The adviser, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Anton Gerashchenko, spread this information. On the evening of June 1, Russia launched a missile strike on the railway infrastructure of the Lviv region, killing people and temporarily disrupting the train schedule to and from Transcarpathia. That same evening, Anton Gerashchenko wrote that the Beskydy Tunnel had been hit in his telegram channel. Still, Ukrzaliznytsia's chairman Oleksandr Kamyshin and Lviv's OVA chairman Maksym Kozytskyi denied the allegations. Anton Gerashchenko did not refute his statements but instead edited the post: the updated text no longer mentions the Beskydy Tunnel. We recall that it is essential to use verified sources of information in times of war and not to disseminate information about enemy strikes unless official structures have confirmed it. Such fakes are harmful because they sow panic and shake up the situation in society.

Information about this is spreading on social networks. The messages say that a man named Artem Bonov, who has a tattoo with Nazi symbols, is allegedly the deputy chief of the Kyiv police. A photo of a man with a swastika in the uniform of the police is attached to the fake posts. VoxCheck's photos show a real user, Artem Bonov, who maintains his Vkontakte page and YouTube channel. Bonov wrote that in the summer of 2014, he was a member of the Azov Volunteer Battalion and was then imprisoned on suspicion of killing a neighbor. Later, he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital in Lviv. However, this information is confirmed only by Bonov's own letters. However, Bonov does not hold the position of Deputy Chief of Police. His name is not among the Kyiv or Kyiv region police leadership. "In fake posts, photos of Artem Bonov in police uniform are added. This photo can be found on Bonov's Vkontakte page. The chevron on Bonov's hand belongs to those worn by Ukrainian police units that were subordinated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs until 2015. However, in 2015 the National Police of Ukraine was established. Since then, chevrons on police uniforms have also changed, ”the fact-checkers write.

In May, Russian media reported that their troops were shooting down Ukrainian Tu-143 flight UAVs, an old vehicle manufactured in the Soviet Union. According to the “Bez brekhni” project, on May 16 and 26, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that they had shot down two (four in all) Ukrainian Tu-143 Reys UAVs. Also, even before that, in the Rostov region, it was announced that they also shot down "Reys," allegedly Ukrainian. However, this is a fake. According to the fact-checkers “Bez brekhni,” the last appearance of this technique in the war was recorded in 2014, when we first encountered the Russian invasion and did not yet have modern weapons. "Since then, it has become clear that it is impossible to work with them today, and they are used only as training targets for air defense forces. There is no mention on our part of the use of "Reys" at the front, neither in the news nor on social networks - despite the BP-3 tank. Also, we are already recording the downing of the Russian "Reys" by the Ukrainian military or its modification, " the fact-checkers write.

Information about this appeared on social networks, and Russian-speaking users spread this message. The posts said that "the Bulgarian government has deported more than 35,000 Ukrainian refugees recently." The video, added to the post, shows a small group of people standing on the street with luggage. However, this is a fake. The Bulgarian government has not deported 35,000 Ukrainian refugees. According to the fact-checkers of the Myth Detector project, according to the new system of reception and accommodation of refugees in Bulgaria, Ukrainian refugees were relocated to hotels and government agencies in different country regions. The Ukrainian media broadcasted the video attached to the post, and instead of expelling Ukrainians from Bulgaria, it illustrates the work of the new accommodation system.

The fact is that the first three-month stage of receiving Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria ended on May 31. Under this system, the Bulgarian government paid 40 levs a day to hotels hosting refugees. In a statement issued on May 13, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Kalina Konstantinova described the details of a new phase of refugee resettlement. According to her, the information that the first stage will end on May 31 was known from the first day of its launch. As the tourist season approaches, the Bulgarian government has decided to relocate Ukrainian refugees to government offices in various parts of the country rather than deport them. We will remind you earlier that a network already distributed a similar fake on this subject. However, at the time, it was said that Ukrainian refugees were being evicted from hotels in Bulgaria for misconduct rather than the deportation of 35,000 people.

