Against the background of news about the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the UK, France and Belgium, pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels have been spreading a lot of disinformation messages, with the help of which Russia imposes its own interpretation of events on the audience. Analysts of Detector Media have identified the most common of them.

Zelenskyi's visit diverts attention from the situation in Bakhmut

In December, during Zelenskyi’s visit to the United States, propagandists wrote that Zelenskyi deliberately flew out of the country in order to “hang” the surrender of Bakhmut on the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Like, there is a long-standing conflict between Zelenskyi and Zaluzhnyi and such a decision is the consequences. Allegedly, “guilt” will allow them to change the commander-in-chief. However, Bakhmut is still under the control of the Ukrainian army. This time, the propagandists also take advantage of the difficult situation that has arisen in the city due to the Russian invasion. In their opinion, Zelenskyi wants to look like a hero, so he personally left to negotiate for weapons. However, to do this, he allegedly needs to convince Western partners that at least three hundred thousand more people will be mobilized into the Ukrainian army. Allegedly, such a figure is “justified” by the losses of personnel. However, such statements are only the assumption of propagandists. They don't provide any evidence. In this case, Russian propaganda is promoting several manipulative messages at once: Western support for Ukraine is waning; there are huge losses in the Ukrainian army, which will be covered by forced mobilization; Zelenskyi is “playing the hero”. In fact, Volodymyr Zelenskyi is acting president of a country at war and is negotiating with partners for further cooperation.

Zelenskyi’s trip to Europe “extinguishes” the corruption scandal in Ukraine

They say that the corruption scandal with procurement by the Ministry of Defense undermined the image of Ukraine. As if Ukraine now needs to create a positive “motivational” picture for the Europeans. According to the authors of anonymous telegram channels, Zelenskyi's visit, they say, will be able to change the headlines on the front pages of the Western press. Such theses are manipulation, because they do not have a causal relationship. Of course, the media will cover the visit of the President of Ukraine, we see a lot of positive feedback, but there are no guarantees that there will be no negative headlines for Ukraine either.

Zelenskyi is no longer a “bunker ruler” after debunking the myth that Putin wants to kill him

In such reports, anonymous authors refer to a recent interview with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, which Russian propaganda used to spread disinformation. Propagandists claim that Putin showed mercy and promised not to kill Zelenskyi. However, propagandists invented this statement, distorting the meaning of what Bennett said.

In spreading this message, Russian propaganda uses the tactic of substitution of concepts. In fact, the Russian president is called the “bunker old man”, and not only by Ukrainians, but also by Belarusians and Russians. Unlike Putin, who rarely attends any events, Volodymyr Zelenskyi from the first days of the great war recorded videos in front of the building of the President's Office and showed the Ukrainians that he was in Ukraine. Trips to the liberated Bakhmut, Kherson, Izium and other cities, a visit to the United States also refute the version of the propagandists about “concealment” of Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

Zelenskyi will travel more in Europe in 2023, in particular because of the elections

Anonymous telegram channels write that Zelenskyi is allegedly preparing for the upcoming elections, so there will be more foreign work trips in the near future. Thus, propagandists are trying to be proactive and try to convince Ukrainians that the authorities are supposedly more worried about the upcoming elections and their continued tenure than about the war and the current problems of Ukrainians. However, according to Ukrainian legislation, elections are not held under martial law. So far, martial law has been extended until May 20, 2023. That is, elections to the Verkhovna Rada, presidential elections in Ukraine or local elections will take place only after the end of the war.

In Britain, they took a photo of Zelenskyi in front of a tank - this is the maximum that he can get from the trip

Reports say that the British allegedly allowed Zelenskyi to be photographed in front of the Challenger 2 tank solely to advertise the tank in the world media. As if these tanks will never appear on the front lines in Ukraine. Like, they promised to give them within a month, but only when placed in the capital for “PR”. Tanks will not be sent to the front. In fact, the Ukrainian military has already arrived in the UK and is learning how to operate these tanks. Moreover, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assured Volodymyr Zelenskyi that the UK would expedite the dispatch of its and allied equipment to Ukraine “to ensure it reaches Ukraine’s frontline in the coming days and weeks, not years”.

Visit to the European Parliament will not have results

There are also messages in anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric, the authors of which claim that “except for the applause of insane senile people” a visit to the European Parliament will not give Ukraine anything. Like, they applaud Zelenskyi, take a picture with him, and that will be the end of it. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to promote messages about “insignificant Europe” and “the absurdity and helplessness of European institutions”. Like, in fact, they do not solve anything and are not capable of anything. However, the head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola, in her speech noted that the European Union should take the next step and consider providing fighter jets to Ukraine. The visit of the President of Ukraine is still ongoing, so it is too early to sum up the results, as propagandists do.

Messages aimed at ridiculing Volodymyr Zelenskyi personally

In anonymous telegram channels, propagandists also use the tactics of ridicule and discredit Volodymyr Zelenskyi. This is necessary for propagandists to devalue the results of a foreign visit. In particular, they write that Zelenskyi was allegedly brought to the UK “like an amazing monkey” for the British monarch. Like, Zelenskyi, as a “beggar”, went to beg for help, moreover, he cried in the European Parliament, and this is a sign of weakness for propagandists. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to make Ukrainians feel ashamed of their leader and his behavior abroad.

