A photo of the poster is being circulated online and claims that it belongs to the advertising campaigns of the Ministry of Defense. The poster depicts a motorcyclist and a call to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine to help the country win.

“In Ukraine, motorcyclists are offered to immediately be sent to the front. Well thought out”, the propagandists write.

VoxCheck specialists were able to analyze the case and establish that such a poster does not bear any signs of information campaigns of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense or military brigades. And a reverse photo search on Google showed that for the fake ad, the propagandists used photos of the Ukrainian military and the motorcyclist, which are in open sources.

Also, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine does not conduct an information campaign with such slogans. There are no similar calls on the official website of the Ministry of Defense, as well as on its social networks on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have a specific brand book: guidelines for the use of graphic style in visual communication of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At a minimum, the fake poster does not even meet the design requirements of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

An alleged cover of the British publication The Independent is being circulated on telegram channels. It allegedly contained the inscription “Prime Minister: “While we were watching Ukraine, we lost our country”, and also referred to a statement by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who spoke about “suicidal thoughts” while commanding the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

But VoxCheck specialists analyzed the case and determined that such a cover does not exist. The original cover features the words of the British Prime Minister about the far-right riots in the country. And instead of a photo of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the page contains an image of Meghan Markle.

Moreover, the authors of the original issue wrote “Prime Minister warns far-right thugs: “You will regret taking part in the riots”, and the Duchess of Sussex and actress Meghan Markle are actually talking about “suicidal thoughts”, and not Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The text of the article relates directly to the unrest and does not contain any mention of Ukraine.

We have repeatedly documented hoaxes involving fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or commercials. Thus, propagandists seek to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. So it may seem to readers that the public is really dissatisfied with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, hinting that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda for Europe is a reason to laugh.

Anonymous telegrams are distributing a video report supposedly from the BBC. It, citing Bellingcat, claims that Ukraine sent SBU workers to the Olympics along with the athletes so that none of the participants in the competition would escape.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the BBC and Bellingcat did not disseminate such information, such information was simply made up. For example, the design of the fake video and the real BBC stories is different: the original reports use different fonts, and the video title is usually inserted into a white and red frame.

There are no short videos on media pages with only voice-over music - the BBC adds narrator accompaniment, comments from different speakers, or leaves the original sound from the scene without changing it in any way.

Using a reverse search on Google, it was possible to establish that the fakers selected random photos from the network for a fake story, for example, in one of the frames, demonstrating “current events”, they used a photo from 2018.

Read more: Macron may allegedly resign a week before the Olympics, BBC video

Propagandists have recently begun to spoof stories from well-known media, using their design elements to create the effect of recognition and trust in the viewer of one of the quality media. For example, we recently reported that anonymous people were spreading a fake story allegedly from the French publication Le Figaro, which talked about a “Ukrainian refugee killer”.

Anonymous telegram channels are distributing a story from Agence France-Presse about a survey among Ukrainians from the European statistical company Eurostat. According to Eurostat results, 64% of Ukrainians allegedly do not believe in the return of Ukrainian territories to the 1991 borders. Of those surveyed, 71% of Ukrainians allegedly “do not believe” that Ukraine will join NATO and the EU, respectively, in the next 5 years. And 77% of respondents are “disappointed” regarding the level of support from the EU and NATO.

VoxCheck analysts explained that AFP and Eurostat did not publish such statistics, because the Russians deliberately created a fake story with recognizable logos. According to current research, a significant part of Ukrainians believe that Ukraine will return territories within the 1991 borders as a result of the war.

For example, in February 2024, the Sociological Group “Rating” conducted an all-Ukrainian survey commissioned by the Center for Analysis and Sociological Research of the International Republican Institute, 2 thousand Ukrainians took part in the survey.

To the question: “In your opinion, what will the borders of Ukraine be as a result of the end of the war?”

45% of respondents answered that Ukraine will retain all the territories it had in 1991. While 16% of respondents said that Ukraine will return only territories occupied after February 24, 2022. In a similar survey by the organization conducted in March 2024, 73% of Ukrainians believed that Ukraine would eventually return all occupied territories.