The explosion of a nitrogen tank at the Azot plant in Sievierodonetsk took place on May 31, when an orange-brown glow could be seen over the city. According to StopFake, the fierce battle between the Russian military and the Armed Forces occurred in Sievierodonetsk. According to the Luhansk Regional State Administration and the State Special Communications Service of Ukraine, the Russian military launched an air strike on the building of the Azot plant to drive the Armed Forces out of its fortified area. Around 19:00, the first reports of a nitrogen tank explosion began to arrive from Sievierodonetsk. According to StopFake, the version about the deliberate explosion of nitrogen tanks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the Azot plant in Sievierodonetsk to cover the occupied territories with a poisonous cloud seems unreliable. At the time of the explosion, a completely unfavorable wind was blowing, which would have blown away the toxic cloud on the Ukrainian military. We want to remind you that this is not the first time that Russian propaganda has tried to blame the crimes of the Russian army on the Ukrainian military. .

Russian propaganda channels have disseminated a video taken at the International Committee of the Red Cross office in Mariupol, which allegedly shows brochures "on teaching children to use weapons," as well as "incubators" and "medical records of children," which reportedly indicate healthy children's organs and data of their parents. The authors of this video claim that these cards prove that the ICRC is involved in "trafficking in children's organs." Based on these fabrications, the Russian Investigative Committee began to "check" the work of the ICRC and the Russian media - to spread this fake.

The ICRC has officially refuted this delusion: the organization's office had brochures on how to behave in areas with many explosive devices, including mines - and these materials are freely available on the Internet. Some of them are needed for people who are actually involved in clearing and demining areas. Concerning "children's medical records," the Committee does not collect such data. Incubators, the ICRC points out in its statement, are needed by people who plan to raise poultry - in fact, within the framework of agro-economic programs agreed with the state.

We remind you that for the last eight years, Russian propaganda has constantly been promoting the narrative that Ukraine is a "supplier of spare parts for Americans and Europeans" and has become a center of illegal transplantation and organ trafficking. It is an outright lie that has no facts.

Russian Telegram channels and the media controlled by the occupiers write that the Ukrainian government plans to refuse social benefits to residents of the occupied region. It is a lie that StopFake has refuted.

All social benefits continue to be paid in the oblast, but in some cases, the payments have been blocked due to technical conditions. Local authorities have repeatedly reported these delays.

Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Council Yury Sobolevsky previously said that social benefits in the region would not be canceled. Besides, the deputy of the Kherson regional council, Serhiy Khlan, noted on May 19 that all social payments across the Kherson region, which were blocked till today, managed to be unblocked. And by May 22, all-region residents must receive social benefits.

It will be recalled that the Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine, Maryna Lazebna, stated that all pensions and social benefits to those Ukrainians who find themselves in temporary occupation zones are accrued properly.

The Russian media are spreading another fake about Azov fighters. They claim that they found money from the Azov Regiment fighters who left Azovstal with them - euros, dollars, and hryvnias, as well as a lot of gold. The program "Vesti" even shot a story called "Gold of Azov," where he spread this fake, referring to a single statement by a "representative of the DPR." He did not provide any evidence of gold or money.

But at the same time, the plot has the usual logical gaps for propaganda. For example, the journalist says that the Azov military allegedly tried to hide among other military and civilians who were at the plant and also left its territory and were taken, prisoner. But, according to militants, the so-called "DPR," all Azov residents have a "distinctive feature: each has a large amount of money, and dollars, euros, hryvnia, and a lot of gold with tags." Why people who tried to "hide" among others had this "distinctive feature" all at once, the audience did not explain.

It is another attempt to discredit the Azov fighters and made according to "understandable" patterns for viewers of the channel. If the Russian military themselves are looters and constantly steal things in Ukrainian apartments or rob stores, they must believe that the Ukrainian army is doing the same.

Another fake in the grand narrative of Russian disinformation about what is happening with foreign weapons in Ukraine. Russian propaganda at first pretends that it has been "completely destroyed," and many times. Then - that it is sold to Al-Qaeda militants. Now - a new fake about the alleged purchase of Western weapons by "Syrian militants."

