On anonymous telegram channels they write that Monobank has begun collecting funds for Okhmatdyt before the Russian missile attack on a children's hospital. Users of social networks indicate different dates for the start of the collection: some write about July 5, others write about July 7.

VoxCheck analysts write that Monobank began collecting, in fact, for the restoration of Okhmatdyt on July 8, after the missile attack. The notice of collection was also received on this day.

For example, on the official website of the bank and in the personal telegram channel of Monobank co-founder Oleh Horokhovskyi, the date of the Russian missile attack on Okhmatdyt is indicated correctly - July 8, and the fee was announced after the attack.

The collection message was also sent to the Monobank mobile application on the 8th.

Anonymous telegram channels in the Polish segment report that one of the members of the Azov special forces brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine allegedly put on a T-shirt with a “Hitler quote” and took a photo in front of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. The quote is: “Where we are, there is no room for anyone else”.

However, Polish media specialists from Gazeta.pl investigated this case and found that the words quoted on the T-shirt come from one of the black metal albums of the Russian band M8L8TH. And they do not belong to Adolf Hitler. Moreover, the journalists did not identify the person in the photo. It is most likely that Russian propagandists simply invented the figure of the “Azov military”.

Russian propagandists are pushing the idea that “Azov military” supports ideas that the modern world sharply rejects: anti-Semitism, Nazism or other types of xenophobia. Azov residents are shown as those who devalue people based on their origin. In Moscow’s vision, “Azov” is ready to kill for “Ukrainian blood”. This is not the first time that the Kremlin has portrayed Ukrainians this way, namely aggressive, ultra-nationalist and valuing only “Ukrainian blood”. For example, Russian propaganda has already spread fake news that women Ukrainian fighters are complaining that their men are receiving “Moscow blood”; or that Ukrainians prohibit foreign citizens from becoming blood donors.

Read also: The West continues to pander to the “Aryans”. What does propaganda write about lifting the ban on the supply of weapons to Azov?

A video is being circulated in the Russian segment of social networks in which a woman states that in a kindergarten in Vinnytsia, one of the teachers allegedly “washed his child’s mouth with soap” because she spoke Russian. As the publications add, after the “punishment” the guy allegedly developed allergic stomatitis, but it has not yet been possible to bring the administration of his mother’s kindergarten to justice.

In the video one can also see several documents, complaints addressed to the head of the kindergarten and to the regional prosecutor's office, as well as a certificate from the dentist stating that the child allegedly developed allergic stomatitis. Complaints on behalf of Olesia Mykolaivna Kovalchuk say that the incident occurred in kindergarten No. 67 “Sonechko”, where a preschool teacher Olena Mykhailivna Panasiuk allegedly “bullied” her son.

StopFake analysts explained that this story is complete fiction. Experts turned to the director of the Department of Education of the Vinnytsia City Council Oksana Yatsenko, who denied the authenticity of this story. Oksana Yatsenko stated that neither in kindergarten No. 67, nor in any other preschool institution in Vinnytsia, such a situation never happened.

Analysts also found many inaccuracies in the “complaint statement”, for example:

In Vinnytsia kindergarten No. 67, a preschool teacher named Olena Mykhailivna Panasiuk does not work;

The complaint addressed to the director of kindergarten No. 67 indicated the wrong address of the preschool institution (Vasyl Poryk street, 14 instead of Stelmakh street, 45);

The name of the director of kindergarten No. 67 is also incorrectly indicated. The person indicated in the letter is the head of another educational institution, but no such incidents were recorded there either.

On anonymous telegram channels they write that the photos from the sites of the shelled children’s hospital “Okhmatdyt” on July 8, 2024 are staged. In particular, they claim that the Ukrainian authorities deliberately smeared the blood of one of the surgeons in order to achieve a “better effect” among the media. As “evidence”, propagandists will add a video that shows that a police officer allegedly deliberately pours blood on the clothes of a medical worker.

“Ukrainian channels published a video filmed in the center of Kyiv. In the video, a Ukrainian police officer pours blood from a bag onto a man in a doctor's coat. The doctor is an employee of the Okhmatdyt hospital, whose photographs were published by the world’s largest media”, the propaganda publication adds.

