This thesis appeared on propaganda channels in Telegram. Blogger and officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Anatolii Shtefan (“Shtirlits”) drew attention to the same type of fakes.

Russian “military correspondents”, who write daily about the war in Ukraine, actively disseminate information that “NATO troops” entered not only Vovchansk, but also Kozacha Lopan. There are practically no Ukrainian military in these cities, “many blacks and English speakers”.

Anatolii Shtefan recalled who exactly fired Vovchansk, adding a photo of Ukrainian soldiers against the backdrop of the Ukrainian flag over the administrative building of the city.

In the south and in the Kharkiv region, the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, announced at the end of August, continues. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, since the beginning of September, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated about 2,000 square kilometers. As of September 11, Ukrainian units have de-occupied more than 40 settlements in the Kharkiv region.

Russian propagandists regularly throw messages about discrediting the Ukrainian military, and if they can no longer keep silent about the successes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, then they attribute them to foreign mercenaries and that the counteroffensive is carried out to the order of the United States or the West.

Russian propagandists decided not to deny the activity and victories of the Ukrainian army in several directions at once, as they could do before. This time they came up with an excuse and circulated it in anonymous telegram channels. It seems that US Secretary of State Blinken, during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyi in Kyiv, made him understand that "it will not work to divide the EU countries into new tranches until there is at least some success (albeit temporary)".

At the same time, the Russians are not worried that these new tranches will be used against them. They promote the thesis that foreign weapons end up on the black market, and it is easier to write them off during a counteroffensive. And they reassure themselves that, they say, a counteroffensive is no longer beneficial for Ukraine, because the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered heavy losses in the Kharkiv direction.

Thus, they are trying to downplay the success of the Ukrainian military, to attribute the idea of ​​a counteroffensive to the United States or the EU, remembering that the battles were commanded by foreign mercenaries.

This is a typical Russian tactic - instead of voluntarily liberating Ukrainian cities and villages, they are dying on foreign soil, for no one knows why, and they blame the United States and the West for this.

And the Russian military saved his life, according to the pro-Kremlin media. Like, on August 29, employees of the Ukrainian special services, dressed in military uniforms of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, promised to accompany the reporter Mattia Sorbi by taxi from Mykolayiv to the line of collision between Ukrainian and Russian troops. Approaching the combat area, the escorts left the car and sent the reporter along the mined road. A taxi with a journalist exploded on a Ukrainian minivan, the driver died, the Russian military who heard the explosion saved the journalist. Now he is in the territory controlled by Russia.

The Russians believe that the Ukrainian special services planned to wait for the death of the journalist as a result of shelling from Russian positions or explosion of a taxi on a mine for further accusations of Russia in the murder of Mattia Sorbi and a wide resonance in the Western media. It is not true.

At the end of August, Mattia Sorbi arrived in Mykolayiv, where, after some time, without permission, in violation of security rules, he left in the direction of the temporarily occupied Kherson, the Mykolayiv regional military administration said. Without the permission and escort of the Ukrainian military, he drove in the direction of Oleksandrivka (temporarily occupied territory between Mykolayiv and Kherson), which was in the “red zone” due to heavy fighting.

“Despite the widespread version of the Russian media about the alleged blowing up of the car, on the published videos you can see the damage to the car, more typical for shelling than blowing up a car on an anti-tank mine. Therefore, we can assume that at the entrance to the “red zone” the car was fired upon by the Russian occupation troops, and when they realized that it was the car of an Italian journalist, they decided to blame the Ukrainian side,” the Mykolayiv regional military administration believes.

 This thesis is spread by the Russian media with reference to a study published on the Bloomberg website. In fact, in an article about how skyrocketing electricity bills will affect entrepreneurs in the absence of state support, not a word mentions that the crisis was provoked by anti-Russian sanctions.

On the contrary, the author of the article, Julian Harris, notes that there is such a risk, six out of 10 British manufacturers are in danger of decline due to high electricity prices. The article notes that in order to avoid a crisis, the government should announce a wider support package. "The new government needs emergency action", said Stephen Phipson, CEO of MakeUK.

