Russian and foreign media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric use the recent statement by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz against Ukraine. Like, the chancellor is against NATO supplying weapons to Ukraine, because it weakens the Alliance. As a result, according to the authors of the messages, Germany will no longer supply Ukraine with armed assistance.

Analysts of the EUvsDisInfo project found out that in fact, in his statement, Scholz did not criticize the supply of weapons to Ukraine, but that the members of the Alliance turned this process into a “public competition”. This, according to the Chancellor, is what weakens NATO, threatening its unity. Scholz said that unity helped Ukraine in the early days of the war and countries should not argue about arms supplies to Ukraine.

Propagandists are trying in every possible way to condemn Western countries for providing military assistance to Ukraine, using various methods for this. They either call it “foul play” or direct intervention in the war. Very often this is combined with manipulations on the topic of the attitude of society in NATO member countries to the provision of weapons to Ukraine.

On the air of one of the Georgian TV channels,there was a thesis similar to Russian narratives. Like, Ukraine had to refuse to join NATO in accordance with the terms of the Minsk agreements. In exchange for this, Russia supposedly must return the occupied territories to Ukraine. But since Ukraine violated these terms, Russia had no choice but to attack. Analysts of Mythdetector, the Georgian project, drew attention to the case.

In fact, there are no provisions in the Minsk agreements regarding Ukraine's accession to NATO. In addition, it was Russia and its forces that sabotaged the presence of the OSCE in the occupied territories, which was the main part of the Minsk agreements. According to Mythdetector, the Georgian media that disseminated this thesis are controlled by pro-Russian forces.

Russian propaganda uses the theme of the Minsk agreements, in particular, because of the statements of pro-Russian politicians. Thus, propagandists want to shift the responsibility for starting a war from the aggressor to the victim and accuse Ukraine of disrupting international agreements. However, it is Russia that often fails to comply with international obligations, and the outbreak of war is proof of this.

This was reported in the State special communications service. The Ukraine government computer emergency response team (CERT-UA) has documented the massive distribution of dangerous emails sent on behalf of the Office of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

The subject line of the emails sent out is “critical security update”. The title of the attachment also refers to a “security update”. Attached to the letter is an archive with an image of “instructions that are important to read” and an installation file. After the computer boots up and starts, the hidden remote access program is installed. This gives third parties access to computer control and data. Recently, attackers distributed emails with similar software on behalf of JSC Ukrtelecom. Probably, the purpose of the attackers is espionage.

The Office urged not to open received letters with similar attachments and not to follow the links if one is not sure of their safety.

Russian propagandists spread information that in Poland, namely in the Warsaw metro, you can allegedly see public service announcements with a call to “protect the original Polish lands in Ukraine”. The authors of the messages claim that in this way Poland is preparing to seize the western regions of Ukraine. It's fake.

Analysts of the VoxCheck project came to the conclusion that the posters are not real. This is indicated by the link posted on the poster. It is not valid because instead of the referenced WKU, according to the updated Polish law, it should be WCR. The reason for this is that the Military Commander's Offices (WKU) in Poland have been replaced by Military Recruiting Centers (WCRs) that recruit volunteers for military service. In addition, in a commentary for Ukrinform, Grzegorz Popielaž, director of the rental and advertising office for the Warsaw metro, said that the metro does not have such advertisements. The propagandists took the old 2018 announcement for the recruitment of volunteers for the Polish army as the basis for fake posters.

Russian propaganda often frightens with the “imminent attack” of Poland on the western lands, diverting attention from their own crimes with baseless accusations. Detector Media has already investigated disinformation related to this topic.

Russian propagandists spread a number of fakes within the same topic: allegedly the Ukrainian army used chemical weapons at the front. The Russian media refer to the statements of a number of “officials” of the so-called “DNR”. According to them, a number of Russian fighters have “nausea, vomiting, severe dizziness”. Telegram channels are spreading a video where supposedly Ukrainians drop a grenade from a drone and, after the explosion, a Russian soldier has convulsions, which causes him to drown. In addition, the Russians say that allegedly even the Ukrainian military “exposed” chemical munitions in the video. Propagandists also claim that this is not the first time Ukraine has used chemical weapons. All of these are baseless accusations.

StopFake analysts denied these fakes. In particular, if we are talking about a video of dropping a grenade, its full version shows that in fact this is an attack with two grenades. The first of them knocked out the Russian soldiers, disorienting them in the water. This explains their convulsions. In addition, there are no prohibited weapons in the video: the military used an F-1 grenade and a VOG fragmentation munition.