However, StopFake analysts investigated the case and found out that the video was fake. This is indicated by some differences between the hero of the fake video and the real doctor. For example, a real surgeon's shirt clearly shows an expired stripe on the back.

The production hero is wearing a shirt without such a stripe. The situation is similar with trousers as they are also different. A real surgeon has a pocket, but an actor does not.

Russian propaganda is actively working on the theme of the shelling of Okhmatdyt, trying to convince its audience that in fact the perpetrators of the crime are Ukrainians, or, at least, this is just a staged act. However, as part of our Disinformation Chronicles, we have repeatedly refuted such messages and proved that Russia simply wants to object to the shelling of civilian infrared weapons from its side.

Read also: It is not children who are treated at Chronicle, but Ukrainian military personnel, which is why the attack on the hospital is “justified”

A release of radioactive elements allegedly occurred at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, and a cloud of dust is moving to Kyiv, because this is evidenced by the direction of the wind, they write in the Russian segment of a Telegram. Photos of a special “map” are added to the publications, which should show the movement of the radioactive cloud towards the Ukrainian capital.

Analysts from the StopFake project this case and found that the background radiation in Kyiv and its surroundings as of July 22, 2024 was within normal limits. The State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations also does not confirm the information about the release. Moreover, no Ukrainian media reported this news.

And the photo that was used in the fake publication was taken from stock - and it actually shows data on the density of plutonium contamination in the 30-kilometer zone of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant for the year 2000.

Russian telegram channels write that graffiti with the image of Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly appeared in Kyiv. As “proof”, the messages add a photograph of a wall on which Zelenskyi is drawn with a noose around his neck and the inscription “Zelia - get out!”

StopFake fact-checkers managed to find the location where such graffiti was allegedly painted. It turned out to be the wall of the private museum of the Yakubovskyi family in Kyiv, photographed from Oleh Koshovyi street.

But there was no similar graffiti on the spot, that is, the fakers created this graffiti using special programs.

The network is spreading information that Ukraine is selling electricity abroad. As evidence, they cite data from the DiXi Group analytical center.

VoxCheck analysts studied this case and found that Ukraine did not sell electricity abroad in June 2024. The export rate is 0 kWh. And in the fake post they confused imports with exports.

After all, for example, the DiXi Group Analytical Center actually reported with reference to the Energy Map that in June 2024 Ukraine imported 858,400 kWh of electricity, which is 6% more than for the entire last year (806,400 MWh), also this the highest monthly import volume in the last 10 years.

In addition, data on planned commercial flows for each country can be checked in the “Scheduled Commercial Exchanges” table on the ENTSO-E website. According to it, Ukraine does not export energy.

An alleged cover of an issue of the German satirical magazine Eulenspiegel with the headline “His Finale” is being circulated online. It shows a footballer in a uniform with EU symbols raised to hit Volodymyr Zelenskyi's severed head.

VoxCheck analysts found that the German magazine Eulenspiegel did not publish an issue with such a cover.

Since on the Eulenspiegel website in the section with all published issues, as well as on the magazine’s pages on social networks, there are no issues with such a cover.

The cover circulated online states that this is the sixth issue of the magazine in 2024. However, the cover of the sixth issue for 2024 is different from the fake one. The actual cover features football fans.

Photos of an announcement allegedly from the National Police are being circulated online, calling for people to contact the hotline in case of aggression from people in military uniform. The announcement allegedly again contains the hotline numbers of the National Police in Zhytomyr.

However, this information is not true, they write in the VoxCheck project. Photos of the “announcement” can only be found in Russian and pro-Russian sources. Also, the owner of the phone number 0-800-505-222 is not law enforcement agencies, but the WIZARD company. It supplies equipment for water supply, drainage and heating. Another number (+380 (44) 254-96-96) is inactive. GetContact users mark it as the phone number of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This may be an outdated MIA contact.

