Spilnota Detector Media

Fake Along with missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, the offensive from Belarus and along the entire front line began

Russian propagandists actively spread such information today, October 10, after mass rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities. The reports say that in addition to Russian missile strikes on "infrastructural and military objects", the Russian military is also making progress along the entire front line, going on a repeat offense.

In particular, such reports also refer to an offensive from Belarus. However, it is not true. The Ukrainian authorities and the command of the Armed Forces denied the information about the offensive from Belarus and the advance of Russian troops along the front line.

As Suspilne writes, the Ukrainian leadership doesn`t have any data to confirm that Russia plans to organize a new offensive from the territory of neighboring Belarus, despite the statement of the Belarusian leader Oleksandr Lukashenko about the creation of a joint military unit with Russia. "Lukashenko continues to sell the last shreds of sovereignty to the Russian Federation.

The statement about the placement of the Russian contingent in Belarus under far-fetched pretexts is a formalization of the occupation," said Mykhaylo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the President's Office. According to him, Ukraine assesses the risks and is ready for any threats. However, it is profitable for propagandists to claim that Russia succeeds everywhere: not only is it "returning Ukraine to the Middle Ages" by shelling the thermal power plant, but it is also succeeding on the battlefield. In this way, propagandists seek to sow panic and intimidate Ukrainians.

Message The attack on the Crimean bridge opened a window of opportunity for Russia to start a "full-scale war"

After the fire on the Crimean bridge yesterday, October 8, several messages related to this event appeared in anonymous propaganda channels. In particular, propagandists spread the thesis that after the fire and partial collapse of the bridge, Russia will have a large window of opportunity to start a major war against Ukraine. It will be a good reason for a full-scale war, as at one time the USA allegedly started a war in Afghanistan in response to a terrorist act in September 2001.

So, in this way, propagandists claim that Ukraine is a terrorist state that carries out terror against Russia and Russian infrastructure objects. However, there is no official confirmation that Ukraine is involved in the situation with the bridge. Such messages have another function - intimidation. Because of such acts of alleged terrorism, Russia will now strike Ukraine's military and infrastructure facilities more and more often and will have an excuse for a full-scale war. Nevertheless, Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine already began on February 24 of this year: Russian troops illegally occupied four Ukrainian regions, destroyed dozens of not only infrastructural but also civilian objects, purposefully targeted convoys of civilians, destroyed residential buildings, hospitals, schools, etc. Although with the help of such messages, the propagandists allegedly show that Russia is not yet fighting at full strength, and Ukraine is provoking aggression.

The propagandists also claim that the "undermining of the Crimean bridge" is the same terrorist act of Ukraine as the alleged murder of Daria Dugina in Moscow. However, the fact that Ukraine was involved in the murder of Dugina has not been proven, and Russia has no serious evidence, except for propagandists' fiction. However, by portraying Ukraine as a terrorist country, propagandists shift the responsibility for their crimes and the outbreak of the war. Another message related to the fact that the "Western curators" finally gave the command to Ukraine to blow up the bridge. It is allegedly not Ukraine involved in this, but some other third and more developed countries, which were hoping for radicalization in the war on the part of Russia, but there is none yet. Read more about what was written in Telegram channels after the situation on the Crimean Bridge in the "Detector Media" review.

Fake Zaporizhzhia NPP becomes the property of Rosatom

These messages are distributed by Russian propaganda media and anonymous telegram channels. The report says that after the pseudo-referenda ZNPP came under the jurisdiction of Rosatom. However, this is not true.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, there can be no transfer of the ZNPP under the jurisdiction of Rosatom. The invaders actually carried out a raider seizure of the nuclear power plant by stealing the seal. The President of Energoatom, Deputy General Director of ZNPP Petro Kotin, issued an order to invalidate the stolen seal of the previous sample, and also approved the use of the new seal from October 6, 2022.

By spreading such manipulative statements, the Kremlin is trying to increase the world's nuclear blackmail and try to intimidate Ukraine's partner countries. Previously, propagandists spread reports that allegedly the Zaporizhzhia NPP was in a “catastrophic” state, and Russia had saved it. 

Fake The IAEA has confirmed Ukraine's involvement in the shelling of the ZNPP

Such messages are distributed on social networks, in particular in anonymous telegram channels. They say that the experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who visited the Zaporizhzhia NPP witnessed the shelling of the station from Ukraine. Like, the IAEA mission confirmed that the station is under Ukrainian attacks. However, this is not true.

