Today in the Russian media, in particular in RIA Novosti, there was a fake that allegedly on the orders of Foreign Minister Viktor Lyashko in the "Pentagon laboratories in Ukraine" on February 24, the day Russia attacked Ukraine, destroyed the cultures of pathogens that they were stored. And that this "order" seems to be evidence of the development of components of biological weapons in Ukraine. Russian media also published photos of the documents - without the minister's signature and with many grammatical errors. There is no word in these "documents" about "secret experiments" or "biological weapons development", but only a list of pathogens stored in Ukrainian laboratories - as in other laboratories around the world - and claims that they were destroyed. The list of what was allegedly destroyed by "order of the Ministry of Health" includes anthrax, as well as diphtheria, candidiasis and common urinary tract infections. According to the DM, Minister Lyashko is now preparing to refute this fake.

UPDATED March 7: The Ministry of Health has denied reports of alleged "emergency cleanup of the US Department of Defense-funded military-biological program" and "destruction of particularly dangerous pathogens" at the Poltava and Kharkiv Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The fake about the existence of "US biological laboratories in Ukraine" was created in Russia during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych (2010 - 2014), and was actively spread in all countries of the former Soviet Union that joined the Nunn-Lugar program, under which the Pentagon allocated funds to modernize laboratories which working with various pathogens. Fakes about the creation of biological weapon in them were spread in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. At the same time, Russia was also a member of the same program until 2021. Covid and Viktor Medvedchuk (Ukrainian pro-Russian politician) gave a new life to the fake about the Pentagon's biological laboratories, claiming that it was through them that Ukrainians became ill with measles and that biological weapon being developed in them. Now the Russian Defense Ministry is spreading this fake again.

Manipulators involve the fact that Ukrainians are not evacuated from cities that are regularly under attack. Detector Media recorded such rhetoric on the fourth day of the war, but it is very dangerous to evacuate civilians in large numbers, both then and now, without green corridors.

The propagandists explain that Zelensky is deliberately making sacrifices among the civilians in order to maintain the image for the media and foreign partners. As if, that's how Ukraine is asking for weapons.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, such fake is dispersed by enemy propaganda. “This lie has been spread in order to demoralize Ukrainians and break our powerful resistance to the Russian invasion! Now the world is more united than ever! We are given weapons, ammunition, planes, financial aid! And these are the real actions that everyone sees,” the Center says in a statement.

On March 3, there was information on social networks that new Edemus tags had appeared on Google maps in Kyiv en masse, with their help the Russian military targeted artillery shelling, missiles or air strikes.

The map shows Edemus as buildings of district administrations, hospitals, maternity hospitals, kindergartens, retirement homes. In fact, Edemus is a network of funeral services. The State Special Communications Service said that the information about the "new tags" is not true and stressed that Google in Ukraine has limited the ability to add new labels to maps. The appearance of such information in the Service is called an information-psychological operation to sow panic and misinformation among the population.

In fact, Freedom Square has been hit by a Russian cruise missile of the "Caliber" class, as a result third of the building of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration was destroyed, according to Stop Fake. Despite this, information spreads throught the network that on March 1, Ukraine deliberately fired a missile at Kharkiv. Adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko reports that a "Caliber" cruise missile has hit in Freedom Square. The combat radius of "Caliber" cruise missiles is about 2,500 km. There are no such missiles in the service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

They spread stories, supposedly from «witnesses», who are afraid to die not from Russian invaders but from armed Ukrainian citizens. Propagandists try to reassure people about those who joined the territorial defense. They claim territorial defenders as vigilantes, who now have legal weapons. Russian propaganda machine is trying to undermine people`s trust in territorial defense and disrupt the esprit of the Ukrainian defenders.

Photos of the alleged landing on Sofiivska Borshchahivka are being spread on social networks. Victor Tregubov, co-founder of the "Demokratychna sokyra" party and editor-in-chief of the "Petro i Mazepa" website, denied landing. According to him, the photo shows gaps from air defense shells. "Babel" also denied this information.

Some of them have calls to surrender weapons, fake information that Zelensky surrendered, threats. All this is not true. The Ukrainian army does not lay down arms, Zelensky does not flee the country. The Armed Forces hold the defense. In particular, in Kyiv, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, the night was difficult, but there are no Russian troops in the capital. There are sabotage groups in Kyiv, there have been several clashes. 35 people were injured, including two children.

The information that the Ukrainian army is retreating and surrendering weapons is spreading across the Internet. However, this is another fake. It was refuted by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who published a video address to Ukrainians. "There is a lot of fake information on the Internet now as if I'm calling for weapons to be laid down and de-evacuation. So: here I am, we will lay down no weapons, we will defend our state, because our weapons are our truth", Zelensky said.