Russian propagandists claim that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz allegedly said that Ukraine may not become a NATO member in the next 30 years. “You know the solution, this will not happen in the near future. Perhaps not even in the next 30 years”, Scholz said during a meeting with Berlin residents. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that in fact Scholz noted at this meeting in Berlin that before the full-scale invasion, discussing Ukraine's entry into NATO, he assured Putin: “This is not being considered for the next 30 years”. Scholz also accused Putin of attacking Ukraine for “absolutely absurd” reasons, since “NATO has never posed a threat to Russia”.

After the old quote was again picked up by Russian propaganda, the German government commented on the information being disseminated. According to government spokesman Steffen Gebestreit, the situation “has completely changed, and therefore, no, 30 years are no longer relevant”.

During the decade of war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda regularly spread manipulations and fake news that Ukraine would not be accepted into NATO or the EU. Thus, they want to cause skepticism and panic among Ukrainians regarding the actions of their Western partners.

A video depicting hundreds of SUVs with beacons and symbols of the National Police of Ukraine is being circulated on social networks. The videos are accompanied by the caption: “Are we going to collect from people for cars for the front?” In the comments to the video, some users are outraged - they say that the government, allegedly ignoring the needs of the front, purchased these cars for the police to “make it easier to catch evaders”.

In fact, this video is being circulated without proper context and does not depict the actual events. Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this.

They found out that the video actually shows 635 crossovers with environmentally friendly Mitsubishi Outlander engines, which were purchased back in 2017 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs under the Kyoto Protocol. Ukraine ratified the Kyoto Protocol on February 4, 2004. According to the protocol, a maximum permissible limit for greenhouse gas emissions is established for each country. Ukraine did not use its entire quota - the remainder was sold to Japan for money or in exchange for goods. This video was published by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in May 2017.

Its representatives noted that these vehicles are intended for the needs of patrol police, rapid response teams, prevention units and bomb technicians.

Propagandists pick up such manipulations in order to disrupt the mobilization process in Ukraine and cause public distrust in state institutions. Detector Media also refuted other Russian manipulations of mobilization in Ukraine.

Propagandists are disseminating information in the Russian media that the representative of the Netherlands at the Eurovision 2024 international song contest, Joost Klein, was disqualified precisely because of his public statements about his love for Russia and complaints from Ukrainians. Although they themselves clarify that the “Ukrainian theme” was not the main reason for this decision. This is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that even if Ukraine had complaints about the performer's past actions, such as releasing a song about “loving Russian women” or concerts in St. Petersburg after the start of a full-scale invasion, this did not cause his disqualification. Organizers said he was eliminated due to an incident backstage in which Klein allegedly attacked a crew member.

The Dutch delegation indicated that, in its opinion, Klein's disqualification was too severe a measure for the offense committed. The European Language Union, which organizes the competition, has determined that Klein's participation is no longer appropriate given the legal process in this case.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to discredit Ukrainians, create conflict between viewers from different countries and replace the true reasons for the exclusion of a participant with politically motivated ones. Detector Media conducted an online text broadcast of the grand final of Eurovision 2024, where he explained the details of the situation with the disqualification of the Netherlands.

Pro-Kremlin publications are disseminating information that former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko allegedly appealed to the European Union countries with a demand to “deprive assistance from Ukrainian refugees and direct the freed funds to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.

Russian propaganda quotes the politician’s statement, which he seemed to voice in a conversation with journalists from the German publication Deutsche Welle.

StopFake analysts explain that on May 8, Petro Poroshenko attended the congress of the German conservative party Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin. There, when asked by DW whether Germany should facilitate the return of Ukrainian men to their homeland, the politician expressed doubt that any actions by Ukraine or Germany could influence the position of Ukrainian men who refuse to return to their homeland. In a conversation with reporters, he said:

“But I highly recommend (Germany - DW ed.) in relation to these individuals - the men here who refuse to return to Ukraine - please stop funding this, and immediately start providing this money to the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.

That is, Poroshenko did not call for depriving all Ukrainian refugees of assistance in Germany, but only advised redirecting the money used to finance the so-called refugees to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

And the ex-president’s words in no way represent Ukraine’s current political decisions regarding refugees in Europe.

