the hands of a third party or in the hands of Russia.

Russian propaganda is systematically spreading messages that the West does not want to help Ukraine with weapons. In fact, the United States has been transferring weapons to Ukraine since the beginning of the great war, just like other states. The lendlease mechanism has not yet started working, but this depends not only on the “desire” of the United States, but also on the financial capabilities of Ukraine.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads rumors that Western weapons are resold on the black market, but so far there is no evidence of this. The United States really controls how the weapons provided to Ukraine are used, for this they created an Interim special commission.

Previously, propagandists argued that the supply of weapons to Ukraine increases the number of victims and prolongs the “conflict”.

Russian propaganda media, citing a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, reported that “the entry of new regions into Russia should be taken into account in the event of a possible resumption of negotiations with Ukraine”. Also, the media of the enemy are actively spreading the thesis that the negotiation process should be “direct”. That is, without the mediation of the West.

This is not the first time that Russia has been trying to persuade Ukraine to negotiate using various methods. In particular, often manipulating that the war continues only because Ukraine does not want to negotiate. However, every time when it comes to potential negotiations, Russia sees them only on its own terms. This time, Russia sees them as possible only if Ukraine recognizes that the territories occupied by Russia are ceded to Russia.

In fact, Ukraine withdrew from the negotiation process last spring. The main condition for their restoration is the return of territories in accordance with the 1991 borders, but Russia does not abandon attempts to put forward ultimatums and threats, although they are not successful.

Telegram channels massively disseminate information that there is a list of places where draft notices will be handed out in each of the regions. Like, from January 11, 2023, draft notices will be handed out anywhere in Ukraine, because the law does not regulate the place of their delivery. Anyone can view the list of places where this will take place in order to avoid serving the draft notices.

In fact, information about clearly defined territories where draft notices will be handed out is fake. Local recruitment and social support centers did not report this either on their official pages in social networks or on official websites. So, there is no reason to believe this information. As the fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Liar) project, the message about the delivery of draft notices dated January 11, is also not true. In Ukraine, mobilization has been going on for 10 months, starting on February 24, 2022. Every man of military age can get a draft notice.

According to fact-checkers, public administrators on social networks disseminate such messages deliberately, realizing that they are manipulating socially important information. Such manipulations help the authors of telegram channels to increase their audience. In addition, such messages also shake the situation in society.

Russian media and pro-Russian resources are spreading information that Turkey is supplying Ukraine with Cold war-era cluster bombs. The primary source of the messages is an article in the American edition of Foreign Policy. Its authors refer to anonymous sources among US and EU officials. It's fake.

The message was denied by the Ambassador of Ukraine to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar. He noted that information about the supply of cluster bombs is deliberately disseminated in order to blow up Ukrainian-Turkish relations and create a bad image of Ukraine and Turkey in the world. According to StopFake, the Foreign Policy material “Turkey sends Cold War cluster bombs to Ukraine” contains value judgments without specific evidence provided by witnesses or participants in such shipments.

According to the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international group on combating the use of cluster munitions, the Russian army used them hundreds of times in 2022 in ten of Ukraine's 24 regions. This could have affected more than 600 civilians. Thus, Russian propaganda uses the tactics of reflection and tries to cover up its own crimes.

Previously, propagandists accused Ukraine of allegedly supplying Azerbaijan with banned phosphorus munitions; allegedly Ukraine used chemical weapons against the Russian military in the Zaporizhzhia region. Russian propaganda also said that supposedly Russia does not have banned chemical weapons.

Russian media and pro-Russian resources write that, according to Japan, Avanhard hypersonic missiles have become a “real headache” for the United States. They say that even American air defense systems are not capable of intercepting such missiles. The original source is the Japanese edition of Shukan Gendai. This is manipulation.

In fact, an article in the Japanese edition of Shukan Gendai “Fear of the latest Russian nuclear weapons Avanhard” refers to the danger of this system for Ukraine, and not for the United States. The material does not mention that these Russian weapons “became a headache for the United States”. Moreover, Putin spoke about the fact that such missiles cannot be shot down by any air defense and missile defense system, but there is no evidence of this. At the same time, the United States has never said that it is providing Ukraine with the Patriot air defense system to counter the nuclear threat. According to StopFake analysts, this article is contradictory, and the conclusions made by the author indicate a superficial knowledge of the situation in Ukraine.