As EU vs Disinfo analysts have verified, the IAEA did not report any “Ukrainian bombing/attack” either before or after this disinformation story. Although IAEA experts did record shelling in the vicinity of the station, they did not attribute it to any side. The statement then came from a local collaborator "appointed" by the Russian occupation authorities, and not from the IAEA.

Thus, the propagandists are trying to accuse Ukraine of dangerous actions around the Zaporizhzhia NPP and absolve themselves of any responsibility. Russia has carried out many threatening actions around the Zaporizhzhia NPP, including placing military equipment and troops on the territory of the station, using its environs as a missile base, and interrupting power lines. In addition, Russia rejected UN proposals to demilitarize the territories around the ZNPP because it deliberately waged a campaign of intimidation with the risks of a nuclear catastrophe in order to advance its goals in Ukraine.

Manipulation Ukraine has unleashed a war with Russia and refuses any negotiations

Such a message is spread by the Russian media against the backdrop of a recent statement by the Chairman of the Council of Federations Valentyna Matvienko, who called on the Ukrainian delegation to immediate negotiations. The reports refer to Putin's speeches where he said that it was Ukraine that allegedly unleashed a war back in 2014, began to wage hostilities against itself, and subsequently refused to sit down at the negotiating table. However, then and now it is a lie.

According to StopFake fact-checkers, after the so-called "referenda" on September 28, Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that the occupation of Ukrainian territories made negotiations with Putin impossible. On September 30, the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine “On the actions of Ukraine in response to the attempt of the Russian Federation to annex the territories of our state in order to ensure the security of the Euro-Atlantic space, Ukraine and restore its territorial integrity” came into force. The document fixes the impossibility of negotiating with the current Russian president, but not with Russia.

In the spring of 2022, a series of Ukrainian-Russian negotiations took place to end the war. At the suggestion of the Ukrainian side, Russia continued to demand the surrender of Ukraine. Over the summer, Zelenskyi once again stressed that he was open to direct talks with President Putin “if we are ready to seriously discuss,” Zelensky said on June 7. The appeal said that Ukraine was ready to discuss the return of the territories. The Kremlin avoided negotiations under various pretexts.

After the successful counter-offensive of the Ukrainian army in the east and south of the country, the Kremlin's rhetoric has changed: now Russia has demanded peace talks. However, the words were not backed up by actions: at the end of September, Russia held illegal pseudo-referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the results of which were not recognized by any democratic country in the world.

Message Ukraine considers all those who remained in the temporarily occupied territories as "traitors"

The Russians spread such rumors and intimidate people who, for various reasons, remained in the temporarily occupied territories. All of them allegedly will eventually be punished for collaborationism.

Currently, there is no law on collaborationism in Ukraine. Since March 15, certain regulations regarding responsibility for cooperation with the occupiers have entered into force, and a single punishment in this regard has not been provided for yet. Depending on the circumstances, it can be different: from a ban on holding certain positions to life imprisonment. But it is precisely about cooperation, and not about staying in the temporarily occupied territories for various reasons.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy also responded to this message in his daily address. "If a person did not serve the occupiers and did not betray Ukraine, then there is no reason to consider such a person a collaborator," the president said.

The occupiers deliberately spread such rumors to intimidate the inhabitants of the temporarily occupied territories and induce them to cooperate. Earlier, they claimed that Ukrainians would be punished for receiving Russian humanitarian assistance in the temporarily occupied territories.

Manipulation Russia will "consult with the population" of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia region about determining "borders"

Russian media and pro-Russian Telegram channels write it regarding the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmytro Peskov.

They said that there is no final decision on the extent to which the region will be "joined" to Russia, so the opinion of the residents will be asked. It is manipulation.

Before the illegal pseudo-referendums, the collaborator Rogov said that the Zaporizhzhia region would "join" Russia within the current administrative borders. Moreover, the Russian media deliberately coined the term "territories occupied by Kyiv", which is a technology for replacing concepts. Carrying out the so-called "expression of will" in violation of legal norms and "under the muzzles of machine guns" shows that Russia is not interested in what the residents of the temporarily occupied territories want. The situation at the front changes daily, so propagandists manipulate and leave room for an information retreat.