Russian propaganda resources are disseminating information that in Lviv, 100 people with cancer, including many children, were allegedly unable to undergo radiation due to the detention of medical physicists by the Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine  reported that this information is false. The Lviv Oncology Center itself explained that two specialists from the medical institution were actually called by the Territorial center of recruitment and social support to clarify the registration data. However, the center continued to operate as usual. Both center employees have already returned to their duties.

With this fake, the Russian continues to discredit the mobilization process in Ukraine, besides speculating on the sensitive topic of cancer. Previously, we refuted information that Ukrainian pharmacies allegedly do not sell medications to men without a Territorial center of recruitment and social support reference.

Russian telegram channels are again trying to spread the idea that Ukrainians as an ethnic group have supposedly only existed since the beginning of the 20th century. They use the sayings of UPA commander Vasyl Kuk, who in one of his interviews noted that during Austrian times the concept of “Ukrainians” did not exist. Instead, he said, everyone was known as “Ruthenians” or “Rusyns”. He also explained that the term “Ukrainians” appeared later after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, the interpretation is a manipulation of the Russians.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that Kuk was talking about a period of a specific historical era, and not about the entire history of Ukraine. The term “Ukrainians” was used already in the 17th century, as certified in a letter to Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi in 1657. In addition, the word Ukraine is found in the Kyiv Chronicle of 1187.

The terms “Ruthenians” or “Rusyns” have also been used to refer to Ukrainians throughout history. For example, in the Lithuanian-Russian chronicles of the XIV-XVI centuries and under the Cossack state. However, these terms did not exclude the existence of the Ukrainian people, but only reflected different aspects of their identity.

Therefore, attempts to present Kuk's words as evidence that Ukrainians as an ethnic group did not exist before 1918 are mistaken. This is just an attempt to distort historical facts for political purposes.

Russian clinical psychologist Svitlana Kolobova stated that according to official data from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, currently 30% of military personnel at the front suffer from various mental illnesses. She also noted that such estimates may be underestimated, and Ukrainian experts allegedly do not disclose how they identified these psychological problems in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russian propagandist Volodymyr Soloviov conveyed these statements to himself. However, these statements are unreliable.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to them. There are no data or studies confirming such statistics on the official websites of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and on social networks. The Public Health Center or the National Health Service of Ukraine have also not released any information on this matter.

So far, only statistics are available on the number of military personnel who may face mental disorders in the future, but these data were not made public by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, but by foreign and Ukrainian specialists. For example, in the report “Scars on their souls: PTSD and veterans of Ukraine”, experts from the international analytical center Globsec noted that during the ATO and Joint Forces Operation, about 25% of cases of combat stress turned into PTSD of varying severity, and from 20 to 30% of military personnel. those who received psychological trauma during hostilities were unable to solve them without the help of a specialist. According to these data, the real number of cases of PTSD in Ukraine may be more than 20%.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and the Ukrainian Armed Forces. They say they don’t pay attention to this problem, which is becoming increasingly widespread. Russian propaganda stigmatizes the issue of mental health and tries to intimidate the local population.

Propagandists in the Russian media say that the energy sector in Ukraine, as they claim, was “protected with sandbags worth 2 billion hryvnia”, and this is supposedly why the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant (TPP) in the Kyiv region was destroyed. They say that corruption and the lack of desire to truly protect the country’s energy structure were the reason for the destruction of Ukrainian thermal power plants, and not targeted missile attacks by the Russian army. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They remind us that on the night of April 11, Russian troops completely destroyed the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant in the Kyiv region, as reported by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Centerenergo PJSC Andrii Hota in a commentary to Interfax-Ukraine. Centerenergo added that Trypilska Thermal Power Plant was the largest supplier of electricity to the Kyiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions.

After the destruction of the thermal power plant, information began to spread on social networks that last year Centerenergo PJSC claimed that the Trypilska station was 100% equipped with physical protection from shelling, and money was allocated for this from the budget (we are talking about 9.7 billion hryvnia - note ed.). Based on this, the Russian propagandist began to write that this defense was “sandbags” worth 2 billion hryvnia.