Anonymous telegram channels are spreading information that Ukrainian refugees planted a pig's head in one of the mosques in Germany. The post claims that employees of the Berlin mosque found a pig's head inside the temple, wrapped in a Palestinian flag with the inscription: “Ukraine supports Israel”.

VoxCheck analysts explained that Berliner-wochenzeitung is a fake site created by the Russians. For example, a German police spokesman and a mosque representative reported that this was fake news.

Using a reverse search on Google, it was possible to establish that the site has only 10 pages with publications - the first news was added on June 18. After July 5, the news on the site was not updated. The publication does not contain any information about the team of authors and editors, owners, as well as contact information, in particular mail and social networks.

In its own materials, the Berliner-wochenzeitung disseminates anti-Ukrainian narratives, in particular, creating the image of Russia as a victim, allegedly Ukraine is striking at civilians, and not at Russian military targets.

Anonymous telegram channels are spreading information that in Ukraine they seem to be preparing to mobilize students. They will undergo practical training in active military units, where they will be involved in the construction of defense positions, work in command posts and security.

VoxCheck project specialists have established that, according to Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 734, during basic military training, students will undergo practical training in training centers, regional centers for preparing the population for national resistance, police training centers, etc. Until the age of 25, they will have a deferment even after completing basic military training.

On June 21, 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted Resolution No. 734. It talks about the approval of the procedure for conducting basic combined arms training of Ukrainian citizens receiving higher education and police officers. This military training will consist of theoretical and practical parts. Preparation will become a separate academic discipline, mandatory for boys and voluntary for girls. For students who entered the university on the basis of complete secondary education, it will begin from the 2nd year.

Pro-Kremlin resources continue to promote the topic of mobilization, hinting at the decline of the military, the lack of personnel, that Ukraine needs to “resort” to radical decisions and mobilize women. Anonymous telegrams accuse Ukraine of being a “military meat grinder”, explaining that now it will be impossible to escape “grave”: neither children, nor elderly people, nor women.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are distributing the cover of the French newspaper Libération. On it one can see athlete Tyler Mislavchuk, who was bored during competitions at the Olympic Games, and a photo of Volodymyr Zelenskyi below.

VoxCheck project analysts investigated this case and found out that the column images had been edited. On the original binding, instead of a photo of triathlete Tyler Mislavchuk, there was an inscription about Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Iran.

On August 1, 2024, the Libération newspaper actually published a new issue, on the front page of which, in particular, there was a photo of Volodymyr Zelenskyi with the headline “Restore our territorial integrity, but not only with the help of weapons”. However, missing from this issue is an image of triathlete Tyler Mislavchuk, who was exhausted after swimming at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

In fact, we recorded many fakes aimed at discrediting Volodymyr Zelenskyi: propagandists used false advertising banners, magazine covers, graffiti, created individual cartoons, and placed Zelenskyi’s faces on various consumer goods (for example, condoms). With the help of Russian propaganda, Zelenskyi was able to appear in various roles, in particular: a vain person who spends all budget funds only on himself; a punitive satanist destroying Ukrainian church property; a person with drug addiction; theft of Western money; a puppet controlled by the West; a monster who throws “everyone in a row” to the front, etc.

Pro-Russian telegram channels, in particular Polish ones, are distributing a video allegedly on the phone of a deceased Ukrainian soldier, “demonstrating the tragedy” of the situation at the front. According to propagandists, his own people abandoned him and another seriously wounded soldier: communication was cut off, ammunition was running out. Finally, in the description of the video they add that the recording allegedly clearly shows that the Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman could not survive due to another betrayal of the command, which abandoned the soldiers to their fate.

However, this video is likely staged. Its author, posing as a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, most likely attached captured chevrons received in battle to his equipment. In addition, the video contains tragic music in the background, which Russian propagandists deliberately added to make the situation that allegedly developed with the “Ukrainian military” more emotional. The video also bears a watermark from one of the Russian propaganda telegram channels, which presumably became the primary source of distribution of the video. This gives additional reason to believe that this is a fake.

Staged video is one of the Russian propaganda tactics. A little earlier, we recorded a similar fake video, one of the messages of which was also “betrayal of command”. In the end, a certain similarity between these recordings is another argument in favor of the artificiality of the above video.