There can be no question of "joining" the temporarily occupied territories to Russia. According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the decision on territorial integrity is made exclusively by the citizens of Ukraine in an all-Ukrainian referendum.

Russian propaganda tries in every way to justify the occupation of Ukrainian territories. To do this, they create the illusion of support for their actions by the residents of the occupied territories. They previously wrote that the turnout for the pseudo-referendum in the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region "exceeded 50%." Foreign "observers" also allegedly confirmed the "transparency" of Russian pseudo-referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Manipulation During the surrender of Lyman, the Russian troops left the city in an organized manner, there was no encircling

Thus, pro-Kremlin media reports that on October 1, the Armed Forces of Ukraine officially took control of the city of Lyman, where the Russian occupiers managed to hold a fake referendum on joining Russia. CNN journalists allegedly refuted Kyiv's statement about the encirclement of the Russian army by Ukrainian troops in Lyman.

CNN journalists did write in the article that they arrived in Lyman 30 minutes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Lyman was completely cleared of Russian troops. "On Sunday, there are no signs of the presence of Russian troops at all - a few damaged Russian tanks, or dead Russians, or Russian prisoners. There were few traces of the encirclement," the CNN website says.

Battles for Lyman continued from September 5. On September 30, Serhii Cherevatyy, the spokesman of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, announced the completion of the encirclement of Russian troops in the Lyman.

On October 1, Serhii Cherevatyy confirmed that the Armed Forces entered Lyman. However, battles with the enemy are still ongoing in the city.

Cherevatyu noted that Lyman's release is necessary to:

• continue the successful Kharkiv operation;

• capture an important area that opens the way for the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas, in particular, directions to Svatove, Sievierodonetsk, Kreminna, etc.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also announced the withdrawal of troops from the Lyman and explained the loss of the Lyman allegedly by "withdrawing to more remote frontiers." On Sunday, October 2, the city was completely cleaned from invaders. Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Malyar reported that the occupiers tried to break through and lost personnel and hundreds of pieces of equipment. At the same time, pro-Kremlin anonymous Telegram channels condemn the retreating Russian military and demand that the prosecutor's office deal with the commanders for not fulfilling the requirements of the Combat Statute of the Russian Armed Forces. Therefore, we can assume that the Russian army, realizing that it would be surrounded by our troops, did not withdraw "to more profitable borders", but fled in an organized manner from the Ukrainian city of Lyman.

Fake Armed Forces of Ukraine fired at a column of civilians in Zaporozhye

Such news is spreading by the Kremlin propaganda media, as well as by pro-Russian telegram channels. The reports say that it was the Armed Forces of Ukraine that fired rockets at the car market at the exit from Zaporizhzhia and hit the column that was trying to get into the temporarily occupied territory. However, this is an outright lie.

Today at 7:10 am Russian troops launched rocket attacks in the area of the car market near the Zaporizhzhia - Orikhov highway. At that time, there were dozens of civilians in cars trying to get into the temporarily occupied territories. Then 248 cars were registered for departure.

Mostly these are locals who transport household items, food products, and medicines to their relatives in the occupied territory. Among the wounded there is a volunteer from Melitopol, he is in serious condition in the hospital.

Deputy Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko said that Russia fired 16 missiles from the S-300 complex at Zaporizhzhia. Four rocket strikes were carried out in the area of the car market, they also hit the exit point from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, where there was a column of cars with civilians heading to their relatives.

At the moment, there is information about 23 dead and 62 wounded who were taken to hospitals in Zaporizhzhia.

According to British intelligence, the Russian army probably used a long-range air defense missile not intended for ground targets to strike Zaporizhzhia.

Fake Amnesty International Secretary General urges Ukrainian Armed Forces not to fire at newly mobilized Russians

This news is spreading on social networks, in particular in the Russian and Ukrainian segments of Facebook. Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard is reportedly urging the Ukrainian military not to fire at newly mobilized and not yet trained Russian soldiers. After all, shooting at them is very unfair. A photo collage is attached to the publication, where the secretary general is allegedly standing in the center of Moscow. However, the official did not make such appeals.

According to StopFake's fact-checkers, Amnesty International's general secretary, Agnès Callamard, made no such claims. This statement was first published by a parody Twitter account, after which it circulated online without indicating the source. This Twitter page regularly posts satirical fictitious news and sneers about Russian propaganda.