Russian propagandists love to find international economic articles that talk about hard times for European businesses due to high utility bills and lead to the fact that this would not have happened if it were not for anti-Russian sanctions. They say that the West suffers more from these sanctions than Russia, so it is enough to introduce them, make friends with Russia and get low bills for electricity and gas.

At the same time, the Russian media are silent about the fact that sanctions against Russia will be lifted if it retreats from the territory of Ukraine and does not kill the civilian population and destroy cities and villages.

This news is spreading across the web. The report says that foreigners allegedly buy agricultural land in Ukraine without any problems and freely dispose of it. Like, all Ukrainian land will soon not belong to the Ukrainians themselves. However, this is not true.

In fact, according to Ukrainian law, foreign citizens do not have the right to buy agricultural land in Ukraine. From 1992 to 2021, there was a moratorium on the sale and purchase of agricultural land in Ukraine, even citizens of Ukraine could not trade agricultural land.

According to the current legislation, the purchase of non-agricultural land for foreigners is allowed only on the condition that there is real estate (for example, a house) on this land and the land belongs to an urban-type settlement.

So far, agricultural land in Ukraine can only be purchased by individuals who are citizens of Ukraine, and not more than 100 hectares. This thesis is being expanded to show that Ukraine is subject to the West and is a puppet in the hands of European officials: it does everything under dictation, it is ready to give up its lands.

Such news is spreading through the Kremlin telegram channels. Reports say that a tank set of Italian Leopard 2A4 was overturned in the Kherson direction. However, this is not true. Italy and Ukraine do not have such tanks in service.

According to the StopFake fact checkers, the Italian army has got other tanks, namely the Ariete. As of September 2022, Ukraine has not received Leopard tanks from its partners. At the same time, Germany did not make a decision to start production of these tanks for Ukraine.

The propagandists constantly changed their thesis in relation to the supplying country, since the non-existent “Italian Leopard 2A4” and then the “Italian Leopard 2A6” on the battlefield near Kherson were replaced by the “Spanish Leopard 2A4”. This is also a lie because Spain has not used them for a long time as tanks are in a terrible position.

By spreading this news and constantly changing it, propagandists seek to justify the losses and defeats that the enemy army faced in the context of the Ukrainian army's counteroffensive in the south.

Russian media quoted Russian leader Volodymyr Putin as saying at an economic forum in Vladyvostok that a huge number of Ukrainians hate the Kyiv regime and are under the yoke of neo-Nazis. It's fake.

StopFake reports this and cites data from the last three sociological studies. Thus, on the eve of the Independence Day of Ukraine on August 24, the Rating sociological group conducted a comprehensive study of various markers of Ukrainian patriotism. 74% of Ukrainians assessed the direction of development in the country as correct, 13% believe that it is moving in the wrong direction, and the same number found it difficult to answer the question.

At the end of June, the Rating sociological group conducted a survey commissioned by the Center for Analytical Research (CISR) of the International Republican Institute (IRI), and, among other things, received the following results: 81% answered that they believe that Ukraine will win this war, 16% replied that they will probably win. Also, 88% strongly approve the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 10% generally approve the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and in second place is President Zelenskyi (59% strongly approve his actions, 32% generally approve them).

The results of a sociological survey conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation with the sociological service of the Razumkov Center from August 5 to 12, 2022 also showed the high faith of Ukrainians in victory (over 90%), as well as pride of their citizenship (about 90%). In addition, 87.3% of men and 89.5% of women answered that they would like to build their future life in Ukraine.

This misinformation is being spread by the Russian media to justify the war of conquest launched by Russia against Ukraine, allegedly defending the rights of oppressed Ukrainians. In fact, there is no justification for the cruelty of the crimes of the Russian army.

Russian media write about it. Like, the Ukrainian military landed a drone on the territory controlled by the militants and fled Ukraine in order to “spend honestly earned money” for this “agreement”. It’s fake.