The second foreign visit of Volodymyr Zelenskyi since the beginning of the full-scale invasion has already become historic: the British monarch honored the Ukrainian president with an audience. Against the backdrop of Zelenskyi's visit, the UK imposed new sanctions against Russia. The President of France also awarded Volodymyr Zelenskyi with the Order of the Legion of Honor, the highest award in France that can be received for civil merit.

According to the Center for counteracting disinformation, scammers send fake messages online and on phones about the possibility of receiving financial assistance from foreign partners. Like, every Ukrainian can receive 6,500 hryvnia on a bank card.

To get such “assistance”, scammers offer to follow the link and enter personal data to enter the site. The design on the fake site imitates official web resources. After the introduction of bank details, thieves withdraw all funds from the owner's card.

The Center urges people to check information in official sources so as not to become a victim of fraudsters. Also, in case of suspicion of fraudulent activities on the Internet, they are asked to inform the cyber police by e-mail: callcenter@cyberpolice.gov.ua.

Taking advantage of the difficult situation of Ukrainians because of the war, scammers systematically offer a variety of “help”. Previously, scammers offered 6,000 hryvnias of “New Year's” assistance, 5,000 hryvnias of assistance from PrivatBank, financial assistance from the Uappl project, winter payments from the European Union, etc.

This was reported in the Security service of Ukraine. Several thousand bots “dispersed” disinformation about the situation on the southern front, popularized the Russian occupation groups and called for donations in their support. In addition, they engaged in discrediting the command of the Defense forces and incited Ukrainian citizens to evade mobilization.

The primary source of the spread of hostile content was the telegram channel of collaborator Rohov. At the beginning of the work, the bot farm numbered about two thousand fake accounts spreading pro-Russian messages and narratives allegedly on behalf of local residents. According to the Security service of Ukraine (SBU), in the future, this bot farm was planned to be used to spread Russian propaganda in the frontline areas of the region.

According to the investigation, the organizer of the bot farm is a local IT specialist. He placed the necessary equipment in one of the rented office premises in the city center. With the help of this equipment, new anonymous accounts were registered every day in social networks, including those banned in Ukraine. The investigation is currently ongoing, criminal proceedings have been opened.

Earlier, Detector Media talked about pro-Russian and occupation telegram channels that spread Russian propaganda.

The Government computer emergency response team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) recorded the distribution of emails on behalf of JSC Ukrtelecom.

The subject of the letter was about a legal claim on a personal account. A file with the “pdf.exe” format was attached to the letters, after launching of which the Remcos remote control and monitoring program was installed on the user’s computer. This application is payable and can be purchased from the manufacturer's website. Similar attempts have been repeatedly recorded since 2020. Previous cyberattacks have been carried out using the RemoteUtilities remote administration program. Letters were sent mainly to public authorities. Probably for espionage.

Earlier, experts said that Ukraine beats off from 5 to 40 powerful DDoS attacks every day.

Pro-Russian telegram channels used a recent interview with ex-Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett to spread disinformation. Detector Media refutes the main messages of Russian propaganda made on the basis of this interview.

Putin promised for “100%” that he would not kill Zelenskyi.

Propagandists claim that in an interview, Bennett said that the Russian president showed “mercy” to “bring peace”. They emphasize that allegedly Russia has power over Ukraine to such an extent that it can decide the fate of the President of Ukraine. Pro-Russian media write that it is supposedly “proof” of Zelenskyi's weakness and his personal “dependence” on Russia in the current situation.

In fact, the ex-premier does not say too much directly on the topic of Ukraine in an interview, but recalls that Russia allegedly promised not to do anything with the Ukrainian president. However, Bennett himself does not attach as much importance to this as propaganda ascribes to it. In particular, Bennett says he did not believe Putin's words. The message about Russia's “act of mercy” in this case is an invention of propagandists as  Bennett did not say this.

Western countries “leaked” the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

Russian propaganda writes that allegedly in an interview, Bennett said that the West is deliberately “dragging out” the war and does not consider Ukraine an independent state. Like, the West and personally Boris Johnson “curtailed” negotiations at the beginning of the war. Moreover, Ukraine allegedly only “plays along” with the West and has no influence on the outcome of the war.

The propagandists took Bennett's phrases out of context and mutilated quotes to advance their interests. According to Bennett, negotiations have indeed stalled. However, he calls the tragedy in Bucha, and not the unilateral decision of the West, the real reason for this. Bennett said that after these events, the negotiations ceased to make sense.

Russian propaganda has repeatedly tried to shift responsibility for its actions to others and create the illusion of a “sincere desire for peace”. To do this, they use the tactics of substitution of concepts. The main goal of propaganda is to demoralize Ukrainian society and increase the level of distrust in the authorities.