Fake Valerii Zaluzhnyi confessed his love to the Russian army This information was spread by Russian propaganda media

Like, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted that "the Russian General Staff is many times superior to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in strategy".

In their materials, propagandists refer to an interview with Valerii Zaluzhnyi for the American edition of Time.

Time really published an interview with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, however, he did not confess his love for the Russian armies and did not claim, as propagandists say, that all military science is in Putin's country.

In fact, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi did not make any "declarations of love for the Russian army".

Zaluzhnyi said that among other things he was brought up on the labors of the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valerii Herasymov and said that he was surprised by the big blunders of Russia, which drove its soldiers in Ukraine "just to the slaughterhouse". Russia needs such messages in order to once again assert itself and assure others that the Russian army is one of the strongest and most powerful in the world. 

Message Russia is about to be attacked

Such a message has appeared over the past week in anonymous telegram channels that systematically disseminate Russian propaganda narratives. Reports say that NATO is most likely preparing to invade Russia.

Correspondents draw such conclusions due to the fact that the US Embassy in Moscow called on its citizens to immediately leave Russia. "I understand that a decision is being prepared at the decision center," the messages said. Propagandists also claim that the governments of European countries, including Poland and Estonia are calling on their citizens to leave Russia, not because they have begun to mobilize, but because of the likely invasion of Russian territory.

Thus, propaganda seeks once again to shift the responsibility for its crimes on the territory of Ukraine to Western countries and show that they allegedly pose a threat to Russia itself. However, there is no real reason to believe that a NATO invasion will take place.

On the contrary, representatives of the Alliance have repeatedly stated that NATO is not a party to the Russian-Ukrainian war and will not enter into conflict. However, the Russians have repeatedly stated that it is not the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but the NATO military that are fighting the Russian military on the territory of Ukraine.

Manipulation The Armed Forces of Ukraine have finally recognized that the use of HIMARS does not make sense

Such information is distributed in Russian propaganda media. In their materials, propagandists refer to the publication of the New York Times.

According to propagandists, the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly recognized the futility of using the American HIMARS multiple launch rocket system. As StopFale writes, some reports refer directly to the battles for the city of Bakhmut, where HIMARS did not significantly affect the success of the Ukrainian side. However, the Russian media significantly distorted the real publication in the New York Times.

In fact, NYT journalists, citing the Ukrainian military, write that in the Bakhmut direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine “could not seriously affect the Russian supply chain,” even with HIMARS missile systems. We are not talking about the "uselessness of use" or the "inefficiency" of the American MLRS.

StopFake fact checkers add that, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian forces continue to deliver aimed fire from the HIMARS MLRS on the accumulation of enemy manpower and military equipment in all directions, including the Bakhmut one.

Fake Over China, the airspace has been closed, military equipment is on the way to Beijing, a coup is being prepared

This information is being shared on social media. Allegedly, Chinese President Xi Jinping has not appeared anywhere since the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit held in Samarkand, Uzbekystan, where he met Putin in person for the first time since the start of the all-out war in Ukraine. Like, there are rumors about the early resignation of Xi Jinping and China is on the verge of a military coup. This is not true.

On the Flightradar24 website, we see that planes are flying over China, the airspace is not closed. There is also no official confirmation that China has stopped rail traffic and that troops are being transferred to Beijing en masse.

A fake about a coup in China has flown into the social networks of Ukrainians from the Russian information space. Although Xi Jinping met personally with Putin on September 15, China's neutral position has not changed. The other day, US President Joe Biden said that so far there was no evidence of practical support for Russia from China. Also, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, in an interview on September 24, called China's position "ambiguous" and said he would like to see help from China to fight against Russia.

Fake Ukrainian prisoners of war asked to join the battalion of infidels in the Donetsk region

This was reported by Russian media, in particular, TASS, and the pro-Russian online publication in Ukraine “Strana.Ua". Allegedly, 11 men and 23 women, captured and held in the colony in Olenivka, turned to the head of the "People's Council" of the terrorist group in the occupied territory of the Donetsk region, Volodymyr Bidiovka, with a request to join the "Cossack battalion" named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.

Allegedly, they transmitted their proposal orally through Bediovka. Before that, the Russian media disseminated information, saying that “dozens of soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine asked for citizenship of the DNR”, and clarified about the same 11 men and 23 women.

