Russian propaganda Telegram channels are spreading a video in which ABC meteorologist Mike Rizzo, when a screenshot of a news story with Volodymyr Zelenskyi appeared on the studio screen by mistake, says: “This is not a storm, this is a little spinach”. In fact, this information is not accurate. In January 2024, during a broadcast, when the host was commenting on an approaching storm in the region, a spinach image indeed appeared on the screen, prompting Rizzo to joke, “This is not a storm, this is a little spinach”. However, propagandists distorted the context by replacing the image of spinach with a fake BBC news story. In this manipulated version, an image of Volodymyr Zelenskyi appeared alongside a fabricated claim that, supposedly, the Pentagon had stated that over a million Ukrainian soldiers had died.

However, such information is fake. In November 2024, in an interview with Kyodo News, Volodymyr Zelenskyi stated that the number of Ukrainian casualties on the front since the beginning of the full-scale invasion was much less than 80,000.

“Some recently in the American press reported that 80 thousand Ukrainians had died. But I want to tell you, no, it’s less. Much less”, the President said.

According to estimates by The Economist, based on leaks from Western intelligence agencies, by the end of November 2024, at least 60,000–100,000 Ukrainian military personnel could have died during Russia's full-scale invasion. Around 400,000 others were injured, making them unable to continue serving in the army.

Russian agitprop manipulates facts and distorts contexts to sow distrust in Ukrainian leaders and reduce international support for Ukraine. Such manipulations create an atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty, which, in turn, can weaken Ukraine’s ability to effectively counter Russia’s aggression.

Russian sources are spreading disinformation, alleging that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi called on Los Angeles authorities to stop focusing on ‘fabricated problems’ and instead prioritize financial support for Ukraine.  

In reality, President Zelenskyi made no such statement. Fact-checkers from StopFake  found no evidence of this claim. On the contrary, in his evening address on January 12, 2025, the Ukrainian president expressed his willingness to assist the United States in combating the California wildfires: “The situation there is dire, and Ukrainians can help Americans save lives. This is currently being worked on, and through the appropriate channels, we have offered our assistance to the U.S”.  

Zelenskyi also mentioned that 150 Ukrainian rescue workers are prepared to provide the necessary aid.  

The wildfire situation in California remains critical, with at least 24 reported fatalities and approximately 180,000 people forced to evacuate due to the fire threat.  

This disinformation aims to discredit Zelenskyi by portraying him as a corrupt leader who misuses international aid. A similar narrative was debunked earlier, where Russian sources falsely claimed that eight mansions belonging to Ukrainian generals had burned down in Los Angeles.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi of ‘blackmail and begging’, a claim that is actively picked up by Russian propagandist outlets to discredit Ukraine. However, this is a manipulation.

Experts from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security have debunked this claim. They note that in response, Zelenskyi explained that Ukraine had offered Slovakia compensation for the period of adaptation to the loss of Russian gas transit, but this proposal was rejected by the Slovak prime minister.

Slovakia’s dependence on Russian gas remains critical, reaching nearly 90%. Other countries, such as Austria, which were even more dependent, managed to fully stop energy supplies from Russia.

Fico avoids rational explanations for Slovakia's continued gas dependency, unlike the rest of the EU, which is actively reducing its energy dependence on Moscow. Instead, he uses accusations against Ukraine as a way to justify his policy, which is likely based on shadow agreements with Russia.

Russian sources have circulated screenshots allegedly from a French media outlet, TF1 Info, claiming to show graffiti by the French artist OakOak. The graffiti supposedly depicts Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi as a dog tied up next to French President Emmanuel Macron and former US President Donald Trump.

However, this claim is false, according to VoxCheck. TF1 Info has not published any such story, neither on their official website nor across their social media platforms like X, Facebook, or Instagram. Furthermore, the graffiti in question does not appear on the official pages of the artist OakOak.

In one of the screenshots, a beauty salon sign can be seen, written in both English and Korean. Using the Geo Spy Ai tool for image-based geolocation, it was determined that the building is located in Koreatown, Los Angeles, USA. Google Maps further confirmed the exact location where the photo was taken. As expected, no such graffiti exists at this address.

