On December 21, an explosion occurred in a restaurant in the temporarily occupied Donetsk, as a result of which the former head of “Roskosmos”, the head of the Russian military advisers group, Dmytro Rohozin, and the head of the so-called “government” of the Donetsk occupied territory, Vitalii Khotsenko, were injured. After that, Russian propagandists began to intimidate Ukrainians with new shelling in telegram channels.

They say that American satellites track high-ranking officials of the Russian leadership and bring in the Ukrainian military, who only follow their instructions. Allegedly, such explosions ignite a war and now Ukraine will be hit in response. It seems that Russia will begin to strike at the places where the Ukrainian top officials of law enforcement agencies are located. As a result, civilians will also suffer.

Russian propagandists use such messages to increase the ideological informational pressure on Russian society so that they want to destroy Ukraine with even greater cruelty. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine with massive attacks throughout the territory, including law enforcement agencies. Russia doesn't need a reason to launch hundreds of missiles in one day into Ukraine. At the same time, by presenting Ukraine as the executor of American instructions and that these actions of the Ukrainian military provoke the outbreak of war, propagandists shift responsibility for their crimes and unleashing the war.

However, some Russian propagandists present this column as the official position of Poland, and some as a serious journalistic investigation that should be trusted, but both took several opinions out of context and added their own version of the seizure of part of the territory of Ukraine.

Hanna Kramer suggests that the head of the Law and Justice party, Yaroslav Kaczynskyi, is allegedly preparing for war and would like to take over the West of Ukraine in order to return more than 4.5 million new voters who could support his party in the elections.

At the same time, Russian propagandists present her column as revealing a plan for Poland to seize part of Ukraine. Like, it consists of two stages, the first of which Poland has already completed: Kyiv government has taken political and financial control. The second stage is military operations, for which, they say, preparations are underway. According to propagandists, on May 4, the Polish army will arrange a liberation march to Kyiv. They say that by this date the Armed Forces of Ukraine will lose their combat capability.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Russian propagandists have been promoting all sorts of disinformation about the seizure of part of Ukraine by Poland in order to quarrel friendly countries.

Detector Media previously explained why Russia came up with a fake about Poland’s intention to annex the western regions of Ukraine.

This was stated by the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, who fled Ukraine during the Revolution of Dignity together with the ex - President Viktor Yanukovych.

Currently, Azarov is in Russia and regularly acts as an expert on the Ukrainian issue. In one of his last appeals, he assures that 50,000 women who served in the Armed Forces were allegedly killed in Ukraine during the war. And this happened through the fault of Volodymyr Zelenskyi. His words were circulated by pro-Russian telegrams and other Russian resources.

Based on an article in the AR about women who volunteered to serve in the Ukrainian army, Azarov calculated that out of 57,000, only 6,000 remained alive today. “Where have over 50,000 women gone?”, Azarov asks rhetorically.

In fact, AR journalists told how volunteers help female servicemen with various equipment. They cite information that 57,000 women serve in the army, “at least 6,000 Ukrainian women are at or near the front line in such roles as paramedics and intelligence officers, as well as snipers and artillery”. Based on this quote, Azarov concludes that if 6,000 Ukrainian women are at the front, then the remaining 51,000 “died, were injured or were captured”. But it's not like that.

Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov in November of this year provided the following data: “59,786 women are currently serving in the Armed Forces. At the same time, 18,000 women are civilian workers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 41,000 women occupy precisely military positions and 5,000 are right at the front lines”.

Reznikov clarified that since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 101 female soldiers have died in the war against Russian invaders, another 50 female defenders are missing, and 100 have been injured.

Russian propaganda promotes such fakes to show the weakness of the Ukrainian army, they say, women and teenagers are fighting there, Zelenskyi sends them to their deaths. Such “facts” are thrown into the information space in order to show a professional Russian army against this background and hide Russia’s failures at the front.

Mykola Tokariev, head of the Russian “Transneft”, said this in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel. His comment was spread by other Russian resources and propagandists on social networks.

According to him, after the introduction of an embargo on the supply of Russian oil to the EU countries, “Transneft” received requests from Poland and Germany for the next year.

The sixth package of EU sanctions provides for the cessation of purchases of Russian oil, but makes an exception for the supply of the “Druzhba” (Friendship) oil pipeline.