As the Center for Counteracting Disinformation writes, the Bayraktar TB2 drone is controlled by a team of three operators, not just one person. It is impossible to control the UAV without the Drone Control Center, which is part of the complex. If the drone lands on enemy territory, the enemy will not be able to use it. The loss of “Bayraktar TB2” would have led to an investigation by military counterintelligence, by the end of which none of the participants in the incident would have been able to leave Ukraine.

Propagandists simply spread fakes to discredit “Bayraktars”: supposedly Ukraine will use them for chemical attacks, or the Ukrainian military refuses to use “Bayraktars”, or supposedly the company that produces bayraktars agreed to cooperate with Russia and so on.

Russian media write about this with reference to the head of the Service for Protection against Chemical, Biological and Radioactive Weapons. They say that the Ukrainian authorities turned to Bayraktar, a drone manufacturing company, with a request to equip these drones with equipment for spraying chemicals, which could pose a real threat to Russia. It is not true.

According to the fact-checker of the EUvsDisinfo project, there is no evidence to confirm that Ukraine is preparing a chemical or biological provocation or the use of weapons of mass destruction. On the contrary, many Western leaders are genuinely concerned that Russia might use chemical weapons. Russia also constantly threatens the world with the use of nuclear weapons.

They also allegedly have a big request for literature in Russian. This is reported by Russian media on anonymous telegram channels. This is not true.

In fact, the occupiers are destroying Ukrainian textbooks and teaching methodology books, books on the history of Ukraine, books by Ukrainian writers, and the Ukrainian language is being made an optional subject in schools. Even fairy tales and illustrated children’s books with almost no text were destroyed. As the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center writes, the Russians decided on their own about the language of instruction in schools.

Since May, the occupiers in the Kharkiv region have emphasized that education in schools will be according to Russian programs and Russian standards. For this, delegations of teachers from the occupied territories of the Kharkiv region traveled to Russia for the so-called retraining. At the end of August, propagandists reported that the United Russia party set the task of developing a plan for the phased Russification of schools and kindergartens in the temporarily occupied Vovchansk,Kharkiv region. In particular, the subject “History of Ukraine” will be replaced by “History of the Russian Federation”. Classes taught in Ukrainian will be replaced by “Russian-speaking” classes. Ukrainian literature will be taught exclusively in Russian and there will be a separate “Russian fiction (Russian literature)”. All entries in students’ registers and diaries will be made in Russian.

In August, Putin instructed the Russian government to pay 10,000 rubles at the same time to one of the parents of schoolchildren in the occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions, provided that the child starts studying according to Russian programs by September 15.

Russian media are massively spreading a fake about “thousands of lawsuits” that descendants seem to have filed

Poles who lived in Lviv until 1939, demanding that their apartments be returned to them.

In fact, there are no such claims. In their materials, the Russian media refer to the article of the publication “Strana” (“State”), which for many years promotes pro-Russian theses. This time the publication took a comment from the chairman of the Polish organization “Restitution of Kresov” Konrad Renkas, who stated that such claims are prepared. But during the war they decided not to sue.

At the same time, the Russian media wrote that the Ukrainian courts were already “overwhelmed” with these lawsuits.

Russian media and users of social networks write about this. It seems that former US chief epidemiologist Anthony Fauci admitted this in an interview with Fox News. Allegedly, when asked about special laboratories in Ukraine, Faucher said that “experiments that were very necessary in the interests of US national security were carried out there.” Like, these experiments are extremely dangerous, and it is forbidden by law to conduct them on the territory of the States, and the Ukrainians were paid “good money”, so they were satisfied. Also, the US allegedly opened several laboratories even in China, in Wuhan, in particular. Allegedly, the Chinese were aware of only some relatively safe jobs, and the Ukrainians “did not have an idea about most of the experiments”. It is not true.