This incident follows previous debunked claims, such as fake information about a graffiti mural in Miami depicting Zelensky as a fly.

Russian sources have circulated a claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, through a shell company called Aldorante LTD, allegedly bought a mansion for €18 million on the French island of Saint Barthélemy and started building an underground bunker on the property. According to these propagandists, Zelenskyi is preparing an “escape plan”.

However, this claim is false, as reported by the StopFake project. The ‘news’ being spread does not contain any official documents or credible sources. Moreover, the real estate management company that sold the villa in October 2024 confirmed to StopFake journalists that the buyer has no connections to Ukraine and denied the claim about a bunker being built on the property.

Propagandists continue to systematically discredit Zelenskyi and his family by spreading fake stories about supposed expensive purchases. Previously, we debunked claims about alleged ‘new properties’ owned by the Zelenskyi family, including the home of Joseph Goebbels, a villa on the coast of Egypt, a winery owned by Sting, and others.

The news is spreading online that Volodymyr Zelenskyi, through the shell company Aldorante LTD, has purchased an estate for 18 million euros on the French island of Saint Barthélemy and begun construction of an underground bunker. Proponents suggest that the President of Ukraine is thus preparing an escape plan.

The information was allegedly published by French media, but the French-language video with “evidence” and “documents” distributed by propagandists could not be found online. But this information from propagandists is a careful fake, part of a disinformation campaign designed to discredit Volodymyr Zelenskyi and his entourage in the eyes of Europeans. From the address indicated on the “documents” in the video, it was possible to understand that we are talking about Villa Stellae — a luxurious mansion with an ocean view, six bedrooms, a terrace and a private garden, located on the resort island of Saint Barthélemy.

The villa was managed by local property management company Sibarth until October 2024, when the company posted a message on its Facebook page that the previous owners had sold the property: “We sincerely thank the seller for their trust, and we sincerely congratulate the new owners on the acquisition of such a prestigious home”. The propagandists created the fake based on this post.

Here are other cases involving the ‘possession’ of real estate with ‘stolen funds’: how Zelenskyi allegedly bought the villa of Hitler's propaganda minister Goebbels for 8 million euros; or how Zelenskyi's mother-in-law allegedly purchased a villa on the coast of Egypt with Western humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Russian resources are spreading information that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi made his New Year's address against the backdrop of the Motherland monument illuminated in the colors of the US flag. The propagandists add: “As they say, 'an independent and sovereign state'”.

In fact, this is another manipulation by propagandists, the StopFake project reports. During President Zelenskyi's New Year's address to Ukrainians, the Motherland monument was illuminated in the colors of the Ukrainian flag for the vast majority of the time. At the same moment when Zelenskyi spoke about Ukraine's allies and thanked them for their support, the monument was illuminated in the colors of the flags of other states, including the colors of the US flag. Then Zelenskyi said the following: “Because our friends are with us. And from the first minutes of this war, America was with Ukraine. And I believe that America will be with Ukraine in the first minutes of peace”.

This manipulation is intended to assert that Ukraine is actually ruled by “overseas masters” and is not a sovereign state at all. We previously wrote about how Russian propagandists twisted Zelenskyi’s words in an interview with CBN.

Russian propaganda resources are spreading the alleged words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi regarding the faith of Ukrainians: “Because of this war, we have all become more religious. People are fighting and praying. And this is important. People need help, any help. Ukraine is a very religious country, very religious. Of course, we have to rely on our own strength, but we believe that God will help Ukraine”. As “proof” that the Ukrainian president really said this, the propagandists even add a corresponding video with Russian subtitles and English voiceover.

In fact, Zelenskyi's words were manipulated - the subtitles and voiceover for the video that propagandists are spreading online are fake. In particular, the President of Ukraine did not say, “we believe that God will help Ukraine”.

