According to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, this thesis is promoted by Russian propaganda. In particular, according to Russian State Duma deputy Matveichev, "Putin deliberately creates for Ukraine and the West a sense of their imminent victory. The latter will not strike decisive blows yet, but will continue to create the illusion as if a little more and Russia is defeated." "According to the "expert", such a strategy will force the measure to provide all possible weapons to Ukraine. After that, Russia will "dispose of all NATO weapons" and "deliver a decisive blow." The population of Russia "should understand this and fully trust the commander-in-chief. But in reality, these theses are only used by Russian propaganda to try to justify military defeats with the Russian Federation in front of its own population, first of all in the North of our country, from which the enemy has disgracefully retreated," reported in the Сenter. Thus, Russia is also trying to create the illusion of controlling the situation, and by reporting that Russia still has not delivered a decisive blow, propaganda is trying to justify the defeat of the Russian army.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation, this is the thesis spread by Russian propaganda with reference to the speaker of the Russian State Duma, Volodin. The propaganda claims that today's Kyiv leadership is a country in a debt hole"" and ""many future generations of Ukrainian citizens will pay for all the ammunition, equipment and food the U.S. will supply.

"'This statement is a deliberate manipulation. Under the terms of the lend-lease program, Ukraine could receive potentially unlimited support from the U.S. and other countries, not only for weapons, ammunition and equipment, but also for medicine, food and other necessities, all while bypassing export controls. Under the terms of the program, used military equipment can be written off, and no payment can be made for destroyed equipment. The lend-lease agreement will supplement Congress' preliminary defense support for Ukraine, which has already received $1.7 billion in military aid authorized since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion," the center said in a statement. Russian propaganda benefits from spreading such messages, because it allegedly levels aid for Ukraine from allied countries and to some extent discredits them, saying that because of their aid Ukrainians will be left in debt.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Russia is again resorting to manipulation of the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. In particular, Russia is using former U.S. Defense Secretary adviser Douglas MacGregor for informational blackmail. "This Western-oriented expert spreads narratives about the "inevitable defeat of Kiev," Russia's "invincible army," and intimidates the world that "Putin may use nuclear weapons." On April 22, on U.S. Fox News, McGregor predicted that further arms supplies to Ukraine would seemingly lead to an escalation on Russia's part. In McGregor's opinion, Ukraine must give Russia Crimea and Donbass so that the path does not have to "launch a nuclear strike. On April 25, in an interview with the Spanish publication El Mundo, D. McGregor stressed that allegedly supplying Ukraine with weapons was a waste of resources because, for reasons unspoken by the "expert," "Kiev is doomed," according to the Center. In fact, this is not the first time Russia has intimidated the world with the use of nuclear weapons and its almost the strongest army. However, as we can see, the Ukrainian army gives a decent response to the Russian one. Thus, by intimidation method, Russian propaganda as if it wants to hide its defeats, showing that they have not yet used all the weapons from their arsenal.

Anonymous pro-Kremlin telegram channels spread a video allegedly showing a soldier of one of the brigades of the Airborne Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine complaining about non-payment of salaries. The command of the Airborne Assault Troops of the AFU denied this information, noting that it was a discredit attempt, "containing elements of hybrid information warfare and all signs of information and psychological influence." "All information or possible problematic questions of service and social nature that come from our soldiers - the leadership of the military units and the command of the Airborne Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - are immediately taken for consideration and appropriate measures are taken," the Command reported and added that their units "are provided with ultramodern weapons and combat equipment, all the necessary material means."

"Media Detector" asked for a comment from the brigade referred to in the video. Note that the thesis of "non-payment of salaries to the Ukrainian military" is not the first time spread since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine - for example, read about the fake "Ukraine does not pay salaries to the military.

An anonymous telegram channel controlled by Russian secret services spread the thesis that Russia had launched missiles allegedly at "Ukraine's military bases" on the evening of April 18, when an air alert was declared throughout Ukraine. The AFU General Staff reported that Russia was launching missile and aviation strikes against civilian objects throughout Ukraine. For example, on the night of April 19, two Russian occupants' missiles flew into the territory of a zoo in Mykolaiv.

