Russian resources have been actively spreading such messages in the past few days.

The propagandists use Ukrainian prisoners of war, who read a prepared text on camera under pressure to promote these theses. Allegedly, the Ukrainian army sees no point in fighting for the native land and is waiting for negotiations, that is, for surrender.

Propagandists repeat daily that Moscow is ready to start the negotiations. However, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a hard line, so his participation is excluded from the negotiation process. Allegedly, as an option, the Kremlin can negotiate with the EU and the US without the participation of Ukraine.

The meeting may occur in the Emirates or Istanbul, where "conflict freezes and demarcation lines are agreed upon." Thus, the Russians want to devalue Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the president and Ukraine as an independent state. Earlier, propagandists spread the thesis that Volodymyr Zelenskyy was forbidden to conduct negotiations.

That is, Russia is supposedly at war not with Ukraine, but with NATO, where all decisions are made by the West and the USA instead of Ukraine. The Russians are trying in every possible way to incline Ukraine to negotiations. Since they are unable to do this on a diplomatic level, they will decide to put pressure on the population of Ukraine on an emotional level. They are provoking dissatisfaction with the authorities among Ukrainians to force Zelenskyy to start negotiations with Putin.

Nobody needs this war, it can be finished in a few days, and Zelenskyy is ready for negotiations with Russia. However, the dialogue will begin if and after Russia withdraws its troops from the territory of Ukraine and leaves Ukrainian land within the internationally recognized borders of 1991.

In this way, former American military man Scott Ritter, loyal to the Putin regime, decided to allegedly test the reaction of the social network to the "wrong" opinion.

Currently, his page is blocked, but screenshots with a "test" about Bucha were shared on Twitter by supporters of Russia. As the Center for Combating Disinformation pointed out, in fact, such a tweet is another manipulative "throw-in" and a deliberate provocation to determine possible changes in the reaction of Western society to the Russian genocide in Ukraine.

Russia is actively using Scott Ritter as an "expert" to promote narratives needed by the Kremlin to foreign audiences.

"We warn you! All information, even made public by well-known Western experts, needs to be carefully checked!" the Center emphasized.

The Russian media spread this information. The proof is a letter that allegedly came to a former employee of the law enforcement agencies who lives in the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region.

The text of the letter states that the pensioner was sentenced to death for treason to Ukraine and cooperation with Russia, and the sentence will be carried out "soon."

He is given 15 days to take his family to the territory controlled by Ukraine, and if he escapes, it is hinted that his son, who is in Zaporizhzhia, may suffer. At the end of the letter, it is stated that the best option for the collaborator is to kill himself. This letter is a fake, the fact-checkers of the "On the other side of the news" ("Po toy bik novyn") project note.

Official letters from the Security Service of Ukraine must be on letterhead with details, source number, and signature. Collaborators demonstrate only text printed on paper and written in Russian. Many grammatical and punctuation errors indicate that the document is a forgery. Moreover, other errors in the letter are factual.

The letter states that the traitor was sentenced to death by the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The death penalty has been banned in Ukraine for 22 years. Its absence was a mandatory condition for our country's membership in the Council of Europe.

It isn't the first time that Russian propaganda has used fake documents to spread disinformation about the SSU. "Such statements by the occupiers are an attempt to tarnish the Ukrainian special services. In addition, the Russians and their supporters want to shift responsibility for their war crimes because it's known that the occupiers themselves are trying to "legitimize" the execution," fact-checkers note. More details.

It was reported by Russian websites regarding the German publication Der Spiegel. During the shooting down of drones, bullets from small arms allegedly hit random people. However, it isn't true.

Russian propagandists twisted the ending of Jörg Römer's article "How Ukraine shoots down Russian kamikaze drones." The journalist wrote, "Ukrainians should be careful with such shots so that the bullets do not hit civilians. Many people have already died from such shots."

StopFake analysts reached out to Römer for an explanation. He replied that it was a general statement, not about Ukraine's deaths. After that, the journalist added the last sentence of the article: "Many people have already died from such shots in other places." And added a link to his other article, "Every bullet fired upwards falls downwards."

Russian propagandists resort to such manipulations to show that Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities don't endanger civilians. Thus, they shift responsibility for their crimes to the Ukrainian army.

In social networks, messages circulate that there will be a mass disconnection of electricity and water supply in Ukraine. "Attention, we are notifying the population! Electricity and water supply will be shut off widely throughout Ukraine.

It's also possible to disconnect communications and the Internet. Be sure to check and find out about your area," the messages say. The fact-checkers of the "Brekhunets" project drew attention to such statements. According to their data, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, announced on his official Facebook page that on October 20, there would be introduced restrictions on electricity supply throughout Ukraine. However, there was no question of a "mass shutdown." The President's Office reported on the limitation of electricity supply, not a shutdown.

