Russian media write about this with reference to the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmytriy Peskov. Like, it's not Russia holding a referendum, but local residents. Thus, the Kremlin is trying to legalize the processes in the occupied territories.

According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine is the business of the entire Ukrainian people, and issues of changing the territory of Ukraine are resolved exclusively by an all-Ukrainian referendum. Ukrainian law prohibits holding elections or referendums during martial law. Any attempt to hold a referendum in the temporarily occupied territories is illegal and violates international law. The decision on the ownership of Ukrainian territories can be made and recognized by other states only if all the norms of the current Ukrainian legislation are observed.

This is written in anonymous telegram channels. Like, if Crimea is Ukraine, then how, after such joy, to return these territories.

Explosions were heard in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea on August 9 at the military airfield in Novofedorovka. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the fire at the Saki airbase was caused by the detonation of several aircraft projectiles, allegedly due to a violation of fire safety requirements. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that it could not establish the cause of the fire. That is, neither Ukraine nor Russia recognized any military operations on the territory of the military airfield, which is under the control of infidels.

Information about the explosions at the airport really caused a strong reaction on social networks. However, emotions were caused primarily by significant losses of the enemy. Yurii Ihnat, a representative of the Air Force command, said on the air of the national telethon on August 10 that a composition of aviation weapons and about a dozen aircraft that systematically patrolled the airspace on the territory of Ukraine were destroyed at the airfield in the occupied Crimea.

Russian media spread the image of the restaurant's alleged billboard, where a Japanese sushi chef covers the mouth of a Ukrainian woman with the call: "Let's change the subject - let's talk about delicious sushi."

The Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security Council together with the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan turned to the Sushinomidori company management for an explanation regarding the provocative billboard.

The refutation of the fake appeared on the official website.

The company said it does not support discrimination against any country or nationality, and the image shared is not related to it.

Russian propagandists launch such messages to say that the situation in Ukraine is no longer of interest to anyone in the world, people want to live an ordinary life and are ready to silence Ukrainians who will try to prevent them with their protests, etc.

The Russian media repeatedly manipulates the topic of LGBT military personnel. This time, messages are being spread that there is no one to fight in Ukraine anymore, so gays, lesbians, and transgender people are being recruited. Russian society is characterized by intolerance and homophobia, considering representatives of the LGBT community to be "perverts", people not worthy of respect. LGBT people in Russia are often discriminated against, for which the perpetrators, according to the law, cannot be brought to justice. When talking about LGBT people, propagandists pay attention exclusively to their sexual orientation, erasing the fact that homosexual people can be specialists in various fields just like heterosexuals. In particular, in the military.

LGBT people have been serving in the Ukrainian army for a long time and, in particular, have been defending the borders of Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, in 2014. The Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that "all people are free and equal in their dignity and rights. Human rights and freedoms are inalienable and inviolable". During the draft, the military commissions do not ask about sexual orientation, because people are not selected for the army based on it. On the contrary, the fact that additional attention will be paid to it can be considered discrimination.

In Ukrainian society, as well as in the army, there are still certain problems with bullying or intolerance towards LGBT people. Despite this, Ukrainian LGBT soldiers fulfill their duty to protect the state. Manipulations of Russian propaganda about the fact that in Ukraine "there is no one to serve" is a wish that is passed off as reality.

The fake about Ukrainian "gays in the army" is not new. Earlier, Russian propagandist Olga Skabeyeva voiced on the air of her program that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr ZeZelenskyon the orders of US President Joe Biden, sent "columns of Ukrainian homosexuals" to Donbas.

"Media Detector" previously refuted the myths about the LGBT+ community, which are widespread in the Ukrainian media and society, and also told how LGBT activists oppose Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russian media spread this message with reference to American journalist Ben Swann. In social networks, Swann also spreads other messages that resonate with Russian propaganda: the Russian ruble is the most stable currency this year; American sanctions have a positive effect on the Russian economy; the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) are ready to face the economic war of the West. He also claims that for the stability of food prices, the US leadership in private urges foreign companies to buy Russian fertilizer. Swann previously denied Russia's responsibility for the downing of the MH17 plane.

Such messages are spread in the Russian media. They enter the Ukrainian information space through anonymous Telegram channels and social networks.