All this is to persuade Western countries to reduce their support for Ukraine with weapons or prove that Ukraine does not control the weapons supplied by partners.

There is no evidence of these alleged sales. But there is a lot of evidence of the Ukrainian military's successful use of Western weapons.

Russian propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov in the program "News of the Week," continued to spread the fake that Ukrainian manufacturers allegedly modified Turkish Bayraktar drones with "spray containers" with which they allegedly intended to spray viruses. This fake appeared in late March but has now been extended. Kiselyov claims that this drone modification was developed at the Motor-Sich plant, which the Russians "destroyed with high-precision missiles" last week. To prove the existence of such "finished" bayraktars in the story, Russian propagandists showed an unknown who made a small quadcopter with a container, writes Insider.

The propagandists are fabricating fakes in advance. When the Russians fired four rockets at Zaporizhzhia on May 25 (Ukrainian air defenses destroyed one), they called the shelling "the destruction of the Motor-Sich plant." The Ukrainian military leadership did not report any hits at the plant's shops. But it is well known that the missiles hit the mall and other civilian objects. One person was killed, and three others were injured

The Russian state news agency TASS, quoting Andriy Morochko, a militant from the Luhansk People's Republic, said that a French citizen who died in Sievierodonetsk was a mercenary an intermediary in arms supplies to Ukraine. It is a fake.

In fact, Frederick Leclerc-Imhoff is a BFMTV journalist who was killed by the Russians on May 30, 2022, during the shelling of an evacuation column of civilians from the city of Sievierodonetsk. He was 32 years old. The deceased's mother reacted to the spread of the fake, saying that no one would be able to tarnish the memory of her son, and those involved in the war crime, which Russian propaganda is trying to hide, should be punished. "I'm sick of your press release," said Leclerc-Imhoff's mother, who is posted on the BFMTV website. The French Foreign Minister also demands an investigation into the journalist's death.

Russian propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov in the program "News of the Week," continued to spread the fake that Ukrainian manufacturers allegedly modified Turkish Bayraktar drones with "spray containers" with which they allegedly intended to spray viruses. This fake appeared in late March but has now been extended. Kiselyov claims that this drone modification was developed at the Motor-Sich plant, which the Russians "destroyed with high-precision missiles" last week. To prove the existence of such "finished" bayraktars in the story, Russian propagandists showed an unknown who made a small quadcopter with a container, writes Insider.

The propagandists are fabricating fakes in advance. When the Russians fired four rockets at Zaporizhzhia on May 25 (Ukrainian air defenses destroyed one), they called the shelling "the destruction of the Motor-Sich plant." The Ukrainian military leadership did not report any hits at the plant's shops. But it is well known that the missiles hit the mall and other civilian objects. One person was killed, and three others were injured.

The Russian media are spreading another fake about Azov fighters. They claim that they found money from the Azov Regiment fighters who left Azovstal with them - euros, dollars, and hryvnias, as well as a lot of gold. The program "Vesti" even shot a story called "Gold of Azov," where he spread this fake, referring to a single statement by a "representative of the DNR." He did not provide any evidence of gold or money.

But at the same time, the plot has the usual logical gaps for propaganda. For example, the journalist says that the Azov military allegedly tried to hide among other military and civilians who were at the plant and also left its territory and were taken, prisoner. But, according to militants, the so-called "DPR," all Azov residents have a "distinctive feature: each has a large amount of money, and dollars, euros, hryvnias, and a lot of gold with tags." Why people who tried to "hide" among others had this "distinctive feature" all at once, the audience did not explain.

It is another attempt to discredit the Azov fighters and made according to "understandable" patterns for viewers of the channel. If the Russian military themselves are looters and constantly steal things in Ukrainian apartments or rob stores, they must believe that the Ukrainian army is doing the same.

Russian telegram channels spread a fake that the Church of the Ascension in Lukyanivka, Kyiv region, was destroyed by the Ukrainian military after the retreat of Russian troops. This fake Russian propaganda was built on one photo of the Ukrainian army with blue armbands, "posing against the background of a completely undamaged church." It was spread by one of the pro-Kremlin telegram channels, from which the Russian Defense Ministry often reposts information.

