This news is spreading on social networks, in particular in the Russian segment of Facebook. Reports say that Ukrainian military personnel allegedly failed to succeed in close combat and physical training exercises. They have not learned firearms and tactical training, they have a low level of morale and motivation. Like, the comprehensive standards of military training of NATO and the United States are unattainable for 95% of the Ukrainian military. Attached to the message is the so-called Washington Report. However, the document is generally falsified.

According to the StopFake fact checkers, the document was forged for a number of reasons, in particular:

First, the form on which this "document" is published is not used for such reports. The form template is posted on the official website of the US Army, so downloading it is not problematic;

Secondly, this "report" has many lexical and stylistic errors, which is unacceptable for such documents;

Finally,in the form itself, at the bottom of the first page, it is noted that records are not saved for a long time. That is, if such a document really existed, immediately after processing it would be destroyed.

Propagandists spread this news and try to undermine the authority of the Ukrainian army. It seems that the Russian military does not even have anyone to fight with, since the military of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are bad warriors. However, the numerous defeats of the Russian army testify to the contrary.

This thesis is spread by Russian propagandists on social networks. It says that NATO allegedly wants to join the war in Ukraine. Like, the statement was made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba at a meeting of the UN Security Council. However, this is fake.

In fact, during his speech at the UN Security Council, Dmytro Kuleba did not say that NATO wants to enter the Russian-Ukrainian war. According to Vox Ukraine fact-checkers, propagandists used this quote to support this thesis:

"I think NATO wants to join Ukraine now." However, it did not concern the intentions of the Alliance to enter the war. After the meeting of the Security Council, during a conversation with the press, a question was asked by a journalist about whether Ukraine wants to join NATO. To which Kuleba replied - yes.

Such news is spread by the pro-Kremlin propaganda media, as well as by anonymous telegram channels. Reports say that Ukrainian children did not learn Russian despite their great desire. Allegedly, the Ukrainian authorities discriminate against the Russian language at the state level. However, this is not true.

According to StopFake fact-checkers, in the Kherson region and in general on the territory of Ukraine, the study of the Russian language was not prohibited. According to Ukrainian legislation, at the request of representatives of national minorities, it is possible to organize a separate class for teaching in the desired language but Ukrainian as the state language should be a priority. In the Kherson region it was not only possible to study the Russian language as a subject, but there were also schools where studies were generally held in Russian.

In fact, according to the law "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language" the language of the educational process is Ukrainian, but no one forbade learning Russian.

Such messages are spread by Russian propaganda media and telegram channels against the background of news about illegal referendums that Russia held in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

The authors of the messages claim that after that other neighboring countries of Ukraine will want to take away part of the Ukrainian territory. They say that in the Lviv region they are already preparing a referendum on the accession of the region to Poland. They even add photos of the so-called ballots, which allegedly prepared a referendum, to the messages.

However, all this is not true. The fact-checkers of StopFake drew attention to the fake. In fact, no such referendums have been held in Ukraine and will not be held. As StopFake writes, the Constitution of Ukraine clearly states that questions about changes in the territory of the country are decided exclusively by an all-Ukrainian referendum, and not among residents of a separate region.

In addition, Poland constantly notes that it respects the borders of neighboring countries, respects the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. In Poland, in particular, they do not intend to recognize the results of the pseudo-referenda that Russia held in the temporarily occupied territories by holding voters at gunpoint.

Like, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted that "the Russian General Staff is many times superior to the Armed Forces of Ukraine in strategy".

In their materials, propagandists refer to an interview with Valerii Zaluzhnyi for the American edition of Time.

Time really published an interview with Valerii Zaluzhnyi, however, he did not confess his love for the Russian armies and did not claim, as propagandists say, that all military science is in Putin's country.

In fact, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi did not make any "declarations of love for the Russian army".

Zaluzhnyi said that among other things he was brought up on the labors of the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valerii Herasymov and said that he was surprised by the big blunders of Russia, which drove its soldiers in Ukraine "just to the slaughterhouse". Russia needs such messages in order to once again assert itself and assure others that the Russian army is one of the strongest and most powerful in the world. 