In closed Russian telegram channels, a message was circulated that it was allegedly possible to “agree” on several hours of intimacy with an “orphan from Ukraine”. Like, the cost of such a “service” is 250 thousand rubles. These messages also made their way into the Ukrainian segment of the telegram. The messages also supposedly contained screenshots of “correspondence” about the “transaction”. In particular, it was about the participation of the child in the filming of porn videos. The interlocutors describe the age of the boy as “going to school soon”.

Dmytro Lubinets, an Ombudsman, published a post with screenshots on his telegram channel and turned to the National police with a request to find out the details of the case. The National police denied the information. From the primary sources, the message about the “sale” of the child was deleted.

The cyber police of Ukraine found out that the child, whose photo was used to create a fake, was really born and lives in Russia. The boy, under the supervision of his mother, works as a model and advertises clothes and shoes, so his photo is freely available.

Earlier, Detector Media told how Russian propaganda justifies the deportation of Ukrainian children. According to the latest data, the Russians forcibly deported at least sixteen thousand children (according to other sources, this figure reaches more than seven hundred thousand). The crimes of the Russian army, including those against Ukrainian children, are being investigated by the UN.

The network got an appeal to the Ukrainians from the Russians, posted on little-known Ukrainian sites. It says that Ukrainians and Russians are one people that ruthlessly was divided by the West. The authors of the appeal also talk about brotherhood, the desire to reunite again, a common cultural heritage, and so on.

This case was noticed by the fact-checkers of the NotaYenota project, who found that the occupiers were hacking into Ukrainian websites and posting classic narratives about friendship and reconciliation between Ukraine and Russia. They emphasize that the appeals themselves are placed on little-known sites, probably with a lesser degree of security. Moreover, the texts of appeals appear on the pages of previously published materials. Consequently, users and creators of the resource have access to the entire site and will not even guess that on one of the pages you can find an appeal broadcasting typical pro-Kremlin narratives.

NotaYenota urges owners to check their sites for pro-Kremlin narratives, because the site itself may function without signs of hacking, but one of the web pages may hide the appeal of infidels.

Reports are circulating on the net that the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly decided to create telegram channels with “official information” about the activity of enemy aircraft and the movement of drones.

The Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine denied this information: “The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not have any telegram channels that reflect the air situation, the movement of enemy air targets, the work of air defense, etc”. The department also urged administrators running fake pages on social networks not to use official Air Force symbols or photos of officials to promote their information platforms.

Official information platforms of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kpszsu

Telegram: https://t.me/kpszsu

Instagram: instagram.com/air.force.ua.official

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KpsZSU

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfg-2zTad5ZVU1fQEtT6DSA

The fake document says that, allegedly, based on the results of the investigation, the “comprehensive commission” established the causes of the helicopter crash in Brovary near Kyiv. Allegedly, servicemen of one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down a helicopter from the Igla MANPADS. The “document” is dated on the day of the accident, that is, January 18.

The command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine denied the fake. The design of the fake letter does not meet the requirements, numerous errors were made in the text. The investigation is currently ongoing, there is no official information on the results yet.

Probably, the fake document was distributed to discredit the Ukrainian army and its leadership in the eyes of Ukrainians. In anonymous telegram channels immediately after the crash, a lot of messages appeared with the so-called versions of what happened. Propagandists have used fake documents to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine before. In particular, it was alleged about the losses in the Ukrainian army.

Unknown people sent letters to the mailboxes of the Czechs claiming that one of the candidates for the presidency of the Czech Republic died on the night of January 26, the day before the opening of polling stations, from “probable heart failure”. The letter was sent through the Russian mail service “Yandex”. The letter itself allegedly quoted the press secretary of the candidate Petr Pavel.

However, all the information in the letter is fake. In particular, according to Yevropeiska Pravda (European truth), the header of the e-mail contains an error, namely, Pavel's surname is spelled incorrectly, and in the letter itself there is a link to a website with the “com” domain, which has an address similar to the address of the official website of Pavel's election campaign. Visually, the site is really very similar to the original. The journalists found out that the metadata of the letter has a Russian trace, because the letter was sent from a Russian mail service.

The domain and website are operated by Njalla based in the Caribbean island of Nevis. And the domain itself is registered for the Canadian company Tucows, so it is impossible to trace the owner from public sources. This company is involved in pseudo-news sites that are used as a tool to destroy competition in business, Seznam Zpravy notes.

According to journalists, the unknown sent not only a letter announcing Pavel's death. Subsequently, another one came to the mailbox, it was on behalf of his communication manager. The letter stated that at night the candidate for the presidency of the Czech Republic experienced clinical death, but survived thanks to the efforts of doctors. However, all this is not true, and the manager's quote is fake. Pavel himself said that the criminal police of the Czech Republic were investigating the situation.

We remind that a new president is currently being elected in the Czech Republic. Among the candidates who made it to the second round, having received the voters' commitment, is Petr Pavel who received the largest number of votes in the first round of elections - 35.39%. His opponent was 0.39% behind.

Such a document was shared by propagandists in their telegram channels and the Kremlin media. It says that Ukraine is preparing to deport women and men who are abroad and allegedly asks the Ukrainian Embassy in the EU to provide information about people of military age. After the deportation, all women and men are mobilized. In particular, such an appeal was allegedly received by the Embassy of Ukraine in Latvia.