Berlin denied the statement of the head of “Transneft” that Germany was in fact violating the EU embargo. Susanne Ungard, spokeswoman for the German Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection, told Deutsche Welle that no Russian oil will be purchased in the new year. German plants that previously worked on Russian oil are switching to Kazakh raw materials. Part of the supplies will go through the “Druzhba” oil pipeline through the territories of Russia, Belarus and Poland, and the refinery has reserved the capacity of the oil pipeline specifically for Kazakh oil.

The Polish oil company Orlen has announced that it will not renew the contract for the supply of Russian oil, which expires in January 2023, and the contract concluded by December 2024 will be terminated. According to Orlen speaker Edita Olkovych, the company is ready for a complete cessation of supplies from Russia. Already, 70% of the oil supplied to its refineries in Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic is not of Russian origin, although back in 2015 they worked almost entirely on Russian raw materials. Orlen currently buys oil from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Angola and Norway.

The purpose of such a fake is to show that the sanctions to stop the purchase of Russian oil are formal, and Russian oil is irreplaceable. Russian propagandists are thus silent about the fact that the embargo on Russian oil and the price cap of $60 per barrel, which came into effect on December 5, has already brought bad news for Russia and showed positive results for Ukraine and the global economy.

This message is spread by the Russian propaganda media. Like, Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted in an interview that the Russian military leader inspires fear in him. As StopFake writes, the message about the recognition of the fear of the Russian Surovikin by Zaluzhnyi is based on an interview of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the British edition of The Economist. The interview of the Commander-in-Chief is real, but he did not say that he was afraid of Surovikin. It's fake. In fact, Valerii Zaluzhnyi spoke in an interview about the course of the war, the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and also gave an assessment of Russian actions on the battlefield.

Such a message appeared in Russian propaganda media and anonymous telegram channels. Reports say Ukraine's current president, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, has Russian citizenship. They say that he received it in Orikhovo-Zuievo, Moscow Region, 21 years ago, namely in 2001. As evidence, the propagandists allegedly add a screenshot of a document provided by ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Illia Kiva, who fled in the spring of 2022. Kiva said that "the Investigative committee of Russia should prosecute and put on the wanted list a Russian citizen Volodymyr Zelenskyi". However, this is fake. The photo of the president's supposedly Russian passport is not real.

Evidence of the prosperity of Nazism in Ukraine is being disseminated in social networks and telegram channels. They write that allegedly for the Kharkiv operation, the servicemen of the 92nd brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were awarded “Steel Crosses”, like the “Iron Crosses”, which were awarded in the Wehrmacht to “the biggest thugs”. Like, the awards have a similar design. It is not true.

The “Steel Cross” badge has nothing to do with the Nazi “Iron Cross”, moreover, there are no Nazi symbols on it. The Ukrainian award “Steel Cross” combined the symbols of the regimental power of the Zaporizhzhia Host (crossed feathers) and successful campaigns against enemies (the heraldic sign of the Ukrainian hetman Konstiantyn Ostrozkyi, who defeated the Moscow army near Orsha in 1514). In addition, the modern award was created on the prototype of the “Iron Cross of the UNR Army”, founded back in 1920 by Symon Petliura after the First winter campaign.

As StopFake writes, the Wehrmacht really had an award called the “Iron Cross”. However, it is wrong to consider this military order exclusively Nazi. The fact is that the order was originally founded in 1813 in the Kingdom of Prussia, it was awarded to the military who distinguished themselves in the war against the Napoleonic army. After the establishment of the Weimar Republic in Germany, it was decided to abolish all former orders. The Order of the Iron Cross was restored in 1939 in Nazi Germany and lasted until 1945. In modern Germany, it is permissible to wear the Iron Cross from the Second World War, but only without a swastika.

Such letters with a request to participate in the “charitable financial assistance program for the Armed Forces of Ukraine” are sent on behalf of the head of the Rivne regional military administration.

False letters were found in Rivne military regional administration.

Fraudsters promise that for this help, the business will allegedly receive a reduction in income tax in proportion to the donated charitable amount.

“This is the work of scammers. They are already being dealt with by law enforcement agencies”, the Rivne district police department assured and stressed that they never send out such appeals. The humanitarian activities of the administration are carried out as publicly as possible.

Russian media write about it. Allegedly, there is a critical humanitarian situation in Mykolaiv, there is nothing to eat and drink, people live without electricity and heating.

The humanitarian situation in Mykolaiv, like in many other cities in Ukraine, is difficult, but not critical, as pro-Kremlin media mouthpieces claim.

It is precisely because of the daily rocket attacks on Mykolaiv and the attacks of Russians on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine that is the root cause why in Mykolaiv, as in other Ukrainian cities, interruptions in energy, heat and water supply caused to the civilian population.