Pro-Russian resources say that this video is proof of the disdain of ordinary soldiers by the Ukrainian high military command. Thus, propagandists are trying to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

• Read on Censor.NET: Russians are filming fake videos about the Kursk region with people dressed in the uniform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - The Center of Countering Disinformation  - Detector Media.

Network users are distributing a video in which a Ukrainian citizen allegedly tries to illegally cross the border using a light boat. The description of the video indicates that the man, in an attempt to avoid mobilization, decided to flee to Hungary by swimming across the Tysa near the Lonja-Zvenkova checkpoint. But the “Ukrainian’s” boat flew into the cable at high speed and capsized, causing the man’s death.

However, this video has nothing to do with the mobilization process in Ukraine. This was reported by the StopFake team. The events in the video took place on the morning of August 3, 2024 in the Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg county in Hungary. Hungarian media reported that day that a patrol boat crashed into a rope at high speed. At the time of the accident, there was only one local policeman on the boat - he survived and swam to shore on his own.

The Hungarian publication Szon reports that the incident occurred due to inattention while driving, as the policeman should have waited for the cable to lower. The ferry operator who witnessed the incident told reporters that he tried to signal to the police officer to slow down, but he did not notice or ignored him.

Playing on emotions and spreading fake news about such incidents is part of Russia’s traditional disinformation campaign aimed at undermining the mobilization processes in Ukraine and discrediting its army, political and military leadership. Also, the purpose of the fake is to create an atmosphere of tension among Ukrainian society. Previously,  Detector Media recorded a fake that Budanov allegedly proposed to mobilize Ukrainians from the age of 18.

One of the Russian propagandists claims that a large outbreak of open tuberculosis was discovered in parts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stationed in the Kherson region. This was allegedly reported by the “pro-Russian underground” in the Ukrainian rear. Deaths from this infectious disease are also already being recorded.

However, this information is not true. After failing with a fake about an outbreak of an unknown infection in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kherson region, without coming up with anything new, the Russians are spreading a similar fake about an outbreak of tuberculosis.

In fact, the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Kherson region is stable and controlled. No outbreaks of acute intestinal infections or food poisoning were recorded. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council.

By spreading such fakes, the Russians are trying to confirm that the Ukrainian military and political command are hiding information about the infection of the Ukrainian military and neglecting them. However, in reality, fiction about “tuberculosis”, “cholera” or “an unknown gastric intestinal infection” in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is aimed at nothing more than to discredit the Ukrainian authorities, undermine confidence in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and destabilize the situation in the country.

Propaganda anonymous telegram channels disseminate information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly failed during the offensive in the Kursk region and, in “desperation”, attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security drew attention to it. In fact, the fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occurred on August 11, and Russian propagandists immediately accused the Ukrainian army of attacking the station. Now fake news is filling the information space with messages about supposedly “Ukrainian drones” and that “it is not profitable for Russia” to set fire to nuclear power plants.

However, an IAEA statement dated August 12 noted that agency experts checked the fire site and did not find any “remnants of drones”, which refutes the Kremlin propaganda claim that the station was shelled.

The only source of threat to the nuclear power plant is Russia, which has seized the plant, turned it into a military base and is using it for provocations and nuclear blackmail. Russia has more than once organized provocations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and accused Ukraine of attacks on energy facilities.

Propagandists disseminate information in pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels that the slogan of Kharkiv Pride is supposedly the phrase “Better is an AFU gay than a straight draft dodger” (the original spelling has been preserved). However, this is fake.

The official accounts of Kharkiv Pride on social networks do not have this slogan. Moreover, the fakeness is indicated by the fact that the propagandists made a number of grammatical errors. In Ukrainian, the correct spelling of “evader” is not a copy of Russian and is not used by Ukrainians. In addition, the slogan itself is provocative in nature and was created with the aim of manipulating public opinion.

This fake is part of an information war aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian military and further dividing society. The use of such slogans aims to sow discord among citizens, cause negative attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community and discredit the Ukrainian army. Russians are trying in every possible way to increase homophobia through various manipulations and fakes. Thus, they want to justify their aggression against Ukraine. They say that Russia is fighting for real values that do not exist in the West.

