Russian propaganda sources are spreading information that two employees of the General Staff of Ukraine lost their positions allegedly because they uploaded classified materials to ChatGPT. We are talking about more than 500 text documents and working maps. The artificial intelligence was allegedly tasked with writing how the military command could contain the Russian offensive in the Orikhovе and Zaporizhzhia directions.

Accordingly, due to the fact that ChatGPT should not be used to store and process confidential information, the advisers were first allegedly suspended from work, and then “fired”. The propagandists also note that this is not the first such case - previously, the military leadership of Ukraine allegedly used file sharing services and Telegram bots to distribute confidential documents.

In fact, this “news” is made up, the StopFake project reports. The propagandists cite the Ukrainian resource United24. However, neither they nor any other reliable media outlet have published such a video or news item. StopFake journalists add that if this story were real, it should have been disseminated by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), an agency that investigates criminal cases involving law enforcement officers, judges, and senior officials. However, again, there is no such information on the bureau's website or social networks. After all, the Orikhovе direction in the video is for some reason called Orikhovе, which is a tracing of the Russian language.

With such fakes, the Russians are trying to present the Ukrainian command as helpless and incapable of effectively defending Ukrainian territories. Earlier, we analyzed the Russian message that Syrskyi does not believe in Ukraine's victory and is ready to capitulate.

Russian propagandists are spreading information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly used Western chemical weapons in Sudzha (Kursk region) in August 2024 under the guise of smoke shells. In reporting this, the propagandists refer to the words of the head of the NBC protection troops Kyryllov.

However, this information is fake, as the Center for Countering Disinformation writes. The Russian side has not provided any real evidence to support its statements. In addition, Ukraine, as a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, strictly complies with its obligations. Also, it is the Russian military and war correspondents who periodically publish videos showing the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers, which is a war crime and a violation of international law.

In this case, Russia resorts to the tactics of “reflection” propaganda, accusing Ukraine of a crime that it has repeatedly committed itself. That is, propagandists make the same accusations against Ukraine/USA/EU/the collective West that they make against Russia.

We have previously recorded a number of similar fakes concerning chemical weapons. For example, disinformation that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are allegedly preparing a chemical weapons strike in the Donetsk and Kherson directions.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels are distributing a video claiming that a cemetery worker at the funeral of a Ukrainian soldier allegedly stole a PS5 gaming console from the coffin that the deceased soldier's relatives had placed there. The relatives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier allegedly saw the gaming console on the OLX marketplace, recognizing it by the stickers on it. The seller allegedly turned out to be the cemetery worker who buried the soldier's coffin.

In fact, this video is another fake of Russian propaganda. The video itself is of low quality. For example, at first it says that the deceased soldier, whose PS5 was allegedly stolen, is Valerii Shpyrko, but later in the video he is mistakenly called Vitalii. In addition, there is no information in reliable and verified Ukrainian media that such an incident actually occurred. In the end, it is unclear how a cemetery worker could steal a game console measuring 39x26x10.4 cm (i.e. quite large) while burying a coffin so that it would remain unnoticed.

With this fake, the Russians are trying to sow distrust and discord among Ukrainian society. Moreover, by claiming that this serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly participated in the Kursk operation, “during which he stole the console and subsequently died”, Russian propagandists are fueling the narrative about the alleged looting of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region. Earlier, we analyzed a similar video fake, which consisted of the fact that the Territorial center of procurement and social support workers allegedly killed a student from Lviv, and then threw his body into the Tysa.

Anonymous Telegram channels write that the Angel Cherkasy funeral agency in its advertisement with the slogan “Take care of your husband in advance” offers city residents discounts on burial services.

However, Ukrinform journalists established that such a booklet was forged, since there is no funeral agency called Angel in Cherkasy or the Cherkasy region.

“The template for the so-called announcement can be found on the website of a Russian school for studying the Serbian language. The only thing the propagandists changed was that they drew over one of the elements of the ornament using a graphic editor”, the fact-checkers add.

Read also: Lies on how Ukrainians destroyed the grave of a soldier killed in Mariupol.

Anonymous Telegram channels are spreading a Spanish-language story about how the body of fallen Colombian International Legion soldier Michael Ramirezi Fino was returned to his family “without internal organs”. In the video, the soldier’s mother allegedly claims that she asked the International Legion leadership for an explanation and was told that her son’s organs were transplanted to wounded comrades, but the woman doubts this.

But this story is made up, and the video was fabricated by propagandists. Firstly, it was not possible to find a Spanish-language media outlet called Ahora online - the propagandists probably drew the logo of the fictitious publication themselves. Secondly, no other authoritative source reported on this story. Mentions of this story are published only in social networks of the Russian segment.

Black transplantology in Ukraine is a conspiracy theory that Russians have been developing for a decade. The constant return to the topic testifies to its importance for Russia. These messages are promoted to both domestic and international audiences. However, their refutation in foreign and Ukrainian media prevents the campaign from having the desired effect. Among the goals pursued by Russian propaganda within the framework of this topic are discrediting the military-political leadership of Ukraine and reducing trust in it, creating a negative image of the state in the eyes of the international community, and justifying a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Read also: How and why Russia uses the topic of “black transplantology” in Ukraine

Collaborators, representatives of the occupation authorities, claim that the Ukrainian leadership is “preparing” to use chemical and bacteriological weapons to contaminate the water bodies of the Kherson region. And they are supposedly blaming the Russians for this.

But there is no evidence that Ukraine has used or is going to use chemical or biological weapons in the combat zone or in the temporarily occupied territories. Moreover, such reports are accompanied by a number of similar comments on social networks, which allegedly indicate that Ukrainian troops are poisoning the water in wells in various settlements. All this may indicate a coordinated disinformation operation.

Moreover, the Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has not yet found any evidence of Ukraine using chemical weapons during the war. In May 2024, the United States announced the use of chemical weapons by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, namely chloropicrin, a chemical substance included in Schedule 3 of the Convention, as well as riot control agents.

In this way, propagandists promote the classic narrative about the existence of the so-called dirty bomb - that is, that Ukraine is ready to contaminate not only its own territories, but also others with all sorts of chemicals, including radiation. In fact, Ukraine has never developed the so-called dirty bomb, and all the statements of propagandists on this topic are fake. The explanation of Russian propaganda as to why Ukraine would detonate a dirty bomb on its territory is unfounded. Russia claims that Ukraine allegedly wanted to increase the number of Ukrainian refugees abroad (for an unknown reason), and also to pass off the dirty bomb as the explosion of a tactical nuclear charge of Russia itself, in order to accuse the latter of using nuclear weapons. Then the international community should have condemned such actions of the Kremlin and introduced new sanctions, perhaps even expelled Russia from the UN Security Council, and also increased arms supplies to Ukraine.

By the way, the report of the American Institute for the Study of War says that the propaganda statements about the development of a dirty bomb are needed to slow down the process of arms supplies to Ukraine. At the same time, analysts believe that Russia is unlikely to detonate the so-called dirty bomb itself: this is just another attempt to “feel out” the international community to find out the possible reaction to Russia's use of nuclear weapons.