Russian media write about it. They said that representatives of the Pentagon believe that the Armed Forces of Ukraine could have "unintentionally" struck the building of the pre-trial detention center in Olenivka. This was allegedly reported by a high-ranking official from the Pentagon. It is not true. Fact-checkers of the "On the other side of the news" project checked the quote. In response to journalists' questions, the American representative says that the last thing he would think about in the context of this event is the Ukrainian attack on Olenivka. He also suggests that such messages are an attempt by the Russians to "derail them from the information path", which is one more fake.

The Russians also claim that the colony in Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were held, was fired upon by the Armed Forces of Ukraine with American HIMARS missiles. As evidence, they showed the fragments of rockets. However, the rocket fragments' origin is unknown. There is no evidence that these fragments were discovered in Olenivka. Military experts reported that the video from the colony shows damage from the fire. Such damage is not inherent in the principle of HIMARS’ operation. The Russians do not allow Ukrainian representatives to the scene of the tragedy, nor did the Red Cross and the UN representatives, who acted as guarantors of the withdrawal of the Ukrainian military from Azovstal and their safe detention. 

Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels are circulating a photo of empty storefronts allegedly from a supermarket in Great Britain, which had energy-saving light bulbs on them. It looks like the British bought up all the energy-saving light bulbs and think "that they will save utility bills for years to come." It is not true.

The original pictures were taken in the USA and posted on the popular online resource Alamy, where any user can purchase them. The photo caption says the empty shelves and rationing sign for this item were taken at a Target retail store in Contra Costa, San Ramon, California on March 12, 2020. Photos of the shelves on which there were hand sanitizers and other essential items were already published by the American media Newsweek on March 15. These goods were actively bought in the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the original photos, there is the following inscription on the banner: "The number of disinfectants is limited to six in one hand."

Fact Checks from Stop Fake revealed that the inscription was subsequently edited in a photo editor: the inscription on the banner was changed, packages with light bulbs were added, and price tags were changed. But the angle from which the shots were taken, the location of the shelves, even the size of the banner, and the creases on its margins are completely identical to the photos taken in the USA two years ago.

Russian propaganda presented the Facebook post of Ukrainian activist Ihor Isayev as a general opinion of all Ukrainians, which, of course, was spread by the pro-Kremlin media.

An article appeared on the Wyborcza. pl website with the title "Almost every third resident of Wroclaw is Ukrainian. And there are more and more of them." The article discussed a study by the Polish Metropolises Union, which showed that Wroclaw is the second Polish city after Warsaw in which the largest number of Ukrainians live. Ihor Isayev reacted to the article with a Facebook post (at the same time, the Russian agitprop claimed that these were comments on the publication, it is also false - ed.), that "the law on national minorities allows the introduction of an auxiliary language (as well as bilingual signs) in the commune if there is at least 20% of minority representatives. We don't have an interpretation of emigrants' amount, although the law does not explicitly say so. Nevertheless, in large Polish cities, we can already fight for the Ukrainian language to become the second state language."

In general, there is no mention of any demands from the Ukrainian refugees. Moreover, it is legally impossible. Polish is the only official language in the Republic of Poland. This is stipulated in the Constitution, Article 27. Read more.

The Russian media spread the statement of the head of the National Defense Management Center, Colonel-General Mykhailo Mizintsev, about the stronghold of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at school No. 23 (Yavornytskyi Avenue) in Dnipro. However, "artillery and armored vehicles were placed near the educational institution." It is not true.

The address of school No. 23 in the city of Dnipro is Dmytro Yavornytskyi Avenue, 14. The Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum is located at Dmytro Yavornytskyi Avenue, 16. Its complex includes the "Battle for the Dnipro" diorama, and near its building, there is an open-air military equipment display, The Insider reports.

So, there are artillery and armored vehicles. However, all this was placed not by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as General Mizyntsev claims, but by the Soviet Army at the initiative of Air Marshal Volodymyr Sudets. The order to place the equipment was signed by the Minister of Defense of the USSR Andriy Grechko, and it happened in 1975.

This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine emphasizes that this is a fake. The Russians claim that the Ukrainian military plans to "blow up and accuse units of the Russian military of allegedly indiscriminate strikes on civilian infrastructure." Russian propagandists regularly announce "provocations by the Armed Forces of Ukraine" to later justify their missile strikes and crimes against the civilian population of Ukraine. 

This information was spread by the Russian media and social networks. It is not true.

The VoxCheck team verified this information and reports that according to the band's concert program in Tallinn, any Russian song was played at the concert in Estonia on July 20, 2022. This is also confirmed by videos from the concert posted by fans on YouTube. The band has openly expressed its support for Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Concerts planned for 2022 in Russia have been canceled.