Propagandists are actively spreading disinformation, claiming that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, allegedly supported the idea of lowering the mobilization age in Ukraine to 18 years. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Security drew attention to it. They found that Russian propagandists had taken Budanov’s words out of context, which he said during a meeting with students and teachers of the Kyiv School of Economics. At this meeting, he did not support the idea of lowering the mobilization age, but only voiced the calculations of the Russian side: if Ukraine starts mobilizing citizens from 18 years old instead of 25, it will be able to resist Russia until 2033. However, he immediately criticized this idea, noting that Ukraine values the lives of its citizens, and prolonging the war for such a long period is unlikely, since “no economy can withstand so much time in a state of war”.

This fake is part of an information campaign, the purpose of which is to demoralize Ukrainian society, create panic and attempt to disrupt mobilization processes in the country. Russian propaganda is trying to push Ukrainians to believe that their leadership is ready to sacrifice young lives, while the reality is completely different. Russia seeks to split the unity of Ukrainians and raise doubts about the advisability of defending their country, thereby simplifying its tasks at the front.

Photos of an alleged advertisement for the Armed Forces of Ukraine with an appeal to join their ranks are being circulated online. It depicts a gray-haired military woman, as well as the supposed inscription: “Son, I need your help”. Propagandists write that this is “a typical Ukrainian mobilized over 60 years old”. This advertising of the Armed Forces of Ukraine seems to call young people to the front.

In fact, this is a photo fake. When checking this image in the FotoForensics tool using ELA analysis (Error Level Analysis), which identifies areas of the image with different levels of compression, it was possible to identify signs of text editing on the advertisement. They are highlighted in bright colors.

With this fake photo, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the mobilization process in Ukraine. Previously, we refuted information that in Ukraine they are calling on people to mobilize into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as whole families.

Russian telegram channels are distributing a screenshot of supposedly one of the house chats in the capital. According to it, the Pechersk district state administration in Kyiv calls on citizens to evacuate if they live near “decision-making centers”.

However, the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council, after verifying this “news” in the Pechersk district administration, reported that it was a fake. The administration did not send out any similar messages.

This disinformation was spread against the backdrop of a publication in one of the foreign media about a possible missile strike on “decision-making centers” in response to an operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region. And the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council, Andrii Kovalenko, responded to this in particular on his telegram. He called on Ukrainians to read less loud headlines about massive shelling.

Russian propagandists are distributing photos of an announcement in one of the Ukrainian grocery stores. It warns that the store imposes a 20% tax on Territorial center of procurement and social support employees. However, this is a fake photo.

The “announcement” distributed online contains signs of editing, and stores do not have the right to independently introduce taxes, especially discriminatory ones. This was reported in the VoxCheck project.

Checking the photo “ad” in the FotoForensics tool using ELA analysis (Error Level Analysis), which highlights areas of the image with different levels of compression, indicates obvious signs of editing.

Also, the Tax Code of Ukraine provides for the equality of all payers before the law and the prevention of any manifestations of tax discrimination, such as social, racial, national, religious, etc. Place of employment also cannot be a cause of discrimination. Such discrimination contradicts Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which enshrines the equality of citizens. According to Article 17 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”, the needs of all consumers must be satisfied equally. That is, for the independent establishment of such taxes by the store, administrative, and in some cases, criminal liability is provided.

There are no taxes at all in Ukraine; the store can set it for the buyer independently. There are only national and local taxes and fees. National taxes are established by the Verkhovna Rada, which also determines the list of local taxes established by local councils.

With such fakes, Russian propagandists are trying to disrupt mobilization in Ukraine and sow discord in Ukrainian society.

The pro-Kremlin resource RT (formerly Russia Today) reported that it had in its possession a video of a “captured Ukrainian saboteur” who was allegedly captured by the Russian military at the Kursk border checkpoint. The person in the video, kneeling and blindfolded, says in Russian that “they were going to Sudzha” and that “it was necessary to “remove” the village of Hordiivka for those who took it (the village - Ed.)”.