Russian propaganda media circulated a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense claiming that "Russian air defense forces near Odessa shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane in mid-air, which was delivering a large shipment of weapons to Ukraine supplied by Western countries. On April 18, a senior U.S. Defense Department official denied that Russia had managed to destroy the plane with help for Ukraine.

The Russian media have been reporting en masse over the past two days, April 14 and 15, that Greece has refused to supply weapons to Ukraine. On April 14, they referred to a statement by Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panayiotopoulos, and on April 15 to a statement by government spokesman Yanis Oikonomos. Both statements are interpreted in favor of supporting Russia, but this is not the case. First, Greece has already supplied Ukraine with weapons - Kalashnikov assault rifles and mobile anti-missile systems - and has no plans to do so in the future. Secondly, the defense minister explained that because of tense relations with Turkey, Greece could not supply Ukraine with additional weapons without risking weakening its own defense capabilities. Finally, Oikonomou's statement is related to publications in the Greek press, which claim that Greece has supplied weapons to Ukraine six times, and started doing so before the war began. It seems that Greece transferred "Stingers" and other weapons to NATO bases in Europe, and from there the weapons were already supplied to Ukraine. Oikonomou, answering questions from local journalists, stressed that Greece provided weapons to Ukraine once, after the start of the war - and actually refuted the inaccurate information.

Greece has also repeatedly stated that although no further arms supplies to Ukraine are planned, the country is trying to reduce its need for Russian gas as soon as possible. That is, statements by Greek officials do not indicate that their government supports Russia and its wars in Ukraine.

At the same time, both Ukrainian and Russian media selectively quote the results of a survey of Greek citizens, citing only the figure indicating that 66% of them are against arms supplies to Ukraine. But they don't cite other figures: 70% support Ukraine in this war, 60% support sanctions against Russia, 52% are in favor of creating an EU armed force.

Russia continues to make up fakes about "biological weapons" which supposedly the Americans produced or developed in Ukraine. This time there is a new fake: Igor Kirillov, head of the radioactive, chemical and biological defense of the Russian Armed Forces, said that the Russians have evidence of "testing of potentially dangerous biological drugs" on patients of the Kharkov Regional Psychiatric Hospital #3. It seems that it was done by "American scientists from the laboratory in the city of Merefa".

This is a blatant fake, if only for a few reasons: no evidence of such a statement was provided. The Kharkov Regional Psychiatric Hospital is in a city where no Russian troops have ever entered. And finally, a reference laboratory for the study of animal pathogens and diseases was never built in Merefa - it was planned, yes. But Mykhailo Dobkin, as we know, stopped the project to build the laboratory back in 2013 - when he was governor. Read more about fictitious "U.S. military laboratories" in Ukraine in the materials of the Media Detector

Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels spread reports that the serial number of the 9M79-1 missile fired at the train station in Kramatorsk on April 8 "clearly indicates that the projectile belongs to Ukraine. The propagandists use footage from an Italian TV channel TG La7 story about the Russian attack on Kramatorsk. StopFake writes that the marking on the 9M79-1 missile means that the missile belongs to the Tochka-U class, and the number Sh91579 can in no way identify the missile as belonging to a Ukrainian military unit. This is a factory marking that was put on all missiles at the Votkinsk Machine-Building Plant, where these missiles were manufactured during the Soviet era. The Tochka-U is currently in service with eight countries. Russian media also say that the Sh915 missiles were already allegedly used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the shelling of Alchevsk on February 2, 2015. However, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission at the time did not confirm the use of Tochka-U by the Ukrainian military against Alchevsk. The Russian-controlled militants in Alchevsk were unable to provide the OSCE experts with the missile itself or its wreckage.