Russian propagandists falsified the front page of the Polish publication “Dziennik Wschodni” and published it on Facebook and VKontakte. On a fake newspaper page, the propagandists posted the material under the heading: "Zelensky will return Ukraine to Poland." This is, of course, a fake, which shows quite well how Russia works on social networks.

The thesis that the western part of Ukraine should allegedly become part of Poland was actively promoted by Russian propagandists from the beginning of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine. The fiction was "reinforced" with fake maps that seem to demonstrate Poland's intentions to seize the western regions of Ukraine; then forged documents with seemingly orders to attack these territories; then about the alleged battalions of Poles in Ukraine; then about the "Poles legalization"; then about the alleged plans of Poland "to go over to the Russian side and then capture the western regions of Ukraine", etc.

In this way, the Russians want to provoke enmity between Poles and Ukrainians.

Information about this is spread by propaganda media concerning the Ministry of Defense of Russia. The Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly could have received incorrect information and hit the colony in Olenivka, Donetsk region, occupied by Russia until February 24, 2022. It is not true.

On the morning of July 29, the Russian media announced the shelling of the colony in Olenivka. Propagandists report that the Kyiv regime killed and maimed a large part of the 193 Ukrainian prisoners of war who surrendered and were held there in Mariupol.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports that Russia shelled the colony in occupied Olenivka to cover up the torture and murder of prisoners and to accuse the Ukrainian Armed Forces of committing "war crimes."

According to the information of the General Staff, Ukraine did not launch either missile or artillery strikes on the Olenivka. People's deputy and member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security Fedir Venislavsky explained that any missile and artillery strikes carried out by the Armed Forces take place in very close cooperation with the entire intelligence community. There could not be an accidental hit, let alone a regular hit.

The SSU intercepted telephone conversations in which the occupiers confirm that Russian troops are responsible for the explosion in the Olenivka colony. There are several such audio recordings at the disposal of the Security Service of Ukraine - all of them will be included as evidence in the relevant criminal proceedings.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine believes that the killing of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka was organized by the mercenaries of the private military company "Wagner" on the personal instructions of Yevhen Prigozhin, without coordinating it with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

The Kremlin-sponsored news agency RIA Novosti published a video from the colony showing fire damage. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) points out that the fire damage is not inherent in the principle of operation of "HIMARS" and that the propagandists have not provided evidence that the fragments were found in Olenivka.

People write about it on social networks and share a photo of a supposedly new Ukrainian stamp, which shows portraits of Zelensky, Khrushchev, Bandera, and Petliura carved from stone on Mount Rushmore. It is not true.

Some Russian media spread a video showing a large-scale fire in Spain with captions stating that Ukrainian refugees were allegedly the cause of it. Ukrainians allegedly wanted to burn the Russian flag, but they set the forest on fire. It is not true.

StopFake fact-checkers found the original video. It is indeed footage of a fire that has been raging in the Spanish provinces for several weeks. The announcer says that there is a possibility of deliberate arson. But there is no mention in the story that it was the Ukrainians who caused the fire. The archive also contains the original video with the news feed at the bottom of the screen. In fact, the credits reported the arrest of a taxi driver for assaulting a passenger and driving while intoxicated. Therefore, the information about the participation of Ukrainians in the arson was added deliberately. Probably to discredit Ukrainians who seek refuge in Spain because of the Russian war in Ukraine.

Information is spread by the Russian media concerning the Ministry of Defense of Russia. Allegedly, in Dnipro, a school and a dormitory are used as cover for Ukrainian military and equipment. Similar reports are being spread about Kryvyi Rih, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly settled in residential buildings. It is not true.

Russian users of social networks share a video in which the Kinzhal hypersonic missile allegedly hits a military base at a depth of 136 meters, and the event supposedly happened in May. However, it is a fake video. As VoxCheck writes, the widespread video appeared on the network in February of this year. The video`s author is a visual effects artist known on social networks as InsanePatient2. The video has the title: "What if Russia Started Nuclear War?" ("What if Russia started a nuclear war?"). The description of the video states: "What if Russia/Putin Started Nuclear War with Ukraine and the rest of the world?" ("What if Russia/Putin started a nuclear war with Ukraine and the rest of the world?")." In the artist's YouTube and TikTok accounts, there are other works created using computer graphics. On May 9, 2022, Russia launched three "Kinzhal" missiles over Odesa, as noted by OK "Pivden", then destroyed 5 buildings. Moreover, on March 19, 2022, in the village of Delyatyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region. As a result of the strike, the ammunition depot was destroyed," the fact-checkers write.

Photos of two men with Nazi tattoos allegedly depicting Ukrainian refugees in Rijeka (Croatia) are spread on social media. In some posts, the photo serves as a justification for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, it is a fake.

