Spilnota Detector Media
Detector Media collects and documents real-time chronicles of the Kremlin disinformation about the Russian invasion. Ukraine for decades has been suffering from Kremlin disinformation. Here we document all narratives, messages, and tactics, which Russia is using from February 17th, 2022. Reminder: the increasing of shelling and fighting by militants happened on the 17th of February 2022 on the territory of Ukraine. Russian propaganda blames Ukraine for these actions.

On 22 December, on the 1032th day of the full-scale war, our editorial office recorded:

2602
Fake
774
Manipulation
753
Message
541
Disclosure
Русскій фейк, іді на***!

Fake Israelis with dual citizenship are allegedly having their passports taken away in Ukraine for mobilization

Propagandists claim that several hundred dual Israeli and Ukrainian citizens are unable to cross the border because their passports have been seized by border guards. They say that in order to return the documents, they need to update the data at the territorial acquisition center, after which they can be mobilized. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. They found the original photo, edited by propagandists. The photo was published back in 2017 by the Svyatoshynskyi department of the Kyiv State Migration Service of Ukraine and indeed contains handwritten information about the state of readiness of the ordered passports.

Moreover, such actions by border guards would not make sense, since Ukraine does not recognize dual citizenship. Accordingly, citizens with dual citizenship of Israel and Ukraine in the legal field are considered only citizens of Ukraine and are subject to the corresponding rights and obligations. That is, men liable for military service with dual citizenship do not have the right to leave Ukraine. This was explained by the representative of the State Border Service Andrii Demchenko.

Propagandists are spreading such fakes in order to once again disrupt the mobilization campaign in the country.

Fake Due to the impending default, Ukrainians stand in long lines and buy up currency

Information is spreading online that Ukrainians allegedly stand in long lines at exchange offices, trying to exchange hryvnia. Users distributing photographs of queues claim that this is due to news of a possible default. Some Kyiv exchange offices no longer seem to have currency, as propagandists note. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. The information that Ukrainians are queuing en masse in front of exchange offices is not true. To create panic in Ukraine, attackers publish made-up comments about queues along with archival or edited photographs.

The photo of the exchanger with the caption “No currency” was indeed edited. The original photo was posted on Google maps of the Kyiv exchange office Obmen24 two years ago. The attackers changed the announcement about the need to check banknotes at the cash register with the inscription “No currency”.

Another photograph, which shows a line outside an A-Bank branch, does not relate to current events at all. The original of this photo belongs to Suspilne Chernivtsi. It was published in July 2022 and shows the queue for applying for payments from international organizations. The publication of the Suspilne Chernivtsi says that A-Bank helps to fill out an application in installments, but this can also be done independently online.

Reports about Ukraine's impending default, according to many experts, are also untrue. In August 2022, Ukraine received a two-year deferment on loans - this term was determined based on the fact that no one knew how long the war would last. Thus, Ukraine must agree with foreign creditors before August 1 on the restructuring of the state debt. Today, the International Monetary Fund is actively lobbying for a new deferment for Ukraine.

“Ukraine does not intend to pay according to the schedule that was agreed upon two years ago. The IMF allows not to comply with this schedule and has blessed Ukraine for new negotiations with creditors on a new payment schedule”, explains Oleksandr Parashchiy, head of the analytical department at Concorde Capital, in a commentary for BBC Ukraine.

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev also notes that there will be no default in Ukraine, because there are no grounds for this.

Thus, propagandists are spreading panic among Ukrainians amid tensions caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Fake Insulting graffiti allegedly appeared in Munich after the departure of the Ukrainian national team from Euro 2024

Propagandists are spreading information about the alleged appearance of offensive graffiti in Munich after the defeat of the Ukrainian national team at the European Football Championship. It is alleged that the graffiti allegedly depicts a player of the Ukrainian national team, being led by the hands of “joyful Territorial center of recruitment and social support employees”. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that in fact there is no reliable information that such graffiti appeared in Munich after the defeat of the Ukrainian team. Checking this image on websites for verification indicates that it was computer generated or altered.

Using the Forensically service, we were able to discover that many details in the image were changed or added to the original photo, which indicates that the picture is not real. Forensically works like a microscope, helping one see those changes in pictures that the eyes would not notice. To detect modified blocks in a published photograph, they used the ELA (error level analysis) section. In this case, the photo consists almost entirely of modified parts: the bicycle, the figures of three men in the graffiti, the frame on the wall and the paving stones clearly stand out in the photo when analyzing the data.

It is also worth noting that the Ukraine-Belgium match, after which the blue-yellows left the tournament, took place on June 26, 2024 in Stuttgart, Germany, and not in Munich. This creates a certain inconsistency and it is not clear why such graffiti should appear in the capital of Bavaria. Previously, the Ukrainian national team was defeated in a match with Romania, which took place on June 17 at the Allianz Arena in Munich, but after this match Ukraine continued to participate in Euro 2024, fighting to leave the group.

All this indicates that the photo is fake and was specially produced by Russian propaganda to discredit Ukraine and undermine the mobilization campaign in the country.