As the main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported earlier, during interrogations of prisoners in Olenivka, physical torture and beatings are actively used to break the moral and psychological qualities of Ukrainian soldiers, to humiliate and psychologically demoralize them. According to intelligence, if the plan is implemented, the FSB representatives plan to attract Ukrainian captives for Russian propaganda.

So far, the Russian media have not provided any evidence of information that allegedly soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are asking to fight on the side of the occupiers, the propagandists wrote only about the transmission of the request “orally”.

Fake US planned war in Ukraine to destroy EU economy

Russian media publish news reports claiming that a Swedish newspaper has published a "secret report" about the US plan to destroy the European economy through a war in Ukraine. It seems that the EU economy, primarily Germany, is competitive and its development poses a threat to the United States. In order to destroy the European economy, America planned to draw the EU into the war in Ukraine, as a result of which Russia would predictably restrict energy supplies and the EU would impose its own sanctions. Thus, a crisis will arise in Europe, which will slow down the overall development, destroy industry, lead to recession and inflation as well as to an increase in unemployment, so European specialists migrate to the United States.

This secret "memorandum" was actually published by the Swedish newspaper Nya Dagbladet. The report, according to this publication, was allegedly created by the RAND Corporation, an American think tank. But after the publication RAND stated that he had never published or prepared this memorandum.

The international group of fact-checkers Logically connects the Swedish publication with fringe politicians, including the ultra-right. The newspaper has previously spread conspiracy theories more than once.

Fact checkers found in the text of the memorandum many factual and grammatical errors, and one foresight. The document was created on January 25 but actually it refers to the “stopping of Nord Stream 2”, although at that time the pipeline was still planned to be launched and was in the process of licensing. The launch of Nord Stream 2 in the EU was abandoned after the start of the war on February 24. In addition, the document talks about the approval of the plan by the "Congress and the Senate" of the US but the US legislature is called the Congress, and consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are other gross factual errors that the authors of a think tank that has been working for governments and private corporations around the world since 1948 could hardly have made.

Fake Ukrainian troops fired on the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant

Russian propaganda media and telegram channels are spreading a fake that the Ukrainian military allegedly fired at the territory of the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant, despite the fact that they themselves reported on missile strikes against the nuclear power plant.

For example, on September 19, the day when rockets exploded 300 meters from the nuclear power plant reactors, the website of propagandist Yurii Podoliak and the Rybar telegram channel spread news with the headline “At night, Russian Armed Forces troops launched a missile attack on the South Russian NPP”. And they justified the shelling by the fact that “the reactors were not damaged”, and the missiles hit the “military base”, which seems to be located nearby and supplies fuel to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As evidence that Ukrainian military facilities existed on the territory of the station, Russian resources are distributing documents from 2017 with an order to conduct anti-terrorist exercises to work out the protection of nuclear power plants in Ukraine. These exercises were indeed carried out, they were not secret and are not related to any “bases” allegedly located on the territory of the station - information about the security measures of 2017 can be found in the Ukrainian media, StopFake notes.

We remind you that Enerhoatom and President Zelenskyi distributed a video of the shelling of a nuclear power plant and accused the Russian occupiers of shelling. “South” Command also noted that the Russians used “Iskander”. The station is located in the Mykolaiv region, which is regularly shelled by the Russians. In addition, the Russians had previously shelled another nuclear power plant - Zaporizhzhia. And, despite the conclusions of the IAEA, which demands the withdrawal of Russian troops from the ZNPP and recognizes the threat to Ukraine's nuclear facilities, the Russians are constantly trying to shift the blame for the shelling of nuclear power plants to Ukraine.

Message Medvedchuk was exchanged for the sake of “referendums”

The authors of many “patriotic” telegram channels in Russia were outraged not only by the exchange of the leadership of the Azov Regiment, which the Russian authorities promised to give to the tribunal and generally ruled out the possibility of their exchange, but also by the fact that Viktor Medvedchuk was among those who surrendered to Russia.

The military or political leadership of the Russian Federation has not yet commented on the exchange because of the indignation of the “patriots” who consider it a defeat, real and informational. But Russian propagandists and PR people are making significant efforts to distance the leadership of the Russian Federation in the information field from any defeats and shift the responsibility to someone else. Therefore, commenting on the exchange of more than 200 Ukrainian military and foreigners who fought on the side of Ukraine was instructed to Denys Pushylin, the leader of the “DNR”.