Russian propaganda distorted the content of the article and added non-existent quotes to promote the message of their own “power”. Previously, propagandists manipulated photos of new Russian tanks.

Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels write about this after the message of Polish President Andrzej Duda about the transfer of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Propagandists write that this will not affect the front in any way. They say that these tanks will not provide Ukraine with a decisive advantage. It seems to be just a demonstration of support for Ukraine.

In fact, in this way, Russian propaganda is trying to be proactive and use the tactics of depreciation after any reports of providing new weapons to Ukraine. The same messages are now being extended to the Patriot air defense system, which the United States plans to transfer. Like, one installation will not cope with so many Russian missiles, so there will be no significant changes.

Russian media and pro-Russian resources report that, allegedly on January 10, in Kharkiv, Russians struck at the pyrotechnics, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine stored ammunition. It seems that in addition to fireworks, explosions of shells were also heard. The reports also suggested that the personnel of the Ukrainian army were allegedly in the same place. This is manipulation.

The Russians really struck into the pyrotechnics in Kharkiv. On the spot, law enforcement officers seized fragments of a cluster shell, previously from the Smerch MLRS. After hitting a one-story warehouse building, a fire broke out. According to the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, this store of pyrotechnics has been renting this warehouse for about 20 years.

There is no confirmation of the detonation of ammunition. According to preliminary information, there are no victims either, which refutes the propagandists' assumptions about the placement of Ukrainian servicemen nearby. Local residents also confirmed that it was pyrotechnics that exploded, and not shells.

Russian propaganda is spreading messages that the actions of the Ukrainian authorities are comparable to the Taliban. They say that the demolition of the monument to Catherine II in Odesa, which was a “sacred symbol” for many Ukrainians, is reminiscent of the destruction of Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley by the Taliban in 2001. The fact-checkers of EU vs Disinfo drew attention to the spread of the message.

Russian propaganda systematically manipulates the theme of a “single Russian-Ukrainian cultural space” and universal history. Also, propagandists systematically use comparisons of Ukraine or Ukrainians with criminal regimes for manipulation and emotional pressure. The dismantling of the monument to Catherine II in Odesa was repeatedly used to spread messages about russophobia and create a destructive image of Ukrainians. In fact, the monument was dismantled after a long public discussion, that is, in a democratic, not totalitarian way.

Russian propaganda tells a foreign audience that the State Bureau of Investigation and the SSU (Security service of Ukraine) allegedly organized excavations of graves in the villages of Kozacha Lopan, Velykyi Burluk, Shypovate and Khatnie in the Kharkov region. Like, they are digging up the burial places of local residents who died of natural causes during the stay of Russian troops in these settlements. As if, after the exhumation, the bodies of these Ukrainians were mutilated and thrown into special pits in the vicinity of the villages in order to create false evidence of “torture” and “execution” of civilians by Russian soldiers. Allegedly now, Secret Service and police agents are photographing and filming these bodies and “imitating the work of forensic and other experts in front of fake “witnesses”. The fact-checkers of EU vs Disinfo drew attention to the spread of the message.

In the Kharkiv region, the exhumation of those who died as a result of Russian aggression and the recording of Russia's war crimes are indeed continuing. At the end of October 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported that they had already recorded about forty thousand war crimes. Therefore, Russian propaganda is once again trying to hide what they have done and expose Russia as a victim of provocations.

Russian media report that Ukraine allegedly recognized the effectiveness of Russian cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. Russian propaganda claims that Viktor Zhora, Deputy Chairman of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, told Politico about this. This is not true.