Such information is being disseminated by Russian propaganda media. It also appears in anonymous pro-Russian telegram channels. The reports say that the West is allegedly using "nuclear blackmail" against Russia and "some representatives of the leading NATO states speak out about the use of weapons of mass destruction against Russia".

In such messages, propagandists refer to the words of Russian President Volodymyr Putin. Putin, of course, really said this, but his statements have nothing to do with reality.

The fact-checker StopFake drew attention to the spread of fakes on the network. According to sources, in fact, neither the US, nor the EU, nor NATO has ever threatened Russia with the launch of nuclear warheads. At the same time, the threats were just from the Kremlin officials.

Even now, in the conditions of the war unleashed by Russia, the Kremlin not only directly declares the possibility of using nuclear warheads, but also uses the seized Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as an additional “nuclear leverage”. Over the past weeks, there have been many hints from Russia about the possible use of nuclear weapons. By spreading information about the so-called threats from the West, the Kremlin seeks to shift responsibility from itself.

Like, everything happens only because there was a direct threat to Russia. Transferring responsibility is not a new tactic for Russian propagandists. In particular, Russia has repeatedly stated that it attacked Ukraine for reasons of its own security, otherwise Ukraine would have done it first.

In social networks, an alleged video from the Vilnius metro is being distributed, where posters in support of Ukraine were installed, scornfully illustrating the Russian army. The video also allegedly shows discriminatory inscriptions against Russians. It is not true.

There is no subway in Vilnius. In 2018, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania passed a law allowing the construction of the metro. However, the President of Lithuania, Dalia Hrybauskaite, vetoed this law at that time. As the fact checker VoxCheck investigated, most likely the Hong Kong subway is on the video. To create a fake, a clip from the Mexican band Montez De Durango was used. Photos distributed on social networks are edited through special programs.

Russian propaganda uses fake videos and photos to promote the narrative of Russophobia in Western countries. Earlier, propagandists wrote that because of Russophobia in Latvia, it was forbidden to sing “Katiusha” at family feasts.

Allegedly, Macron's quote is being distributed through pro-Russian resources. He seems to be claiming that “all of NATO has already come to the Russian borders,” but it is still not clear what Putin wants from NATO. This quote is fake.

Emmanuel Macron did not make such a statement. Fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project note that not a single French media wrote about this. On the contrary, in his speech at the Madrid NATO summit on June 30, 2022, Macron rejected all claims that the war and its consequences allegedly depend on the hypothetical desire of the West. “Only Russia is responsible for this war, as well as for the serious consequences that it brings to the whole world, in energy security and food security in particular,” Macron said.

Such information is disseminated through propaganda information resources. Allegedly, Poland's intentions regarding Ukrainian territories are quite aggressive. Allegedly, ballots are already ready for voting for the secession of the Lviv region from Ukraine and joining Poland. It's fake.

As reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation, the Kremlin’s attempts to promote the thesis of the “Polish threat” have been heard since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, they have been repeatedly denied by officials in Poland and Ukraine.

It is likely that disinformation about Poland's intentions to occupy the Lviv region is being spread in order to divert attention from the illegal pseudo-referendums in the territories temporarily occupied by Russia. Also, a new “wave” of disinformation about Poland’s allegedly aggressive plans is aimed at destroying Ukrainian-Polish unity and canceling support for Ukraine.

Previously, propagandists have repeatedly spread fakes in relation to Poland. In particular, they wrote that Poland began the "economic seizure" of Ukraine and the western regions of Ukraine.

Russian media write about this with reference to the so-called "chairman of the election commission of the Zaporizhzhia region" Halyna Katiushchenko. She reported that 85,000 residents allegedly “voted” in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia (32,000 of them allegedly outside the region), which is 51.55% of the total number of “voters”. It is not true.