Photos of price tags from stores in the Ternopil and Lviv regions for basic products (buckwheat, eggs, and cabbage) on which the prices are indicated not only in hryvnias but also in zlotys are allegedly being distributed on the network. Because of this, residents allegedly are afraid of joining the regions of Poland, especially because of the draft law on a special status for Polish citizens. It is a fake. These photos have been edited, and the prices are not correct. More details. As for the law on the special status of Polish citizens in Ukraine, the president introduced the relevant draft law to the Verkhovna Rada on July 11 in compliance with the principle of reciprocity of international law. It is a response to the law on assistance to citizens of Ukraine, adopted by Poland in March. There are no provisions of law that would provide for the accession of Ukraine to Poland.

Another historical fake used by Russian propaganda is the myth that Ukrainians never lived in the Black Sea region. It is part of the great myth about "originally Russian lands," which Russia allegedly went to "return to itself," restoring "historical justice."

As the history of the last 30 years shows, Russia started wars everywhere without using historical myths - for example, in South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Syria. Propaganda did not need an explanation about "Russian peace" or "liberation of suffering peoples" from the "Nazis." But to explain the invasion of Ukraine since 2014, propaganda uses all sorts of fakes to prove its own "right" to kill Ukrainians. Sometimes they are directly opposite. In some cases, propaganda proves that Ukrainians do not exist at all; in others - they exist but "did not live" in certain territories and therefore do not have the right to them.

One of these fakes - that Ukrainians never lived in Odesa - was analyzed in detail by StopFake.

Images with data on the national composition of Odesa in 1894 are being distributed on social networks. According to these data, Russians, Jews, Poles, Germans, Greeks, and French lived in Odesa then. As the publication writes, the data indicated in the picture are more or less comparable with the data of the Odesa population census of 1892. His results were published two years later, in 1894. At that time, 336,000 people lived in Odesa. But, as the researchers explain, the population distribution took place according to many parameters, such as native language, religion, and whether the resident was: a Russian citizen or a foreigner. At the same time, people were not asked about their nationality; however, later census, held in 1897, there were statistics by nationality - and in the Kherson province, which included Odesa, 1,462,039 Ukrainians lived, which was 53.5% of the population of the region.

Here, read more about population censuses and historical data about Ukrainians in Odesa and Kherson regions.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has spread another fake: it seems that Ukraine is shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP, and because of this threatens Europe with an industrial disaster.

"With maniacal tenacity, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the largest in Europe, not caring about its preservation and violating the resolution and decision of the IAEA general conference. It is obvious that the Ukrainian side is deliberately leading the case to a large-scale industrial disaster. We see that the USA and its European allies are completely satisfied with this," said the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ivan Nechaev.

It is another accusation that has no evidence. On the contrary, it is the troops of the Russian Federation that are creating the prerequisites for an industrial disaster at the nuclear power plant by bringing heavy weapons to the territory of the station. StopFake writes about it.

Thus, on July 21, the Energoatom company reported that the Russian occupiers brought at least 14 units of heavy military equipment with ammunition, as well as weapons and explosives to the engine room of the 1st power unit of the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The company said that an arsenal of imported heavy equipment with all ammunition is located next to the equipment that ensures the operation of the turbogenerator - and the use of the weapons could lead to an explosion at the station. Earlier, Energoatom, which controls all operating nuclear plants in the country, has repeatedly stated that Russian forces are turning the ZNPP into a military base and using it as a shield. In addition, the occupiers constantly capture local workers, and there is evidence of their torture. Read more about the situation at the ZNPP here.

In the German segment of Facebook, an image is shared: "Shocking survey: 11 million Germans will fight for Russia and Putin against NATO in case of war!" The posts with this image reported that the German channel ARD conducted such a survey.

It's a fake: German fact-checkers from Correctiv contacted the broadcaster, and ARD denied ever conducting such a survey.

The German segment of Facebook regularly spread fakes discrediting Ukraine, the Armed Forces, and slandering Ukrainian refugees in Germany.

At the same time, Russian publications spread the news that it is claimed that three companies - Vanguard, Blackrock, and Blackstone, the main capital of which belongs to American funds, bought 17 million hectares of agricultural land in Ukraine. But it is a fake.

All Russian publications refer to the news of an unknown Australian site called Australiannationalreview.com, which does not provide any evidence to prove these claims. The news on the Australian website refers to material on the Auckland Institute, which is devoted to changes in legislation in Ukraine regarding the sale of agricultural land. However, in the report, there is no information about any of the three companies that allegedly bought a third of the land in Ukraine. Moreover, the material of the Auckland Institute appeared on August 6, 2021, and already the news with the names of these three campaigns and the thesis about "a third of the land sold" was published on May 27, 2022, on the Australian website. But it was reprinted in the Russian mass media only on July 26.