What's more, there was no question of cutting off the water supply and the Internet at all. As the fact-checkers write, the message that there will be massive power cuts and water shortages throughout Ukraine is a deliberate manipulation. "Telegram channels are once again filling with subscribers on a "hot" topic.

The authorities have warned about restrictions on the supply of electricity. Household consumers are asked to minimize the use of electronic devices. That is, the electricity supply will be limited, but schedules of these restrictions will be developed for industrial consumers. The situation is difficult, but the authorities are working on its solution," writes Brekhunets.

The Russian media write about this concerning the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov. He once again says that the events in Bucha are "a decision of the Ukrainian authorities." The Ukrainian authorities allegedly deliberately hide the list of victims because, "in reality," there are no victims. It is a fake.

In fact, the lists of the dead were publicly available in the spring, and they were published and periodically updated by the Information Center of the Ritual Service of the Bucha City Council. However, this information was preliminary because many unidentified victims were on the list.

According to local authorities, 76 Bucha and Bucha Region residents were eventually buried unknown. In the future, they plan to identify the dead through DNA samples. In total, more than 400 residents died during the occupation. The graves of the victims of the Russian army are still being found during the liquidation of the traces of the occupation. Therefore, it is impossible to provide the final lists of the dead, as Lavrov demands. Fact-checkers of The Insider project drew attention to the spread of the fake. In this way, Russia tries to hide the crimes of its military.

Earlier, the propagandists wrote that the photo and video from Bucha were a provocation of Ukraine to get help from the West and discredit the Russian army, disrupting the peace agreements. During the de-occupation of the Kharkiv Region, anticipatory propaganda claimed that Ukraine would launch messages about Russians torturing Ukrainian civilians. At the same time, when numerous burials of dead civilians were discovered, propagandists spread the message that the exhumation of the victims' bodies in Lyman and Izyum was an insult to the bodies.

The Russian-Ukrainian war was discussed on a Georgian pro-Russian TV channel. One of the invited speakers said that the allegedly Ukrainian counterattack in the direction of Kharkiv was "unsuccessful."

Instead, from the Kherson side, Russia "ceded" certain territories but "regrouped its forces and created defensive barriers." This speaker also noted that Ukrainian units allegedly suffered many losses and were surrounded by the Russian army. They showed a video recording of an alleged battle between the Ukrainian and Russian troops "in an open field" to confirm this message. As a result, the Russians destroyed a Ukrainian tank division. This video recording is fake.

Fact-checkers of the Georgian project MithDetector established that, in fact, this video contains footage from the video game simulator Arma 3, developed by the Czech company Bohemia Interactive. The footage used in the program is cut from one of the videos posted on MILMAN's YouTube channel. The simulated video shows the destruction of Russian tanks by the NLAW anti-tank system from the Ukrainian side. Thematic videos related to the Russian-Ukrainian war have been published on this channel since July 2022.

It isn't the first time that Russian propaganda has used footage from the video game to spread fakes about the course of military events.

Such information is distributed on social networks; in particular, fake accounts advertise this information on Facebook.

The Russian military is allegedly evacuating civilians from Kherson to protect people from shelling and possibly undermining the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant. It shows that they treat civilians more carefully than the Ukrainian military. The Ukrainian army allegedly prefers to take cover as civilians during hostilities. Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Russian propagandists have been promoting the message that the Ukrainian military is using civilians as "human shields."

Propagandists show their careful attitude of the Russians towards the Ukrainians as a forced evacuation to Russia without the right to choose, the seizure of the homes of the people who evacuated, the abduction of children, and the intimidation that during the de-occupation all locals will be shot. Those civilians who disagree with Russian propaganda are kidnapped from their homes, tortured, and buried in mass graves.

"Human shield" is a standard element of the tactics of the Russian army: it was the case in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria. It is happening now in Ukraine as well. The Russians practice creating a "human shield," organizing offline training in schools, creating huge queues of cars at roadblocks, and placing military equipment and personnel near residential buildings. Therefore, Russian soldiers are worse than terrorists who take hostages.

Anonymous Telegram channels distribute such messages. They also spread posts about the lack of weapons and advertise the profiles of nameless people on Facebook.

The management of the drone company Bayraktar allegedly informed the Office of the President of Ukraine that they were forced to reduce supplies because Russia included such a condition in one of the clauses of the gas agreement with Turkey. Russian propagandists assure that the USA has refused to supply Ukraine with air defense systems and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The West allegedly can only transfer a few air defense systems to Ukraine. At most, air defense will be able to cover the West and a small part of the Center of Ukraine. Other regions will allegedly be forced to solve defense problems on their own.