The results of the so-called "referendums" in the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia are not recognized by Ukraine or the world, since they are held in violation of all possible norms of international law and have no legal force.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project note that the day before, propagandists reported that they had added 500,000 people to the “electoral lists” in the Zaporizhzhia region. In this case, 85,000 "voters" is only 17%. Now it is impossible to check how many people actually remained in the occupied territories. At the same time, the invaders claim that according to the “results of the referendum”, the entire Zaporizhzhia region will become part of Russia within the administrative boundaries established by Ukraine.

According to the Constitution of Ukraine, questions about changing the territory are decided exclusively by an all-Ukrainian referendum. So the figures and plans voiced by the invaders have nothing to do with reality.

On the eve of the pseudo-referenda, Russian propaganda was talking about the planned results of the “vote”.

Allegedly, a screenshot of an article by the German edition of the Berliner Zeitung with this title is being circulated on social networks. Like, the funds received should be used to raise morale and “expel Russians from Donbas”. It is not true.

As the fact-checkers of the German Correctiv project have established, there has never been an article with such a heading either in the Berliner Zeitung or in any other publication. The image circulating on social media is actually modified by a screenshot of the article “Zelenskyi calls for a ban on international travel for Russians”, published in a German edition on August 8. The screenshot of the original article and the fake image differ in the title and brief description, the rest of the data - date and time of publication, source, illustrations and key quote are the same.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads fakes to discredit the Ukrainian president both in Ukraine and in the international arena. Recently, fake covers of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo were distributed for this purpose. Russian propaganda is also trying to convince that Zelenskyi is an illegitimate president.

A video of a man painting a swastika on the floor of a shopping mall in the UK is circulating on social media. The security of the shopping center forced the intruder to clean up after himself. In particular, the video was distributed by Dmytro Polianskyi, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, on Twitter. The captions for the video claim that the man is a Ukrainian refugee. This is not true.

As StopFake has established, the videos have actually been distributed online since at least December 2018, that is, even before the start of the migration crisis caused by Russia’s open military aggression against Ukraine.

The author of the video, as well as the people present in the frame, do not claim that the man who drew the swastika is a refugee from Ukraine. The publications of this 2018 video also do not say that the man in the video is Ukrainian. Most likely, the Nazi symbol was depicted by a local resident of London. Some users pay attention to the fact that a scarf is tied on the man’s head, on which the colors of the Ukrainian flag are supposedly guessed. However, this claim is unfounded. Most likely, this is a fan scarf of some sports team, as indicated by the inscription in the form of "sport fight".

Russian propaganda systematically spreads fake photos and videos to promote the narrative that Ukrainians are Nazis. Previously, for this they used a photo in which supposedly Ukrainian “Nazis” “zigue” at a wedding and a photo of supposedly Ukrainian “Nazi refugees” half-dressed posing for a photo in Croatia. A fake was also spread that the deputy head of the Kyiv police had a Nazi tattoo. Russian propaganda often uses children for such manipulations, allegedly Lviv school children lined up in a swastika on Hitler's birthday, or allegedly Ukrainian children sing the fascist anthem.

Russian media write about this with reference to Foreign Minister Serhii Lavrov. Like, the International Criminal Court neglected to investigate crimes against humanity and war crimes committed on the territory of the temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Allegedly, more than 3,000 messages about crimes against the inhabitants of Donbass were sent there, and there was no reaction. It is not true.

Since 2014, the International Criminal Court has been investigating alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Ukraine in connection with Russian aggression. In particular, we are talking about the case “Probable crimes committed in the context of the situation in Ukraine since November 21, 2013”. The IСС takes into account Ukrainian and Russian data, evidence from third countries and information from civil society.

According to StopFake, Ukraine's first appeal to the IСС concerned crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine from November 21, 2013 to February 22, 2014. In September 2015, Ukraine filed a second appeal, in which it asked to investigate crimes on the territory of Ukraine committed from February 20, 2014 and without a specified end date.