However, all over Ukraine, including Mykolaiv, “Points of invincibility” have been deployed, where you can warm up, charge your gadgets, and receive medical and humanitarian assistance. Mykolaiv is supplied with all necessary food products, essential goods, and medicines. There are many grocery stores in the city.

In Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-na-Amuri, as well as in social networks, posters of Vierka Serdiuchka’s concerts performed by Ukrainian artist Andrii Danylko appeared. Like, performances will be called “For my own people”. According to the announcement, the concerts should take place on December 28 and 29.

Andrii Danylko ridiculed this Russian fake: “Are you really there?”.

Later, this information was refuted in Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-na-Amuri, saying that the announcement was a fake, there would be no concert.

In the fake announcement of the performances, it was noted that Vierka Serdiuchka continued to sing in Russian and therefore had problems after the performance in Lviv. Vierka Serdiuchka is touring Europe now.

At the beginning of a large-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, Danylko changed the words in the song Dancing Lasha Tumbai, with which he took second place at Eurovision 2007. Since then, he only sings “Russia goodbye”.

This information was disseminated by the Russian media with reference to the statement of a certain soldier of the Russian intelligence special forces. They say that Ukraine, for lack of personnel, is allegedly forced to send minors to the front. As evidence, propagandists cite a video where the same “teenagers” are allegedly recorded.

As the journalists of the StopFake fact-checking project noted, the video shows not teenagers, but adult soldiers serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was filmed by a military paramedic with the call sign Chaika and posted on TikTok in October 2022.

The girl’s name is Yelyzaveta, she is 23 years old. She has got two higher education diplomas and has been serving in the Ukrainian army since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine.

Such messages are distributed through social networks and hostile telegram channels. They say that US officials are inciting Serbia to take military action designed to protect Serbs in the territory of Kosovo, a partially recognized state. However, this is not true.

According to the EU vs Disinfo fact-checkers, there is no evidence that Serbia is preparing for a war under the US protectorate.

A recent tension between Kosovo and Serbia in 2022 was that the Kosovo government wanted those living in Serbian areas to change their Serbian-issued license plates to Kosovo-issued license plates. About 50,000 people refused to change the license plates of their cars, and this increased the tension between the Serbian and Kosovo governments. With the assistance of the EU, Serbia and Kosovo agreed on measures to avoid further escalation.

The United States welcomed the agreements reached between Kosovo and Serbia to avoid further escalation. That is why the US is not inciting Serbia to escalate.

Such information appeared in social networks, in particular, in the Ukrainian segment. Reports say that after the Security Service of Ukraine raided a local monastery in November, rumors began to circulate in the Rivne region that three nuns with Russian passports had been admitted to a local hospital. Like, there are Russian women among the novices of the monastery. However, this is not true.

According to fact-checkers of Brekhunets (Lier), the representative of the monastery, nun Savatiia, assured that there were no Russians among their inhabitants, the novices were Ukrainians. The Directorate of the Security Service in the Rivne region also does not confirm the information that people with Russian passports were found among the nuns in the Koretskyi Holy Trinity Convent.

The allegedly new cover of the Turkish humor magazine LeMan is being circulated online. The cartoon depicts a skeleton symbolizing the President, and the inscription: "It is important to take to your heels on time". However, this is not true.

According to VoxCheck specialists, the magazine did not publish an issue with this cover. Fact checkers compared the magazine number and publication date and found that the real cover looks different.

This news is spread by propaganda and hostile telegrams. The message states that from the very beginning of the full-scale invasion, the British marines are involved in the war. As evidence, propagandists cite an article in The Times that allegedly mentions this. However, this is not true.

According to VoxCheck experts, the propagandists distorted the words about the activities of the British Marine Corps in Ukraine. In fact, the British military was engaged in the protection and evacuation of the British embassy in Ukraine, but did not participate in the war with Russia.

On December 13, the publication published an article about the covert operations of British forces in Ukraine. The Times, citing a British lieutenant general, writes about the use of Marines to evacuate the British embassy in January 2022 and to protect embassy staff in April 2022.

The article is not talking about the fact that the Royal Marines carried out operations against Russia. There is no evidence of the participation of the British military in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

This news was spread online by propagandists in their telegram channels. In Ternopil, a soldier of Ukrainian Armed Forces killed his wife and two children after seeing a children's trampoline painted in the colors of the Russian flag, reports say. As evidence, the propagandists attach screenshots, add a screenshot of the likely TSN material dated December 7, 2022. However, this is not true.