He stated that he “signed the order himself” on the exchange, which is surprising since the exchange was coordinated by the efforts of a group of negotiators, including the Turkish president, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, representatives of President Zelenskyi’s office – and none of these countries, of course, recognized the “DNR” as “a part of the conflict”, and Pushylin as a person who can decide at least something. Still, Erdohan thanked the efforts of “Zelenskyi and Putin” for creating the possibility of an exchange.

But it is Pushylin who is spread by Russian propaganda where he explains that Medvedchuk was “liberated from Ukrainian captivity”. Although Medvedchuk was in custody and is a citizen of Ukraine, therefore he cannot be captured and thanks to his previous “merits” he cannot be involved in organizing the exchange of prisoners. And it seems that the absence of Medvedchuk in Russia “complicated the referendum and support for this referendum”. Consequently, the detained Medvedchuk complicated the process of “expression of will” in the occupied parts of Ukraine, and how come “free Medvedchuk” could help the “referendums” that would begin tomorrow, Pushylin, of course, did not explain.

All these incomprehensible statements are another proof that in any defeats, Russian propaganda is trying to shift the responsibility to the “people of Donbas”. For example, during the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region, it was the Russian propaganda who blamed the defeat on those mobilized from the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Fake Toys in the form of bones of Russian infidels appeared in Ukraine

Russian propaganda came up with a new fake to prove the “inhumanity” of Ukrainians. To do this, they used a video of a woman who walks around the supermarket, approaches a large container and says: “Oh, how interesting! “Orcs” in a transparent package. Something new”.

Where exactly and when the video was taken is unknown. But judging by the design of the container, which StopFake drew attention to, these are toys that have already begun to be sold on Halloween, which is celebrated on the night of November 1st. Russian propaganda used the name of the toys to prove that Ukrainian children are offered to play with “the bones of Russian soldiers who are called orcs in Ukraine”.

Message The exchange of “Azov” members is part of the agreement to “freeze the conflict” and may lead to a mass capture of AFU fighters

Telegram channels controlled by the the main office of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation such as Lehitymnyi (Дegitimate), Resident and others began to manipulate the topic of the exchange of Ukrainian prisoners of war in order to reduce another defeat for Russia in particular on the information front.

For the sake of this, they distribute several theses at once. The first is that prisoners of war, in particular, the commanders of the Azov regiment, were exchanged as part of a “grand agreement” that provides for “freezing the conflict” and ceding Ukraine to Russia. For example, stopping the offensive or recognizing Crimea as Russian or recognizing the results of so-called referendums. Probably, a rather narrow circle of people who were negotiators in the process of exchanging the Ukrainian military for Viktor Medvedchuk and the Russian military know the terms of this exchange. But this is definitely not a cessation of hostilities or consent to the loss of territories. After all, it is known that President Zelenskyi offered to export Russian ammonia through the territory of Ukraine in order to exchange the Ukrainian military and return them home. That is, it was about economic, not military-political issues.

The second thesis, spread by telegram channels, has no rational explanation at all: the authors of the messages insist that now that “even the Azov people” have been exchanged, that is, those whom Russian propagandists proposed to publicly condemn and execute, the Ukrainian military will surrender en masse, because that "they will understand that nothing threatens them in captivity." And this, it would seem, is “a side, but negative, consequence of such an exchange for Ukraine”. Why the fighters of the army leading the offensive and knowing how they shoot, torture, burn Ukrainian prisoners alive, should “surrender en masse”, the network of the main office of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation channels does not explain.

Fake Vitalii Kim, a “gauleiter” of Mykolaiv, ran away from the city

Russian media and anonymous telegrams write about this. Like, “a bright symbol that charged the townspeople with optimism” suddenly disappeared. Moreover, postcards were allegedly hung in the city with a message about the search. The reason for the disappearance, according to propagandists, was the tense situation in the city. They also say that he was allegedly seen in Odesa as it is better protected. It's fake.

Vitalii Kim is the current head of the Mykolaiv regional civil-military administration, appointed by the Decree of the President of Ukraine in accordance with the law. Kim denied the information about his “escape” by recording a video from his office.

“They say that I seem to have run away to Odessa or something like that ... Where to run? There are fewer shellings, we are moving forward, there is a lot of work because we need to build new fortifications already on the territory of Kherson”, Kim said.