As experts from the Center for counteracting disinformation explain, the Ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine did not send such appeals to the Ukrainian Embassy in Latvia and other European countries. The document is fake and has nothing to do with the official position of Ukraine.

By sharing such a document, propagandists want to sow panic among Ukrainian refugees in Europe. The propagandists also create the appearance that the situation at the front is extremely bad, because the Ukrainian authorities supposedly have to return people from abroad and mobilize even women.

This was reported in the Center for national resistance. On January 22, Russian propagandist Piehov shared a video allegedly filmed in the battles for Bilohorivka. The propagandist claims that he is “directly in Bilohorivka”. Like, the Russians are trying to break through the defense line “Siversk - Soledar - Bakhmut - Chasiv Yar”. In fact, the video was filmed in the temporarily occupied territory, on the outskirts of the village of Shypylivka, which is located almost eight kilometers from Bilohorivka, which is under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Moreover, the video shows how the Russians are fleeing from Ukrainian shelling.

On January 24, another Russian propagandist, Dambiyev, shared a video on his telegram channel, which allegedly recorded battles in the village of Krasna Hora near Bakhmut. However, this video is staged, it was filmed in Mariupol. This is evidenced by the results of the OSINT check of this video.

The situation in these sectors of the front is really difficult now, there are fights there. Probably, Russian propaganda, due to the spread of fake videos, is trying to demoralize Ukrainians and take credit for the next “achievements”.

Russian propaganda systematically uses fake videos to promote their interests. Previously, they distributed videos of how the Russian military shot sunflowers and boasted that it was a unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; how the Russians allegedly detained “Ukrainian saboteurs” on Russian territory; how they “destroyed” the Ukrainian tank division, etc.

Messages are circulating on social networks that allegedly due to the difficult energy situation in the country Ukrainians are provided with a one-time payment of 2,300 hryvnias from the Red Cross.

Fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Liar) project checked the information and found that it was a scam. The scammers use a fake telegram channel called the Red Cross society, which has only 170 subscribers. At the same time, the official telegram channel of the organization has five thousand readers. Information about “assistance in connection with the energy situation in the country” is not there. Links to the pages of Ukrainian banks in messages are also fake. There is no information on such payments on the official pages of these banks. Fraudsters manipulate the limited registration time (only until 10:00 pm or only until 02:00 am) and ask to “hurry up to leave personal details” in order to receive “assistance”.

Also, to receive fake assistance, you need to enter your personal data, including your bank card number. This is a sign of phishing - the collection of personal data.

Fraudsters systematically use the difficult situation of Ukrainians because of war and offer a variety of “help”. The goal is different: from manipulative advertising of telegram channels to gaining access to bank cards of Ukrainians. In particular, earlier the scammers offered 6,000 hryvnias of “New Year's” assistance, 5,000 hryvnias of assistance from PrivatBank, financial assistance in conjunction with the Uappl project, and winter payments from the European Union.

In the Ukrainian segment of social networks, a video with allegedly featuring Yurii Lutsenko is being shared after a hard battle in Soledar, Donetsk region. In particular, the Volyn politician Volodymyr Bondar published a screenshot from the video on his personal page. However, according to the fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Lier) project, this video is a deepfake.

According to the fact-checkers, with the help of special programs, the authors created a so-called deepfake, because the video footage shows a man in military uniform, who really looks like Ukrainian politician Yurii Lutsenko. In the video, the hero's face moves a lot, it increases or decreases in size, which is not typical of a live, non-supporting video. Analysts are convinced that the authors of the video took a photograph of a military man and, using computer technology, superimposed Lutsenko's face on it.

Moreover, the video was recorded for several seconds and contains only musical accompaniment, although the military himself is silent in the video and does not add a single comment.

This was announced by the head of the State service for special communications and information protection of Ukraine Yurii Shchyhol. In December 2022, the State Service for Special Communications stopped and blocked 395 such attacks. Today, on January 18, specialists from the State Service for Special Communications stopped a cyberattack by Russian hackers on the resources of the Ukrinform news agency.

In total, in 2022, the government's CERT-UA Computer emergency response team registered 2,194 cyber attacks. A quarter of them are against the government and local authorities. The energy sector, the security and defense sector, telecoms and developers, the financial sector, and logistics were most attacked. In addition, in December the system recorded 170,000 attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in government information resources protected by services. Most often, Russian military hackers send out malware that steals credentials or destroys information systems.

The State service for special communications and information protection also investigates attacks in the private sector - about 200-300 cyber incidents per day. They are examined mainly in semi-automatic mode.

Earlier, Detector Media talked about phishing attacks on Ukrainians. In particular, the scammers promised Ukrainians six thousand hryvnias of “New Year's” assistance; collected information about Ukrainian refugees and migrants; urged Ukrainians to apply for supposedly receiving financial assistance. More details.

