Propagandists are actively distributing video materials from Ukrainian sources on anonymous Telegram channels, in particular, a video of Ukrainian servicemen of the 15th Brigade of the NGU Kara-Dag, where they evacuate the wounded from the combat zone under fire. Russian propaganda presents this video as evidence of the alleged retreat of Ukrainian troops from Selydove, disseminating information about the transfer of the city under Russian control. However, this is not true.

This was indicated by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. Its specialists emphasize that, according to the representative of the NGU Ruslan Muzychuk, Selydove remains under the control of Ukrainian forces. At the same time, Ukrainian units are holding back Russian attempts to advance from the north and east. Such information leaks are aimed at demoralizing the Ukrainian military and creating a false picture of the situation in order to sow doubts among the population and undermine confidence in Ukraine's defense efforts.

Such disinformation campaigns are also part of a broader Kremlin strategy that includes discrediting the Ukrainian military and distorting the real situation on the front lines, trying to justify Russian aggression as “protection” of civilians.

Propaganda Telegram channels are spreading the message that Ukrainian soldiers from the 61st Separate Mechanized Brigade are “committing atrocities” against civilians in Kursk and “bragging” about photographs of the tortured on the Internet.

But in fact, the original publication talks about Russian atrocities in one of the villages that was liberated by the fighters of the 61st Separate Mechanized Brigade. To create a fake, the real message was edited.

In fact, the original publication is a message from October 13, 2024 on the Facebook page of the educational project of the analytical center CASE Ukraine “The Price of the State”. The description of the project states that it explains to Ukrainians “how much the state costs them and what their taxes are spent on”.

The message noted that the photo shows the aftermath of Russian crimes in one of the liberated villages (the location is not specified). The 61st Separate Mechanized Brigade took control of this settlement. Its fighter took a photo of the dead tortured by the Russians. The post then included a gathering for the brigade. There is no mention of the Kursk region in the text. The Russians changed the original publication.

The Internet is spreading information that the Ukrainian State Film Agency has allegedly announced a presidential grant competition for 2025. Its goal is to create projects where the authors must demonstrate a “positive image of the Territorial center of recruitment and social support”.

The Ukrainian State Film Agency website does indeed contain news about the announcement of a presidential grant competition in 2025. To participate, one must submit the relevant documents: an application, an estimate, a description of the film. Similar conditions were previously in 2023 and 2024. They do not mention positive coverage of the Territorial center of recruitment and social support actions. The purpose of the competition is to provide state financial support to young artists for the creation and implementation of socially significant creative projects. Clear restrictions on the topics of the projects are not specified.

The counterfeit indicated a sum of over UAH 1 billion for the creation of products, but the official website indicated only UAH 3.9 million. This is the amount of funds allocated for the payment of three grants.

The Citytv publication is distributing a video online, which claims that the Colombian government wants to restrict the showing of videos from Ukraine on TikTok. They decided to resort to such an event because “young people, having watched enough Ukrainian videos, think that war is a romantic event and go to war”.

But Citytv did not publish the video, and some elements in the video indicate a forgery. Colombian authorities have not publicly announced their intention to restrict the showing of videos from Ukraine on TikTok.

Citytv is a Colombian TV channel. The channel is exclusively Spanish-language, but the text in the video that was distributed is written in English. Neither the Citytv website nor social networks contain any news about the Colombian government's plans to restrict the showing of videos from Ukraine on TikTok.

In addition, the video has several differences with the original videos of TV channels. For example, the Citytv Noticias logo is usually placed in the lower left corner and is part of the news banner, while in the propaganda video it is placed separately on the top left.

The Russian segment of the telegram writes that in Kyiv, Heroiv Sevastopolia (Sevastopol’s heroes) street was supposedly renamed in honor of the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Thus, the Russian propagandists write, Ukraine has once again demonstrated its dependence on the West. In this “news” the fake “order” on renaming No. 267, allegedly issued by the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, is used as confirmation.