In fact, this video is static and it is evidenced by several facts. First of all, the person in the video has a strong Russian accent, which is not typical of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, but rather of Russians. In addition, even one of the Russian so-called “military correspondents” with an audience of 95 thousand subscribers could not remain silent and said that “this is our fake”, adding that “this is not the time for this”. And many Russians themselves did not believe in the veracity of the video, claiming that it was a decree.

Previously, Detector Media denied the information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces using an American Stryker armored personnel carrier near the Judge shot up a car with civilians.

On social networks, pro-Kremlin channels are disseminating information that The Independent newspaper published an article on the front page of the newspaper dated August 5, 2024 entitled “While we were watching Ukraine, we lost our country”.

In fact, The Independent did not publish such material. Journalists write about this for the VoxCheck project. Propagandists generated an article with a similar title on a fake page of The Independent. The basis was taken from the present publication dated August 5, 2024 about the unrest.

Also on the cover they announce an alleged interview with Valerii Zaluzhnyi with a sensational confession. They say that in his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he “wanted to commit suicide”. However, this is also not true as Zaluzhnyi did not say this, because not a single reliable source wrote about this.

Voxcheck adds that the fake article about the unrest is part of the pro-Russian Operation Matrioshka, the organized spread of disinformation on X and other social networks, often on behalf of well-known media or public figures.

The purpose of this fake is to increase the unstable mood in the UK after the tragedy in Southport.

A video allegedly published by the German publication DW is being circulated in the Russian segment of social networks. It allegedly talks about a “new Bellingcat investigation” about a plan to imitate an attempt on Zelenskyi’s children, which was allegedly developed by the Office of the President and the Main Intelligence Directorate. In fact, the Russian authorities and intelligence services planned to blame the terrorist act.

“The Ukrainian side allegedly contacted the US Central Intelligence Agency to talk about the planned provocation, but received a sharp refusal - after all, the American partners think that such a scenario, on the contrary, would escalate the confrontation”, they write in the messages.

StopFake specialists examined the case and found out that this story was completely made up. This news was not distributed by either Deutsche Welle or Bellingcat. Moreover, Deutsche Welle’s videos have a completely different format - in their videos they use original footage and voice-over of the announcer, while on the Internet they distribute cut-ups of stock photos with superimposed text and music.

Pro-Russian propaganda telegram channels, including Polish ones, are distributing a video in which a Russian military UAV allegedly recorded a war crime by Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel. Propagandists claim that the Ukrainian military shot at a civilian car in the border village of Zelenyi Shliakh near the town of Sudzha (Kursk region, Russia). The car, “from the fire of an American Stryker armored personnel carrier”, allegedly camouflaged in a forest belt, rolled to the side of the road and burst into flames. As a result, on an anonymous telegram channel they add that the driver and passengers of the car died.

In fact, there is no real evidence that such an incident actually happened. In the video, which was first distributed by one of the so-called Russian “military correspondents” (that is, the same propagandist), it is impossible to establish what exactly caused the car to catch fire.

Russia has once again decided to resort to fake accusations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the killing of civilians. This time near the city of Sudzha, where fighting continues. Thus, the Russians are trying to divert attention from the war crimes of the Russian army itself against the civilian population of Ukraine by resorting to a propaganda tactic called “deflection”.

At the same time, by recalling the American Stryker armored personnel carrier in this fake, propagandists are fueling a narrative aimed at both internal and external audiences: they say that NATO has broken into Russian territory.

Information is being spread in Russian telegram channels that Ukraine is going to surrender the Kharkiv region to Russian troops. Propagandists claim that this is evidenced by the “decision” of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to fire 10 thousand teachers in the eastern regions, in particular in the Kharkiv region, where it seems that only 40-50 schools will remain. Also, the number of children studying remotely is supposed to increase significantly.

After verifying this information in the Kharkiv Military Regional Administration, the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council reported that it was untrue. Order No. 850 provides for a reduction in the school network, but with the transfer of teachers to the personnel reserve while maintaining their salaries. Contrary to the words of propagandists, the Ministry of Education and Science, on the contrary, plans to gradually move away from distance learning and move to offline or mixed format learning. It is planned to increase the number of distance classes in Ukrainian specifically for children abroad.