Russian propaganda spreads a fake that "Western countries supply low-quality and outdated weapons to Ukraine," or that "it is simply impossible to stop cruise missile strikes with Javelin and Stinger. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council denied these reports, recalling that since February 25, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has regularly reported on downed Russian cruise missiles: over the Vinnitsa, Kherson, Kharkov, and Nikolaev regions. "In this way the aggressor is trying to sow panic among the population. Having met resistance in the temporarily occupied territories, the enemy resorts to information terrorism in order to demoralize Ukrainians and stop their resistance, the Center said. - In this way, the enemy is probably already preparing the information field for victorious messages about "new liberated settlements in Donbass, which will be presented as territories under temporary occupation since 2014".

This is the thesis spread by Russian propagandists, citing the words of American political analyst Jim Jatras. According to StopFake, Jim Jatras is one of the regular "talking heads" on Russian propaganda resources RT and Sputnik, and since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Jatras has stated that Ukraine is unlikely to exist as a state, and President Zelenskyy is likely to be president in exile. As the fact checker writes, he also claimed that Russian arguments in this war were more "weighty" and defended the Moscow Patriarchate and spread Russian disinformation about the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. "Thus, Jatras' comments are not something strange, but go along with Russian propaganda narratives about atrocities in Bucha and other cities in the Kiev region found after the region was de-occupied," StopFake fact checkers write. In addition, according to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Russia continues to use so-called Western experts to spread its propaganda about Ukraine. Among them is former U.S. Army officer David Payne, who has cooperated with the Kremlin for many years. As the Center notes, during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, this "expert" disseminated theses in the foreign media that "The event should stop supplying weapons to Ukraine so as not to provoke Russia into even more aggression" and "Ukraine should give Russia Crimea and Donbass to avoid World War III." "All of these statements have nothing to do with reality. The Kremlin has been building its propaganda campaign to discredit the civilized world for years, resorting to bribing and recruiting even Western officials," the Center adds.

The Russian Defense Ministry, Russian propaganda media, and telegram channels are actively working to justify the situation in Bucha, where at least 400 murdered and tortured residents were found after Russian troops left. Russian propaganda does not have a unified approach for this case, so it spreads completely different messaging and manipulative messages, from versions about staging and fake photos to the version allegedly killed by the Ukrainian military "for the picture" for foreign media. "The Media Detector recorded 18 variations of propaganda messages. Not all of them are related, but all of them are aimed at justifying Russia.

The most popular message promoted by the Russian authorities is a "staging" or "provocation" by the Ukrainian authorities to force the West to give weapons and aircraft, discredit the Russian army, disrupt peace agreements, and incite violence.

Along with this message spread allegedly:

- "not a single civilian was harmed while Russian troops were in town";

- "residents of Bucha were able to leave the city while Russian troops were there";

- "photos of the dead in Bucha were shown only on the fourth day after the Russian troops left";

- "the video from Bucha shows the dead moving their arms and removing their limbs in order to avoid being hit by the wheels of military equipment, and getting up".

Another group of messages is based on a technique that Russia has already tried - shifting responsibility to the Ukrainian defenders. Among other things, they spread the theses that:

- "the residents of Bucha were killed by the local terrorists";

- "the residents of Bucha were killed by artillery fire from the AFU and Azov when they entered the city";

- "there are white bandages on the bodies of the dead - they were used by the Ukrainians";

- "tying hands is the handwriting of the Ukrainian military and terrorists".

Bucha had been under the occupation of the Russian army since the beginning of March, only on April 1 the AFU reported liberation of the city. After Bucha was returned under the control of the AFU, hundreds of dead were found there. These crimes by the Russian military are already referred to as the "Bucha massacre. President Vladimir Zelensky visited Bucha on April 4 and said that Russia committed war crimes and genocide in Ukraine. The European Union accused Russian authorities of committing atrocities.

"Detector Media" urges readers to take care of their mental health and try not to distribute the photos to their acquaintances and loved ones, because the purpose of such activities of the Russians is to terrorize the Ukrainian population. They seek to intimidate and break the spirit to make it harder for Ukrainians to resist.