Anthony Fauci never said that American scientists were working on the COVID-19 virus in China and Ukraine. According to StopFake, the quote is made up and is not found in any reliable source of information. Moreover, statements about the presence of American biological laboratories in Ukraine are also erroneous. Ukrainian laboratories are financed from the state budget and are subordinate to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

The cover of a cartoon magazine, in which French President Emmanuel Macron allegedly disperses protesters with water, and they swim with pleasure, were used by anonymous telegram channels for manipulation. They say that supposedly the Western authorities are driving people into antisocial conditions, so discontent will quickly develop into protests. Also, allegedly abroad, Zelenskyi is perceived as a dog, which is used to cover up his crimes. However, no such cover exists.

The fake issue is dated August 29, but there is no such magazine on the website in the Charlie Hebdo archive. There is no such illustration in the drawing section. It is not known who the author of this cartoon is, but it has nothing to do with Charlie Hebdo magazine.

This is not the first time propagandists have used a fake cover. Previously, a fake cover was distributed in which the UK “spits out” Borys Johnson, and Volodymyr Zelenskyi in the form of a dog with the torn off arm of the “Azov” defender.

Allegedly, this unmanned aerial vehicle can destroy or disable enemy fighters without risks to US soldiers.

The Russian Defense Ministry claims that document No. 8967029 issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office allegedly testifies to the creation of such a drone.

Also, allegedly, Ukraine asked the Turkish manufacturer Bayraktar about the possibility of equipping drones with aerosol spray systems with a capacity of more than 20 liters.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that an attempt to attack the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv direction was allegedly thwarted and the 14th mechanized brigade of the enemy lost more than 50 people.

During the briefing, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Serhii Leshchenko said that the information voiced by the Russian departments was untrue.

“Nothing like this happened. We contacted this brigade and we were told that this is complete nonsense and a lie”, said the adviser.

Propaganda channels in social networks disseminate information that “draft notices” are issued to women because “there are no men left in the city.” The head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kharkiv region, Volodymyr Timoshko, called it nonsense on the air of the telethon.

Since the beginning of the summer of 2022, Russian propaganda through social networks has been promoting the thesis of agendas for women. In the Mykolaiv region, even forged documents were distributed to argue the lie.

It should be noted that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has developed a bill to reduce the list of women's specialties subject to military registration from October 1. The initiative has already been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, and now the relevant committee is working on it.

The Ministry explained that now there is no urgent need for the mobilization of women. At the same time, the Armed Forces of Ukraine still need specialists in medicine, radio engineering, and food technology.

Women with minor children under 18 years of age are not subject to conscription due to mobilization. Note that registration is not mobilization.

In wartime, women can be recruited for military service and in the military reserve only under contract and on a voluntary basis. All female employees do so voluntarily and/or under contract.

Anonymous telegram channels are spreading a fake developed by the Russian media that the Zaporizhzhia NPP is allegedly on the verge of functioning, because the life of the nuclear power units “expired back in 2015-2018”, that the plant needs the intervention of Russian specialists, and the continued operation of the equipment threatens.

In fact, as StopFake fact-checkers found out, Ukraine, under the supervision of leading international experts, has successfully upgraded five of the six power units of the Zaporizhzhia NPP since 2016, extending the life of each facility by an average of ten years. A number of European countries, the USA, Canada and Russia itself have experience in extending the service life of nuclear power plants, the fact checkers added.

More details.

The dubious news published by the Russian media was intercepted by a number of Ukrainian websites. The original source is the Austrian tabloid Exxpress, which was seen violating journalistic standards, writes StopFake.

Exxpress, citing its sources, reported the death of Natalia Vovk, a Ukrainian woman whom Russia called the murderer of the daughter of propagandist Oleksander Duhin, Daria. According to the publication, the body of a woman with 17 stab wounds was found in a rented apartment. It is reported that a note was allegedly found in the hands of the deceased.

The news is illustrated with a photograph showing the body of a woman. At the same time, according to StopFake, the photo was published back in 2020, in the news about the bride who was killed before the wedding.

Meanwhile, the information about the murder of Natalia Vovk was not confirmed by the Austrian Foreign Ministry.

StopFake suggested that an anonymous telegram channel became the source for the Austrian site and their news was used by Russian propagandists to reinforce the message that Ukraine was involved in the death of Daria Duhina.