In December 2020, the IСС announced its readiness to launch a criminal investigation into the commission of war crimes in the temporarily occupied Crimea and in Eastern Ukraine. The Office of the Prosecutor of the IСС concluded that crimes against humanity and war crimes were committed in Ukraine in the context of Russian aggression. The International Criminal Court noted that despite the fact that Ukraine initiated the investigation, the IСС during the preliminary investigation also took into account the data of Russia.

Ukraine now has the largest team of International Criminal Court experts in history, with a total of 42 investigators, forensic experts and support staff to investigate crimes under the authority's jurisdiction. The Office of the Prosecutor of the IСС in the spring of 2022 joined the Joint Investigation Team to Investigate Russian War Crimes in Ukraine (JIT). JIT was created by Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia. The group also includes the EU Criminal Justice Agency (Eurojust), where 27 EU member states and 10 other states are represented.

Thus, Russia is trying to manipulate information in order to cover up its crimes or spread messages ahead of time in order to reject the accusations made as a result of the international investigation.

This is reported by Russian media with reference to the chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentyna Matviyenko. Allegedly, the West hastened even before the start of the referendums to declare that they do not recognize their results and that this means that the opinion of the inhabitants of these regions does not interest them at all.

The Charter of the United Nations states that the purpose of the UN is "to develop friendly relations among nations on the basis of respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other measures to strengthen the common peace."

The Insider fact checker suggested that Matviyenko probably believes that the occupation of part of the country and the holding of "referendums" on annexation in the occupied areas is strengthening the common peace.

A video is circulating on social networks in which children against the background of a blue-and-yellow flag allegedly sing the "unofficial Luftwaffe anthem" - Air Force of Third Reich.

The boy sings the first verse in Ukrainian (“Soldiers are coming, and weapons are with them, faith is with them, mother tongue is with them”), in the second verse he sings the words from the original song: Dann wollen wir schaffen komm fass an. This is an interpretation of the popular German song Sieben Tage lang (Was wollen wir trinken), the song has nothing to do with the Nazi German air force.

Musicologists believe that this melody was taken from a Brittany folk song (Son Ar Chistr), which was sung in the process of making and consuming apple cider. For the first time in 1929, the brothers Jean-Bernard and Jean-Marie Prima recorded it during the harvest by the peasants. The song gained popularity outside of Brittany after it was performed on harp by musician Alan Stivell in 1970.

The Russians regularly spread the thesis that the Ukrainians are Nazis to justify the war they unleashed in Ukraine. During the occupation, they massively kill the civilian population, including children, justifying their crimes, they say, this is how they carry out “denazification”, destroy the Nazis who threaten the Russians and Russia. More details.

This information is being shared on social media. Allegedly, Chinese President Xi Jinping has not appeared anywhere since the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit held in Samarkand, Uzbekystan, where he met Putin in person for the first time since the start of the all-out war in Ukraine. Like, there are rumors about the early resignation of Xi Jinping and China is on the verge of a military coup. This is not true.

On the Flightradar24 website, we see that planes are flying over China, the airspace is not closed. There is also no official confirmation that China has stopped rail traffic and that troops are being transferred to Beijing en masse.

A fake about a coup in China has flown into the social networks of Ukrainians from the Russian information space. Although Xi Jinping met personally with Putin on September 15, China's neutral position has not changed. The other day, US President Joe Biden said that so far there was no evidence of practical support for Russia from China. Also, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, in an interview on September 24, called China's position "ambiguous" and said he would like to see help from China to fight against Russia.

This was reported by Russian media, in particular, TASS, and the pro-Russian online publication in Ukraine “Strana.Ua". Allegedly, 11 men and 23 women, captured and held in the colony in Olenivka, turned to the head of the "People's Council" of the terrorist group in the occupied territory of the Donetsk region, Volodymyr Bidiovka, with a request to join the "Cossack battalion" named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.

Allegedly, they transmitted their proposal orally through Bediovka. Before that, the Russian media disseminated information, saying that “dozens of soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine asked for citizenship of the DNR”, and clarified about the same 11 men and 23 women.