In fact, the Russians destroyed the church after the Armed Forces liberated Lukyanivka. According to VoxUkraine, the first reports of the liberation of Lukyanivka from Russian troops appeared on March 24, 2022. "We found photos of the Ukrainian military on a tank near an undamaged church using a Google Images reverse lookup. It is a screenshot of a video published by a Ukrainian fighter on March 25 on his TikTok account. On March 26, in comments, the video's author noted that the church had already been destroyed, " the fact-checkers said, adding that other fighters and the Armed Forces' Strategic Communications Department also wrote about the church's destruction. In particular, the Armed Forces reported that the Russians destroyed the church on March 25 with four shots from a tank. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), to which the church belonged, also claims that a Russian tank destroyed the building on March 25. According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, as of May 27, 133 churches were completely destroyed or damaged due to Russian aggression.

The network spreads fakes about alleged financial assistance from the Ukrainian Red Cross, saying that the organization will pay 3,000 hryvnias to refugees, displaced persons, the military, children under 18, and people who have lost their jobs. It is offered to go to the telegram bot. The Red Cross of Ukraine denied this information and called not to transfer personal data and bank card numbers to scammers. "Be careful, check the information on official sources of the Red Cross of Ukraine, for example, on the website redcross.org.ua," the organization said. "If you find fake information, let us know by sending a link to the fake source and a letter to sos@redcross.org.ua."

Scammers often manipulate Ukrainians and launch schemes with alleged financial aid from the state, banks, other organizations, or countries. If you have become a victim of a fraudulent scheme and provided scammers with your social network login or bank card details, you should immediately change your login passwords, change your bank card's CVV code, or reissue your card. We remind you that you can not enter your personal data and payment card details on unfamiliar and suspicious websites and advises you to set up control over the movement of funds (SMS notifications, transaction limits, etc.). Banks never ask users for a payment card PIN, CVV code, payment confirmation codes, and passwords for Internet banking. Similarly, no institution needs your passwords to log in to the social network to process your data. Passwords are requested only by scammers to gain access to your account. We warn that fraudsters often create clones of social networking sites, banks, and other institutions. To avoid problems - do not go to these sites with a link; search for official sites through a search engine, and pay attention to their addresses - one extra letter or misspelling may indicate that this site is fake.

An English-language fake is spreading on Facebook - President Volodymyr Zelensky allegedly bought a residence in Florida for $ 35 million, which the United States has allocated to help Ukraine in the war with Russia. Check Your Fact denied this information, noting that there was no evidence that Zelensky had bought the property and that the house was still up for sale. "A reverse image search shows that the house presented in the publication is up for sale at Sotheby's International Realty for $ 11.5 million. There are no signs that he has been sold, " the fact-checkers said, recalling that Zelensky had rejected a US proposal to evacuate the capital Kyiv after a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This fake is aimed at American users because it contains manipulation and lies about buying property: they say that the Ukrainian president paid for the villa from "their taxes." It is not the first time Russian propaganda has tried to discredit Zelensky in the eyes of the foreign community. These are attempts to undermine the trust in the Ukrainian government among ordinary citizens of other countries, including the United States, further influence the support of Ukraine by international partners. Earlier, Zelensky gained popularity among English-language Twitter, Ticket, and Reddit users. Read more about how the world discovered Zelensky in MediaSapiens.

This thesis is spread on social networks together with the picture of the LGBTQ IA+ flag - a community to which the colors of the Ukrainian flag - blue and yellow stripes - have been added. Some users also allegedly spread a statement by Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, in which he allegedly said that Detector.

In fact, no official sources have published this quote from Arestovich, and the flag of the LGBTQIA+ community does not contain the colors of the state flag of Ukraine. According to Reuters, the portal Know Your Meme, which documents memes and Internet culture, wrote about the changed color of the flag. They clarified that the photo initially had an ironic meaning, but later various users began to distribute it without context as factual information.