It is a reminder that Russia accused Ukraine of the murder of Daria Duhina, providing only dubious evidence that cannot be verified. In particular, accusing an "Azov" serviceman of murder. Ukraine denies any involvement in the attack. Later, Russian propaganda spread the message that British intelligence could be involved in Duhina's murder.

A video is circulating on the social network Facebook, where the announcer discusses the Russian-Ukrainian war and hints that American troops are in Ukraine. Under the video is the caption: “That is the end for Putin! US Army in Ukraine!" This video is fake.

The video was checked by the fact-checker of the Logically project. The video does not contain any details regarding the likely presence of US troops in Ukraine: it does not mention how long the troops have been in Ukraine, in which region of the country they are deployed, what are the purposes of their presence, etc. There is no evidence of the presence of the US military in Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered U.S. troops stationed in Ukraine in 2021 to leave the country and redeploy personnel to Europe, according to a CNBC report. On February 12, the US Department of Defense issued a statement specifying that 160 Florida National Guard soldiers who trained the Ukrainian military were temporarily redeployed to Europe. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the decision was made for security reasons.

Russian propagandists spread fakes about foreign troops in Ukraine in order to hide the reasons for the failures of their own army, they say, they are fighting not against Ukrainians, but against professional foreign military.

In social networks, the same type of publications are circulating that supposedly support for Ukraine in the UN over the past 6 months has significantly decreased. Allegedly, on August 24, only 58 out of 193 UN member states supported a resolution condemning the actions of the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine. Unlike the previous one, when on March 2, 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding that Russia stop the so-called special military operation in Ukraine, which was supported by 141 states. It is not true.

Voting for a resolution to hold Russia accountable for crimes in Ukraine will take place at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in September. The document dated August 24, which is called the “UN General Assembly resolution” on the net, is not really like that. This is a joint statement by Ukraine and 57 other UN member states condemning Russia's failure to comply with the resolutions of the UN General Assembly of March 2 and March 24 demanding an end to military aggression against Ukraine.

The first resolution "Aggression against Ukraine" (A/ES/11-1), condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, was adopted on March 2, 2022. The resolution was supported by 141 states. The second resolution of the UN General Assembly on the war in Ukraine was adopted on March 24, 2022. The document was supported by 140 countries. The third resolution of the XI emergency special session of the UN General Assembly suspended Russia's membership in the UN Human Rights Council. It was adopted on April 7, 2022 with 93 votes in favor.

Thus, propaganda continues to build a narrative about the alleged fatigue of the world community from the “Ukrainian issue”. Previously, fakes were spread that the British were supposedly tired of Ukrainian refugees, or they were convinced that “the stormy romance between Europeans and Ukrainians is ending.” More details.

These messages are being circulated on social media. Allegedly, the Russian military found a report addressed to the commander of the 72nd Motorized Brigade, Colonel Vdovychenko, that the "new batch of drugs" allegedly received at the end of June "causes concern." This photo is fake.

According to the VoxCheck fact checker, the report does not contain specific information: the names of drugs, their purpose, the number of units delivered, dates of receipt, etc. The "complaints" of the military are also vague, mentioning only one case of violence among the military, allegedly due to "refusal to issue a drug."

The report contained both factual and grammatical mistakes. Mykhailo Drapatyi actually has the rank of brigadier general, not major. As of July 2022, Mikhailo Drapatyi is the Deputy Commander of the Operational Command "South". He was the commander of the 2nd mechanized battalion of the 72nd OMBR back in 2014. Grammar mistakes testify to the automatic translation of the report from Russian.

By spreading a fake report, Russian propaganda is trying to support the fiction about the forced use of drugs in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Also, earlier propagandists said that more than half of the Ukrainian military use drugs. Russian propagandists also systematically resort to creating fake "documents". Recently, a fake document was circulated, allegedly confirming the losses of the Ukrainian army.