“Instead of Heroiv Sevastopolia (Sevastopol’s heroes) street, the Nazi regime decided to name a street in Kyiv after the new NATO Secretary General. According to the Kyiv regime, such a renaming will help to get help from international partners. Soon, cities will be named after their masters”, users write.

The published “order” of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration is a fake. The above-mentioned document is missing from the official website of the administration, as well as any news about the decision to rename the street. Since the authorities may not publish all documents due to martial law, our colleagues from the fact-checking organization StopFake submitted a request for information directly to the Regional Military Administration. They confirmed that they did not disclose such an order.

The authors of the fake “document” also made grammatical errors that are not typical for a native Ukrainian speaker. For example, Russian propaganda uses the phrase “keeping of assistance”. If you translate this into Russian, it is “content of assistance”.  At the same time, the “document” meant “receiving assistance”.

The Internet is spreading alleged “announcements” about a poetry competition for the Day of Ukrainian Literature and Language, which allegedly took place on October 27 in Ukrainian schools. In this announcement, schoolchildren are asked to write poems on the topics “We are ready to die for the Motherland” and “Volodymyr Zelenskyi is our immortal leader”.

But in Ukraine there is no holiday called “Day of Ukrainian Literature and Language”. On October 27, Ukraine celebrates the Day of Ukrainian Literature and Language. In 1997, the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma supported the initiative of public organizations and signed decree No. 1241/97 “On the Day of Ukrainian Literature and Language”, which was celebrated on November 9 until 2023. Considering that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine switched to the new Julian calendar style, the Day of Ukrainian Literature and Language was moved to October 27.

Or the text itself contains many errors, indicating that the author of this “advertisement” has a poor command of the Ukrainian language. For example, the sentence “Poems glorifying Ukraine and fighting enemies!” is syntactically incorrect, since poems cannot “fight” enemies.

We have documented fakes many times, whether they involve fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or advertising videos. In this way, propagandists aim to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. This may make readers think that the public is really unhappy with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, implying that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda is a reason for Europe to laugh.

The Internet is spreading the alleged words of the Chairman of the Union of Consumers of Public Utilities Oleh Popenko that the cost of electricity for the population in 2025 will be 6.5-7 UAH kWh. He stated that these figures have already been voiced by representatives of the electricity supplier company YASNO, DTEK and deputy Serhii Nahorniak.

However, the Cabinet of Ministers, YASNO, DTEK and Nahorniak did not announce an increase in the electricity tariff in 2025 to 6.5-7 UAH kWh. The current tariff of 4.32 UAH kWh will be valid until May 2025. Let us recall that according to Ukrainian legislation, electricity tariffs are set by the Cabinet of Ministers.

At the beginning of summer, the government raised electricity tariffs for Ukrainians. In fact, the increase occurred on June 1, 2024, from UAH 2.64 to UAH 4.32 per 1 kWh. This tariff will be valid until April 30, 2025. Against this background, the thesis is spreading on social networks that life in Ukraine is “unbearable” - prices for utilities, including electricity, are “sky-high” and even incomparable with European prices.

Although experts from the analytical center Dixi Group analyzed the thesis and found out that the authors of such disinformation materials take information about prices from different sources without understanding how comparable such information is. One source may indicate prices based on taxes, another - without. One source contains information about wholesale prices for electricity (i.e. without taking into account tariffs for transportation and taxes), and another - about retail (where all these components are already included).

In fact, the explainer differentiated all the indicators that accompany the time when electricity “reaches” the buildings of Europeans - the price of goods, transportation tariffs, supplier markup, taxes - and it was possible to find out that Ukraine has the lowest price for electricity among the European countries considered. This is largely due to government regulation.

Other countries - Italy, the UK, France and Germany - have higher prices, partly due to significant investment needs in clean energy and new electricity grids.

By spreading such a message, propagandists want to feed the narrative that Ukraine is allegedly uninhabitable due to the lack of electricity or high prices for utilities. In this way, the authors want to sow panic among Ukrainians in order to destabilize the mood and create a feeling that “nothing will change”. Also, by calling the so-called collapse revenge for the Crimean Bridge, Russians are once again trying to shift responsibility for what is happening to Ukraine. They say that Russia is destroying the infrastructure exclusively because of Ukraine's aggression. However, it is Russia that is the aggressor, and it is this country that started the war.