The American online magazine LGBTQ Nation noted that propaganda against the LGBTQ IA+ community is "an important part of Russia's military efforts." "The Putin regime's focus on humiliating the LGBT community inside Russia is being used as part of its military action against the Ukrainian population," the newspaper said.

This fake provoked a wave of ridicule and criticism of Ukraine by foreign audiences on social networks. In particular, they mentioned attacks during prides in various Ukrainian cities. So, it is obvious that this fake was spread to stop the support of Ukraine among foreigners.

The video of a freight train carrying dozens of tanks and military equipment across a railway bridge is being spread on social media. The posts claim that the tanks are allegedly moving to the Russian border in the direction of eastern Finland, noting that the country is allegedly preparing to go to war with Russia, reports Euronews.

The Finnish Defense Forces have already denied this information and said that these allegations are "false" and that the equipment, on the contrary, is moving away from Russia's border. In fact, this equipment was transported to the annual two-week military exercises in western Finland. Euronews writes that it compared the video with images on Google and found that the video was shot in the city of Tampere: the footage shows that the train is moving west, towards the villages of Niinisalo and Sakyla.

It is spread on social networks and media that the OSCE allegedly provided the Azov Regiment with communications and intelligence in Mariupol. According to StopFake, these reports refer to pro-Russian militants from the occupied parts of the Donetsk region, who are distributing photos and saying that they allegedly found a satellite phone with a sticker of the organization on Azovstal.

The OSCE denied allegations of communications and intelligence to the Ukrainian military at Azovstal, saying it had never provided any additional information other than open official reports. The organization says that since the start of hostilities on February 24, 2022, the Mission has recorded increasingly hostile public rhetoric against the OSCE SMMU, especially in areas not controlled by the Ukrainian government. "False, unsubstantiated, and increasingly outrageous allegations have been made about the SMMU, which the OSCE has refuted. As for Mariupol, the SMMU has not controlled its office in Mariupol since March 15 due to ongoing fighting, ” a spokesman told StopFake. The fact-checkers noted that there was no evidence that the phone with the OSCE sticker was found on Azovstal and that the Ukrainian military used it. They pointed out that the phone " with a high probability could be found in the building of the former OSCE office in Mariupol."

Russian propaganda media spread reports of this content. They claim that the Bulgarian authorities are allegedly removing Ukrainian refugees "on the street" from those hotels in resort areas. According to StopFake, some users of the network claim that Bulgaria has allegedly announced the beginning of the procedure of eviction of refugees from Ukraine "because of their bad behavior and disrespect for the local population." However, this is not true. According to fact-checkers, the Bulgarian state program, which covers free accommodation and meals for Ukrainian refugees in hotels, expires on May 31. After that, refugees in need of asylum will be relocated to state, municipal, or departmental bases or to private hotels, which under the new conditions, participate in the New State Humanitarian Program to accommodate displaced persons from Ukraine. 

Reports say that Ukraine allegedly deliberately worsened the regions' economies currently temporarily occupied, while Russia "is engaged in their development." In particular, the propagandists claim Kyiv "worsened the situation of farmers" in the Kherson region. The European Union is also to blame for this, as the purchase of large volumes of agricultural products from EU countries has allegedly led to a drop in demand for Ukrainian goods and a reduction in crops.

According to StopFake, the Russian media attribute the statement about the "oppression" of Kherson farmers by Kyiv to Vladyslav Shybaylov, the so-called head of the agricultural department of the Henichesk district of the region. "After all, he is a protege of the occupying power, a local supporter of the pro-Russian party "Opposition Platform - For Life, " StopFake writes. In fact, according to fact-checkers, before the arrival of the occupiers in the Kherson region, agricultural production increased, farmers could receive subsidies, and exports of goods went to different countries. Instead, due to the ban of the Russian occupiers from taking anything out of the region, farmers of the occupied Kherson region are forced to sell their products at a minimum price because they are allowed to trade only with the occupied Crimea. In addition, the Russian occupiers are massively exporting Ukrainian grain from the region, and with the new harvest, the threat and theft are growing. Read more.