As the main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported earlier, during interrogations of prisoners in Olenivka, physical torture and beatings are actively used to break the moral and psychological qualities of Ukrainian soldiers, to humiliate and psychologically demoralize them. According to intelligence, if the plan is implemented, the FSB representatives plan to attract Ukrainian captives for Russian propaganda.

So far, the Russian media have not provided any evidence of information that allegedly soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are asking to fight on the side of the occupiers, the propagandists wrote only about the transmission of the request “orally”.

This is claimed by Russian state television and pro-Kremlin telegram channels.

Allegedly, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine sells Javelins, NLAWs, machine guns, and even tanks with armored personnel carriers from NATO and Europe on the so-called dark Internet - a deep part of the global network where users can remain completely anonymous. This is not true.

A team of BBC journalists investigated and found that ads that offer to buy American weapons are fake. In particular, photos of weapons from ads do not match the description. They were taken many years before the start of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, or photoshopped.

Journalists noticed, while corresponding with supposedly Ukrainian arms dealers in Ukrainian, that they did not speak Ukrainian, and used a lot of Russianisms in their correspondence. Obviously, they translated their messages from Russian into Ukrainian using an online translator.

At the same time, KELA, a company specializing in the analysis of cybercrime threats, believes that the advertisements for the sale are distributed by pro-Russian propaganda sources, and may have been created by them.

This thesis is spread by Russian propagandists on social networks, in particular, it was mentioned by Russian Foreign Minister Serhii Lavrov. Such reports say that residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine can independently decide what to do with sovereignty, together with the occupying authorities. However, this is not true.

In fact, as reported by StopFake fact-checkers, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is a flagrant violation of the UN Charter. According to the document, Russia does not have the right to hold any so-called "referenda" in Ukraine, since "each state must refrain from any action aimed at the partial or complete violation of the national unity and territorial integrity of any other state or country".

Even if the Ukrainians want to hold a referendum, this should take place under the auspices of the Ukrainian government, and not the occupation. According to Section III of the Constitution of Ukraine, the All-Ukrainian referendum is appointed by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine or the President of Ukraine.

This thesis is spread by Russian propaganda in its media, in particular, it was mentioned in the framework of the official consultative meeting convened by Russia during the Biological Weapons Convention. Their reports say that the United States is not only building new biological laboratories, but also conducting experiments on a vulnerable group of people - the poor and the mentally ill. Like, Washington is indifferent to people, if only to make new weapons. However, this is not true.

Analysts at the Center for Countering Disinformation report that a week before the disinformation emerged, the US State Department already wrote that during consultations in the presence of 89 countries, the United States and Ukraine presented evidence that strongly refuted the absurd and false claims of Russia about the development of biological weapons and US biolabs in Ukraine.

Russian media publish news reports claiming that a Swedish newspaper has published a "secret report" about the US plan to destroy the European economy through a war in Ukraine. It seems that the EU economy, primarily Germany, is competitive and its development poses a threat to the United States. In order to destroy the European economy, America planned to draw the EU into the war in Ukraine, as a result of which Russia would predictably restrict energy supplies and the EU would impose its own sanctions. Thus, a crisis will arise in Europe, which will slow down the overall development, destroy industry, lead to recession and inflation as well as to an increase in unemployment, so European specialists migrate to the United States.

This secret "memorandum" was actually published by the Swedish newspaper Nya Dagbladet. The report, according to this publication, was allegedly created by the RAND Corporation, an American think tank. But after the publication RAND stated that he had never published or prepared this memorandum.

The international group of fact-checkers Logically connects the Swedish publication with fringe politicians, including the ultra-right. The newspaper has previously spread conspiracy theories more than once.

Fact checkers found in the text of the memorandum many factual and grammatical errors, and one foresight. The document was created on January 25 but actually it refers to the “stopping of Nord Stream 2”, although at that time the pipeline was still planned to be launched and was in the process of licensing. The launch of Nord Stream 2 in the EU was abandoned after the start of the war on February 24. In addition, the document talks about the approval of the plan by the "Congress and the Senate" of the US but the US legislature is called the Congress, and consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are other gross factual errors that the authors of a think tank that has been working for governments and private corporations around the world since 1948 could hardly have made.