Centerenergo OJSC responded to this information and explained that Trypilska Thermal Power Plant did not receive 9.7 billion hryvnia from the state budget for the construction of protection against drones and missiles, and that this amount was allocated by the Cabinet of Ministers to protect the entire critical infrastructure of the country’s fuel and energy sector, and not just separately for the Trypilska station. In addition, Centerenergo added that the company, through its efforts, ensured 100% physical protection of the station, but this protection can only protect against fragmentation damage, and not against direct missile hits.

The head of the State Agency for Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Development, Mustafa Nayyem, said the same, explaining that the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant is a very large facility, and it is impossible to completely protect it only with protective engineering structures without the use of appropriate air defense systems.

Later, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, in an interview with the American media PBS, said that the Trypilska Thermal Power Plant was destroyed by the Russians because Ukraine had no missiles left to protect it. Commenting on the problems with weapons by the allies, Zelenskyi gave an example of the situation with thermal power plants: “I’ll give you one example, very simple: at the Trypilska station, the light in the Kyiv region depends on it. 11 missiles were flying. We destroyed the first seven, the next four destroyed TPP. Why? Because there were zero missiles”.

Centerenergo also adds that at the moment, the resumption of thermal power plants without providing Ukraine with air defense systems is “surprisingly useless”. This was stated by the head of the supervisory board of PJSC Centerenergo Andrii Hota on the air of the Ukrainian Voice of America service.

Such statements are yet another example of Russian propaganda manipulation aimed at spreading narratives of massive corruption in the country in order to discredit Ukraine’s efforts to ensure the security of its critical infrastructure. At the same time, Russian propaganda misses the fact that it is the Russian army that is committing war crimes, shelling the energy infrastructure of Ukraine and causing significant damage to the civilian population.

Propagandists in the media and social networks began to spread manipulative information that a Russian missile allegedly destroyed 32 D-20 howitzers in the Sumy region of Ukraine. In such “news” they add a video that shows a missile strike on howitzers arranged in several rows. Some publications indicated the exact coordinates of the hit site. “Well, a very successful hit!”, users write.

After disseminating such information, StopFake decided to check whether Russia really managed to hit 32 howitzers of the Ukrainian army with one blow. They found out that this information is manipulative.

First, StopFake verified the authenticity of the distributed frames. Propagandists claimed that the video was from Okhtyrka, Sumy region. Some users even shared suitable coordinates. Fact-checkers found out that this was indeed the site of the “destruction” of howitzers. By comparing the satellite image on Google Maps and the propaganda video, one can see identical trees along the road, identical buildings and their location. A propaganda video circulated shows the howitzers strategically placed. This raises certain doubts, since the border with Russia that struck was only 40 kilometers along the shortest route. Keeping such a number of howitzer guns open in such close proximity to the enemy is, at first glance, at least illogical from a military point of view.

However, it turned out that there was a logical explanation for such placement of howitzers on the Ukrainian side. Having discovered the location of the impact on Google Maps, StopFake noticed that satellite images showed approximately the same number of guns with a similar arrangement. At first they assumed that this could be a recent image that accidentally captured the D-20 cluster. But with the help of archival photos of the same place, it was possible to establish that the “destroyed” howitzers had been standing there for more than one year. The Google Earth Pro program, which allows one to select the year the image was taken, recorded their placement starting in 2017. Since then, only a few howitzers have been removed.

Russia appears to have struck a storage site for faulty weapons that had been out in the open long before the full-scale invasion and is still there during active hostilities. Russian propaganda decided to hush up this fact, passing off the news as a successful strike on the “central weapons storage base and the destruction of 32 howitzers”. The fact that the howitzers were not used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces was also written by the user Tatarigami, who is engaged in OSINT analytics, on the social network X.com.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to create a belief among the local population that Ukrainian weapons are ineffective or are wasted.

Russia is actively spreading disinformation about Kharkiv in the media and continues to reinforce panic about the situation there. Now they claim that Kharkiv is allegedly being prepared for defense, namely, they are turning residential buildings into “fortresses”.  Such “news” is accompanied by traditional messages about “mass evacuation”, preparation of residents for life during active hostilities, migration of enterprises from the city, etc. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that this manipulation was created on the basis of an interview with Major General of the Reserve Armed Forces of Ukraine Serhii Kryvonos on the Pershyi Zakhidnyi (First Western) TV channel, from which propagandists took out a quote to create disinformation. During the conversation, the presenters asked the major general whether the Russians could capture Kharkiv from the Sumy region, to which Serhii Kryvonos replied that Kharkiv is not Avdiivka or Bakhmut, but a city of much larger size - tens of times larger, “and the perimeter of Kharkiv is almost 80 kilometers, and in order to surround or block such a city, the Russians must have the necessary force and means”.