This thesis is spread by the Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels The Center to Counter Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine warned that another attempt by Russia to prepare an information field to justify war crimes and an attempt to intimidate the population against the background of redeployment of occupation troops to Donbass and the south of Ukraine. "A similar disinformation campaign in the Russian media was recorded on February 27 to spread panic among the population. The enemy reported alleged Ukrainian provocations with phosphorus in Gostomel. On March 25 and April 2, the Kafirs used phosphorus in ORDLO. Then the Kremlin media tried to shift responsibility for the use of banned weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces," the report said.

Russian propaganda spreads a fake map of uranium deposits on Ukrainian territory as if to prove that Ukraine "carried out nuclear developments to blow up European security. The Center for Counteracting Disinformation countered: "Our state has large deposits of various minerals. But their presence is not equal to the presence of weapons of mass destruction which the Kremlin misinforms the population about. The center specified that with such fakes, Russia is trying to prepare an information field to justify its crimes, and is also trying to split the EU and NATO.

This statement is circulated by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Gennady Gatilov, permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the UN office and international organizations in Geneva, said: "The documents confirm the fact that Germany is implementing its own military-biological program in Ukraine. Its purpose is to study the potential of deadly diseases, such as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, in Eastern Europe. Russia has long been misinformed that Ukraine is developing biological weapons. In reality, it is impossible to create "ethnic weapons. First of all, there are no biological (or any other) weapons in the world that affect only a certain ethnic group - science and technology have not advanced that far, and scientists do not expect breakthroughs in this direction in the near future. And no weapon or disease will be able to distinguish the DNA of the Ukrainians from that of the Russians, because the differences, although present, are insignificant: the Europeans are genetically homogeneous and among them there are about four subgroups, which may include representatives of completely different ethnicities (for example, the Baltic peoples, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Poles are included in one subgroup). Read more about how Russia misinforms Ukrainians and the world about biological weapons in Gala Sklyarevska's article "How Ukraine (according to Russia) is "preparing biological weapons" from fleas, mosquitoes and lizards.

This assertion is promoted by Russian propaganda media and pro-Russian TV channels. Such reports state that the so-called crisis in Ukraine came about because of U.S. and NATO policies, which allegedly "pumped weapons into Ukraine" in circumvention of agreements and laws. In reality, there is no crisis in Ukraine, as Russian propagandists call it, but a full-fledged war in which military and civilians are being killed. It was Russia, not the United States or NATO, that unleashed the war in Ukraine. As ZMIST fact-checkers, who pointed out this message, wrote, this is how Russia tries to justify its war crimes. "Again we see the transfer of responsibility to others. It's not NATO and the U.S. that have stormed into Ukraine. It's not NATO and the US destroying Ukrainian cities. It's not NATO and the US killing Ukrainian men, women and children. This is all Russia's doing," the message reads.

This is the information disseminated by Russian propaganda media. The reports claim that the Ukrainian Motor Sich Concern is developing the new bayraktars. They add that such devices will spray viruses from the air. ""In fact, we are talking about the development by the Kiev regime of means of delivery of biological weapons with the possibility of use against Russia,"" the reports say.

However, this is not true. As Ukrainska Pravda writes, no documentary or visual evidence of such a request has been cited in Russian propaganda. However, the activity of the so-called biolaboratories Russian propaganda recently cited as another reason for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. You can read more about the so-called biolaboratories at the link."

Russia's Defense Ministry has spread a fake that the Ukrainian military allegedly uses as a shelter for a synagogue in Uman. Russian propagandists also spread a photo where the military allegedly took weapons and ammunition from the synagogue.

The United Jewish Community of Ukraine has refuted this fake, saying that all synagogues and Jewish sites in Ukraine are used exclusively for their intended purpose, to carry out religious activities, or to help members of Jewish communities and the local population. "Even based on a photo published for provocative purposes, it is evident that the synagogue gates are closed, and no one is in it. The Rabbi Nachman Foundation in Uman confirms that the second-largest synagogue in Ukraine was closed from Rosh Hashanah (celebrated in September 2021) and has not been used since," the statement said.