This is an interview with Zelenskyi on the Christian television and radio company CBN dated December 9, 2024. Answering the interviewer's question about what hopes Ukrainians have for the newly elected US President Donald Trump, Zelenskyi said:

“... Ukraine is a very peaceful state, very peaceful people. A very religious state, by the way... Very religious. You know that the largest Protestant community in Europe is in Ukraine. We have the largest council of churches. We have people of different faiths, different religions, but a very religious state. And that's why they have hope today that Trump... and he has the position of a strong president, at least that's how we understand it... that through this force... and Putin understands only force... that next to us, next to me, there will be a strong president of the country, and that we will achieve peace through force. That's why people have such hope today for the new administration of the United States, for the new president, and people believe in what he says”.

These words were uttered at 9:09-10:03 of the interview. CBN also transcribed the interview and translated it into English on its official website. This text version with Zelenskyi's corresponding words can be found here.

Previously, we analyzed a fake that a Ukrainian refugee allegedly “shot” a church icon in Zurich.

Propagandists are circulating an image on social media that allegedly represents the cover of The Nation magazine with the headline: “Unequal duel. Volodymyr Zelenskyi failed to win - everyone is talking about Putin again. Including Zelenskyi himself”. However, this is not true.

This was reported by experts from the VoxCheck project. They found that the actual cover of the January 2025 issue of The Nation looks completely different. On the magazine's website, in the Archive section, all issues and their covers are available, but the one being shared online is not among them—neither on the official website nor on the publication's social media. The fake cover features images of Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Volodymyr Putin, along with the publication date—January 2025. However, according to the editorial team, this issue was finalized for publication by the end of 2024, and its cover does not reference the presidents of Ukraine or Russia.

The dissemination of a fake magazine cover with a critical headline aims to undermine Volodymyr Zelenskyi's reputation, portraying him as a weak leader unable to achieve victory or effectively engage in political confrontation. Such fabricated materials also attempt to suggest that international attention on Ukraine is allegedly fleeting or insignificant, contrasting it with the supposed constant focus on Russia and its leader, Volodymyr Putin. Spreading fake content resembling authoritative Western publications helps create the impression that Ukraine is not receiving the necessary support from its partners or that the international community is skeptical of its leadership. This could affect the morale of Ukrainians and their allies. Propagandists may use such fakes to create the perception that global attention is fixated on Putin rather than Zelenskyi or Ukraine, thereby reinforcing the notion that Ukraine’s struggle for independence lacks sufficient backing or prospects.

Russian propagandists spread a video on social media, particularly on several pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels, claiming that a professor from the University of Bristol spoke about the characteristics of mythical archetypes. According to the video, Volodymyr Zelenskyi is allegedly a modern embodiment of a vampire. However, this is fake.

Experts from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found that the original video has a different format and content, and Professor Ronald Hutton does not mention Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The original audio track was altered using artificial intelligence. A check through the Hive Moderation tool showed with 99% probability that artificial intelligence was used to create this video. The fake video includes the university’s logo, which is not present in the original. The video on the university’s TikTok page contains English subtitles, but their format is different. For the forgery, other illustrations of vampires were used, combined with photographs of Volodymyr Zelenskyi. In the original video, the professor is mainly shown speaking, without images of mythical characters.

Propagandists spread such disinformation for several main reasons. Spreading fake videos portraying state leaders in an invented or negative light aims to diminish their authority. Such manipulations can create the image of a leader who is allegedly dangerous or inadequate, influencing public opinion both in Ukraine and abroad. By associating leaders with mythical archetypes, propagandists aim to create fear or disgust toward certain individuals or ideas. This can undermine trust in governments, organizations, or international partners supporting Ukraine. Using artificial intelligence to create fake materials allows for effective manipulation of reality. Since fake videos look quite convincing, they can make people believe that an authoritative scientist or figure actually said what is being claimed.

A Russian disinformation campaign is actively spreading the narrative that the Ukrainian government might negotiate peace with Russia, bypassing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Such claims, including remarks by Russian State Duma deputy Svitlana Zhurova, aim to paint a picture of chaos within Ukraine's leadership and undermine trust in its leaders. This was reported by the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security.