  Russian media and social networks write about this. Allegedly, the Western publication called on Ukraine to recognize not only the “loss of Donbas”, but also the “senselessness of the attacks on Kherson.” Like, "the Kyiv regime is not able to change Russia's success in the special operation." It is not true. In fact, Die Welt columnist Christoph Schilz emphasizes in the author's coloumn that Western countries are still not giving Ukraine enough weapons to turn the tide of the war. The main idea of ​​the material lies in the title - "too little military assistance." The author says that Ukraine may lose its territories in the east, a significant part of the south is also occupied, and, in his opinion, there are no signs that the situation will change in the near future. Russian propagandists took these words out of context and gave them a different meaning. Shilts also believes that the West needs to make a decision - either to significantly improve the equipment of Ukraine with weapons in the near future, or leave Ukraine "at the mercy of the Russian military machine." That is, the publication Die Welt did not call on Ukraine to recognize the loss of territories, moreover, the author of the column called on the West, and Germany in particular, to supply Ukraine with more heavy weapons, and not be limited to "promises and speeches of solidarity." Russian propagandists systematically manipulate out-of-context quotes from Western media and politicians in order to pass off wishful thinking. Previously, using disfigured quotes, they claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi was about to step down at the start of a full-scale invasion. More details.  

This was reported in the news on Russian TV channels. Allegedly, there were warehouses of foreign weapons at the airfield. This is not the first time Russians lie about their military “gains” and “victories”. In fact, this time Russian propagandists distorted the news about the rocket attack on Shepetivka, which took place on Ukraine's Independence Day. Critical infrastructure was hit, police said, and windows and doors in nearby homes and a school were blown off by the blast. As a result of the hit, 3 people were injured - a woman and two children.

Near Shepetivka in the village of Sudylkiv in Soviet times there was a military airfield. Historians in their writings recall that it was bombed during the Second World War. During the independence of Ukraine, the airfield did not function.

The presenter of the TV channel "Russia-1" Olha Skabeyeva, talking about the shelling, called Shepetivka Shchepetovka. Ukrainians in social networks created their answer to Skabeyeva for the airfield and for the perverted name of the city.

Pro-Kremlin media reported that the government of Ukraine has canceled a one-time assistance in the amount of 15 million hryvnias, now “you can forget about this money”, the Cabinet of Ministers will determine the amount of payment to the families of the deceased soldier during the Russian war against Ukraine. They say that officials made such a decision in order to “not go bankrupt”, because the Ukrainian army allegedly has “huge losses” - in the amount of “76 thousand dead” servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is not true.

The pro-Kremlin media distorted the changes in the law “On the social and legal protection of servicemen and members of their families.” Among the innovations of the law that came into force on August 25, one of the paragraphs refers to the issue of paying a lump sum in the event of the death of a military man during martial law. Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar explained that a one-time payment to the families of the fallen heroes of the defenders of Ukraine remains in the amount of 15 million hryvnias. “On February 28, the government decided that the payment to the families of the dead defenders of Ukraine is 15 million hryvnias. Nobody cancels this decision and is not going to abolish it,” Maliar emphasized.

According to her, some of the people who submitted the necessary documents have already begun to receive one-time assistance from the state.

The fake pro-Kremlin media about the abolition of payments and about “76 thousand dead” defenders of Ukraine is aimed at undermining morale and discrediting the military-political leadership of the country. More details.

This information is promoted by the Russian media. They say that the countries of the European Union will become "a base for training Nazi militants" who should carry out "terrorist operations" against the "civilian population" in the Donetsk region.

This information appeared in the Russian media after the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, on August 22, informed journalists about the EU plans to organize a mission to train the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to effectively counter Russian aggression.

As such, there is no joint EU mission yet: the head of European diplomacy said that the launch of a large training program for the Ukrainian military in the use of Western weapons will be discussed at the end of August at a meeting of EU defense ministers in Prague, StopFake reports.

Consequently, the European Union and Ukraine do not engage in “terrorist training”. In fact, it is Russia that can be accused of preparing terrorists, since it started a war against Ukraine, kills civilians and destroys Ukrainian cities and villages. By spreading the thesis about “training centers for Ukrainian saboteurs” for operations in the Donbas, Russia is distracting from its own war crimes in the East of Ukraine.