The video where a military man “exposed a chemical weapon” is about the commander of a separate tactical aerial reconnaissance group “Madyar Birds” by Robert Brovdi (“Madyar”). In it, you can see the allowed VOG shells (grenade launcher shot). Together with the FPV drone, they form a kamikaze drone.

Western media also drew attention to these messages of propagandists. In particular, Reuters journalists failed to confirm the use of chemical weapons by the Ukrainian army. In a commentary for the publication, the General Staff stated that the Ukrainian military “never used chemical weapons anywhere”.

StopFake also reminds that in 1998 Ukraine ratified the international Chemical Weapons Convention. At the same time, the entire chemical arsenal that Ukraine inherited from the USSR was destroyed, which was confirmed by international observers.

This thesis is spread by anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. Reports say that if Kyiv had adhered to the Minsk agreements, there would not have been a full-scale war. Ukraine allegedly wanted to “cede” the Donbas and provoked Russia to invade at the direction of “Western curators”. More messages on this topic on the telegram appeared after the statements of the press secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anatolii Hlaz. He stated that the Minsk agreements allegedly “fulfilled their role well”, namely, they helped “stop the escalation of the conflict”.

By spreading such messages, Russian propaganda is once again trying to shift the blame for the invasion from Russia to Ukraine. Like, if Ukraine did not break promises, everything would be fine. Thus, Russia is changing reality. However, it was Russia that repeatedly violated the Minsk agreements and attacked Ukraine. In addition, the Minsk agreements did not stop the escalation, but only postponed it for a while.

Recently, Viktor Medvedchuk, accused of high treason, a former People's deputy of the pro-Russian “Opposition platform - for life” party, spoke on the topic of the Minsk agreements on the air of the Belarusian state television. In particular, Medvedchuk repeated the narratives that he had been spreading in recent years. Like, Ukraine “bombed the Donbas” and in every possible way evaded the reintegration of the territories “for the sake of votes” in the elections. At the same time, he presents himself as the only possible mediator for the success of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. And he claims that nothing happened with Minsk through his mediation as he had no influence on its execution.

Since the beginning of the large-scale war, Russia has clearly been trying to overthrow the Ukrainian authorities and establish its own. In particular, Russia illegally appoints its own people to senior positions in the temporarily occupied territories. Ukraine is gradually driving the occupiers out of its lands, but Russia considers its appointed government to be legitimate, and it calls the Ukrainian, legally elected in fact, “Kyiv regime”, which supposedly “illegally” leads Ukraine.

That is, Russian propaganda replaces the word “government” with “regime” in order to confirm the so-called illegitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities, which, according to Russia, does not act on behalf of the people. Also, calling the Ukrainian authorities led by Volodymyr Zelenskyi the “Kyiv regime”, propaganda blurs the concept of the Ukrainian state, which allegedly no longer exists. At the same time, it focuses its attention on certain boundaries of the so-called government, where it operates. The Kyiv regime means that it operates only within Kyiv and does not extend to other territories. Allegedly, Ukrainians are hostages of this regime and cannot overthrow it on their own without the help of Russia.

With the help of this word, as well as the same special military operation, pops and others, Russia seeks to blur the borders and change the reality in which it saves Ukrainians from an illegal regime that captivates Ukraine, and not vice versa - it itself seeks to enslave Ukrainians, destroy Ukrainian cities and villages.

This is the seventh text for the new section Newspeak, which Detector Media launched as part of the “Disinformation Chronicles” project. In it, we will tell and explain new lexemes that propaganda uses to distort reality.

This thesis is spread by the Russian media. Like, “without Western curators” Zelenskyi finally “told the truth” and turned to the Ukrainians. The authors of the messages claim that the President of Ukraine “does not understand what they (Ukrainians – ed.) are fighting for”, since they only have “loans”, and now also mobilization. It's fake.

StopFake analysts claim that Zelenskyi did indeed use such a phrase, but it did not refer to Ukrainians. The President addressed it to the Russians. In his appeal on September 28, 2022, he said:

‘If you want to live, run. If you want to live, surrender. If you want to live, fight in your streets for your freedom. Everything has been taken from you. Or do any of you have oil rigs? Any palaces? Any vineyards? Maybe you have yachts? Or any bank? What are you fighting for? You now only have loans, something to eat in the evening and now - mobilization. Fight for yours! Don't meddle in our land, in our soul and our culture”. Russian publications that distribute this fake deliberately do not leave a link to the full version of the appeal, because then it becomes clear what Zelenskyi really means.

Russian propaganda often takes the phrases of Ukrainian politicians out of context. Thus, they seek to demoralize the Ukrainians and show them that supposedly the Ukrainian authorities are indifferent to the people, unlike the Russian ones. Also, propagandists are trying to shift the responsibility for the crimes of the Russians to Ukraine.