As the Center for Combating Disinformation writes, the topic of the "inevitable international tribunal" over prisoners of war from "Azovstal" has been systematically in the focus of propagandists since May 2022. In Russia, "Azov" has already been recognized as a terrorist organization and its activities have been banned on its territory. However, any attempt to "convict" the Azov people would be outside the bounds of international law, as the rights of prisoners of war are guaranteed by international conventions. Prisoners of war performed the duties defined by the state and the law to protect the sovereignty of Ukraine.

Since 2014, Russia, having violated its obligations to Ukraine, which were recorded in the Budapest Memorandum, has been lying at all costs about why it should not fulfill them. Andriy Bilousov, deputy head of the Russian delegation, voiced yet another lie at the Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). He stated that the accusations against Russia in violation of the Budapest Memorandum are "untenable" because "Russia's opponents have repeatedly disrespected the fundamental norms of international law, the principles of the UN and the OSCE." For example, they "bombed Belgrade" and recognized Kosovo. The Budapest Memorandum spells out the obligations of the guarantors - Great Britain, the USA, and Russia - regarding Ukraine. Here they are 1. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America confirm to Ukraine their commitment to the principles of the OSCE Final Act to respect the independence and sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine. 2. ...reaffirm their commitment to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except for self-defense or otherwise by the Charter of the United Nations. 3. ...confirm to Ukraine their obligation by the principles of the OSCE Final Act to refrain from economic pressure aimed at subjugating Ukraine's exercise of the rights inherent in its sovereignty to its interests, and thus obtaining any advantages. 4. ...confirm their commitment to seek immediate action from the UN Security Council to assist Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon State party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine becomes the victim of an act of aggression or the object of threat aggression with the use of nuclear weapons. 5. ...confirm Ukraine their obligation not to use nuclear weapons against any state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that does not possess nuclear weapons, except in the case of an attack on themselves, their territories, or their dependent territories, their armed forces or their allies by such a state jointly or in alliance with a nuclear-weapon state. None of these points has any bearing on what, how, and where signatory countries have done or may do anywhere else in the world. Therefore, of course, the statements of Russian representatives regarding their own "innocence" are another lie. In addition, it is sustained in the spirit of "the fool himself." Read about the fact that this is a common format of Russian propaganda here. 

This was said by the Russian president's spokesman Dmytro Peskov. Like, sooner or later these countries will ask whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy is doing everything right.

In fact, in response to Russia's unprecedented and unprovoked military attack on Ukraine, the EU imposed seven packages of sanctions. The European Commission also proposed to extend all current sanctions until the end of January 2023.

As Josep Borrell says, such a quick rejection of Russian energy carriers creates serious difficulties for many EU countries, as well as for several sectors of the economy. But this is the price that, according to the politician, must be paid for the protection of democracy and international law, and the EU takes the necessary measures to solve these problems in the spirit of full solidarity.

After the European Union blocked the Kremlin's main propaganda channels — RT and Sputnik — the occupiers found new ways to spread disinformation, writes the Center for Strategic Communications with reference to AR. NewsGuard, a New York-based disinformation research and monitoring firm, has identified 250 sites spreading Russian disinformation about the war. Some of the sites previously had no clear connection with the Russian Federation, some rebranded to disguise themselves, and some pretend to be independent think tanks or news agencies. They spread fakes that the Ukrainian army has staged deadly attacks against the Russian Federation, that Volodymyr Zelensky is faking his public appearance, that Ukrainian refugees are committing crimes in Germany and Poland, etc. RT and Sputnik's propaganda material is posted on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram from other accounts. RT video content can appear on social networks under a new brand and logo. 

One of the anonymous Telegram channels is developing the opinion that Poland is currently luring Ukrainian production and enterprises to itself. Allegedly, it has been absorbing the economy of Ukraine since 2014, luring workers. Referring to an anonymous source, the propagandists write that it is Poland that will collapse the EU and is already dictating the terms of the European Union.

Please note that the propagandists argue their position with the obvious fact of Poland's development under EU subsidies, and then contrast Ukraine as a weaker country because of its "maidans and wars". At the same time, the dubious and loud thesis about the absorption of the economy stands next to the obvious and well-known fact about wage earners. Such a manipulative technique — disguising one's messages as obvious facts — is a common practice of Russian propaganda. As well as a link to an anonymous source. The purpose of such a message is probably to influence the mood of Ukrainians, to make us and the Poles quarrel, and the Poles quarrel with the rest of the Europeans.