As you know, at the beginning of October, four additional HIMARS salvo fire systems arrived in Ukraine. On October 19, the manufacturer Lockheed Martin said that the US is increasing the production of HIMARS due to the Ukrainian military's successful use of these systems over the past few months. Baykar Makina also continues to support Ukraine with drones. The recent agreement between Turkish President Erdogan and Putin on creating a gas hub in Turkey doesn't affect their activities.

However, Putin has been offering Erdogan cooperation in the production of drones since the beginning of the summer of 2022. Such messages show that the Ukrainian army will have nothing to fight and Russia will win in a few days. This autumn, the Ukrainian military is confidently moving forward, liberating the territory in the Kharkiv, Kherson, and Donetsk directions. Instead, propagandists invented "news" about Ukraine's arms reduction to show that it was a fluke and that the Russian army would no longer allow a retreat from the territories.

The Russian media spread this forecast concerning the head of the Russian Gazprom, Oleksiy Miller. Speaking at the Russian Energy Week forum, Miller said that Gazprom predicts an abnormally cold winter for the heating period. It is manipulation.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, Gazprom doesn't have a meteorological service, so they couldn't make their forecast of a freezing winter in Europe. Scientists also believe that long-term weather forecasts aren't reliable. It is impossible to say precisely what the weather will be like in a few weeks, as all long-term forecasts are based on probabilistic formulations. That is, it is possible to talk only about a certain probability of a cold winter and not to assert that this will be the case.

As the cold season approaches, Russia's energy blackmail of Europe is gaining momentum. However, it is mainly based on Russian manipulation and outright intimidation.

Propagandists also manipulate the topic of finding alternative sources of energy in Europe. In particular, propaganda spreads information that the Germans allegedly cut down almost all the trees in Berlin's central park for firewood. Europe supposedly has to rely only on Russian gas, and its underground storages are empty.

Pro-Russian social media groups share a video in which dozens of people are blocking the movement of a convoy of military equipment.

The video description states that a protest is allegedly taking place in Moldova, where people are protesting the placement of NATO equipment in the country. Another "version" is about protesters allegedly preventing NATO troops from reaching the border with Ukraine. It isn't true.

The video has nothing to do with current events, including the international security crisis caused by Russia's war against Ukraine. Using the visual source verification tool InVID-WeVerify and reverse image searches on Google, StopFake fact-checkers discovered the news story used for the video. It is a report from May 5, 2016, of the Russian TV channel RTVI about the "Dragoon Pioneer" joint exercises with the United States, which took place in Moldova. It was also possible to find another video from which the footage was used, entitled "Moldova: Anti-NATO protesters block US tanks," published on May 4, 2016, on the YouTube channel of the Venezuelan TV channel TeleSUR.

The video of the "protest" was shot on the Romanian-Moldovan border, not on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. You can see a sign with the settlement's name in the video. It is the village of Skulen, located on the border between Moldova and Romania. The "anti-Nativ" protest was led by a pro-Russian politician, the former president of Moldova - Ihor Dodon (2016-2020). Moreover, he can be seen in the video, and the post's text about this promotion can be read on his personal Facebook page.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads fakes about NATO's participation in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Earlier, propaganda wrote that NATO wanted to enter the war in Ukraine and to prepare to attack Russia or that NATO troops had entered Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region.

The exercises allegedly have an anti-Russian orientation. The annual Steadfast Noon exercise on nuclear deterrence using strategic bombers will last from October 17 to 30. They don't pose any threat to Russia. These exercises aren't related to current events in the world, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization emphasizes.

The military maneuvers of the Alliance are routine, and NATO announced the holding of these exercises in advance, and third countries were also notified about the maneuvers in advance. Steadfast Noon is a regular annual nuclear deterrence exercise in which dozens of aircraft from across the Alliance practice defending NATO's European allies rather than attacking third countries. By spreading such "news," Russian propaganda tries to justify threats of a nuclear attack in Ukraine and demonstrate that Russia doesn't wage a war of aggression against Ukraine but is defending itself against NATO aggression. More details.

In this way, pro-Russian bloggers on social networks intimidate Ukrainians. Soon, the regrouping of the Russian army will allegedly take place in all directions, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine will launch a counteroffensive. As a result, Ukraine is allegedly facing defeat, which will be called "the turning point in the war of 2022".

Such messages are spread by pro-Russian bloggers in Telegram channels drawing their conclusions from the news that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China calls on its citizens in Ukraine to evacuate immediately because Ukraine "has a serious security situation.

China is an ally of Russia, and therefore, allegedly, "Moscow could have warned Beijing about its future actions."

Every time the Russian army suffers heavy losses and withdraws from the occupied territories of Ukraine, propagandists change the subject and resort to intimidation, spreading messages about regrouping, an upcoming offensive, and another attack.

The Russian army allegedly previously fought at half strength, and soon new forces will be brought up, and they will not allow any more retreats.