In addition, reliable national and regional media did not report the creation of a similar hotline in Zhytomyr. The Main Directorate of the National Police in the Zhytomyr region does not indicate the functioning of such a line.

Russian resources are disseminating information that the West allegedly twice transmitted to Russia the coordinates of the location of the President of Ukraine with the aim of killing him, since Zelenskyi is no longer “satisfied with the governments of Western countries”. In reporting this, the Russians refer to the pro-Russian political scientist Mykhailo Pavliv.

This is actually fake. They write about this in the Center for Strategic Communications and Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Ukraine’s international partners recognize President Zelenskyi as legally elected by the Ukrainian people. At the same time, it was Russia, through its agents, that repeatedly prepared assassination attempts on him. By spreading this disinformation, Moscow is trying to shift responsibility to the West.

This fake Russian propaganda is aimed at damaging relations between Ukraine and its international partners. The Center adds that the spread of such lies occurs as part of a long-term Russian information operation on the “illegitimacy of Zelenskyi”.

Propagandists are distributing on anonymous telegram channels a photo of a letter allegedly from JSC National Atomic Power Generating Company Energoatom, addressed to the Minister of Climate and Environment of Poland, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, about their readiness to export electricity to Poland. However, this is fake.

The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council drew attention to it. Its specialists checked the information at JSC National Atomic Power Generating Company Energoatom and found out that the letter being distributed was a fake. This indicates several details. Firstly, in the text of the “letter” there are obvious lexical and grammatical errors that are not typical for the Ukrainian language, especially in its last sentence. In addition, the head of Energoatom does not send official correspondence to government authorities of foreign countries, since this violates ethics and rules of international correspondence. The signature on the so-called document is also fake. Also, at the end of 2023, Energoatom became a joint-stock company, and not a state-owned enterprise, as stated in the “document”.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists are trying to cause public discontent and neutralize Russia’s role in the crisis of the energy system in Ukraine. They say that Ukrainians are sitting without electricity not because Russia is carrying out targeted attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, but because Ukraine allegedly sells electricity abroad.

Last week, propagandists spread information on anonymous telegram channels that F-16 fighter jets spotted in the skies over the Odesa region were flying from Romanian airfields. However, this is fake.

It was denied by the Romanian Ministry of Defense. The corresponding statement of the Ministry was published by the European Pravda publication with reference to News.ro. In fact, the F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force operate exclusively within national airspace and strictly adhere to international regulations.

The Romanian ministry said that “the alleged sources of Russian propaganda are conveying false information”. The spread of this disinformation coincided with the NATO summit in Washington, where important decisions were made to support Ukraine's defense efforts.

Propagandists spread this misinformation as they try to create an image of aggressive activity on the part of the West and its allies, in particular NATO, of which Romania is a member. It is part of a broader propaganda campaign aimed at bolstering support for Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Propagandists are disseminating information about alleged preparations for the evacuation of authorities from the Orikhovskyi and Huliaipilskyi districts of the Zaporizhzhia region. This was stated by the coordinator of the so-called Mykolaiv underground. However, this is fake.

The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council drew attention to it. Its specialists checked the information with the head of the Polohivskyi district state military administration, Artur Krupskyi, who confirmed that this information was not true.

Several inaccuracies also indicate unreliability. Firstly, Orikhovskyi and Huliaipilskyi  districts were liquidated in 2020 in accordance with the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No. 807-IX dated July 17, 2020. On their basis, the enlarged Polohivskyi district was created. Secondly, the “news” about emergency evacuation is based on a false interpretation of information about a meeting of the Coordination Headquarters at the regional level to prepare plans for evacuation work in case of emergencies. Such events are regularly carried out at both the district and regional levels, including planned evacuation drills. In addition, a significant part of the Polohivskyi district is located in a zone of active hostilities, so the evacuation of civilians from populated areas near the conflict occurs daily.

By spreading such fakes, Russian propagandists are trying to sow panic among the local population and discredit local authorities. In this way, they try to create a feeling of uncertainty and fear in people. They say that the situation is so critical that local authorities are planning to evacuate, which means they are not able to cope with the situation and are leaving their citizens to fend for themselves. This could undermine confidence in the Ukrainian authorities, raising doubts about their ability to protect the population and maintain order.