According to VoxCheck experts, this is fictitious news, and the screenshot itself was edited in a graphics editor.

On the screenshot of the news, you can also see the time of publication (10:14) and the author (Oksana Zinchenko). There is no news with such content on the TSN website. However, we managed to find the material “Invaders hit the Zaporizhzhia region: a lot of destruction, among the wounded there is a child (photo)” by Oksana Zinchenko, and it is with the same publication time. In addition, the tags for the publication (indicated before the title) coincide: “weapons and the army”, “current requests''. The screenshot of the real post was probably edited to create fake news.

A number of telegram channels with the letter Z in their names have disseminated information about the accident in which the ex-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Turchynov died. This is a fake, which Turchynov himself denied.

“Don’t even wait for this”, Turchynov wrote on his Facebook.

The channels wrote that it was the “bloody pastor”, as Turchynov’s propagandists call him, who unleashed a war in Donbas. In fact, it was unleashed by Russia, starting the supply of weapons and sending its military to seize power in various cities of Donbas.

Russia has launched a disinformation campaign that aims to convince Ukrainians that Ukraine continues to export electricity to other countries, in particular, Moldova. This thesis is promoted by Russian propagandists and Ukrainian anti-vaxxer bloggers, fortune tellers and even YouTube channels of those breeding Corgis. Among those spreading a fake about the sale of electricity to Moldova is the well-known Ukrainian anti-vaccinator Ostap Stakhiv. This proves that the campaign is coordinated to work with different target audiences, writes StopFake.

In fact, turning off the electricity in Moldova, despite the statements of propagandists, does not prove that Ukraine supplies electricity to the country. Ukraine and Moldova are in a single block of regulation. This means that the systems of Moldova and Ukraine are six times more strongly interconnected than, for example, Moldova and Romania. This process of combining systems began in 2006 to make it easier for the systems of the two countries to integrate into the pan-European energy system. Moldova does not have many power generating capacities, and one of the largest producers, Moldova GRES, is located in Transnistria and is owned by the Russian Inter RAO. Until October 11 of this year, Moldova bought at least 30% of electricity from Ukraine, but Ukraine stopped deliveries and Moldova was forced to urgently conclude a contract with the same Russian power plant in Transnistria. Also, since October 13, Moldova has been buying a small part of the electricity needed from Romania. And they turn off the lights in Moldova after the shelling precisely because the systems of the two countries are connected, and when part of the system of Ukraine is turned off, Moldova is also turned off.

Propagandists also spread a fake that it seems that on the websites of various energy companies you can see that Ukraine gives electricity to other countries. This is also not true: the sites show data on non-commercial energy supply to the systems of neighboring countries. Also, these countries give such an amount of electricity to the Ukrainian system. This is done to balance the systems. You can read more about this in the article “Without light but without you”.

A video is circulating on the network in which the military takes out the coffin of probably their brother from the plane. Like, this is a video from the meeting of the dead Polish military. Reports claim that these soldiers died in Ukraine. Also in the messages they pay attention to the fact that the dead are given honors, that is, they are military personnel, and not volunteers. It is not true.

The video has nothing to do with Ukraine. As StopFake notes, it was filmed on December 23, 2011 during a military ceremony to welcome the fallen Polish soldiers in Afghanistan. On the official website of the President of Poland and in the Polish media, it is reported that on December 21, 2011, five soldiers of the 20th Bartoszycki mechanized brigade exploded on the road between Kabul and Kandahar. The State Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office and the Government Authorized Representative for the Security of the Information Space of the Republic of Poland, Stanislav Zharin, also confirmed the information about the video.

Anonymous telegram channels write about this. Like, the morgues of Zaporizhzhia are overflowing with the bodies of the dead Ukrainian military, so the city council decided to create another morgue. It is not true.

The original source of the fake was the telegram channel of the collaborator from Zaporizhzhia Volodymyr Rohanov. According to the fact-checkers of the Zaporizhzhia Investigation Center, in fact, the city council decided to create a public utility company “Patological and anatomical bureau”. The need to create such a bureau is justified by the fact that Zaporizhzhia has communal hospitals that do not have pathoanatomical departments. The pathological and anatomical bureau has nothing to do with the storage of the bodies of the dead in Zaporizhzhia: neither civilians nor military personnel.