This photo was shared on Ukrainian social networks. Today, October 17, the Russians attacked the center of Kyiv with Iranian kamikaze drones, but they were shot down by the Ukrainian military, not by Kyiv residents, from their apartments. Air defense eliminated 11 Shahed-136 kamikaze drones. The photo of a man with a rifle that was shared on social media was taken in June 2021.

Then the patrol police of Kyiv detained an armed inhabitant of the apartment and seized substances similar to drugs.

This fake photo was uploaded to Ukrainian social networks by Russian propagandists. The purpose of this message was to show that Kyiv is unprotected from drones, the situation is uncontrolled, and civilians with rifles act as an anti-drone dome over the capital of Ukraine. Thus, the propagandists are trying to ridicule the Ukrainian army and demonstrate the almightiness of the Russian occupiers.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels spread this information. Volodymyr Zelenskyy allegedly signed an application for accelerated accession to NATO, "calls" for a nuclear attack on Russia and thereby "gives Russia an excuse" for aggression. Instead, it is alleged that NATO again "makes it clear" to Ukrainians that Ukraine isn't a member of NATO and, therefore, won't support Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities supposedly understand that they are "playing with fire," but they allegedly "don't care" about the results of such "games."

In fact, pro-Russian propagandists began pushing this message again after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution calling Russia a terrorist regime. The amendment was also included in the resolution calling for air defense systems to be provided to Ukraine.

After Russia's massive missile attacks on Ukraine on October 10-11, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that strengthening Ukraine's air defense would be NATO's top priority. Other Western partners also reported new arms deliveries to Ukraine.

By spreading such messages, Russian propagandists are trying to justify the war crimes of the Russian army and promote the narrative that Russia is alleged "only defending itself" or that "the West is provoking Russia to war in Ukraine."

Such information is spread by pro-Russian Telegram channels, speculating on Russian shelling and the operation of air defense systems.

The day before, anti-aircraft defenses were allegedly taken away from the Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions, leaving these regions without adequate protection. Now, these systems are "urgently" returned. Instead, according to reports, Kyiv and Dnipro are "excessively" protected because they are "more strategically important" to the authorities. The same speculations were previously observed in local telegram channels of Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kharkiv regions, etc. Propagandists deliberately spread messages as "insides" or "rumors" after shelling, manipulating the victims' emotions and taking advantage of the fact that the location and number of anti-aircraft warning systems are not disclosed. In this way, the propagandists also advance the narrative about the division of Ukrainians by place of residence.

This information was spread by anonymous Telegram channels. The message about the explosions also appeared in the "yeTryvoga" application, later it was edited that this information was from the mass media, so it doesn`t correspond to reality.

Viktor Mykyta, the head of the Zakarpattia regional military administration, noted that on the morning of October 10, when this message appeared, no rocket strikes were recorded on the territory of Zakarpattia.

"In general, the region was not affected, there were some power outages, but Oblenergo managed it," Viktor Mykyta said. He asked everyone to stay in shelters during the air alert and not to move on the streets.

On October 10, an air alert was declared on the entire territory of the country, except for Crimea, from the very morning. Kyiv, Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Vinnytsya, Ternopil, Dnipro, and Mykolaiv came under rocket fire. The explosion took place in Konotop, Sumy Oblast, Kryvyi Rih. Representatives of regional military administrations and mayors are authorized to report information about explosions and their consequences. Reports of arrivals from anonymous channels are created to sow panic.

Russian propagandists spread this thesis after the massive missile strikes that Russia carried out on the territory of Ukraine today, October 10.

In particular, information about this appeared in Telegram channels controlled by Russian special services. In their reports, they claim that the Office of the President and the heads of regions urge Ukrainians not to publish photos of the destruction caused by missile strikes, and the SSU allegedly writes to the administrators of public social networks and demands that they stop publishing such photos.

Propagandists claim that such a demand by the authorities is aimed at stopping the spread of panic, because "if there are no photos and videos, then there are no hits and losses."

So, according to propagandists, the Ukrainian authorities lie to Ukrainians and try to hide the true picture of events from them. "And the rockets continue to fly," the propagandists write. In fact, photos and videos of missile strikes are recommended not to be shared immediately after shelling, so as not to help the enemy target, and not to hide the picture of destruction.

Information about missile strikes, as well as photos and videos of events, are gradually appearing on the Internet and the official pages of government representatives, particularly on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Propagandists need such messages to assure Ukrainians that their government deceives them.

Moreover, instead of solving the problem, the authorities allegedly simply ignore it, pretending that nothing is happening, hiding photos and videos of the destruction.

Such messages discredit the leadership of Ukraine. However, it is not the authorities of Ukraine that are to blame for what is happening, but Russia, which has not stopped shelling Ukraine for seven months.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.