Propagandists are disseminating information on anonymous telegram channels that “at least 13 soldiers from the 123rd brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have died, and approximately 80 are in critical condition after an outbreak of an unidentified gastrointestinal infection”. However, this is a Russian fake, which has been repeatedly refuted by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

The sanitary and epidemic situation in the Kherson region is stable and controlled. No outbreaks of acute intestinal infections or food poisoning have been registered. Additional information checks conducted by local and national health authorities confirm that no cases of mass disease among military or civilians were recorded in the Kherson region.

The spread of such fakes is part of an information war aimed at destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, undermining trust in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and creating panic among the population. This step is a standard propaganda tactic used by the Russian side to discredit the Ukrainian authorities. They say that Kyiv neglects real problems and does not think about its military.

Pro-Russian sources disseminated information about the alleged fakeness of photographs of the State Emergency Service from the scene of the tragedy that occurred as a result of the Russian shelling of the Okhmatdyt children's hospital on July 8, 2024. In particular, on his page in X, American blogger Jackson Hinkle published one of the photographs of the State Emergency Service, which depicts children's toys in the ruins of a hospital, and wrote: “The Ukrainian government inserted fake children's toys into the image of the hospital it destroyed in Kyiv”.

In fact, no one inserted toys into the photo, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. You can verify this by checking the photo using the InVID & WeVerify tool to see if it has been altered.

Thus, deep learning approaches for detecting manipulations and fakes Mantra-Net and Fusion found traces of editing in the upper right and left corners - logos were superimposed. However, there are no changes in the toy area of ​​the image, which indicates the authenticity of the photographs.

In the end, it is these children’s toys that can be seen in other photo and video materials from the scene of the tragedy, which indicates their originality.

This is not Hinkle’s first fake about a missile attack on Okhmatdyt. Thus, an American blogger, known for his commitment to Russia, claimed on his page on the social network X that Okhmatdyt seemed to have been hit by an American Patriot air defense missile, which was allegedly fired by Ukraine. However, SBU investigators determined that the attack was carried out by a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.

By spreading such lies, the blogger is trying to discredit the Ukrainian government and divert the attention of the world community from yet another Russian war crime.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are spreading information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are going to use chemical weapons against the Russian military. The means of attack will supposedly be chlorine trifluoride. The product of the reaction is a heavy gas. And the first symptoms of the victim are chest pain, dizziness, nausea and headache.

However, information about the preparation of a chemical weapons strike is not true. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council. The Russian side does not provide any evidence of this “news”. In addition, Ukraine, as a signatory to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons, strictly adheres to its obligations.

At the same time, it is the Russians who have repeatedly violated the Convention, which Russia has also signed, by using chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military. The so-called “z-military correspondents” published the red-handed video on their pages.

With this fake, propagandists aim to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the world community and weaken its support from Western allies. Russian propaganda uses deflection tactics, accusing Ukraine of the crimes of its own army.

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that in Sumy, validators on buses allegedly demand payment for travel in rubles. Some sources write that this became possible thanks to a Russian hacker attack, because soon, according to propagandists, “the city may come under Russian control”. A photograph distributed online shows a bus validator, on the screen of which is visible the inscription: “Amounts 33 rubles. Scan your card”.

However, in fact, the photo was edited in a photo editor, writes the StopFake project. To create the fake image, the Russians used the original photo of the validator from a bus in Kyiv. This photo was published by the mayor of Kyiv Vitalii Klychko on his page on the social network Facebook back in October 2022. In the original photo one can see the inscription on the validator screen “Kyiv, 15:33”,but  not “Sumy, 33 rubles”, as propagandists claim.

The fact that this photo was used to create a fake one is evidenced by their similarity: an identical shadow on the validator screen, as well as a similar interior of the vehicle.