Russia has also attempted to propose alternative negotiators, such as Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, though these efforts have failed. Putin has gone further, labeling Ukraine’s entire executive branch as illegitimate. The Kremlin seeks to create the illusion that it is willing to negotiate with any entity—parliament, the government, the military, or loyal political figures—while these claims completely ignore the reality. The Ukrainian government operates cohesively, defending the state’s interests, with the international community recognizing and supporting it as the legitimate authority.

The essence of this disinformation is to weaken Ukraine, discredit its leadership, and erode trust in Zelenskyi. However, the strong unity of Ukrainian society and robust international support render the Kremlin’s manipulations ineffective.

Russian sources are distributing a video in which journalist Yurii Butusov said at a rally that he was going to win a court case against Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Another protester, leader of the Democratic Axe party, Yurii Hudymenko, read out the protesters' demands, including Zelenskyi's resignation.

But this is manipulation. The video was distributed without specifying that the action took place in December 2021. Therefore, it could have been given the impression that the video was filmed in 2024. Since it was the Defend Ukraine — Stop the Coup action of December 1, 2021. The same shooting angle, Butusov’s identical clothes, the  Channel 5 logo at the top right — all this coincides in the original video and the excerpt that was taken out of context.

Butusov also stated in the video that he was going to file a lawsuit against the President of Ukraine “to refute those words that contain factual untruths”. The incident was about the incident when, on October 26, 2021, the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed a Russian D-30 howitzer with a drone in the uncontrolled part of Donbas.

A so-called excerpt from a Euronews story about Volodymyr Zelenskyi's visit to Paris is being circulated online. It allegedly broadcast mocking photos of the Ukrainian president, posted on Twitter with the hashtag #MerryChristmasEuronews2024.

But this is a fake video. Presumably, the fakers edited the video using the official Euronews video. There is also no publication on Twitter under the hashtag #MerryChristmasEuronews2024. Indeed, the publication published news about Volodymyr Zelenskyi's visit to Paris. And the publication contains the video used in the fake. Thus, the frames and captions (except for the Twitter feed) in the real video coincide with those in the fake video.

Euronews does indeed have a Twitter feed during live broadcasts. However, the channel does not broadcast posts from anonymous users. Instead, there are posts from Euronews itself, journalists, politicians, organizations, etc. In addition, there is no post on Twitter with the hashtag #MerryChristmasEuronews2024. Euronews also did not report anything about such a campaign on its official resources.

Let us remind you that in Paris on December 7, 2024, Volodymyr Zelenskyi met with Donald Trump. This was their first meeting after Trump's victory in the US presidential election on November 4. French President Emmanuel Macron also participated in the meeting, which lasted 35 minutes. He invited the politicians to the opening of the restored Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral.

According to Reuters, during the half-hour conversation, Zelenskyi explained to Trump Ukraine's need for security guarantees to end a full-scale war with Russia. But the conversation did not include specific details about any vision for peace.

Read more: Propagandists about the meetings between Zelenskyi, Trump, and Orban.

Propagandists are spreading an image on pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels, allegedly taken in Miami (USA). It shows graffiti with a flyswatter in the colors of the American flag, which crushes the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi in the form of a fly. The author of the graffiti is allegedly the American artist Antigirl, as Al Jazeera allegedly wrote about. However, this is a fake.

There is no evidence that this graffiti actually exists in Miami. There is no information about it on the artist's official social media profiles, her official website, or Al Jazeera's website. In such cases, fakers often create images using graphic editors, adding political symbols to provoke.

The image of a “flyswatter” with an American flag and Zelenskyi’s “fly” is a derogatory metaphor that simplifies the complex context of the war in Ukraine and international support. It devalues the struggle of the Ukrainian people. Such fakes are spread to stimulate anti-Ukrainian sentiment among the American audience. Another goal of such fakes is to raise doubts among Ukrainians about international support and undermine their faith in the future.

Russian sources are spreading claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly said that he would “ask Biden to invite Ukraine to NATO, since there is no point in talking about it with Trump”.

In reality, Zelenskyi’s words were taken out of context. This is reported by the StopFake project. The statement in question was made during Zelenskyi’s remarks following his meeting with German chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz in Kyiv. During the press conference, Zelenskyi  mentioned that he planned to call Biden to discuss the issue of Ukraine’s invitation to NATO.