“For our part, we must understand that in Kharkiv, for example, there are a large number of houses for different purposes, and the task of preparing the city for defense is, perhaps, one of the main tasks, so that we do not have such failures in the unpreparedness of defense, as was the case in Bakhmut. The city was not ready for defense in the military engineering sense. The better we prepare, and the number of buildings in Kharkiv exceeds more than 22 thousand houses, and if each house is a fortress, then one will understand how much of it will need to be taken”, Kryvonos actually said, and he noted that with proper defense Kharkiv can stand not one or two, but three years. At the same time, the major general said that the Ukrainian army should not retreat into deep defense, but continue to work to destroy the critical infrastructure of the Russian rear.

It was these words of Kryvonos that Russian propagandists presented as a fait accompli, as if in Kharkiv they had already begun to literally turn residential buildings into “fortresses”. During the interview, Serhii Kryvonos also said that precisely such a defense may not be achieved if Russia’s economic capacity is undermined by Ukrainian attacks.

It should be noted that several lines of fortifications were erected in the Kharkiv region. Earlier, the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration Oleh Syniehubov stated that the third stage of construction of fortifications in the region was already underway.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to cause panic among the population.

Social networks are spreading information that residents of Odesa are allegedly selling their apartments almost free of charge and leaving the city en masse.

“Residents of the city, apparently, anticipate the approach of the Russian armed forces and subsequent battles for the city, so they decide to get rid of their apartments”, they comment on the so-called news on the network.

StopFake analysts examined the case and determined that the information about selling real estate “at a low price” was untrue. As analysts explained, local realtors note that some city residents are indeed ready to sell their property cheaper, but this phenomenon is temporary.

In general, real estate experts also explain that today real estate prices in Odesa have practically leveled off with pre-war indicators, and the cost of secondary housing has increased by several percent.

Russian propagandists are spreading information on social networks that on December 4, 2023, the former head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, allegedly called on Ukraine to commit terror against Russian citizens. This was allegedly confirmed by the American publication The Washington Post. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that, in fact, according to The Washington Post, Mark Milley did not call on Ukraine to carry out terrorist attacks on Russian territory. In fact, he advised Ukrainian fighters to actively act against Russian soldiers in the temporarily occupied territories. It is also important to note that the United States does not support Ukrainian forces in launching attacks beyond its own borders.

The original publication in The Washington Post, published on December 4, 2023 under the title Miscalculations, divisions marked offensive planning by US, Ukraine, indeed contains a similar quote from Mark Milley. The material describes events in early 2023, shortly before the Ukrainian summer counter-follow-up operation. At that time, Milley was already Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, but left this post at the end of September 2023. According to The Washington Post, Mark Milley expressed these allegations during a conversation with Ukrainian Special Operations Forces soldiers in Wiesbaden, Germany. According to the publication, he used these words to inspire them to take action. His speech took place in the context of rear operations in territories temporarily under enemy control.

The article quoted Milley as follows: “There should be no Russian who goes to sleep without wondering if they’re going to get their throat slit in the middle of the night,” Milley said, according to an official with knowledge of the event. “You gotta get back there, and create a campaign behind the lines”.

The article was about the military situation in the Russian-Ukrainian war, so when Milley spoke about “Russians”, he meant the Russian military, not civilians. It should also be noted that State Department spokesman Matthew Miller later confirmed that the US position remains unchanged: it does not encourage Ukrainian forces to conduct strikes outside their own borders.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to strengthen their message that Ukraine is allegedly behind the terrorist attack in Crocus City Holly. Detector Media explained how else Russian propaganda is trying to spread this message.