StopFake journalists further analyzed the fake image using the InVID & WeVerify tool to determine whether it had been altered. Analysis of 8x8 pixel blocks using the BLOCK algorithm showed that the grid was locally disrupted. This means that objects in the image have been added or moved. This is also confirmed by other algorithms. In particular, deep learning approaches for detecting manipulation and counterfeiting Mantra-Net and Fusion detected traces of editing in the validator screen area.

This fake aim is to disturb the residents of Sumy, saying that soon the “Russian world” will come to their city.

Propaganda telegram channels disseminate messages saying that soldiers of the Russian Army guarantee life and humane treatment to Ukrainian prisoners of war.

However, more than one case of the death penalty of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russians has already been recorded. This was reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

At the end of March 2024, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine published another report (December 2023 - February 2024), which reports a sharp increase in cases of torture and execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian occupiers. The report emphasizes that torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners by Russians is very common and “commonplace”. According to the UN, 96% of Ukrainian prisoners of war (58 out of 60 respondents) became victims of various types of torture.

Recently, on July 10, 2024, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andrii Kostin announced the execution of two Ukrainian prisoners of war near Robotyne.

By spreading lies about the “humane” treatment of prisoners, the Russian Federation is drawing Ukrainian fighters into a deadly trap. The mentioned UN report also states that the captured occupiers interviewed admitted that they were not subjected to torture in official places of detention.

Propaganda telegram channels are disseminating information that the Ukrainian underground is allegedly setting fire to the cars of Ukrainian Armed Forces military personnel and the Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers. Thus, Ukrainians are allegedly trying to “fight Zelenskyi’s dictatorship”.

However, this information is not true. This was reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

In fact, what propaganda is trying to pass off as the activities of the “underground” is the work of the Russian intelligence services. Thus, on July 10, 2024, the SBU and the National Police detained a resident of the Kirovohrad region who set fire to a National Guardsman’s car and was preparing sabotage against the Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers. As it turned out, her motivation was the money that the Russian intelligence services promised the woman. Also in June of this year, the SBU detained two men in Odesa after they set fire to a military vehicle. For this, the curator from Russia promised them two thousand dollars.

Russia is trying to pass off crimes committed by people it has bribed as acts of “popular resistance” in order to create the impression that Ukrainians are rebelling against the “Zelenskyi dictatorship”. That is, with such actions Moscow seeks to destabilize the situation within the Ukrainian state.

Pro-Russian telegram channels are disseminating information that the Ukrainian Olympic team may become the first in the history of modern games to receive a relaxation under the anti-doping rules of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). Such an initiative is supposedly aimed at helping Ukrainian athletes deal with stress caused by the war in Ukraine. When reporting this, propagandists refer to the relevant material allegedly from the French newspaper Le Monde and add a screenshot of the article as “evidence”.

However, this is fake. In fact, Le Monde has never published such material. By entering the title of the article in English, which is distributed by propagandists, in a Google search engine: “Paris Olympics: WADA prepares a draft of anti-doping relaxations for Ukraine national team”, one can be sure that neither the Le Monde newspaper nor any other publication published relevant material. In addition, the Le Monde website has a separate section about the Olympic Games, and there is also no article about anti-doping exemptions for the Ukrainian Olympic team. One cannot find information about “helping Ukrainian athletes combat stress” on the official website of WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency).

With this fake, propagandists are trying to discredit the Ukrainian Olympic team on the eve of the competition. Let us recall that not all Russian and Belarusian Olympic athletes were allowed to participate in the games in Paris, since in one way or another they expressed support for the war unleashed by Russia in Ukraine. Despite this, some of them were still admitted to the Olympics - they will compete under a “neutral” flag.

Propagandists claim that several hundred dual Israeli and Ukrainian citizens are unable to cross the border because their passports have been seized by border guards. They say that in order to return the documents, they need to update the data at the territorial acquisition center, after which they can be mobilized. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. They found the original photo, edited by propagandists. The photo was published back in 2017 by the Svyatoshynskyi department of the Kyiv State Migration Service of Ukraine and indeed contains handwritten information about the state of readiness of the ordered passports.