Message Exhumation of bodies in mass graves in Izium - desecration of the remains of the dead

Such a message is spread by anonymous pro-Russian telegram channels. Like, Ukraine treats the graves of the fallen without due respect.

After the liberation of the Kharkiv region in Izium, the bodies of the dead are being exhumed. According to the head of the Kharkiv regional administration Oleh Syniehubov, most of the exhumed are civilians, including children. Some of the dead have signs of violent death, there are bodies with their hands tied and signs of torture. The deceased were also found to have mine-explosive injuries, shrapnel and stab wounds. According to law enforcement officers, 11 dungeons have already been found in the territories of the Kharkiv region liberated from the Russians, six of them in the city of Izium. So the exhumation will make it possible to legally record the crimes committed by Russian soldiers and subsequently bring the perpetrators to justice.

In this way propagandists try to emotionally influence the exposure of their war crimes. Previously, they were proactive in asserting that Ukraine staged a genocide in Izium, and now they are digging up graves and blaming the Russians in order to get help from the West. The propagandists also prepared the Russians in advance for the fake “Bucha-2” in the Kharkiv direction.

Message Disconnecting Crimea from electricity and water supply by Ukraine is a war crime

Propaganda media write about this by comparing the interruption of the supply of water and electricity to the temporarily occupied Crimea with Russian missile strikes on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine, as a result of which Ukrainians were left without electricity and water. Allegedly, the West professes a policy of "double standards", they say: in 2014 no one said that Ukraine was committing crimes against Crimea. And as soon as Russia struck back, it was accused of violating humanitarian law and condemned such actions.

According to StopFake, the supply of electricity to the temporarily occupied peninsula was stopped due to Russia's unwillingness to comply with the terms of the contract. A similar situation with water supply through the North Crimean Canal - Russia refused to pay for the services provided, so Ukraine stopped the water supply. After that, Russia began to promote the narrative of “water ecocide” in Crimea.

In accordance with international law, Russia, as an occupying country, is obliged to provide Crimeans with everything they need. This has been repeatedly confirmed by the UN monitoring mission in Ukraine. However, Russia is known to be violating its obligations, moreover, it transfers its responsibility to Ukraine.

Fake Ukraine is planning an offensive against Russia in 2023

Russian media write about it. Like, Ukraine is preparing for this in advance, so it asks the West for even more necessary weapons. In the messages, propagandists allegedly refer to an article in The Wall Street Journal. This is not true.

In fact, in the article “Ukraine Signals Major Weapons Request for Long-Term Offensive Against Russia” there is no hint of an offensive. The authors of the publication analyze the list of 29 types of weapons and ammunition that Ukraine asks to provide. According to the authors of the article, this list is fully consistent with the development of the situation in Ukraine.

Russian propaganda is spreading messages about Ukraine's advance into Russian territory as part of a previous message that Russia was forced to launch a preemptive strike because otherwise Ukraine would have attacked first. Also, Russian propaganda is constantly trying to prevent the supply of weapons to Ukraine. To do this, they often manipulate quotes from Western publications taken out of context in order to pass off wishful thinking. Propagandists have previously written that Ukraine is using the offensive to get even more weapons. 

Fake The Armed Forces of Ukraine detained Sri Lankan citizens in Kupiansk and took them to an unknown destination

Russian propaganda media and publics on social networks write about this with reference to collaborator Vitalii Hanchev. Allegedly, seven detained foreigners study at the local medical college. According to Hanchev, the Armed Forces of Ukraine intend to be used to “make news fake like it was with Bucha”. It is not true.

Kremlin propaganda was refuted by Ukrainian policemen. According to the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, seven Sri Lankan citizens aged between 20 and 40 arrived in Ukraine about three weeks before the full-scale invasion. Some of them came to study at the Kupiansk Medical College, and some came to work. They rented a house in Kupiansk. Fleeing from the occupation, they walked to Kharkiv, but on the way they were detained by the Russian military. The invaders took the foreigners to the aggregate plant in Vovchansk, where they kept them for 4 months and mocked them: they pulled out their nails, subjected them to physical and psychological violence. The Russians did not communicate in English, so the foreigners did not understand what they wanted from them and why they were tortured. The Russians said "money" during torture. The Investigation Department interrogates the victims and establishes all the details.