Today, January 18, in Brovary, Kyiv region, a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten. It is a helicopter of the State Emergency Service, on board of which there was the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his first deputy and secretary of state. All three died in the crash. Civilians who were close to the place where the helicopter fell were also injured. According to the Deputy Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko, as of 1 pm, it is known that 16 people were killed, including 3 children, 30 people were injured, but the search is still ongoing.

The Security Service of Ukraine has already opened proceedings on the disaster. Currently, investigators have three official versions:

- violation of flight rules;

- technical malfunction of the helicopter;

- its intentional destruction.

However, on anonymous telegram channels pro-Russian rhetoric is broadcasting, including those operated by Russian intelligence, a lot of messages appeared immediately after the crash with so-called versions of what happened and who was to blame. “Detector Media” has identified and explains the most common disinformation messages about the tragedy in Brovary.

1. Helicopter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine crashed

Immediately after the tragedy, even before the catastrophe was reported by Ukrainian officials and the media, a message appeared in the telegram channels of Russian propagandists that a helicopter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had crashed in Brovary. In the reports, the authors traditionally cited their own sources without providing any confirmation. In fact, a helicopter of the State Emergency Service crashed in Brovary. In particular, information about this appeared on the pages of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The president's messages also said that Denys Monastyrskyi and his team were in the helicopter at the time of the accident.

2. The plane crash was due to air defense

This is one of the most common messages of Russian propagandists about the likely causes of the helicopter crash. Like, a helicopter with the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was simply shot down by Ukrainian air defense. Further, the versions on the accusation of the air defense operators differ: in some reports they claimed that this was done intentionally, in others, on the contrary, they insisted that it happened by accident, but also because the air defense in Ukraine is faulty. Firstly, at the time of the helicopter crash in Brovary and in general in the Kyiv region there was no air raid alert. According to the Alert Map, the last time an air alert was announced in the Kyiv region was on January 14, during a massive enemy missile attack. So the likelihood that the air defense worked unnecessarily, not seeing a threat from the air, is scanty. Secondly, this version is not included in the list of official ones considered by the Security service of Ukraine (SBU) investigators. However, this is not the first time that Russian propaganda has accused operators of the Ukrainian air defense system of negligence and, accordingly, of crimes. The propagandists used this technique for the last time on Saturday, January 14, when the entrance to a residential building was destroyed as a result of the fall of a Russian rocket. More than four dozen people died as a result of the disaster. Propagandists systematically spread fakes and manipulations about the work of air defense. In particular, Russia needs this to accuse Ukraine of various crimes, mostly committed through the fault of Russia itself. In this case, the propaganda found a reason to once again accuse Ukraine of alleged negligence, because of which people die.

3. Ukraine hides the true cause of the disaster

Another message was shared in anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. Anonymous reports say that the Ukrainian authorities allegedly know and hide the true cause of the disaster in Brovary. Like, Ukrainians may not even wait, because they won’t be told the truth, because they won’t like it. In fact, it is too early to talk about the causes of the plane crash before the investigation is over. In order to accurately state who is to blame for the disaster, whether it was accidental etc., evidence is needed for the sake of collecting which the SBU initiated an investigation and put forward the first official versions. However, such a message is intended to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and once again nourish the narrative about its alleged negligence and indifference to its own people.

4. The accident happened because of cheap helicopters

In order to create the appearance of a careless Ukrainian government, the message was also spread that the accident allegedly occurred due to bad helicopters that Ukraine purchased. Allegedly, it says about former helicopters that the Ministry of the internal affairs purchased from France in September 2018. Like, the helicopter crash was due to the fact that the helicopter was common and bad, because earlier the Norwegians allegedly refused a batch of the same helicopters. In fact, there is no data on which helicopter is in question, and whether it was purchased in France. There is indeed a version of a technical malfunction among the official versions of the investigators, however, it is impossible to state that the crash occurred because of this and, in particular, because the Ukrainian authorities deliberately purchased faulty helicopters, as there is not a single confirmation of this yet.

In addition, anonymous telegram channels circulate versions of a helicopter shot down from an American Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missile system or a drone. However, the facts confirming these versions are also not provided by anonymous authors, and none of them is included in the list of official ones.

Russian propaganda once again speculates on sensitive topics and tries to promote its own narratives, according to which it is Ukraine that is the aggressor, and the Ukrainian authorities do not care about their people, because people are dying because of their negligence and criminal actions. In this case, propagandists make unfounded and hasty conclusions, ignoring the official versions of the investigation.

Viktor Medvedchuk, a former deputy of the pro-Russian OPZzh (Opposition platform — for life) party, whom Ukraine accuses of treason and deprived of citizenship, published an article in the Russian media Izvestiia (News) about the “anatomy” of the modern military confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, as well as about the role of the West in this war. In order to prove the “guilt of the West” in the destruction of the Soviet Union, he used a fictitious quote from former United States President Bill Clinton. Insider drew attention to this.