Moreover, such actions by border guards would not make sense, since Ukraine does not recognize dual citizenship. Accordingly, citizens with dual citizenship of Israel and Ukraine in the legal field are considered only citizens of Ukraine and are subject to the corresponding rights and obligations. That is, men liable for military service with dual citizenship do not have the right to leave Ukraine. This was explained by the representative of the State Border Service Andrii Demchenko.

Propagandists are spreading such fakes in order to once again disrupt the mobilization campaign in the country.

Information is spreading online that Ukrainians allegedly stand in long lines at exchange offices, trying to exchange hryvnia. Users distributing photographs of queues claim that this is due to news of a possible default. Some Kyiv exchange offices no longer seem to have currency, as propagandists note. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. The information that Ukrainians are queuing en masse in front of exchange offices is not true. To create panic in Ukraine, attackers publish made-up comments about queues along with archival or edited photographs.

The photo of the exchanger with the caption “No currency” was indeed edited. The original photo was posted on Google maps of the Kyiv exchange office Obmen24 two years ago. The attackers changed the announcement about the need to check banknotes at the cash register with the inscription “No currency”.

Another photograph, which shows a line outside an A-Bank branch, does not relate to current events at all. The original of this photo belongs to Suspilne Chernivtsi. It was published in July 2022 and shows the queue for applying for payments from international organizations. The publication of the Suspilne Chernivtsi says that A-Bank helps to fill out an application in installments, but this can also be done independently online.

Reports about Ukraine's impending default, according to many experts, are also untrue. In August 2022, Ukraine received a two-year deferment on loans - this term was determined based on the fact that no one knew how long the war would last. Thus, Ukraine must agree with foreign creditors before August 1 on the restructuring of the state debt. Today, the International Monetary Fund is actively lobbying for a new deferment for Ukraine.

“Ukraine does not intend to pay according to the schedule that was agreed upon two years ago. The IMF allows not to comply with this schedule and has blessed Ukraine for new negotiations with creditors on a new payment schedule”, explains Oleksandr Parashchiy, head of the analytical department at Concorde Capital, in a commentary for BBC Ukraine.

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev also notes that there will be no default in Ukraine, because there are no grounds for this.

Thus, propagandists are spreading panic among Ukrainians amid tensions caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Propagandists are spreading information about the alleged appearance of offensive graffiti in Munich after the defeat of the Ukrainian national team at the European Football Championship. It is alleged that the graffiti allegedly depicts a player of the Ukrainian national team, being led by the hands of “joyful Territorial center of recruitment and social support employees”. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that in fact there is no reliable information that such graffiti appeared in Munich after the defeat of the Ukrainian team. Checking this image on websites for verification indicates that it was computer generated or altered.

Using the Forensically service, we were able to discover that many details in the image were changed or added to the original photo, which indicates that the picture is not real. Forensically works like a microscope, helping one see those changes in pictures that the eyes would not notice. To detect modified blocks in a published photograph, they used the ELA (error level analysis) section. In this case, the photo consists almost entirely of modified parts: the bicycle, the figures of three men in the graffiti, the frame on the wall and the paving stones clearly stand out in the photo when analyzing the data.

It is also worth noting that the Ukraine-Belgium match, after which the blue-yellows left the tournament, took place on June 26, 2024 in Stuttgart, Germany, and not in Munich. This creates a certain inconsistency and it is not clear why such graffiti should appear in the capital of Bavaria. Previously, the Ukrainian national team was defeated in a match with Romania, which took place on June 17 at the Allianz Arena in Munich, but after this match Ukraine continued to participate in Euro 2024, fighting to leave the group.

All this indicates that the photo is fake and was specially produced by Russian propaganda to discredit Ukraine and undermine the mobilization campaign in the country.