Also, the fact checkers established that the picture published by Rohov was actually taken in the morgue of the Russian city of Novokuznietsk in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This information was disseminated by Russian resources. Like, the residents of Lysychansk told a Russian propagandist about this. Allegedly, according to them, the Ukrainian military shot at civilians from March to May 2022 in order to film propaganda materials. It is not true.

According to The Insider fact-checkers, from March to May, there were Russian troops near Lysychansk that could have shelled the city.

From the 20th of March, Russian troops tried to take the city of Rubizhne, located 18 km from Lysychansk, that is, they were directly on the outskirts of it. On May 13, the city was completely occupied. The effective range of the Russian Grad multiple launch rocket system is 21 km, the Msta-S howitzer is 24.7 km, and the Giacint-S is 28.4 km.

Such information was disseminated in Russian telegram channels. Like, the girlfriend of the Ukrainian refugee told in the video that after his death he became a donor for four Poles.

The woman in the video does not say what kind of person he was, because of which he fell into a coma, whether he was a refugee, and she does not say that his organs were sold. She simply confirmed that the Ukrainian became the donor of four people in Poland.

In Poland, organ transplantation is provided on the principle of tacit consent. Illegal transplantation of human organs in Poland is punishable by imprisonment for a period of 6 months to 5 years.

People professionally engaged in such activities face up to 10 years in prison. It is worth noting that in the spring in Poland, a Ukrainian, who had suffered from heart failure for a long time, had a donor heart transplanted. Then the National Movement "For Transplantation" noted that this was the first donor heart in Poland, which was transplanted by a Ukrainian woman. Earlier, StopFake refuted the fake that allegedly donated blood for the Armed Forces of Ukraine is already being taken from schoolchildren in the Cherkasy region, and that Ukrainians will be “allowed for organs” without their consent.

Such messages are spread by propagandists and anonymous telegrams through channels. Message says that the European Union is stealing Russian funds in order to transfer it to Ukraine. Like, Europe is sharing Russia's money, not its own. However, this is not true.

In fact, we are talking about Russian assets that Europe recently froze. According to Politico, the EU has frozen a total of 68 billion euros of assets.

Currently, the EU and partners are developing a plan for the confiscation of frozen Russian assets in favor of Ukraine.Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, said that Brussels, together with partners, is already working on a plan to freeze Russian assets, then transfer them to the reconstruction of Ukraine and to compensate for the damage caused by the war unleashed by Russia.

This is what the propagandists called the”stealing”, although the assets are located on the territory of the European Union.

This fake is aimed at discrediting the European Union and its assistance. Allegedly, the EU illegally uses Russian resources to help Ukraine.

Such messages are distributed through social networks and hostile telegram channels. They say that the Americans strongly condemned the supply of weapons to Ukraine. The occupiers support their thesis with The Washington Post material, which allegedly states that the Americans do not support the Ukrainians and want to stop the supply of weapons. However, this is not true.

In fact, according to StopFake experts, The Washington Post article does not say that “ordinary Americans” are calling on the American authorities to put pressure on Ukraine so that they conclude a peace agreement with Russia and, as a result, the United States would stop aid. The article states that “A strong majority of Americans continue to support sending arms and economic aid to Ukraine, according to a poll”. However, the publication notes “Americans are divided over whether Washington should push Ukraine to reach a negotiated peace as soon as possible”. That is, the American society supports Ukraine and does not deny the supply of weapons and other assistance.

The fake is aimed at discrediting Ukraine. Like, Ukraine is left to the mercy of fate and no one supports it.

  Such messages are distributed through social networks and hostile telegram channels. Reports say that there is a constant shortage of donated blood in Ukraine, that schoolchildren are involved in its collection. Propagandists attach a fake ad to the message, in which allegedly schoolchildren are called to surrender. Like, starting from the sixth grade, children donate blood for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: one only needs to bring a birth certificate. However, this is not true. According to NotaYenota analysts, Ukraine fully provides itself with donor blood. Liudmyla Linnyk, a coordinator of the all-Ukrainian DonorUA platform, said: “Since February 24, there has never been a shortage of blood and its components in Ukraine. These needs have been and are being covered with the help of volunteers and regular donors”. In addition, only adults can donate blood, and it is impossible to do it with a birth certificate, as a passport is only needed. And it is worth noting that the fake ad already has the 12th grade of the school. However, it will only appear in 2029. Propagandists have repeatedly manipulated the issue of blood donation. For example, they previously wrote that NATO was supplying infected blood. However, this turned out to be untrue. The fake is aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and NATO member countries.