“Using the mistakes of Soviet diplomacy, the extreme self-confidence of Horbachov and his entourage, including those who openly took a pro-American position, we achieved what President Truman was going to do with the Soviet Union with the help of an atomic bomb”, Medvedchuk quotes Clinton in the article. But, as the checkers found out, the quote allegedly belonging to Clinton was published both in Russian and in English only on Russian resources, for example, on the pages of users on Vkontakte. And also in one of the Russian history textbooks for history teachers, which contains a lot of fakes, propaganda, errors and unproven facts. Secondly, the quote appears to have been taken from Bill Clinton's speech at the meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on October 24, 1995 - but the fact checkers found no evidence that Clinton spoke or even attended this meeting. There is also no quote or mention of this speech in the English-language media or historical articles about Bill Clinton.

We recall that in his article Medvedchuk promotes a lot of disinformation messages that reproduce the position of Russian propaganda. Detector Media has prepared a selection of them.

On Saturday, January 14, during another massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine, one of the enemy missiles hit a multi-storey building in Dnipro. After the hit, the whole entrance collapsed. According to the latest data, the bodies of 40 dead, including three children, were found at the site of the explosion, as reported by the press service of the State emergency service.

Molfar OSINT community analysts and Our Money.Lviv jointly conducted an investigation to identify all those involved in the terrorist crime.

They published all those involved in the rocket attacks, including those who refueled the planes and rockets before launch. Additionally, persons directly associated with this aviation regiment, but not belonging to its personnel, were identified.

Experts cite a telegram post by Hennadii Korban, the head of the territorial defense in Dnipro, who said that the 52nd Guards heavy bomber aviation regiment based in the city of Shaikivka committed the crime. At the same time, analysts made an effort to identify every person from the regiment.

In addition, fact-checkers add that it was this regiment that was previously involved in the terrorist shelling of the Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk on June 27, 2022.

Former deputy of the pro-Russian OPZZh (Opposition platform — for life) party Viktor Medvedchuk, whom Ukraine accuses of high treason and deprived of citizenship, published an article in the Russian media Izvestiia (News), which calls the war in Ukraine a “Ukrainian issue”, about the alleged “anatomy” of the modern military confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, as well as the role of the West in this war. In his work, he promotes a lot of disinformation messages that reproduce the position of Russian propaganda. Detector Media has prepared a selection of them.

The European Union has the ambitions of a colonizer

In his article, Viktor Medvedchuk expresses his opinion about the EU's attempts to create colonies. According to the article, after winning the Cold War, Europe is trying to “absorb” its opponent, that is, Russia and the post-Soviet countries. He uses the wars in Georgia and Syria as an argument. Like, the European Union is trying to split the state and absorb them.

In fact, the wars in Georgia and Syria took place with the direct participation and even at the initiative of Russia, so one can talk about the ambitions of the colonialist, but they are shown not by the EU countries, but by Russia. It is Russia that is the aggressor in the case of Ukraine, because it was it who started the war in Ukraine back in 2014 - with the seizure of Crimea and the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Ukraine gained independence without a national liberation struggle

The article says that Ukraine gained independence due to an agreement with Moscow, which even pushed our state to this decision, because it was beneficial to Russia in economic terms. In fact, Ukraine fought for its independence.

In particular, on December 1, 1991, a referendum was held on the need to declare independence. Then the turnout at the polling stations was unprecedented - 31,891,742 people. At that time, this amounted to 84% of the total population. At that time, 90% of the people voted for independence, only 7% were against it, and another 2% of the ballots were declared invalid.

Before the referendum, the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada addressed the people with the words that “not supporting independence means supporting dependence”, but there is no such country that Ukraine would aspire to become dependent on. The message about the so-called gifted independence is not new to Russian propaganda. Russia has been trying for years to create the appearance that Ukraine became independent only thanks to it, and, in general, Russian propaganda is trying to promote the opinion that Ukraine would not exist at all if it were not for Russia.

Ukraine began to promote anti-Russian propaganda and this led to the creation of “two Ukraines”

According to Medvedchuk, after the first Maidan, that is, after the Orange Revolution, Ukraine began to promote anti-Russian propaganda. That is what he calls taking a course towards joining the European Union and NATO, as well as restoring certain pages in the history of Ukraine. In particular, such anti-Russian propaganda was allegedly Yushchenko's policy towards the Holodomor. In particular, the recognition of his genocide of the Ukrainian people.

In fact, even after the proclamation of the European course, the policy on Russia in Ukraine has not changed. The only exception was the orientation towards European values, which, according to Medvedchuk in his article, Russia also tried to instill in its people. However, in Ukraine, legislative norms were introduced that worked for the spread of the Ukrainian language, etc. Such a policy to protect the state language, according to the Russian narrative, is also anti-Russian. No one banned the Russian language in Ukraine, moreover, they still do not.

The increase in the amount of anti-Russian propaganda in the information flow, Medvedchuk argues, has led to the emergence of “two Ukraines”: one of them is pro-Russian and the other is anti-Russian. This approach suggests the idea of the disunity of Ukraine and the ethnicity of the pro-Russian, that is, the southeastern part to the aggressor country. The existence of “two Ukraines” is a common message promoted by Russian propaganda, including Medvedchuk. It is really intended to divide Ukrainian society, to turn people against each other.