“As for the invitation to NATO, it is still difficult to talk with President Trump because he is not yet in the White House and does not have all the legal powers. I plan to call President Biden in the near future, if he has the opportunity to talk with me, to raise the issue of the invitation to NATO because he is currently the sitting president of the United States, and much depends on his position”, Zelenskyi said.

In other words, Zelenskyi meant that since Trump is not currently in the White House and has not assumed the powers of the U.S. president, the issue of Ukraine’s invitation to NATO should presently be discussed with the sitting president, Biden.

American billionaire and Trump supporter Elon Musk shared a corresponding video of Zelenskyi on his X social media account, accompanied by a surprised emoji. However, social media users added context to the video, clarifying that “Zelenskyi is simply saying that Trump cannot invite Ukraine to NATO yet because he is not currently president”. This clarification appears under all similar manipulations on X.

This propaganda manipulation aims to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine and discredit Ukraine on the international stage. Previously, we debunked claims that a school in Kyiv replaced a portrait of Biden with one of Trump.

Propagandists are spreading information on anonymous Telegram channels claiming that the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo allegedly featured a caricature of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on its cover, depicting him as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, shunned by the leaders of France and the United States. However, this cover is a fake.

This is reported by the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security. They discovered that the actual publication date of the magazine (every Wednesday) and the real cover with entirely different stories prove that the fake was created by Russian propagandists.

Fakes, similar to the fabricated Charlie Hebdo cover, aim to create a negative image of President Zelenskyi and the Ukrainian government, as well as to undermine international support for Ukraine. Fakes ridiculing Ukraine are designed to create the impression that Western countries are supposedly reducing their aid and support. These actions seek to erode Ukrainians' faith in international support and to sow discord among Ukraine’s allies. They are part of a broader information warfare campaign designed to weaken Ukraine.

Pro-Russian propaganda resources are spreading statements by Verkhovna Rada deputy Artem Dmytruk, in which he accuses President Zelenskyi of “genocide of his own people” under the leadership of “Western curators”. However, this is untrue.

This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. Its experts note that Artem Dmytruk, although formally a deputy, is actually outside Ukraine, having illegally left the country. He actively cooperates with Russian propaganda, giving interviews to resources banned in the EU, in particular RT. In his speeches, Dmytruk promotes narratives about the “criminal regime of Zelenskyi” and accuses him of unleashing the war started by Russia and of the “genocide of the Ukrainian people”.

Accusations of “genocide” and other crimes are designed to undermine trust in President Zelenskyi and the Ukrainian government both among Ukrainians and internationally. Using traitors from Ukrainian politics, Russian propaganda creates the illusion of “internal resistance” in Ukraine. Dmytruk justifies Russia’s actions by shifting the blame for the war and its consequences onto Ukraine, which helps legitimize the aggression in the eyes of Russian audiences.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading information claiming that the President's Office is preparing for elections. Allegedly, state institutions in the Kharkiv region have been sent questionnaires containing questions related to support for and approval of President Zelenskyi.

However, the President's Office does not have a specific department responsible for conducting surveys. If government agencies were to organize social surveys, they would most likely hire specialized companies capable of providing such services. The inaccuracies in the questions further suggest that the forms were fabricated.

For example, according to Ukrainska Pravda, the President's Office regularly commissions private, closed surveys from sociological services. Meanwhile, the alleged survey forms do not include the name or address of the organization conducting the survey. Instead, at the bottom of the form, the address of the President's Office — Bankova Street, 11 — is listed, which points to this being a fake.

In the Russian segment of social media, users are spreading a claim that Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s company, Film Heritage Inc., allegedly purchased the Palace des Neiges hotel in Courchevel for €88 million. According to the propagandists, the hotel at the exclusive ski resort is now supposedly being prepared for renovation and reopening for the 2026-2027 winter season. As proof, they assert that information about the new owner has already been published on the hotel's website. This material was allegedly distributed by the French outlet Les Echos de la France.