Information about this is spreading in pro-Russian telegram channels by re-posts from the channel of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green from Georgia.

According to ZMIST fact-checkers, the congresswoman accused Ukraine of torturing civilians and Nazism. In her tweets, she refers to a selection of videos in which Troy and ordinary people punish looters by tying them to poles and beating their asses. "The selection itself was presented by a propaganda account, which repeats Russian propaganda word for word and does not provide context for the video. Marjorie Taylor reiterates Russia's propaganda and demands an end to Ukraine's support. But it should be noted that Taylor has repeatedly made contradictory statements, publicly supported the most bizarre conspiracy theories, called for weapons to stop vaccinations against coronavirus - all to attack Democrats and President Biden, so do not trust her words," - said in a statement.

Such information is spread in the Russian propagandistic media. The propagandists conclude that Britain will help Ukraine with nuclear weapons on the basis of a short video teaser posted on a YouTube channel of Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus.

However, this is not true. According to StopFake, in the full version of the video, Ben Wallace, the British Minister of Defense, denied the possibility of providing such assistance. In response to questions from Russian pranksters, the British Defense Minister recalled the signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

This statement is being spread by Russian propagandists, mentioning that the U.S. president Joe Biden himself admitted that he was afraid of hypersonic Kinzhal missiles and allegedly stated that the U.S. military is not able to stop a hypersonic missile.

According to StopFake, all of this is not true, because Joe Biden said that the use of Kinzhal missiles is a sign that "Putin is pressed against the wall" due to the lack of success of the Russian army in Ukraine. He also stressed that these missiles are not fundamentally different from those already known, except that it is difficult to shoot them down by air defense systems.

Such a statement has been spread by the Russian propagandist media. In their messages, they accused Volodymyr Zelenskyi of lies, claiming that he lied in his speech to the Parliament of Israel saying that russian missiles hit Babyn Yar. According to StopFake, Russian propagandist media are using the testimony of an Israeli journalist who says that there is no damage on the territory of the memorial.

In fact, during the March 1 shelling of Kyiv, the Russian army fired on the Kyiv television tower, one missile hit the television center’s technical building, another one - the Avantgarde building on the grounds of the former Jewish cemetery. “The issue here is firing on the Babyn Yar memorial complex and not damaging a specific monument. According to the United Jewish Community of Ukraine, the Kharkiv synagogue, one of the largest in Europe has been fired on, the Jewish cemetery in Bila Tserkva and a number of other Jewish sites in Ukraine have been shelled”, StopFake writes.

ТSuch a statement has been spread by the russian propagandist media. In particular, Lenta.ru, Krasnaya Vesna, TASS, Vesti and many others. They claim that Germany allegedly will no longer supply weapons to Ukraine. According to StopFake, such “news” refer to the statement of German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht who allegedly announced on March 21 that “Germany is unlikely to send Ukraine any of the Bundeswehr’s reserves. I would even say that we can’t send anything.” However, what Minister Lambrecht actually said is quite the opposite, that the German federal government is considering further arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian media deliberately distorted Christine Lambrecht’s words.

More details

The Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine warned that Russia had spread a fake map of the occupiers advances in Ukraine, where almost half of the country's area was allegedly occupied or blocked by the Russian military. The Center denied this information and reminded that the enemy was losing both personnel and equipment—Russian lieutenant general Andrey Mordvichev was killed, several columns of equipment of the occupiers in Mykolayiv and Sumy regions were destroyed, 2 planes, 3 helicopters, 3 UAVs and 4 cruise missiles of the enemy were shot down.

The Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine denied this information and reminded of the importance of air raid alarms, as well as the fact that test sirens are prohibited under wartime conditions. The Center also denied similar fakes related to air raid alarms: "There are objects that are detected by air defense, but the air raid sirens are not being activated because of them—it's a fake. After all objects being detected, even if they are small, the siren rings out. People did not have time to hide because the duty officer did not turn on the air raid siren—it's a fake. The siren is activated by the duty officer of the control center, who is present on the spot around the clock."