Russian media, citing statements by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, claim that he allegedly admitted the “pathetic state” of the Ukrainian army and its readiness to retreat from Kharkiv. Propagandists say that Syrskyi, along with Western allies, is losing confidence in Kyiv's successes and is increasingly worried about the possibility of a Russian attack not only on Kharkiv, but also on the Ukrainian capital. Such conclusions of the Russian media are based on an interview with Oleksandr Syrskyi for Ukrinform. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that in fact, in this interview, Syrskyi never mentioned “critical problems” in the structure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and did not talk about the “strategic superiority” of the enemy. Discussing the state of affairs at the front, Syrskyi noted its complexity, but at the same time emphasized that war always requires great effort. He also noted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost fewer positions than they were able to regain. He noted that, despite Russia's advantage in the amount of ammunition and personnel, this did not give it strategic advantages, only minor territorial gains.

Syrskyi also noted Ukraine’s effectiveness in destroying enemy personnel and equipment, including the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and successfully using its advantage in the field of drones. He noted that Russian occupiers have serious problems with management and logistics.

According to Syrskyi, the main goal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is to prevent the loss of control over Ukrainian territory, to deplete the enemy as much as possible, inflict significant losses on him and prepare reserves for a counteroffensive. Pro-Kremlin media missed references to Russia's defeats, distorting these comments.

In the same interview with Ukrinform, Syrskyi did not make manipulative statements regarding Kharkiv, emphasizing that Ukraine takes information about possible offensive operations of the enemy seriously and is ready to properly respond to such threats. He noted that any attempt by Russia to attack Kharkiv again would lead to disastrous consequences for it, citing the successful experience of liberating the region in the past.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to discredit the Ukrainian armed forces and cause panic among the local population. Detector Media also refuted other manipulations aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Russian propagandists are spreading claims about the “accuracy” of Russian airstrikes in Ukraine, interpreting the Financial Times article in their own way. They claim that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry allegedly acknowledged the “sharpness of Russian operations” aimed “against Ukrainian military targets” and again accused Ukraine of “blackmail for the sake of obtaining weapons from the West”. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found a Financial Times article cited by propagandists about Russia's use of Soviet-made guided bombs in the war with Ukraine. The article describes how these bombs are upgraded with the addition of cheap wings and a GPS system and released from Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft capable of hitting targets along the front line. The article quotes a comment from the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, who notes Russia's intensive use of these bombs to attack Ukrainian military positions, noting that damage to a bomber carrying such a bomb is the only possible defense. However, the Financial Times refutes the myth of the “high precision” of Russian attacks, pointing to their use against civilians and examples of significant destruction and civilian casualties.

The author of the article also criticizes Russian claims about the “precision” of strikes, recalling the large-scale use of missiles and kamikaze drones against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and emphasizes that such actions can be qualified as war crimes, considered in international courts. In the context of these charges, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian army officials.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to justify Russian attacks against civilians.

Russian propagandists are spreading a statement by the alleged former secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksii Danylov. According to them, after his recent dismissal from office, Danylov described the situation in Ukraine as hopeless. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. On March 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi fired Oleksii Danylov and appointed Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. The changes in leadership were explained by presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak as a step towards strengthening the analytical component of the National Security and Defense Council.

When leaving his post, Danylov expressed gratitude on Facebook for the opportunity to serve the country and people in times of peace and wartime. He also stated: “No matter how difficult or hopeless the situation seems, we worked and will continue to work for the sake of Ukraine, we believed and continue to believe in our victory! The main thing is to always remember that you should not be afraid of anyone, ever, move forward and believe in Ukraine, believe in its people!”

However, Russian propaganda interpreted his words as “revealing the true situation in the country”, which was a complete distortion of Danylov's message.

Propagandists spread such misinformation to cause panic among Ukrainians. Like, everything is so bad that a high-ranking official admitted it.

Russian propagandists are spreading information that Ukraine has expressed its readiness to “give up Crimea and Donbas” by initiating peace negotiations. They refer to statements made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi during an interview with the American channel CBS. Propagandists claim that Country 404 proposes to begin a peaceful dialogue with Russia without demanding the return of the 1991 borders, although Kyiv previously insisted on this condition for resuming negotiations with Moscow. However, these statements are based on a distortion of reality.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this manipulation. They found that the actual content of the CBS News interview with Volodymyr Zelenskyi was reduced to incorrect conclusions to promote false narratives.