Russian Telegram channels are distributing photos and videos from various places in Kyiv, where posters with the words “Putin will come and restore order” were allegedly posted. The cards were allegedly posted for the Russian dictator's birthday on October 7, 2024.

But the fakers took a photo of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra from an article in a Ukrainian media outlet and added Putin's posters to it in a photo editor. Other photos are distributed exclusively by Russian channels. After all, a reverse Google search showed that the photo with the flag, which allegedly has a poster of Putin pasted on it, was taken from a 2023 article by the Ukrainian media outlet Texty.org.ua. The article is dedicated to the work of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra reserve during the war.

The locations in other photographs of Russians cannot be identified. There is no confirmation that such postcards ever appeared in Kyiv or Ukraine as a whole. If they were really noticed in Kyiv, this would lead to a public outcry and publications would appear on Telegram channels or in the media. Meanwhile, the “news” is spread exclusively by Russian and pro-Russian sources. In this way, they are trying to show that Putin is “awaited” in Ukraine and is not perceived as an aggressor.

A photo of graffiti allegedly in Washington, allegedly made for the Reuters news agency, is being circulated online. It shows two rats with Israeli and Ukrainian flags “fighting” for an American dollar.

But this is a fake photo. The photo with graffiti was compiled. In fact, checking the photo in a special FotoForensics tool showed that the image was probably edited. Moreover, Reuters did not publish such a photo on its official website, as well as on X, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. Also on the building depicted in the fake, a banner of the American commercial real estate agency in Los Angeles - illi Commercial Real Estate is visible.

Our colleagues, fact-checkers of VoxCheck, checked the photos of all properties available for rent and sale on the official website of illi Commercial Real Estate and did not find a single property similar to the fake. In addition, the fakers claim that the photos were taken in Washington. However, there are no properties available for purchase/rent in Washington on the map of properties.

We have documented fakes many times, whether they involve fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or advertising videos. In this way, propagandists aim to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. This may make readers think that the public is really unhappy with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, implying that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda is a reason for Europe to laugh.

For example, we recently reported that anonymous people were spreading a fake story from the supposedly French publication Le Figaro, which spoke of a “Ukrainian refugee killer”.

A video is being distributed in Russian social networks, showing military equipment located along the road. The publication indicates that it supposedly belongs to Ukraine, it was hit in the Kursk region, where it remains.

But the video does indeed show Russian equipment that Ukrainian troops captured in 2022. OSINT analysts geolocated the location of the video recording to the village of Myrnoye in Donetsk region. And the video itself has a watermark from one of the Russian propaganda Telegram channels. When the video was published on the channel, it was simply captioned as “a cemetery of Ukrainian armored vehicles destroyed in the zone” and did not mention the Kursk region.

And the OSINT analyst EjShahid actually established that the video was filmed in the village of Myrne in the Donetsk region. It is located at a great distance from the Russian-Ukrainian border. The analyst confirms that the video shows captured Russian tanks.

Ukrainian troops broke through the Russian border in the Sumy region on Tuesday, August 6. On August 12, President Zelenskyi wrote directly for the first time that Ukraine was conducting an operation in Russia's Kursk region. On August 12, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi reported that Ukraine controlled almost 1,000 km of the Kursk region. As of August 21, 93 settlements in Russia are under Ukraine's control.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels and social media users are spreading information that Poland has allegedly begun handing over to Ukraine citizens who “escaped from mobilization”. Russian propagandists claim that the first case occurred in October 2024, when Polish police detained a Ukrainian and sent him to the Ukrainian border under escort. However, this is fake.

The StopFake project mentioned it. Its experts found out that in fact this incident concerns not evasion of mobilization, but deportation due to violations of Polish laws, namely suspicions of assisting illegal migration. Official sources do not confirm the accusations of mobilization reasons for deportation.