Anonymous Telegram channels relay messages from their "sources" about two possible scenarios for holding online referendums. According to him, the first option means a referendum in the occupied territories to secure precincts. According to the second, residents of 10 regions of Ukraine will also be involved in the referendum, allegedly to show the goal to which the Russian Federation is striving and will not stop until it is achieved. At the same time, the propagandists write that the position of the Ukrainian authorities - regarding not returning to negotiations in the event of referendums - is weak. 

Russian propaganda systematically accuses Ukraine of striking the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. At the same time, the "commander" of the occupying garrison of the nuclear power plant, Russian General Vasiliev, threatened that "the station will be either Russian or nobody" and "there will be either Russian free land or scorched earth".

Russian propagandists write about this with reference to Western media. Apparently, Ukraine does not expect to receive a sufficient amount of foreign weapons, and therefore does not have the opportunity and does not plan counterattacks on any part of the front. As evidence, the Kremlin media manipulates the materials of the Western media. But, it is not so.

Russian media quoted the statement of Volodymyr Rogov, who was appointed to the occupation "administration". He believes that Zaporizhzhia and other settlements of the region were created by Russian tsars, and all this time the territories were in Ukrainian captivity, where they tried to Ukrainianize the people and forced them to forget their "native" Russian language.

Distortion of history is done deliberately to play on the feelings of patriotism of ignorant people, writes the Center for Combating Disinformation at the NSDC. The CPD draws attention to the fact that similar statements are being made more often now, as the occupiers are planning to hold pseudo-referendums.

This was reported by the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova. Quotations from her briefing were published by the Russian media. According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, this shows that the Kremlin is afraid of an official decision and therefore resorts to direct threats. The Kremlin is also trying to shift the responsibility for such messages to the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is threatening or publicly insulting other countries on TV, not for the first time. The Russian top leadership has so far refrained from public statements on this topic. The recognition of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism further isolates it from the civilized world.

According to the Russians, the Biden administration is responsible for the missile attacks on the civil infrastructure of Donbas and other regions, which caused the mass death of civilians. Also, Russians believe that the political, criminal, and moral responsibility for the massacre in Olenivka and other war crimes in Ukraine, is borne by the Biden administration together with Zelensky. The position of the Russian Ministry of Defense was reported by the Center for Combating Disinformation.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry said this at the UN conference. Allegedly, as a result of such actions against Russia, the situation in world strategic stability is rapidly deteriorating.

Anonymous Telegram channels write a lot about the US involvement in China's conflict with Taiwan. Propagandists write that the USA has been "pumping Taiwan with weapons" for a long time and that it was the same with the "Ukrainian crisis". This generalized and manipulative message is probably designed to shift the emphasis once again, blaming the USA for starting a major war in Ukraine and not mentioning that Russia started the offensive. 

Russian propagandists continue to talk about Russia's invincibility in the war, including because of its economic power. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security writes that Russia is a mediocre player in the international market. In particular, more than 75% of Russian exports are raw materials, more than 53% are energy carriers, and only 8% are high-tech products. A raw economy is a feature of a colony, not an empire, the Center summarizes.

Russian propagandists spread such messages by using, in particular, a quote from the American economist Jeffrey Sachs, who has pro-Russian views.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, the Kremlin media took the words of former US military officer Murphy Donovan out of context and spread false reports that the population of Odesa will come under Russian control on its own. Donovan's article generally talks about the importance of Odesa for Ukraine.

The Russian media wrote about this with reference to The New York Times article (NYT). Allegedly, skepticism is growing in the West regarding Russia's "attrition tactics" they have initiated.

Russian propagandists selectively quote the original article, and also add to the retelling non-existent quotes, writes VoxCheck. The original article cited by Russian media ran under the headline "Ukraine tries to prove it can win, recalling recent strikes." "Rejecting skepticism that Western weapons will allow them to turn the tide against Russia, the Ukrainians point to successful attacks using new long-range missile systems," the introduction reads.

Its author, Andrew Kramer, was formerly a correspondent of the NYT's Moscow and now he is a correspondent of the Kyiv bureau. His publications for the NYT already contained manipulations and messages consistent with Russian propaganda.