In fact, in an interview, Zelenskyi, answering a question about faith in the possibility of Ukraine returning all territories, including Crimea, emphasized that with sufficient support from partners, as well as a complete economic blockade of Russia, Ukraine will be able to restore its territorial integrity not only through military means. He expressed confidence that Russia’s defeat will lead to the loss of its support even by states that doubt Ukraine and will weaken positions within Russia itself, which will force it to dialogue. Zelenskyi called an important condition for such a dialogue the liberation of Ukrainian territories and the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine within the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to discredit the President and cause a split in Ukrainian society. Detector Media previously refuted other Russian lies about Zelenskyi.

Pro-Russian propagandists are spreading information that the Odesa territorial recruitment center is allegedly requiring schoolchildren to register at the polling stations in order to send them to the army.

However, this information has been manipulated, write experts on the VoxCheck project. According to Ukrainian legislation, young men in the year they turn 17 must be assigned to conscription stations. This postscript does not mean that they will be mobilized.

The original message on the Facebook page of the Odesa Territorial center of recruitment and social support, to which propagandists refer, actually says that at the recruiting stations in the region, registration of young men born in 2007 continues, and those of them who received draft notices for registration must appear at the Territorial center of recruitment and social support. However, this is a legal procedure for registering pre-conscripts, which existed even before the full-scale invasion. According to it, every year during January - March, pre-conscription conscripts who turn 17 in the year of registration are assigned to conscription stations. That is, the Territorial center of recruitment and social support acts in accordance with the law. In particular, registration with the Territorial center of recruitment and social support is carried out in order to determine the conscription resources available in the state.

In addition, it should be understood that a draft notice for registration and a draft notice for mobilization are of two different types and they are issued to different categories of the population. Registration to a recruiting station does not mean mobilization. Men from 18 to 25 years old can be mobilized if they are liable for military service, that is, they served in the army, served in a military department at a university, or studied at a higher military educational institution. In addition, conscripts can voluntarily join the army by concluding a contract with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The rest of the men are subject to mobilization from the age of 25.

Previously, we refuted information about the alleged mobilization of 1000 students of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Russian telegram channels are disseminating a report from the HJS analytical center, which allegedly indicates the fact that Kyiv has insufficient control over dangerous radioactive materials. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the report analyzes the nuclear security situation in Ukraine against Russian missile strikes. The authors do not indicate that Kyiv does not sufficiently control radioactive materials. In contrast, the report notes that the main threat to radiation safety comes from Russian attacks on nuclear facilities in Ukraine, which poses serious threats to NATO countries, including the UK.

The study makes recommendations to the UK and other NATO countries on the situation, such as using diplomatic and political means to reduce the nuclear threat, supporting the IAEA to create a “nuclear safety zone” around Ukrainian nuclear power plants and deploying radiation detection instruments. It is noted that the UK and NATO should initiate the development of an international legal instrument for the security of nuclear facilities during armed conflicts.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did not reveal any violations during its inspections of nuclear facilities controlled by Ukraine. Moreover, the IAEA Board of Governors approved a resolution on the need to return the Zaporizhzhia NPP to full control of Ukraine.

Propagandists spread such manipulations in order to discredit Ukraine and divert attention from Russia's actions. Detector Media has already written about other Russian manipulations concerning the IAEA.

Russian propaganda telegram channels citing the words of the former Ukrainian ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko spread information that Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the Office of the President planned to flee to the UK before a full-scale invasion. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that propagandists carried out this manipulation based on an interview with Vadym Prystaiko for Ukrainska Pravda, published on March 12, 2024. In it, he spoke about preparations for the invasion in his role as Ukraine's ambassador to the UK. In particular, they talked about discussing with the British government the possibility of finding premises in London for the Ukrainian authorities in the event of the fall of Kyiv. In addition, measures were considered to evacuate data from electronic registers, banking systems, television and radio broadcasting to cloud storage, and even move the gold and foreign exchange reserves outside the country in order to protect it from falling into the hands of Russian troops.

During the outbreak of the aggression, Zelenskyi was offered several times to leave Ukraine, including an offer from the US government and the British Prime Minister, but he refused. Propaganda accusations of Zelensky’s cowardice and plans to escape are not supported by evidence and are intended only to sow panic among the Ukrainian population. Previously, other fakes regarding Zelenskyi’s alleged plans to flee to the United States were refuted.

