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.
Former colonel of the US Army Douglas McGregor, known for his pro-Russian position, stated this in an interview with foreign media. According to him, the Russian army has already rested and is ready to deliver a devastating blow to Ukraine. Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, McGregor has been talking about "Russia's invincible army" and intimidating the world with "Putin's nuclear button."
According to his forecasts, Russia was supposed to capture Ukraine in mid-March 2022. Such statements are an element of Russia's informational and psychological operation aimed at a Western audience. In this way, Russia is trying to prevent supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine from allied countries.
Anonymous Telegram channels promote the message of Ukraine's inability to rebuild, showing how the Russians are allegedly repairing the Melitopol-Berdyansk highway and building houses "even without a referendum."
The purpose of such a message is likely to be psychological pressure on the residents of the occupied territories, as well as to spread the message that Ukraine will not have enough funds to rebuild the country.
The British Daily Mail published a story about armed migrants entering Great Britain through the English Channel. The Center for Combating Disinformation draws attention to the fact that the Kremlin media referred to this material, although there is no mention of Ukrainians. The Russian mass media added the assumption that due to the increase in the supply of weapons to Ukraine, Great Britain would have to face armed Ukrainian refugees in the future.
The purpose of such a message, according to the conclusion of the CPD, is to create the impression that helping Ukraine with weapons will threaten the security of allied countries. The official position of Great Britain to support Ukraine remains unchanged, as does Russian propaganda on the British front. In particular, messages about fatigue from Ukraine and Zelensky are spreading on social networks.
According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, the Russian media spreads such a message concerning Russian politicians' statements. According to the Center, such information by Russia arose after Ukraine began calling on the world community to recognize Russia as a terrorist state due to war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Russian propagandists spread this thesis. In their materials, they allegedly refer to an article in the American edition of Politico. Propagandists claim that Europe will have to make concessions to Russia to get gas during the heating season, allegedly due to anti-Russian sanctions.
In fact, as the Center for Combating Disinformation writes, Ukraine's allies continue to work on another package of anti-Russian sanctions, and German Economy Minister Habek, whose comment is cited by Politico, said that he would be the first to advocate for another tough package of European Union sanctions.
The Russian propaganda media spread this message.
As the Center for Combating Disinformation writes, similar messages are being spread in the media space of Russia after the terrorist attack in Vinnytsia. The Center believes that the occupiers struck the city center, not by accident, and that these actions are revenge for the successful use of HIMARS surface-to-air missiles, due to which the Russians suffered losses along the entire front line. "The destruction of Russian weapons depots, oil depots, and disruption of their logistics routes caused panic in the ranks of the Russian army. Because of this, the enemy resorted to terror tactics to cause a riot in Ukraine, which would force the leadership of our country to sign "peace" on the terms of the Russians. Moreover, Russian propaganda uses methods of intimidation and blackmail to stop the supply of HIMARS surface-to-air missiles, as well as other heavy equipment," the Center reports. President Zelensky called on Ukraine's partners to recognize Russia as a "terrorist state" as soon as possible and to approve new sanctions against Russia after the attack on Vinnytsia.
Anonymous pro-Russian Telegram channels continue to modify the message about Russia's lightning victory. Now, referring to unknown sources, propagandists write that the war will be long since it is precisely what benefits Russia. Allegedly, the Russian Federation will not stop until it cuts off Ukraine from the sea to reduce its role in the international arena. The continuation of the message that "Odesa is more important than Kyiv" was predicted by the Center for Combating Disinformation.
In addition, propagandists returned to accusing Volodymyr Zelensky of unleashing wars because he allegedly "renounced the Minsk agreements." In fact, it was Putin who "tore the Minsk agreements to pieces," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said when he recognized the LDR/DNR terrorist group.
Russian propaganda uses quotes from Polish historian Tomash Jankovsky to discredit Ukraine on the international stage. In particular, during an interview on the air of the Russian propaganda program "Solovyev Live," Yankovsky stated that "extreme nationalism is flourishing in Ukraine," and Poles "do not actuallyn support Ukrainians," they are "forced to do so by the European Union." Jankovsky also believes that the change of power in Poland will not improve relations with Russia since many Polish politicians have received a Western education and have "Russophobic views." According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, Jankovsky repeatedly expressed anti-Ukrainian theses; in particular, he talked about "wild Ukrainians" in Europe and that Ukraine as a state poses a danger to Poland.
In this way, Russian propaganda tries to create a false impression of Ukraine's isolation in the international arena, neutralize the importance of the growing military aid of the West to Ukraine, and demoralize Ukrainians.
Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels combine three messages into one:
Such a combination, similar to an ultimatum, aims to demoralize Ukrainians and further promote to Europeans the idea of the need for peace talks. At the same time, we draw attention to the fact that according to the classic scheme, propagandists base their messages on gossip and anonymous sources. In addition, anonymous telegram channels are moving the dates of occupation referendums in this way: before that, they were announced for September 11.
The Center for Combating Disinformation called this message the main narrative promoted by the Russian media today and predicts that similar provocations will continue to appear in the media space to destabilize society and as an explanation for missile attacks. CPD writes that propagandists describe the need to cut Ukraine from the sea completely. The CPD explained the reasons for such statements: "Firstly, Russia is afraid of basing the naval forces of the collective West in the future. Thus, propagandists reinforce the disinformation campaign that Russia is actually at war with NATO and that the Armed Forces are just a proxy army. Secondly, the Kremlin understands that they cannot and will not be able to take Kyiv.
The Chairman of the State Duma of Russia, Vyacheslav Volodin, spread the information that the USA is allegedly involved in creating COVID-19; therefore, it must compensate for the damages to the countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic. In this statement, he again spread a fake about "US biolaboratories."
In fact, the WHO commission, which investigated the circumstances of the beginning of the epidemic in China and studied the possible origin of the new virus, reported that COVID-19 has a natural birth - the natural source is bats. The WHO did not detect any cases of coronavirus disease before December, so the first place of the spread of the virus was Wuhan (China). Moreover, experts consider it "extremely unlikely" that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. There is no evidence that this virus, or a similar one, was studied in Wuhan laboratories. In addition, as VoxUkraine previously reported, various studies had confirmed that the MERS-Cov virus most likely originated in bats and was transmitted to camels before it acquired the ability to transmit to humans - the same with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. "Most scientists and the WHO are inclined to think that the virus arose due to a natural mutation and passed to humans from animals. It is confirmed by more recent studies of samples of the new coronavirus," the fact-checkers said. Fakes about the so-called "American biolaboratories," particularly in Ukraine, were repeatedly refuted by "Media Detector" - read more here.