The Politico article referred to by the propagandists does not say a word about the effectiveness of Russian cyberattacks. As StopFake writes, the material states that such attacks should be considered war crimes, since they are aimed at the critical and civilian infrastructure of Ukraine. At the same time, both the SBU (Security service in Ukraine) and the State Special Communications Service reported that during the full-scale war, Russian hackers did not achieve strategic goals. Ukrainian experts collect evidence of cyberattacks carried out by Russia together with missile attacks, and transfer this information to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

At the end of 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine said that they neutralized hundreds of Russian cyber attacks and cyber incidents on Ukrainian energy facilities, of which about 30 could become supercritical. The State Service for Special Communications reported that 2,100 cyber incidents and cyber attacks were recorded against Ukraine, of which more than 1,500 were initially made after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Most often, Russian hackers attack the public sector, especially the energy sector.

Telegram channels supervised by Russian intelligence spread reports that Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov is “rejoicing” that the Ukrainians have “become a shield for NATO”, and all the sacrifices of the Ukrainians “for this”. This is manipulation.

Telegram channels cut out a piece of video from the interview of the Minister of Defense to Olena Froliak, the TV presenter of “Okna” (“Windows”) on STB, where he says that now, finally, after 10 months of war, his colleagues from Europe and the United States recognize what they denied at the beginning of the war: it is Ukraine now defends the civilizational choice of all of Europe and the Western world as such. And now, in fact, it is Ukraine that is fulfilling the NATO mission that the alliance set for itself. Therefore, Reznikov believes, NATO countries are not providing assistance to Ukraine quickly enough, recognizing the fact that Ukrainians, among other things, are saving them from Russia.

Telegram channels from a network supervised by Russian intelligence spread the message that President Zelenskyi allegedly could have held talks with Putin during the Beijing Olympics as early as February, so the war would not have started. But Ukraine's Western partners seem to have banned Zelenskyi from going to Beijing, because they “had their own plans for Ukraine”. This is manipulation.

The information that Zelenskyi was supposedly banned from going to Beijing is spread with reference to an article in the Financial Times, which, citing sources, says: Putin did not warn Chinese President Xi Jinping about plans for a Russian invasion of Ukraine. And Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Le Yucheng was even demoted because he could not foresee the invasion. This Financial Times story denies the earlier notion that China has asked Putin not to go into war in Ukraine before the Olympics are over.

In this material, there is no mention of a possible visit or negotiations between Zelenskyi and Putin at all. And there are no facts or arguments in favor of the theory that Zelenskyi wanted to leave for Beijing or planned to do so, but someone or something prevented him.

At the same time, it is known that before Putin's trip to Beijing, his press secretary Pieskov reported that Putin did not plan to meet with anyone other than the head of China, including due to COVID restrictions. A few days before Putin's visit to China, Russian Foreign Minister Serhii Lavrov offered Zelenskyi to meet with Putin in Moscow, St. Petersburg or Sochi, but immediately warned that Donbas or Crimea's ownership could not be topics of discussion. Zelinskyi refused such an offer, and later said that he did not plan to visit Beijing - instead, he had meetings scheduled in Kyiv with representatives of Ukraine's allied countries.

A screenshot of a message allegedly sent by the SSU (Security Service of Ukraine) is being circulated on social networks. The message refers to the need for men who are abroad to urgently appear at “points for the preparation and recruitment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. If the man does not show up voluntarily, the SSU plans to go to court “in order to deport the person liable for military service to Ukraine”. This message is fake.

As StopFake journalists found out, the box of this message was first published in the Typical Odesa telegram channel, which distributes Russian propaganda. Subsequently, it was published by other propaganda telegram channels.

The message contains grammatical and factual errors: for example, there are no “points for the preparation and recruitment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. They are officially called territorial recruitment and social support centers. It is also known that the SBU does not use the telegram channel to send any messages.

The Russian Ministry of Defense claims to have “avenged” the murdered Russian mobilized who died in the dormitory of a vocational school in Makiyivka on the night of January 1, 2023. Russian propagandists write about a “retaliation strike” against Kramatorsk, which allegedly killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers. But these statements by the Russian Ministry of Defense are fake, refuted by foreign media, the Ukrainian army leadership, and even Russian “patriotic channels”.