At the beginning of the article, Cramer does note that "support for the West has softened", but he doesn’t provide any specific examples that would indicate this. He does not give examples of those who expressed "skepticism that Ukraine will be able to win a war of attrition." More details.

A former military man from France, Adrien Boke, repeatedly exposed for lying and spreading Kremlin propaganda, appeared in the Russian media again with a statement about the alleged atrocities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the staging of mass killings of civilians in Bucha, which he saw with his own eyes. In an interview with the pro-Kremlin news agency RIA Novyny, Adrian Boke said that the Ukrainian military was allegedly specifically looking for Russian officers and shot them in the head and that in front of him, bodies of people were taken out of trucks and placed next to the bodies lying on the side of the streets.

Adrian Boke's stories about Ukraine were previously refuted by StopFake, Liberation, and other international media, but the Kremlin media continues to reproduce them.

Data received from Ukrainian border guards indicate that Adrian Boke made only short-term visits to the Ukrainian territory during April. He entered Ukraine for the first time through the Sheghini checkpoint on April 4 and left the same day. His second visit took place from April 5 to 6. These two visits are confirmed by the data provided by the charitable foundation "Sheptytskyi Hospital", which Adrian Boke visited twice. Later, he returned to Ukraine only on April 17, entering through the Krakovets checkpoint, and left the country on April 19 - this is the longest visit of Adrian Boke, which also took no more than 72 hours. Boke's last crossing of the Polish-Ukrainian border took place between April 19 and 20. These data refute the trip possibility to Bucha, which is located 7 hours away from Lviv (taking into account roadblocks, the road in April would take about a day for one way).

Numerous testimonies of local residents and satellite images of the Bucha district confirm the fact that the population on the Kyiv outskirts was subjected to violence by the Russian military. And the atrocities of the Russian occupiers in Bucha became the main topic of the world media and social networks. More details.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, Russian propaganda systematically uses the materials of the world media for disinformation about the future defeat of Ukraine and its partners. The department cites several new examples of the use of this tactic. Propagandists are spreading quotes from pro-Russian US military analyst Scott Ritter, who said in an interview with the Kremlin media that Ukraine and NATO have no chance of preventing a complete military victory for Russia. Regarding Daily Shincho, Russian media spread information that the US is losing to Russia in the new "Cold War". In fact, the article compares the political regimes of Russia and the United States and the reaction of society to the actions of the authorities. And through theses taken out of context from the interview of historian Neil Ferguson, Russia is trying to create the false impression that he believes in Russia's victory. In fact, Neil Ferguson opposes prolonging the war in Ukraine.

Russian propagandists systematically use manipulative and fake information to justify the "necessity" of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Crimean collaborator Olga Koviditi reported the need to "expand the geography of the special operation". The same opinion was recently expressed by another collaborator, Denys Pushylin. He said, "it's time to liberate Kyiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kharkiv, Lutsk, and Zaporizhzhia." Ramzan Kadyrov has been talking about taking Kyiv "shortly" for the fifth month. Tactics of systematic repetition of a certain message are used by propagandists to subconsciously consolidate this information in the target audience.

Russian propaganda has been spreading the narrative that Ukraine's leadership is allegedly illegitimate for many years. Since 2014, he has been referring to President Petro Poroshenko. Still, after the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, propagandists also claim that Volodymyr Zelensky is not the "real" president either. The last time this message was spread was by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Serhii Lavrov, in an interview with the propagandist Margarita Simonyan. "Putin told Macron: your Zelensky is the product of a coup d'état."

It is a lie. After the Revolution of Dignity of 2014, free, democratic elections have already been held in Ukraine twice - in 2014, the compliance of which was recognized by the whole world with all the norms of legislation and procedures, and in 2019 - when Volodymyr Zelensky became president, through the same elections recognized by the world. Russia itself recognized these elections as legitimate both times.

At the same time, in the Russian Federation itself, every election is the result of large-scale manipulations and violations of democratic procedures - unlike in Russia, in Ukraine, there are always representatives of the opposition at the polls, and in one case, it was the opposition candidate who became the next president.

Russian propaganda constantly uses distortions of historical facts to prove that they "have the right to Ukraine" and other countries of the former Soviet Union. But, according to their twisted logic, Putin himself is not a legitimate president: unlike Ukraine, there really was a coup in Russia in 1991, which resulted in the election of Boris Yeltsin and the subsequent coming to power of his successor, Volodymyr Putin.