Propagandists spread information on social networks and the media that Ukraine intends to send its women to demining particularly dangerous areas “as one of the first”, and Canada will pay for it. The authors of such posts refer to the official website of the Prime Minister of Canada, which they claim confirms this information. However, this is manipulation.

Analysts of the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that there is no mention on the official website of the Canadian Prime Minister that Ukrainian women will be sent to demining particularly dangerous areas. The website contains information on the provision of additional military assistance to Ukraine, including the project “Gender-Inclusive Demining for a Sustainable Future in Ukraine”, for which Canada allocates funds. The HALO Trust project mentioned in the document, which helps women to acquire appropriate education and skills, does not assume that Ukrainian women will be guaranteed to be among the first to be sent for demining. Instead, the HALO Trust really aims to help Ukrainians in the destruction of explosive ordnance on the territory of the country.

Propagandists spread such manipulations in order to cause panic in the population and demotivate Ukrainians to cooperate with similar projects. In addition, in this way, Russia reinforces the message that the West is supposedly indifferent to Ukrainians and their victims.

In an interview for the Polish news channel Polsat News, former Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army Raimund Andrzejczak, according to propagandists, expressed the opinion that Ukraine’s losses should be estimated in millions, not hundreds of thousands. However, this information is manipulated.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found that in his speech Andrzejczak mentioned the losses associated with the large flow of refugees and limited resources for mobilization. He spoke of a certain threat, pointing to the shortage of people in Ukraine and the problem with mobilization capacity, claiming “10 million refugees”.

However, Andrzejczak's estimates of losses are not precise. According to the Mykhailo Ptukha Institute of Demography and Social Research, more than 9 million Ukrainians are abroad, only some of them are refugees, and the others are labor migrants or those who left the country earlier. According to various estimates, the number of Ukrainian refugees ranges from 4.9 to 6.5 million.

The Center for Economic Strategy study also cites different figures, pointing to fewer Ukrainians abroad due to the war. Estimates of the actual losses of the Ukrainian military also vary, but do not reach millions. Approximate numbers of dead and prisoners are contained in the materials of the “Book of Memory of those who fell for Ukraine”, which has been keeping records of losses as a result of the war since 2014.

Propagandists often take phrases of famous politicians and military personnel out of context in order to dramatize the situation and cause despondency among Ukrainians.

Russian resources disseminate information that during his visit to Kyiv on March 18, 2024, American Senator Lindsey Graham insisted on the mobilization of Ukrainians who are not even 25 years old. In asserting this, Russian propagandists refer to an article by The Washington Post.

In fact, this information is distorted, write the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Russian propagandists have twisted Graham's words, which originally appeared in The Washington Post: “I would hope that those eligible to serve in the Ukrainian military would join. I can’t believe it’s at 27. You’re in a fight for your life, so you should be serving — not at 25 or 27.” That is, the American senator did not call on Ukraine to mobilize those who are not even 25. He only said that in such an existential war it is not necessary to wait until the age of 27 (current conscription age).

This is not the first time that propagandists have had difficulty translating Graham's statements. For example, in May 2023, Russian propaganda attributed to the senator the words that supposedly “the deaths of Russians are the result of a successful investment of money by the American authorities”. However, these words turned out to be nothing more than manipulation.

In mid-March 2024, Russian propagandists spread information that Ukraine was allegedly not releasing citizens of African countries and was “forcibly” mobilizing them for military operations. Like, this was reported by the American television channel ABC News, where a Congolese citizen allegedly claimed that he was offered to fight for Ukraine. However, this is manipulation.

After disseminating this information, StopFake decided to check whether a Congolese citizen really complained to an American TV channel that he was not being allowed out of Ukraine and was being “forced” to mobilize for military action. They found out that the news was false.

In the video distributed by Russian propaganda, the foreigner cannot be heard complaining that he is not allowed to leave Ukraine. At the beginning of the video, the voice of a TV presenter talks about a person from the Congo who claims that he was the target of discrimination when trying to board an evacuation train. What follows is the direct language of a foreigner who says that he was offered to fight for Ukraine. After his comment, the video ends. It is impossible to draw conclusions about why he was not released from the country and whether they really tried to “forcibly” mobilize him.