Russian media are actively spreading disinformation about the cholera “epidemic” in Kherson, which the Ukrainian authorities are allegedly trying to hide. “The infection broke out in Kherson, controlled by Kyiv, because the Ukrainian authorities did not carry out sanitary treatment after the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric station”, claim pro-Kremlin media. This fake news began to be promoted by Russian media and bots on social networks on the first anniversary of the Russian terrorist attack when the Kakhovska hydroelectric power station was blown up.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. They found that as of July 2024, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine had not recorded a single case of cholera. According to WHO data published on June 19, in the first half of 2024, 105 cases of cholera were registered in the European Region - all of them were on the island of Mayotte (an overseas region of France). In Ukraine, no cholera outbreaks were recorded in 2024.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by an infection of the intestines by harmful bacteria. Clean drinking water and proper sanitation can prevent a cholera outbreak, but due to Russian aggression and a significant deterioration in quality of life, frontline communities do face an increased risk of infectious diseases. That is why the Russian media have been methodically spreading this fake news since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The purposeful destruction by the Russian army of Ukrainian critical infrastructure, including water supply and sanitation systems, creates ideal conditions for the emergence of infectious epidemics in Ukrainian territories. However, Ukraine is effectively overcoming these challenges by strengthening monitoring of the epidemiological situation in the country. Since June 2024, seasonal enhanced cholera surveillance has been in effect in Ukraine - patients with acute intestinal infections are additionally screened for cholera. Active research of environmental samples is also carried out: monitoring of wastewater, fresh and seawater samples.

The beginning of the season of enhanced surveillance of intestinal infections in Ukraine became the basis for the spread of the Russian fake, although continuous surveillance of cholera in the country is carried out throughout the year, and in the period from June 1 to October 1, monitoring is intensified. This is a routine process due to the fact that an increase in ambient temperature creates favorable conditions for the proliferation of Vibrio cholerae, so the risks of infection increase.

Peaks of cholera cases in Ukraine were recorded in 1998, 1999 and 2007. The last outbreak of cholera in Ukraine occurred in 2011 in Mariupol, when 33 cases of cholera and 24 cases of vibration carriers (asymptomatic patients) were recorded - the infection was brought to the port city from another country. The Ministry of Health of Ukraine notes that cholera is not an endemic disease in Ukraine. The infection is common in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South and Central America.

After the Russian terrorist attack with the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station on June 6, 2023, it was Russia that refused to allow independent experts, observers and humanitarian workers into the territory of the destroyed station and flooded Ukrainian settlements. Ukraine not only initiated the investigation, but also fully cooperated with independent experts, providing full access to the affected areas, witnesses, all information and evidence.

Propagandists are distributing on telegram channels, where they spread pro-Russian rhetoric, a video in which men in military uniforms are leading an actively resisting woman somewhere. Publications are signed with the words “The Territorial center of recruitment and social support has taken on women”, hinting at the allegedly forced mobilization of women in Ukraine.

In this case, propagandists simply used a video with a different context to create a fake. In fact, the distributed video shows a conflict between a woman and employees of the State Border Service of Ukraine, which occurred in Transcarpathia, as experts from the StopFake project found out.

Press secretary of the Mukachevo border detachment Lesia Fedorova, in a comment to the Suspilne, clarified that the incident occurred on June 30, 2024 on the outskirts of the village of Nyzhnia Apsha, Tiachevskyi district. The driver of a Mercedes-Benz Vito minibus, while in a queue of cars at the checkpoint, drove into the oncoming lane and tried to evade the check.

“The woman ignored the legal demands of the border guards, arguing her refusal by not wanting to stand in line because she was in a hurry to go on vacation. During communication with the 19-year-old border guard, the woman behaved rudely and dismissively, using obscene language and offensive sayings. Then, having made a maneuver dangerous to the life and health of the serviceman, she fled the scene at high speed”, said the press secretary of the Mukachevo border detachment. Border guards pursued the car that violated the rules, and, despite the woman’s resistance, detained her and took her to the border unit, where they drew up a report on an administrative offense under Art. 185-10 of the Code of Ukraine on administrative offenses.

Mobilization in Ukraine is one of the main themes that Russian propaganda actively uses to spread disinformation and destabilize the situation in the country. In particular, Russian propaganda not only disseminates information about abuses during mobilization, presenting them as a “common occurrence”, but also creates outright fakes and staged videos to demoralize Ukrainians. The narrative that there are already not enough men in Ukraine and therefore women are being mobilized is also one of the common ones.