The spread of fakes about the deportation of Ukrainians from EU countries, in particular Poland, is part of the disinformation campaign of Russian propaganda. In October 2024, no EU government introduced a policy of returning Ukrainian citizens through mobilization. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said that the deportation of Ukrainians of military age contradicts the Temporary Protection Directive, which regulates the status of refugees in the EU.

On October 9-10, 2024, a conference dedicated to combating disinformation, the EU DisinfoLab annual conference, was held in Riga, the capital of Latvia. In response to this event, a Polish pro-Russian Telegram channel spread information that the conference reported that Ukrainian disinformation had become a problem before the US elections. Kyiv's main goal is allegedly to strengthen Kamala Harris' position as the main supporter of continuing the war and supplying weapons to Ukraine. And over the past 4 months, the amount of disinformation from “Ukrainian agents of influence” has allegedly increased by 55-60%. In reporting this, the propagandists refer to a video allegedly released by the American magazine WIRED.

In fact, this information is not true - the video is fabricated. It is not found on the official WIRED website or on the magazine's social media pages. It is likely that the propagandists simply put the WIRED logo on the video and faked the story itself.

In addition, the video mentions a report called Disinfo 2024: Ukrainian November, but no such report has been published online. Most likely, information about its existence was invented.

Finally, the website and social media of the EU DisinfoLab organization, which held the conference, also contain no information about a “Ukrainian disinformation campaign” ahead of the US presidential elections.

With this disinformation, propagandists are trying to deflect accusations against Russia regarding interference in the US elections. Earlier, we wrote about a BBC study that showed that the Kremlin is trying to interfere in the US elections with the help of AI and fake websites.

Propaganda resources are spreading information that the military of the 5th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine began to collect “duties” from schools. Thus, the military allegedly demanded that the heads of Kharkiv Gymnasium No. 110 and Kharkiv Lyceum No. 170 collect humanitarian aid in exchange for evacuation from Kharkiv in case of danger. In the corresponding messages, the Russians refer to a publication on the Facebook page of the 5th Slobozhanska Brigade of the NGU dated October 5, 2024, which stated that Kharkiv Gymnasium No. 110 and Kharkiv Lyceum No. 170 collected humanitarian aid for the military.

In fact, the information about the “demand for humanitarian aid” is unfounded, the VoxCheck project reports.

Both educational institutions have regularly reported on the provision of aid to the military since at least December 2023. The educational institutions did not indicate the specific unit for whom the aid was intended, but in one of the posts they noted that it was for fighters in the Kharkiv and Donetsk directions. In particular, the 5th NGU brigade is fighting in these directions.

Kharkiv Gymnasium No. 110 often implemented various projects, within the framework of which children made trench candles, collected parcels for the military, drew leaflets that they handed over to the military. Lyceum No. 170 also prepared delicious treats for the soldiers. In turn, the 5th Slobozhanska Brigade indicated in its Facebook post that Kharkiv Gymnasium No.110 had been providing them with assistance since the fall of 2022. In addition, back in April 2024, Kharkiv Gymnasium No.110 and Kharkiv Lyceum No. 170 organized a joint meeting for the 5th NSU Brigade. There is no evidence that they did this under duress from the military.

Earlier, we published a refutation of the fact that in Ukrainian schools teachers “force” students to donate money to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Information is being spread online that more than 60% of foreigners who fought in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly received serious injuries during military operations between August 6 and October 1. As “proof”, propagandists are adding infographics with the Statista logo, which show data on the share of “foreign mercenaries” who allegedly received disabilities, broken down by country. The data chronologically coincides with the Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region. Finally, under the infographic, it is written that the source of the data is the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), an American think tank specializing in the study of modern armed conflicts, in particular, Russian aggression against Ukraine.

However, in reality, this infographic was most likely fabricated. This is reported by the StopFake project. First of all, Statista is a German online platform specializing in collecting and visualizing data. Although they do track events in Ukraine, Statista has never published this infographic. StopFake journalists were unable to find any information about “foreign mercenaries” in Ukraine on their website or in their social networks.