Russian propaganda media and telegram channels are spreading a fake that the Ukrainian military allegedly fired at the territory of the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant, despite the fact that they themselves reported on missile strikes against the nuclear power plant.

For example, on September 19, the day when rockets exploded 300 meters from the nuclear power plant reactors, the website of propagandist Yurii Podoliak and the Rybar telegram channel spread news with the headline “At night, Russian Armed Forces troops launched a missile attack on the South Russian NPP”. And they justified the shelling by the fact that “the reactors were not damaged”, and the missiles hit the “military base”, which seems to be located nearby and supplies fuel to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As evidence that Ukrainian military facilities existed on the territory of the station, Russian resources are distributing documents from 2017 with an order to conduct anti-terrorist exercises to work out the protection of nuclear power plants in Ukraine. These exercises were indeed carried out, they were not secret and are not related to any “bases” allegedly located on the territory of the station - information about the security measures of 2017 can be found in the Ukrainian media, StopFake notes.

We remind you that Enerhoatom and President Zelenskyi distributed a video of the shelling of a nuclear power plant and accused the Russian occupiers of shelling. “South” Command also noted that the Russians used “Iskander”. The station is located in the Mykolaiv region, which is regularly shelled by the Russians. In addition, the Russians had previously shelled another nuclear power plant - Zaporizhzhia. And, despite the conclusions of the IAEA, which demands the withdrawal of Russian troops from the ZNPP and recognizes the threat to Ukraine's nuclear facilities, the Russians are constantly trying to shift the blame for the shelling of nuclear power plants to Ukraine.

Russian propaganda came up with a new fake to prove the “inhumanity” of Ukrainians. To do this, they used a video of a woman who walks around the supermarket, approaches a large container and says: “Oh, how interesting! “Orcs” in a transparent package. Something new”.

Where exactly and when the video was taken is unknown. But judging by the design of the container, which StopFake drew attention to, these are toys that have already begun to be sold on Halloween, which is celebrated on the night of November 1st. Russian propaganda used the name of the toys to prove that Ukrainian children are offered to play with “the bones of Russian soldiers who are called orcs in Ukraine”.

Russian media and anonymous telegrams write about this. Like, “a bright symbol that charged the townspeople with optimism” suddenly disappeared. Moreover, postcards were allegedly hung in the city with a message about the search. The reason for the disappearance, according to propagandists, was the tense situation in the city. They also say that he was allegedly seen in Odesa as it is better protected. It's fake.

Vitalii Kim is the current head of the Mykolaiv regional civil-military administration, appointed by the Decree of the President of Ukraine in accordance with the law. Kim denied the information about his “escape” by recording a video from his office.

“They say that I seem to have run away to Odessa or something like that ... Where to run? There are fewer shellings, we are moving forward, there is a lot of work because we need to build new fortifications already on the territory of Kherson”, Kim said.

Russian media write about it. Like, Ukraine is preparing for this in advance, so it asks the West for even more necessary weapons. In the messages, propagandists allegedly refer to an article in The Wall Street Journal. This is not true.

In fact, in the article “Ukraine Signals Major Weapons Request for Long-Term Offensive Against Russia” there is no hint of an offensive. The authors of the publication analyze the list of 29 types of weapons and ammunition that Ukraine asks to provide. According to the authors of the article, this list is fully consistent with the development of the situation in Ukraine.

Russian propaganda is spreading messages about Ukraine's advance into Russian territory as part of a previous message that Russia was forced to launch a preemptive strike because otherwise Ukraine would have attacked first. Also, Russian propaganda is constantly trying to prevent the supply of weapons to Ukraine. To do this, they often manipulate quotes from Western publications taken out of context in order to pass off wishful thinking. Propagandists have previously written that Ukraine is using the offensive to get even more weapons.