Posts with this statement are distributed on Facebook and other social networks in Russian. They claim that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently said that the genocide of Russians in Donbas was ridiculous. Against the background of a special military operation in Ukraine, Germans now have a moral right to forget what their ancestors did during World War II. The video adds excerpts from a Russian-language interview with Scholz, in which he says NATO is not an aggressive organization, noting that Putin's allegations of genocide in the Donbas are ridiculous. In fact, according to Myth Detector checkers, the widespread claim that Olaf Scholz says that in light of the current Russian aggression, Germans have the right to forget the crimes of their ancestors during World War II is untrue. An excerpt from Scholz's video shared on social media was taken from the Munich Security Conference, where he spoke about security issues, including Russian aggression. Scholz did call Putin's arguments about the genocide in Donbas ridiculous, but he never said anything about forgetting the crimes of Nazism.

The Kremlin's propaganda media spread this information. Reports say that the authorities of the Zaporizhzhia region allegedly announced preparations for the "surrender" of the city of Zaporizhzhia to the Russian army. According to the fact-checkers from StopFake, the Russian media call the proof of the quick surrender of Zaporizhzhia "almost a round-the-clock discussion of the evacuation" in the city. "On behalf of the Zaporizhzhia authorities, the Russian media broadcast a statement by Volodymyr Rohov, a collaborator and mouthpiece of Russian propaganda who has nothing to do with Ukrainian authorities. In 2014, Rohov fled to Russia and appeared in the Zaporizhzhia region only in 2022 after a large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. On March 29, 2022, the National Police opened a criminal investigation into Rohov's collaborative activities.

That is why Rohov's statements have no factual basis and cannot be considered credible. StopFake has already denied the disinformation of the collaborator that the administration of the Zaporizhzhia region "excluded its return to the control of Kyiv.”

Actually, although part of the Zaporizhzhia region is indeed temporarily occupied by Russian troops, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are protecting the region from invaders, and they are not going to "surrender Zaporizhzhia" and continue active measures to strengthen the regional defense's front, where the enemy continues to accumulate additional forces and resources. As Detector Media has already written, to fix in the minds of Russians who use state propaganda that Russia is "forever" present in the occupied territories of Ukraine, the Kremlin media spread the narrative of "Kherson power" or "Zaporizhzhia power." Either they report that the "Kherson Oblast authorities" are asking Putin to deploy a Russian military base in the Kherson region or that the "Zaporizhzhia Region authorities" are announcing Kyiv's plans to "surrender Zaporizhzhia." However, there are no "authorities of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions." Such reports refer only to collaborators appointed by the Russian occupiers.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation, such a message is spread by Russian propagandists. The reports say that the information comes from a "reliable source from Bankova" and add that the reason for the shutdown is the "truth" that people in the occupation began to tell their relatives and friends about "good Russian soldiers" who do not kill and rob but help people.

"Disconnecting Ukrainians from mobile operators and Internet providers is part of the occupation's efforts to infiltrate propaganda into the Ukrainian media space. Disconnections are carried out only by Russians. Ukraine is making every effort to ensure that Ukrainian radio and television broadcasting operate in every city, even the occupied ones, ” the Center said. In particular, Ukrainian Radio remains almost the only source of information in those territories of Ukraine that the Russians currently occupy.

According to Andriy Taranov, a public broadcaster's board member, we still have a live broadcast when the mobile network and the Internet are blocked. We used to think that radio in the middle waves was obsolete, and nobody listened to it, but unexpectedly it became part of national security. "We are almost the only ones who informed people in Mariupol when humanitarian corridors were opened in Ukraine," he said.

Russian authorities have called "American fake" evidence provided by Western partners of Russia's theft of Ukrainian grain. The Russian media published a "rebuttal" that the "collective West is deliberately spreading fakes" about Russian troops' theft of Ukrainian food. According to StopFake, many satellite images confirm Russia's theft of Ukrainian grain. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations also stated evidence of Russian theft of Ukrainian food.