StopFake also contacted the ISW think tank to find out whether it had published data on the number of foreigners who had suffered while fighting for Ukraine. Evan Moore, ISW's deputy director for international relations, responded to StopFake's request by saying that the statistics distributed online were not prepared by ISW and do not reflect its assessments and views. All ISW materials are available on official resources.

“We are aware of graphics created by third parties that purport to reference the Institute for the Study of War to promote information and/or assessments that ISW did not produce”, a spokesman for the think tank said.

Russian propaganda regularly spreads disinformation about so-called foreign mercenaries in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Yes, we previously analyzed fake information about bonuses for Russian soldiers for the elimination of “foreign mercenaries” in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Russian sources, citing a certain “news story”, are spreading information that the Colombian government is planning to restrict the showing of TikTok videos from Ukraine due to the “romanticization of war” and “propaganda of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”. Thus, the video story says that TikTok videos from Ukraine allegedly create a distorted romanticized perception of war among Colombian youth, which allegedly encourages them to join the International Legion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces en masse.

However, this information is fake, writes the StopFake project. The video clip that the Russians are distributing is fabricated. The attackers used the corporate style and logo of the Colombian publication City Noticias TV to create the fake, but did not take into account that the publication publishes content not in English, but exclusively in Spanish. There is no such clip on the media’s website or social networks. There is also no similar news on the Colombian websites of the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications and the Ministry of National Defense, as well as on any authoritative Spanish-language or English-language media.

Finally, the “facts” in the video contradict reality and common sense. For example, the story claims that the average age of Colombians joining the Ukrainian army has dropped from 22 to 18 due to the influence of TikTok. However, this is highly unlikely, since 18 is the minimum age to join the International Legion.

On the contrary, most Colombians in the Ukrainian army are veterans with combat experience – this was written about by a number of publications that studied the motivations of Colombian citizens to join the International Legion. Accordingly, such experienced fighters are encouraged to join the war with Russia not by a romanticized perception of the war, but by decent financial compensation.

Previously, we recorded a number of Russian propaganda leaks on the topic of Colombian citizens in the ranks of the International Legion. For example, we analyzed the fake that the body of the fallen Colombian fighter Michael Ramirezi Fino from the International Legion was allegedly returned to his family “without internal organs”.

In social networks and on Russian websites, propagandists are spreading information that residents of the Kharkiv region allegedly “support the referendum on joining the Russian Federation” and that “Kharkiv authorities approved” the holding of such a vote. They claim that the head of the military-civil administration of the Kharkiv region, Vitalii  Hanchev, allegedly made a corresponding statement on this topic. The authors of such messages note that residents of the Kharkiv region allegedly “regularly make such requests” to the local administration.

In fact, this information is false. This was written by experts from the StopFake project. They found out that Vitalii Hanchev is a self-proclaimed and unverified “chairman” of the so-called Russian administration of the Kharkiv region. This “administration” is an occupation one and was created on the territory of Ukraine contrary to the norms of international law, and therefore has no legitimate power and the right to represent the interests of the residents of the Kharkiv region. According to articles in Russian media, the request for “holding a referendum” allegedly arose during a meeting with residents of the village of Hrakovo in the Kharkiv region, which is now located in a small occupied part of the Kharkiv region. Fact-checkers remind that residents under Russian occupation cannot freely express their opinions if they contradict Russian propaganda, due to the threat of repression.

In addition, Hanchev is a former police officer in the Kharkiv region and a collaborator. He is suspected of treason. According to investigators, the suspect went over to the side of the occupiers and agitated for loyalty to Russia. While in the village of Kozacha Lopan, he voluntarily took up the post of “head of administration” in the territory captured by Russian troops. Also in 2013, Hanchev worked as deputy head of the Derhachivskyi district police department with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Later, he moved to Luhansk, where he worked in the police structures of the so-called LPR. In Ukraine, Vitalii Hanchev faces life imprisonment for treason and collaboration.