Ukraine is connected with Russia culturally and mentally

The kinship of the cultures of the Ukrainian and Russian people is another message that is very often used by hostile media. They write that by abandoning Russian culture, we are losing a significant part of our own. The Russian media are actively manipulating opinions about a common cultural space and history for the sake of emotional pressure. Medvedchuk also mentioned this message in his article.

Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, and then in the USSR for a total of 300 years, and all this time the pro-Russian authorities of these states pursued a rather cruel policy on the Ukrainian language, culture and economy. The most famous bans on the Ukrainian language are the Valuiev circular and Emsk decree, but Ukrainian was banned 134 times in total. Therefore, cultural products created by Ukrainians were also often written in Russian. In particular, books or operas, and Moscow assigns everything written in Russian.

It is impossible to talk about the kinship of our peoples, because the Ukrainians were held by force and repeatedly suppressed the liberation struggle. For example, this happened after the Ukrainian central council proclaimed the fourth universal (bill) about the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

To end the war, Europe must take into account the interests of Russia

In his article, Medvedchuk expresses the opinion that the end of the war is possible only if Moscow's interests are taken into account. They also consist in the preservation of the occupied territories as part of Russia.

The aggressor state is trying to persuade Ukraine to negotiate in order to end the war on favorable terms, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has repeatedly noted that peace is possible only if all territories are de-occupied in accordance with the 1991 borders. Promoting an opinion about “Moscow's interests” means nothing more than another ultimatum.

The Ukrainian political elite does not need peace

According to Medvedchuk, the Ukrainian authorities are not interested in peace. It seems that they continue to wage war in order to get more money and weapons. In general, Russia does not stop trying to discredit Ukrainian politicians.

In fact, such a statement is not true, because at the beginning of the war, Zelenskyi turned to Putin and asked for personal negotiations, but he refused. Now Ukraine has withdrawn from the negotiation process due to the unfavorable conditions offered by Russia.

Ukraine needs peace, but not “some”, but with the preservation of statehood, sovereignty and security guarantees. It is Russia that does not want to end the war, because its military is still on the territory of Ukraine and continues to kill Ukrainians, destroy Ukrainian cities, villages and infrastructure.

This is not the first time Russia has been spreading messages and manipulations to resume negotiations with Ukraine. For example, recently Russian propaganda also talked about “their interests” in the negotiation process with Ukraine. The supply of weapons to Ukraine, which the Russian propaganda media called a theatrical performance, was not ignored either.

The messages expressed by Viktor Medvedchuk repeat the theses of Russian propaganda and their dissemination has the same goal: to justify Russia's aggression in Ukraine, to explain it with so-called historical justice, to create the appearance that Ukraine is not complete without Russia and its culture, to devalue the struggle of the Ukrainian people for their statehood.

The Russian military command created a special document for propagandists to cover the events of the war against Ukraine. Now they should praise Serhii Shoihu and not mention the Wagner group.

The document was analyzed by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

General recommendations contain eleven points, the main content of which is:

1) Orientation to information exclusively from sources agreed by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation;

2) Emphasizing in informational materials and comments of “independent” experts on the leading and positive role personally of Serhii Shoihu and Valerii Herasymov;

3) Justifying strikes on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure, referring to the “forcedness” of such actions;

4) Emphasizing the theme of providing Ukraine with Western weapons. In this sense, it is especially recommended to focus on the fact that “Russia is conducting a military operation not against Ukraine, but against the entire NATO”;

5) Refusal to mention the Wagner military group in a positive context. Emphasizing excessive human losses and Wagner meaningless attacks;

6) Tracking and citing publications in foreign media about the successes of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and the failure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It is proposed to focus particular attention on the statements of Western and Ukrainian politicians, which can be interpreted in a similar vein.

As explained in the Main Intelligence Directorate, the document indicates a fundamental change in emphasis on covering the course of events in the war against Ukraine and the aggravation of the political struggle within Russia.

The telegram channel “46 separate air assault brigade” appeared on telegram, but its name is not correct. Behind it, one can find the same brigade's old Facebook page, but it is no longer used. Instead, another one was created.

The 46th separate airmobile brigade of the Airborne assault forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has only one official page on telegram with the corresponding name. Other channels distribute unofficial information and have no connection with the military of this brigade.

There have been attempts to create fake pages of official institutions, chatbots and even websites of charitable foundations since the very beginning of the war. In particular, a fake of the “Come back alive” website was created. It was also previously reported about the falsification of the chat-bot of DTEK and the chat-bot of the chairman of the Poltava military regional administration.

In social networks and telegram channels, they discuss the New Year holidays for the children of Russian officials abroad, in particular, in Dubai, Bali, the Maldives and the Seychelles. Material on this topic was published by the fact-checkers of The Insider. To divert attention, Russian and pro-Russian telegram channels began to distribute video fragments in which people dance with Ukrainian flags, allegedly while relaxing in Courchevel. The reports claim that these are “Ukrainian IT specialists who left the country before the war”. Or they say that these are “children of Ukrainian oligarchs who are celebrating the “mountains of killed soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine” in Bakhmut”.