According to the State Service for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre write StopFake, 0.26 million hectares were sold in Ukraine during the year of operation of the land market. This figure is about 0.8% of the area of ​​agricultural land (32.6 million hectares) entered into the geocadastre. Thus, the data on 17 million hectares operated by Kremlin propagandists is 65 times greater than the area of ​​agricultural land actually sold in Ukraine.

Such information is spread on social networks, adding an alleged fight video. In the messages to the video, they add that Polish women recently fought with Ukrainian refugees. However, it is not true. According to VoxCheck, a reverse TinEye search shows that the video appeared online in 2016 on the Polish website wykop.pl.

According to several Polish media, the fight took place at the beginning of July in the Polish resort town of Władysławowo and gained wide publicity. It recorded the participation of three girls and several men who tried to separate them. The exact cause of the fight is unknown. In the comments under the video, it is noted that such cases are often associated with excessive alcohol consumption and frequently occur at summer parties.

There is no mention of the nationality of the participants, so there is no reason to talk about a conflict between Poles and refugees from Ukraine either. It is not the first time Russian propaganda has spread fakes about refugees from Ukraine in various states that accepted them because of the war. In this way, the propaganda seeks to discredit the refugees from Ukraine themselves and to create the appearance that the attitude towards Ukrainians is deteriorating in the countries that receive them.

Such information is distributed in the Georgian segment of social networks in Russian. For example, during registration in Poland, Ukrainian refugees fill out a questionnaire where they are forced to write that Stepan Bandera is a terrorist. The messages are accompanied by an alleged photo of the questionnaire and claim that if a person does not recognize Bandera as a terrorist, he will not receive the special identification number in Poland.

In fact, the information about Ukrainian refugees in Poland receiving an identification number and signing a statement that Stepan Bandera is a terrorist, and Ukrainian nationalists are responsible for the Volyn tragedy is fake.

According to fact-checkers from Myth Detector, the document published on social networks is fabricated, and the authentic version of the document is available on the official website of the Polish government. In the original version of the questionnaire, there are no questions about Bandera and the Volyn tragedy. 

Anonymous Telegram channels spread information about this; later, it also appeared on the pages of Kremlin propaganda media. The authors illustrated such news with alleged photos of the Libyans and their Ukrainian passports, which they allegedly received.

The reports also said that the terrorists could migrate to Poland with these documents. In fact, Libyan terrorists did not obtain the passports of Ukrainian citizens and did not try to use these documents to leave for Poland. As StopFake writes, the footage of the detention was taken long before the alleged arrest, and the image of the "detainee's" passport was taken from the Internet and processed in a photo editor. 

This thesis is actively spread by the Russian propaganda media, allegedly referring to information in the Turkish media. However, it is not true. The company that manufactures drones has refused to cooperate with Russia. According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, some Turkish media reported that Russia and the United Arab Emirates want to cooperate with Baykar to produce Bayraktar drones. According to the Center, Russian propaganda claims that the issue of cooperation between Russia and the company has already been resolved.

Although in reality, the Turkish media write that, despite the request of the Russian side, the CEO of Baykar Makina Haluk Bayraktar categorically refused the aggressor and stated that the Turkish "Bayraktar TB2 will never be sold to Russia." At the same time, cooperation with Ukraine continues.

By spreading such theses, Russian propaganda seeks to convince the world that the number of its partners and support is constantly growing. Thereby allegedly demonstrating that the companies that supported Ukraine in this war for a long time will now support Russia.

Russian mass media and social networks spread information that Oxford University decided to cancel all diplomas issued to the children and close relatives of Russian officials since 2014. This fake was promoted as part of a message about Russophobia in Europe.

The Russian mass media spread the information that the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region has allegedly already "established international contacts" regarding the collaborator and protégé of the Russian authorities, Volodymyr Rogov. Allegedly, the occupiers began receiving "appeals from members of parliament in Germany, Spain, France, Greece."

The cover of the cartoon magazine, on which Great Britain "spits out" Boris Johnson and Zelensky, was used by anonymous Telegram channels for numerous manipulations. However, such a cover does not exist.

The fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project refuted the information. The fake cover of the magazine states that the issue was published on July 9, 2022. The Charlie Hebdo website has an archive of all magazine covers. The cover with the caricature, which Facebook users share, is not on this page. In the section with pictures published in the magazine and on the official Twitter account, there is also no cartoon with Johnson and Zelensky. It is unknown who the author of this caricature is, but it has nothing to do with the magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Cartoons allegedly published in foreign magazines are used by Russian propaganda to ridicule and devalue partnership relations between Ukraine and foreign countries.