As of today, the legitimate head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration is Oleh Syniehubov, and the overwhelming majority of the population of the Kharkiv region does not demand that the administration hold a referendum on joining Russia. As the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security notes, Hanchev's statements about the “referendum” are an attempt to use the media to drown out the effect of the successful operation. The Charter Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine cleared 400 hectares of forest, destroyed and captured a significant number of enemy personnel. In addition, even in 2022, when the Russian army controlled more than 20% of the Kharkiv region, the occupiers were not preparing for a “vote” like the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Then they limited themselves to Hanchev's statements that “it is not time for a referendum”.

Propagandists are distributing videos and photos on anonymous Telegram channels and other media, allegedly taken in the Holy Trinity Church of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) in Troieshchyna in Kyiv. In the video, an unknown person holds a piece of paper with the so-called prayer against mobilization, which, according to the propagandists, costs 10 hryvnia. However, this is fake.

This was found out by Ukrinform journalists. According to them, the postcard was forged using a graphics editor, and the ornament depicted on it was taken from Russian stock resources, where it is called a Russian pattern. The propagandists replaced the UOC symbol with domes with the OCU cross, printed out the leaflet and presented it as a real “prayer” that is allegedly sold in Ukraine for money. Also, in the text of the fake prayer, the letters “z” are replaced with the Latin z, which is a symbol of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Latin z is never used in the Old Church Slavonic spelling used in the UOC. This is further evidence that the postcard is a gross forgery. The video was filmed in such a way that it is impossible to accurately identify the location: apart from the hand holding the leaflet and the general church altar, which can be found in any Orthodox church, no other details are visible.

The fake was spread by an Instagram profile that is also used to spread other disinformation. At the time of its spread, the account had an avatar with an image of a church, but its name was deliberately drawn out. It turned out that this account had previously spread another fake about a supposed birthday celebration of Russian dictator Volodymyr Putin in a Las Vegas nightclub.

Russian propaganda is trying to show that the OCU allegedly uses religious doctrines for financial enrichment, thereby trying to sow distrust of this confession among Ukrainians and the international community. By creating such fakes, Russian propagandists are also trying to demoralize Ukrainian society, undermining trust in religious and national institutions, in particular, in war conditions, in order to disrupt the mobilization process. The purpose of spreading such fakes abroad is to undermine Ukraine's reputation in the international arena and to demonstrate it as a country where chaos and manipulation reign even in the religious sphere.

A Polish pro-Russian Telegram channel has spread information that Hezbollah has struck Israel with “rockets” allegedly signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. A fragment of a 155-millimeter artillery shell found near the Israeli city of Haifa allegedly contains Zelenskyi's signature. In reporting this, the propagandists cite “local media”, in particular The Jerusalem Post.

The response message adds that Zelenskyi had previously visited a military ammunition plant in the American city of Scranton, where he inspected the work of the military-industrial complex and called for an increase in ammunition supplies to Ukraine. At the same time, as the propagandists report, ammunition from this plant was delivered directly to the Hezbollah warehouse or was resold by the Ukrainian side.

In fact, there is no real evidence that Hezbollah fired shells with Zelenskyi's signature at Israel. The Ukrainian president did visit the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant in September 2024 during a visit to the United States and left his signature on some shells. However, these shells could not have reached Hezbollah, since the Scranton plant is fully loaded with Ukrainian supplies.

After all, The Jerusalem Post, which the propagandists cite, did not report on its website or social media that Hezbollah had fired shells at Israel with Zelenskyi’s signature.

Pro-Russian sources are distributing a photo of what appears to be the cover of the Scottish newspaper The National with the headline “Zelenskyi provokes nuclear crisis” on the front page. The newspaper also asks: “Why does Zelenskyi's victory plan pose a threat to the world's nuclear security?”

In fact, The National did not publish such material, and the newspaper's cover was edited. This is written about in the StopFake project. In its official account on the X social network, the publication published what the issue of The National for October 18, 2024 looked like. The front page did not contain any news about Volodymyr Zelenskyi or Ukraine in general. It was about the ceremonial farewell to former Scottish Prime Minister Alex Salmond, who died of a heart attack on October 12, 2024.