In fact, these days the discussion of draft order No. 850 on obtaining general secondary education under martial law continues. The order has not yet been approved by the Ministry of Education and Science and, accordingly, has not entered into force. The Ministry of Education and Science writes that after joint discussions and developments, they will make changes to the draft order and submit it for approval.

The Center for Countering Disinformation adds that with such stuffing, the Russians are trying to cause a negative attitude towards government bodies on the part of Ukrainian society. Previously, we analyzed the fake order of the Kharkiv Public Educational Institution on the evacuation of heads of local administrations along with their families.

Russian telegram channels, citing material from the Italian publication Database Italia, report that the Zelenskyi family acquired a wine estate from the English singer Sting. The text notes that the corresponding agreement was concluded on June 28, 2024, and the value of the property is about 60-75 million euros. Moreover, according to the publication, data about this agreement was published in the tax register of real estate in Italy.

However, this information is fake, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council. The Database Italia website, which became the primary source of the fake, was included in the rating of web resources disseminating misinformation in Italian in 2021. This pseudo-publication published a number of fakes about Ukraine, in particular about “American biological laboratories”. After all, the “news” from Database Italia has been repeatedly refuted by Italian fact-checkers.

This fake is being spread as part of Russia’s large-scale disinformation campaign to discredit the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.

We have previously recorded similar fakes by Russians. In particular, Olena Zelenska’s purchase of a Bugatti Tourbillon for 4.5 million euros, as well as Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s purchase of one of the largest casino hotels in Europe, the approximate price of which was 150 million pounds sterling.

Pro-Kremlin media, referring to the so-called “Mykolaiv movement”, are disseminating information about the appearance of “black transplantologists” in the Sumy region. According to propagandists, they come from the West and drive foreign medical vehicles.

In fact, this information is not true. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about this. This fake is part of the Russian campaign for the prosperity of black transplantation in Ukraine. The Center for countering disinformation did an extensive study on this topic, where it described in detail such Russian stuffing.

Russians have been conducting an information campaign about black transplantology since 2014. To do this, they produce fake stories, documents, articles and news. The goal is to discredit the military-political leadership of Ukraine and create a negative image of the state in the eyes of the international community.

We have previously recorded similar fakes. For example, about the creation of groups of donors from the Ukrainian military or about the fact that in Ukraine children are sold for organs.

The propaganda telegram channel, in its section #нам_пишуть  (they write to us), distributed a message from a reader. The woman sent a photo of a sign containing the inscription “Ukraine is not a state”. According to her, she took this photo on vacation in Turkey.

However, the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, having verified this information with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, reported that this was another fake.

Having additionally analyzed the image using the FotoForensics tool, we found a clear light fragment in the area of the sign. Thus, the inscription on the sign was probably artificially superimposed.

The Center adds that such stuffing can be used to create tension between Ukraine and other states. Ultimately, propagandists seek to weaken the Ukrainian position both internally and externally and feed their narrative of a 404 country.

Propagandists are disseminating information to Western audiences that Ukrainian partisans in the city of Bragadiru (Romania) set fire to a fuel train used by NATO troops to conduct proxies in Ukraine. The Ukrainians did this supposedly to show their protest against the death of their compatriots in the interests of NATO. As proof that such an incident actually happened, propagandists added a video of the fire. For their part, the Romanian authorities allegedly officially reported this incident, but the cause was called a short circuit.

However, propagandists are outright lying, the Ukrainians did not set fire to the fuel composition. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, citing the Romanian Ministry of National Defense, which denied information about the fire.

The video of the fire, distributed by pro-Russian sources, has no relation to Bragadiru or to any other city in Romania. Also, the Romanian authorities did not report the fact of arson at any of the fuel compositions in the country. In the end, the Romanian media did not report such an incident either.

This fake information is spreading in the information space of European countries, in particular Romania, in order to manipulate public opinion, undermine trust in Ukraine, and also illustrate the imaginary threat from Ukrainian refugees or partisans.

Previously, we recorded Russian manipulation, saying that Ukrainian partisans burned down a drone production plant in Lviv.