However, Les Echos de la France is not a legitimate French media outlet but a “one-time” website created by malicious actors specifically to spread this narrative. Using the whois.com tool, which provides domain and IP address information, it was revealed that this domain was registered in late November 2024 on a Lithuanian server hosted by Hostinger.

This server has previously been identified in international fact-checking investigations, as Russian propaganda has used it multiple times to create fake websites for spreading disinformation.

The fake site, which was created just days earlier (on November 22), indeed claims that Film Heritage Inc. is the hotel's owner. However, no such mention appears on the legitimate hotel website. Neither any reputable Western media nor Monte-Carlo SBM - the business group that actually owns this property - reported any sales involving companies associated with Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

These so-called investigations into the property ownership of Ukrainian officials have become part of a systematic campaign to discredit them. This way, propagandists and Moscow-aligned entities aim to depict Ukraine as rife with corruption — which could further harm Ukraine’s European integration path, as combating and reducing corruption is one of the key requirements for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.

Other similar fabricated cases which related to the acquisition of real estate with stolen funds include Zelenskyi allegedly purchasing a villa once owned by Hitler’s propaganda minister Goebbels for €8 million, and Zelenskyi’s mother-in-law supposedly acquiring a villa on the coast of Egypt using Western humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.

Russian propagandists are spreading false claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly bought the Palace des Neiges hotel in Courchevel. According to them, the hotel has 70 rooms, a spa area, a swimming pool, and a restaurant, and its reopening is planned for 2026–2027, upon completion of renovations. However, this is a fake.

This was reported by the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security. Its experts remind that such statements are part of a systematic Russian propaganda campaign, which since the beginning of the full-scale invasion has been circulating fakes that the Zelenskyi family is buying luxury real estate and luxury items. Previous alleged purchases include Sting’s villa, a royal residence in the UK, Goebbels' estate, and even Hitler's limousine.

These falsehoods have been repeatedly debunked as they lack any evidence. The goal of such manipulations is to discredit the President of Ukraine in the eyes of the public and international partners. The propaganda aims to create the illusion that the Ukrainian government is indulging in luxury and engaging in corruption during the war, allegedly misusing international aid. 

Pro-Russian Telegram channels are spreading information that Dmytro Savchenko, an officer of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion “Da Vinci” of the 67th 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade, allegedly criticized the interview of the President of Ukraine for the FoxNews channel, in which Volodymyr Zelenskyi spoke about the probable defeat of Ukraine in the event of a reduction in aid from the United States. The propagandists attribute the following quote to Savchenko: “We need to remind the [overdue one] that it is not the Americans who have been saving Ukraine since 2014. But Ukrainians - with their blood, their homes, their bodies, their savings”. The propagandists add that, allegedly, according to Savchenko, Zelenskyi usurped power after May 20, 2024 and continues to lie to Ukrainians.

In fact, this is another fake, Savchenko did not say anything of the sort. The propagandists refer to the unreliable Ukrainian media, which is known for publishing outright fake and unverified materials, in which numerous violations of journalistic standards can be traced. In addition, Savchenko did not publish any such information on his social media. And the words that the propagandists attribute to Savchenko were not repeated by any reliable sources.

This piece of disinformation is intended to fuel the Russian narrative about the “illegitimacy of Zelenskyi”. Previously, we recorded numerous fakes being spread as part of this narrative. In particular, we refuted the information that posters with the overdue - or “expired” - Zelenskyi allegedly appeared in Kyiv.

Propaganda Telegram channels claim that in 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly sold a third of Ukraine to BlackRock, transferring the country's economic sovereignty to the United States. However, this is actually manipulation.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security writes about this. Its experts found out that back in November 2022, the Ukrainian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BlackRock to attract investment in the restoration of Ukraine. This is standard international practice, not “selling the country”. The propaganda ignores that by 2022, Russia itself was actively cooperating with BlackRock, and after the start of the war, it lost access to global capital markets. Now Russian resources are being sold to investors from the Middle East, but this is being kept silent.