Russians have been speculating on the topic of nuclear weapons since the publication of the Victory Plan by Volodymyr Zelenskyi and his statement that the guarantee of security for Ukraine could be either nuclear weapons (which the state renounced in 1996) or NATO membership. Despite the fact that the president clarified that Ukraine is not developing and does not plan to restore nuclear weapons, Putin has already managed to accuse Ukraine of provocations. However, it is Russia that regularly uses nuclear blackmail as an instrument of foreign policy.

Previously, we analyzed the Russian message that Ukraine was trying to provoke Russia into a nuclear strike.

Upon the arrival of pilgrims from Israel to Ukraine to celebrate the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah, Russian resources distributed a video online in which several Hasidim allegedly tore Ukrainian flags from a flagpole and threw them in the trash. Instead, they installed the Israeli flag. And at the end of the video, the man who threw the Ukrainian flag in the trash bin said in Russian: ‘This is Israel, baby”.

In fact, this video was not filmed in Ukraine and has nothing to do with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah by pilgrims in Uman. This is reported in the StopFake project. Using a reverse image search in Yandex, it was possible to establish that this video had been distributed online since at least June 2022. The video was mainly published by Russian propaganda resources, as well as anonymous Telegram channels. Many of the resources where the video appeared claimed that it was filmed in Israel, where local residents, unhappy with the presence of Ukrainian flags on the streets, replaced them with Israeli symbols.

Such fakes about anti-Semitism of Ukrainians or deliberate bad attitude of Jews towards Ukrainians are not uncommon. Earlier we analyzed the Russian disinformation message that Ukraine organized a “Jewish pogrom” in Dagestan.

Russian resources are distributing a video story on behalf of Euronews about a tragic story that allegedly happened in Poland. Thus, the video says that on October 2, 2024, a Polish soldier from the International Legion allegedly killed his wife and her “Ukrainian lover”, and then set fire to his own apartment and committed suicide.

However, this information is not true. This is reported in the StopFake project. Propagandists have faked a Euronews video on this topic. After all, there is no such video on the website or in any of the publication's social networks. Also, information about this incident could not be found in any of the Polish publications or in the local group of the village of Chochłów, where the retaliatory events allegedly took place. Only 1,200 people live in this small tourist town, so the double murder and arson of a home could not go unnoticed. However, the lack of discussion of this event in a fairly active local group further indicates that this news is completely made up.

After all, the “news” about a domestic murder amid jealousy in Poland does not fit the usual editorial content on Euronews, which usually only reports on events that are significant for Europe and the world.

With such propaganda, Russian propagandists are trying to humiliate Ukrainian refugees abroad and worsen Polish-Ukrainian relations.

This is not the first time that propagandists have spread fabricated stories on behalf of Euronews. We have previously documented similar leaks:

– Ukrainian artist allegedly amputated his leg “in solidarity” with the Ukrainian Armed Forces (Euronews story)

- Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers allegedly beat up an ethnic Hungarian in western Ukraine, Euronews story

- Euronews allegedly reported on a Ukrainian fraudster in Poland who opened a beauty salon with fat-sucking mosquitoes

- The French President is allegedly being forced to escalate the Russian-Ukrainian war by blackmail (Euronews story)

- Euronews allegedly showed a story about how the statement of the Ukrainian Embassy in France angered French farmers

The propaganda telegram channels are spreading information that Russian soldiers are paid bonuses for the elimination of “foreign mercenaries” fighting in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They say that for the elimination of a “foreign mercenary” who is a US citizen, they give 5 thousand dollars, and for a citizen of Poland - 1.5 thousand dollars, etc. In reporting this, the propagandists refer to the British tabloid Daily Express, which allegedly provided the relevant data.

However, in reality, this information is not true. The Daily Express did not publish the relevant data either on its website or in its social networks. Using Google's reverse image search function, it was possible to find out that the original source of the dissemination of the data on the “bonus for the elimination of “foreign mercenaries”” is a pro-Russian social network user X. Therefore, it is likely that the above infographics were created by the propagandists themselves, distributing it on behalf of an authoritative publication. And the fact that this information was disseminated exclusively in the Russian segment of the network is an additional argument in favor of its falsity.