In this regard, StopFake tried to find this news on the American ABC News channel and reconsider whether there was perhaps additional context that could help understand this situation better. The video shows that the Congolese citizen's name is Pira Diantuadi. We managed to find an article about this man on the ABC News website. It turned out that it was published in the spring of 2022 and was dedicated to foreign refugees trying to leave Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion. The authors of the material tried to figure out whether there was discrimination on racial grounds during the evacuation from the country. In particular, Diantuadi complained that, despite promising to put only “women and children” on the evacuation train, he saw Ukrainian men being put on the evacuation train. The material is accompanied by an insert where Diantuadi talks about the proposal to fight for Ukraine, which the propagandists took advantage of. However, the material does not contain any conclusions that Ukraine tried to deliberately not let foreigners out of the country and “forcibly” mobilize them.

The ABC News article also noted that the interview with the Congolese citizen was conducted in Poland. The inscriptions in Polish in the background of the video confirm this. That is, the foreigner still managed to leave Ukraine at the beginning of the Russian invasion. Therefore, Russian propaganda tried to use the story of the “travel ban” and “forced” mobilization of foreign citizens in a new way, publishing an old video of a person in order to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of citizens of the countries of the South.

It should be added that according to Ukrainian legislation, foreigners cannot be mobilized. As the head of the personnel department of the headquarters of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Roman Horbach, explained in a comment to ArmyInform, a foreigner can only want this himself.

“According to the law, foreigners can be drafted into the Defense Forces. But they are not called up for mobilization, but are accepted for military service voluntarily under a contract in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, said Roman Horbach.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on anonymous telegram channels claim that the Ukrainian military is given the drug ketamine so that they will not be afraid of battle. They write that “Time magazine, citing neuroscientists from the United States, stated that the Ukrainian command uses ketamine “at zero front line”; it is a specific hallucinogenic drug”. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that propagandists distorted the content of the article, which actually talked about the use of ketamine in the treatment of veterans and military personnel in Ukraine.

The Time article noted that “psychedelic drugs may help troops overcome trauma” in war and that “some (Ukraine) military personnel have already received legal ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic with some hallucinogenic effects, in private clinics”. This applies to the treatment of military personnel suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or having a traumatic brain injury. However, the massive use of ketamine in therapy has not yet been considered in Ukraine.

Regarding the use of drugs by military personnel in combat, Time mentions in its article a report alleging that Russian soldiers in Ukraine are given amphetamines before combat.

In Ukraine, there is still an ongoing debate about this method of treatment, as StopFake notes. In particular, previously the initiator of the introduction of psychedelic-assisted therapy, a doctor at the State Center for Psychological Health and Rehabilitation of Veterans “Lisova Haliavyna” of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Kseniia Voznytska, explained that this topic is very stigmatized in Ukraine and that most people do not even know what psychedelic-assisted therapy is. This is an inpatient type of treatment under the supervision of psychotherapists.

Propagandists from time to time spread misinformation that Ukrainian military personnel are drug addicts and alcoholics because they cannot withstand the horrors of the front. These false reports are intended to discredit the Ukrainian Armed Forces, hinder mobilization in the country and demoralize Ukrainian society as a whole. Detector Media has already refuted such a fake before.

In the Russian segment of social networks they write that Ukrainian partisans burned down a drone production plant in Lviv, having previously also eliminated the plant’s security guards. The authors added that they produced 5 thousand drones every month for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in particular, UAVs “Furia”, “Leleka 100”, RAM II UAV and others. This is manipulation.

VoxCheck analysts analyzed this information and found that until now details about the explosion at the enterprise in Lviv had not been reported. Moreover, the company does not produce UAVs; information about such production was disseminated by a pro-Russian propagandist. That is, his words do not claim to be authentic.

Ukrainian media indeed reported that on February 18, 2024, an explosion actually occurred in Lviv on the territory of an industrial complex on Antonovych street. According to the speaker of the SBU in the Lviv region, Roksolana Yavorska, there were no casualties as a result of the explosion. There have still been no official statements about the cause of the explosion or those involved.