According to Ihor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian artillery hit dormitories No. 28 and No. 47 in Kramatorsk. But four film crews of foreign media - Antti Kuronen, a Finnish journalist from the Yle television and radio company, CNN journalists, Daniele Raineri, a correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, and Reuters journalists - visited these two buildings and did not find any evidence of the death or injury of Ukrainian military or civilians. Moreover, both buildings are almost unscathed - only one had broken windows, the other building was not damaged at all. Local residents heard the explosions, but did not see any ambulances or the work of rescuers. Russian missiles definitely hit near the buildings: one crater is located near the school, the other missile, judging by the photographs, hit the garage. The Grey Zone telegram channel, close to Wagner's private military company, wrote that although the hostel buildings themselves were not destroyed, the Russian command “should hold their noses, since the decision-making center is probably located in the garage”. Other z-patriotic channels called Konashenkov's statements a lie. The Ukrainian army also said that the Russian Ministry of Defense is lying.

Collaborator Volodymyr Saldo, who calls himself the “interim governor” of the Kherson region, spread a fake in an interview on Volodymyr Soloviov’s channel that the Ukrainian military is randomly shelling Kherson, and the Russian army has nothing to do with the shelling. In addition, he said that the Ukrainian military were shelling the Ukrainian city with “mobile mortar groups”.

What “mobile mortar groups” are, according to Saldo, is not clear, as it is not clear why the Ukrainian army should shell a city with civilian Ukrainian citizens at all. At the same time, Saldo claims that Ukrainian “mortar groups” only fire at “significant objects”, they do it at night and solely because they are afraid of “security units”, as if they are shooting those who do not follow the instructions to “shell Kherson”.

The “security units” that travel around the city with “mobile groups” are an invention of Saldo himself. But the fake information about “mortar mobile groups” of the Ukrainian army appeared during the first stage of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014. This is written in the publication “Bridge”.

At that time, Russian propaganda spread the same stories about Ukrainian “mortar mobile groups” that allegedly shelled Luhansk, Donetsk and other occupied cities of Donbas. It is clear that there were no “mobile groups”, and Luhansk, Donetsk and, for example, Shakhtarsk were fired upon by militants of various criminal groups such as the Zaria (Star) battalion. The head of the so-called LNR (Luhansk national republic), Valerii Bolotov, spoke about this in an interview with Russian media in 2016. There is other evidence that Luhansk was shelled by the Luhansk residents themselves, who joined illegal armed formations. Read more about this here.

Russian media and users of the Georgian and Russian language segments of Facebook are distributing BBC infographics, allegedly created according to the American edition of Forbes, from which it follows that the military-political leadership of Ukraine enriched themselves during the war. But this is fake.

Russian media report that Volodymyr Zelenskyi's capital has grown from $650 million to $1.5 billion. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, and adviser to the head of the presidential office Mykhailo Podoliak also seem to have become billionaires; Volodymyr Klychko’s fortune reached almost 800 million dollars.

As noted by the Myth Detector project, a created graphic is a forgery. On December 27, 2022, Forbes Ukraine did indeed publish a list of the 20 richest people in the country, but none of the Ukrainian politicians mentioned in posts of Russian-language media appears on it. The top five richest Ukrainians in 2022 look like this: Renat Akhmetov, Viktor Pinchuk, Konstiantyn Zhevaho, as well as two IT entrepreneurs - Oleksii Shevchenko and Maksym Lytvyn. Everyone who used to be on the lists of the richest people in Ukraine, and those who were in the top 20 for the first time, have significantly lost their fortune this year. The BBC actually created its own infographic based on the Ukrainian Forbes data, all the data of it coincide with the Forbes data, and there is no president, no defense minister, or other officials in it.

We recall that earlier Russian media have already spread fakes about the status of Volodymyr Zelenskyi and called him a dollar billionaire. According to estimates, in fact, Zelenskyi's fortune is estimated at 20-30 million dollars.

Pro-Russian and propaganda telegram channels write that the 56th US ex-secretary of State argues that Ukraine should be left alone and not be included into any institutions and organizations such as the EU and NATO. Like, if Ukraine joined NATO, the borders of the North Atlantic Alliance would be within 500 kilometers from Moscow. Propagandists say that then Russia will experience a constant threat and danger from NATO.