Fake In Kherson, there is an alleged outbreak of cholera due to destruction at the Kakhovka hydroelectric station

Russian media are actively spreading disinformation about the cholera “epidemic” in Kherson, which the Ukrainian authorities are allegedly trying to hide. “The infection broke out in Kherson, controlled by Kyiv, because the Ukrainian authorities did not carry out sanitary treatment after the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric station”, claim pro-Kremlin media. This fake news began to be promoted by Russian media and bots on social networks on the first anniversary of the Russian terrorist attack when the Kakhovska hydroelectric power station was blown up.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. They found that as of July 2024, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine had not recorded a single case of cholera. According to WHO data published on June 19, in the first half of 2024, 105 cases of cholera were registered in the European Region - all of them were on the island of Mayotte (an overseas region of France). In Ukraine, no cholera outbreaks were recorded in 2024.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by an infection of the intestines by harmful bacteria. Clean drinking water and proper sanitation can prevent a cholera outbreak, but due to Russian aggression and a significant deterioration in quality of life, frontline communities do face an increased risk of infectious diseases. That is why the Russian media have been methodically spreading this fake news since the beginning of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The purposeful destruction by the Russian army of Ukrainian critical infrastructure, including water supply and sanitation systems, creates ideal conditions for the emergence of infectious epidemics in Ukrainian territories. However, Ukraine is effectively overcoming these challenges by strengthening monitoring of the epidemiological situation in the country. Since June 2024, seasonal enhanced cholera surveillance has been in effect in Ukraine - patients with acute intestinal infections are additionally screened for cholera. Active research of environmental samples is also carried out: monitoring of wastewater, fresh and seawater samples.

The beginning of the season of enhanced surveillance of intestinal infections in Ukraine became the basis for the spread of the Russian fake, although continuous surveillance of cholera in the country is carried out throughout the year, and in the period from June 1 to October 1, monitoring is intensified. This is a routine process due to the fact that an increase in ambient temperature creates favorable conditions for the proliferation of Vibrio cholerae, so the risks of infection increase.

Peaks of cholera cases in Ukraine were recorded in 1998, 1999 and 2007. The last outbreak of cholera in Ukraine occurred in 2011 in Mariupol, when 33 cases of cholera and 24 cases of vibration carriers (asymptomatic patients) were recorded - the infection was brought to the port city from another country. The Ministry of Health of Ukraine notes that cholera is not an endemic disease in Ukraine. The infection is common in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South and Central America.

After the Russian terrorist attack with the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station on June 6, 2023, it was Russia that refused to allow independent experts, observers and humanitarian workers into the territory of the destroyed station and flooded Ukrainian settlements. Ukraine not only initiated the investigation, but also fully cooperated with independent experts, providing full access to the affected areas, witnesses, all information and evidence.

Message A year ago, Russia hit a cafe in Kramatorsk with a missile to allegedly eliminate a group of American mercenaries

Russian media used the anniversary of another tragedy in Ukraine, which occurred due to rocket attacks in Kramatorsk, to spread a fake story about the “liquidation of a group of American mercenaries”. Propagandists claim that the presence of men in military uniform among the photographs of the dead allegedly confirms the statement of the Russian Army that the purpose of the strike was military and legitimate.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. They found out that the Russian Ministry of Defense is constantly trying to convince the international community that by launching missiles at Ukraine, they are deliberately destroying only military targets. However, even the very fact of military aggression against another country is a violation of international law, and Russia violates many rules of war by shelling peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian objects.

The shelling of the Ria Pizza pizzeria in Kramatorsk occurred on June 27, 2023. Then Russian troops launched a missile attack on the cafe, killing 13 people, including 4 children, and wounding 59 people. Among the dead soldiers there were only two: combat paramedic of the 3rd Special Brigade Artem Sukhovyi and International Legion volunteer, former US Marine Ian Tortorici. It was the death of Jan Tortorici that Russian propaganda used as evidence that the goal of the Russian army was supposedly legitimate. On the day of the attack, Tortorici, like many other soldiers in the front-line city, went to a pizzeria to eat, as his friend, Ed Flores, recalls. StopFake also previously wrote why it is impossible to call foreigners fighting for Ukraine mercenaries, as Russian propaganda does.

The investigation into this crime in Russia was carried out by experts from the human rights organization Truth Hounds, since their colleague, writer Victoriia Amelina, was among those killed in the cafe. Experts have determined that the attack on Kramatorsk is a war crime - an indiscriminate attack that led to dire consequences among civilians. Truth Hounds also noted that Russia is pushing the view on Ukrainians that the presence of Ukrainian defenders in civilian areas allows the Kremlin to launch deadly missile attacks, but in fact, “the presence of military personnel in a cafe does not justify or humanize Russians. But on the contrary, it further emphasizes the same pattern of their crimes”.

Orest Slyvenko, Artur Koldomasov, Vitalii Mykhailiv, Oleksandra Kotenko, Oleksandr Siedin, Kostiantyn Zadyraka, and Oleksiy Pivtorak are collaborating on this chronicle. Lesia Bidochko serves as the project coordinator, while Ksenia Ilyuk is the author of the project.