The aim of this disinformation is to sow distrust among Ukrainian citizens towards the leadership, accusing it of “betraying” national interests. Russia also creates an image of a “cunning West” that allegedly “exploits” Ukraine for its own purposes, contrasting this with Russia’s “protective” position. The Kremlin uses such fakes to distract attention from its own economic problems, such as the sale of resources to foreign investors due to sanctions. The goal is to undermine international trust in Ukraine, making partners doubt its sovereignty and independence.

A Polish pro-Russian Telegram channel has spread information that the Verkhovna Rada has “declared war” on the tombstones of fallen Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers, on which they are allegedly depicted together with Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Thus, relatives of fallen Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers, on whose tombstones a joyful Zelenskyi is allegedly depicted with a soldier “on a shield”, must remove the image of the Ukrainian president from the tombstone within 60 days. Otherwise, as the propagandists write, local authorities “will simply dismantle the tombstone”. In reporting this, the pro-Russian Telegram channel refers to a video in which information is provided in Ukrainian.

In fact, this is another fake of propagandists. There is no such resolution on the official portal of the Verkhovna Rada. Also, no reliable Ukrainian media published such information. In addition, in the subtitles to the video, the fakers made a mistake, writing the word “dismantles” with an extra letter “u”.

After all, it is not at all common practice in Ukraine to depict President Zelenskyi at the graves of fallen Ukrainian soldiers, although the video states that there are “at least 21,400 such cases”. The data provided is unfounded, and its source is not indicated.

The aim of the fake is to discredit President Zelenskyi and desecrate the culture of memory in Ukraine. We have repeatedly recorded similar fakes that speculate on the graves of fallen Ukrainian soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Thus, earlier we refuted the information that Ukrainians had destroyed the grave of a soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who died in Mariupol.

Russian anonymous Telegram channels are actively disseminating a statement by American commentator Jackson Hinkle that Zelenskyi should allegedly “thank Putin and God” for avoiding a ballistic missile strike. This statement is part of an information campaign aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian leadership and justifying Russian aggression.

Experts from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security have found that Jackson Hinkle is a propagandist who has repeatedly spoken out in support of Moscow. His actions are part of Russia’s information operations aimed at an American audience. In fact, the ballistic missile strike that Russia used on November 21 is an escalatory step that violates international law. This type of missile is usually designed to deliver nuclear weapons. Such an act is not only a terrorist attack, but also a demonstration of disregard for diplomatic norms. It serves as a tool of blackmail, trying to intimidate the international community.

In this way, propagandists try to create an image of Russia's “peacefulness” and Ukraine's allegedly provocative role. Propaganda also tries to convince people that Western allies support “Ukrainian aggression”. They legitimize further Russian crimes, such as nuclear blackmail.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading manipulation of Zelenskyi’s statement about Crimea, referring to the Ukrainian president’s interview with the American channel Fox News. In particular, they are promoting the thesis that the return of Crimea is “worth forgetting”.

“We cannot spend tens of thousands of our people dying for the return of Crimea. We understand that Crimea can be returned diplomatically”, the propagandists quote.

Russian propaganda manipulated Zelenskyi’s words, and this is reported by StopFake. That is, this quote is real, but taken out of context and used to “confirm” the thesis that the president of Ukraine allegedly recognized the captured Crimea as “lost”.

Initially, the interview discussed the issue of the likelihood of territorial concessions as such in order to reach peace agreements with Russia. Zelenskyi called such a scenario impossible and emphasized that Ukraine does not legally recognize the occupation of the territories even before the full-scale invasion in 2014. The answer about the “possibility of returning Crimea through diplomatic channels” was given in response to the correspondent’s clarifying question about “the readiness to give up Crimea in order to find a peace agreement”. After all, earlier in the interview, the president noted that Ukraine currently does not have enough forces to reach the 1991 borders through armed means.

Russian propagandists often spread manipulative information about the occupied territories, which concerns both the coverage of the situation on the front and public sentiment. In addition, Russian propagandists have once again resorted to substituting concepts. Since the thesis about the diplomatic path of returning the annexed Crimea does not define it as “lost” for Ukraine.

Read more: 85% of the population of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine allegedly supports Putin.