By spreading such disinformation, the Russians are trying to feed the narrative about the alleged presence of “foreign mercenaries” in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Yes, Russia is allegedly fighting not only with Ukraine, but with the entire “collective West”.

Earlier, we analyzed the fake news that a “foreign mercenary” – a US Air Force serviceman – was killed as a result of a Russian missile strike on an airfield in the Khmelnytskyi region.

Russian sources are distributing a photo of a homemade wooden cross and a plaque attached to it. It says: “Here lie the unidentified remains of a defender of Ukraine, No. 214350”. “And how many of these are there throughout the country?”, this is how Russians are commenting on the image of the alleged burial of an unknown Ukrainian soldier who died during the fighting. In addition, they draw attention to the lack of flowers on the grave - this is supposed to indicate a lack of respect on the part of society for Ukrainian soldiers who give their lives in the war.

However, in reality, this photo is fake. This is reported in the StopFake project. Firstly, the parts of the sentence on the sign do not agree with each other - “here rest (instead of “rest”) the unidentified remains of a defender”. Secondly, despite the fact that the word “unidentified” is appropriate in this context, in real burials of unknown soldiers, it is customary to use the phrase “temporarily unidentified” to emphasize that the identification of the soldier and the search for his relatives are ongoing. In particular, this can be seen in the photo of the corresponding burials of 2015 in Dnipro.

Additionally, using the Forensically tool, StopFake journalists found that the propagandists had changed the inscription on the cross in a photo editor. The Error Level Analysis function showed that in the image of the area, the signs without text look significantly darker, while in the unedited photo, flat surfaces and uniform textures should have the same color.

Finally, in cases where it is not possible to immediately identify the deceased soldier, the body is kept in the morgue for a certain period of time, DNA material is collected from it (to continue identifying the soldier and searching for his relatives), and then buried with military honors. When the deceased is identified, his relatives have the right to rebury the body.

The Black Tulip humanitarian mission also takes care of the dignified burial of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. The search group returns home the bodies of soldiers that cannot be immediately removed from the battlefield due to intense fighting or mining. Accordingly, the propaganda message about the careless burial of Ukrainian soldiers does not correspond to reality.

Earlier, we analyzed a fake about the alleged theft of personal belongings of a Ukrainian fighter at his funeral.

Videos of military equipment located along the road are being distributed online. The descriptions of the corresponding videos say that this is allegedly Ukrainian equipment that was hit in the Kursk region, where it remains.

In fact, this information is fake, the VoxCheck project reports. The video shows Russian equipment that Ukrainian troops managed to capture as a result of military operations. At the beginning, a tank is visible, a photo of which was published back in 2022.

Further on, at the 16th second of the video, one can see an advertisement for Best Mix pet food in Ukrainian from the Ukrainian company Inbel. It could not be placed in the Kursk region.

Finally, OSINT analyst "EjShahid" established that the video was filmed in the village of Myrne in Donetsk region. It is located at a great distance from the Russian-Ukrainian border. The analyst additionally confirms that the video shows captured Russian tanks.

The purpose of the fake is to convince everyone around that the Kursk operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly makes no sense and entails huge losses for Ukraine, both in personnel and equipment. Earlier, we refuted the information that 74% of Ukrainians are against the Kursk operation.

Russian propaganda sources are distributing a video on behalf of the UNITED24 platform, which states that Ukraine is allegedly planning to recruit Polish military personnel to work in the Territorial center of procurement and social support in December 2024.

However, this information is not true. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation after verifying this “news” on the initiative of UNITED24 itself. They did not create such content and, accordingly, did not distribute it.

The purpose of this fake is to cause discord between the Ukrainian and Polish peoples, as well as to discredit the cooperation between Ukraine and its partners. We have previously refuted a number of similar fakes, where Russians spread disinformation on behalf of the UNITED24 platform. For example, in the Kursk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are “massively poisoned by food” from local stores.