In social networks, in particular, in the Ukrainian segment of Facebook, they spread messages about the opportunity to receive five thousand hryvnias of assistance from PrivatBank. To do this, you need to fill out a questionnaire and take a short survey. However, this is a scam.

According to the fact-checker of the “Brekhunets” (Lier) project, such a financial assistance program does not exist. Experts found that when you go to a site with a survey, an antivirus program immediately works and warns that the resource can be harmful. Fact-checkers are convinced that the site has nothing to do with an official bank. There is not a word on the official website of PrivatBank that the organization makes payments of certain financial assistance from the state. Moreover, people who allegedly received the winnings write with errors in the comments.

After completing the survey, you are invited to send a link to your friends.

By spreading such messages, scammers are trying to mislead Ukrainians, because the method of such mailings is beneficial in social networks in order to increase activity and sharings.

Photos of new Russian tanks, which are placed in a special hangar, are being circulated on social networks. In the comments to the photo, they scoff, saying that “Russia has run out of tanks” and praise the military might of Russia.

However, this photo is old. It was made in October 2012 during Volodymyr Putin's visit to the “Uralvagonzavod”, an enterprise for the repair of military vehicles and the production of military tanks, located in Nizhnyi Tagil. Fact-checkers of the Delfi project found the original source of the image - an article by the Russian portal “Kommersant”, its author is Dmytro Azarov, the photographer of this publication. The photo has nothing to do with current events and does not reflect the real state of affairs with the equipment of the Russian army.

Russian propaganda constantly uses foreigners to prove that the whole world is on the side of Russia. Also, propaganda pretends that the opinion of an American is the official position of America, and the opinion of an Italian is the official position of Italy, and so on.

Most often, to create the appearance that everywhere, and even in the United States, more and more people “support Russia” or “understand Putin”, or “believe in the victorious power of the Russian army”, they use American former military men, mainly supporters of ex-President Donald Trump . They often appear on the Fox News channel, and they make provocative statements, which are then used by Russian propaganda, but do not correspond to reality. One of these people is the former adviser to the head of the Pentagon, Colonel Douglas McGregor. In 2020 Trump nominated him for the post of ambassador to Germany, but the Senate did not support the candidacy. After that, he was appointed as an adviser to the acting minister of defense; he remained in this post for three months until the change of administration. In 2014, McGregor supported the annexation of Crimea and spoke on RT, where he claimed that the inhabitants of Crimea were Russians, not Ukrainians.

The last time McGregor's statement that “almost nothing will be left of Ukraine” in the near future was made public in the Russian media at the end of December.

Insider has collected the colonel's comments since the start of the full-scale invasion and found out that the colonel's predictions are not true.

So, on February 27, three days after the start of the war, he said on Fox News: “Now the battle in Eastern Ukraine is almost over, the Ukrainian troops are largely surrounded and cut off, now they have a concentration down in the southeast in 30 to 40 thousand , and if they don't vend, surrender the next 24 hours, the Russians will ultimately annihilate them”.

On March 6 on Fox Business, he found an explanation for why it didn't happen.

“At the first five days, the Russian forces, I think, were too gentle. They have now corrected that. So I would say another 10 days this should be completely over. But the question is, what is it that Zelenskyi is going to do? The Russians have made it very clear what they want is a neutral Ukraine. This could have ended days ago if he accepted that. And then they can adjust the borders, but the eastern part of Ukraine is firmly in Russian hands, but again, the Russians are not seizing the territory. They are destroying Ukrainian forces. That’s their focus”.

After another 10 days, the colonel tried to pretend that his prediction was justified. On Tucker Carlson's Fox News program, he stated: "The war is really over for the Ukrainians”, “They have been grounded to bits. There’s no question about that despite what we report on our mainstream media”.

McGregor delivered another analysis on the ultra-right cable and satellite channel Real America's Voice on July 7:

“The war, with the exception of Kharkiv and Odesa, as far as the Russians are concerned is largely over. There is no intention to do anything else because the Russians don’t have a very large army. They’ve got a very limited armed force and that’s by design, they didn’t want to build a huge army, they certainly are not in a position to threaten NATO nor would they unless they were directly attacked by us.

So the last thing, the last thing that Putin wants is to go west of that Dnieper River and end up incorporating, 20 million, 25 million Ukrainians into Russia. He knows they don’t want to be part of Russia, that’s never been his aim”.

On September 12, on the air of the same Carlson program, McGregor again stated that “this war may soon end,” and added: “The Ukrainian army is bled, tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are killed or wounded, Ukraine is really in the balance.”

This was the day after the liberation of Izium, Balakleia and Kupiansk - and before the Ukrainian army liberated Kherson.

McGregor's statements are so strange that even his party members criticize him. For example, Liz Cheney even publicly asked the Fox News channel: “Why do you continually put Douglas MacGregor on @FoxNews to spread Putin’s propaganda and lies? This is absolutely not in America’s interest". Earlier, she called McGregor the representative of “Putin's wing of the GOP”. And even one of Fox News's most famous journalists, Jennifer Griffin, has spoken of McGregor as an ““apologist” for Putin” with “so many distortions”.