In the pro-Russian telegram channels, reports are being circulated that allegedly in the Kharkiv region they began to mobilize employees of the local administration. As evidence, they cite a photo of the draft notice signed by the mayor of the city of Pervomaiskyi, Mykola Baksheiev. The reports suggest that the Ukrainian army is suffering very heavy losses and is doing so much “bad business” that they have begun to mobilize officials in defiance of the law. Allegedly, such draft notices will soon be issued by heads of state-owned enterprises. This is manipulation.

There is no evidence that the draft notice was handed over to the official. In addition, government employees may be exempted from mobilization, but this is not mandatory. As the VoxCheck fact checkers explain, the photo circulating on the network has a new design of the draft notice. According to the latest changes in legislation, the mayor has the right to issue a draft notice, but this does not mean that it was issued to an employee of the local administration. Receiving a draft notice does not mean that a person is immediately mobilized and sent to the front. The first thing the Territorial recruitment and social support center requires is to verify the citizen's data and determine their suitability for service.

Russian propaganda once again parasitizes on the topic of mobilization and appeals to the emotionally complex topic of losses at the front in order to demoralize Ukrainians. Earlier, propagandists said that a military enlistment office was deliberately set on fire in Kharkiv. The propaganda also said that the Territorial recruitment centers are illegal structures, so handing over draft notices by them is also illegal.

This message is being promoted in pro-Russian telegram channels. Like, despite the pessimistic forecasts, the Russian economy is successfully resisting all the blows of the West. Allegedly, Russia's GDP decreased by only 2.1%, although experts predicted the collapse of the economy.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, today Russia is the most sanctioned country in the world, and now it is sanctions that are the most effective tool of influence on the aggressor country by the civilized world community. According to experts, the Russian economy has so far survived thanks to high energy prices and a tough economic policy. However, the cumulative effect of sanctions will soon become fatal for the Russian economy.

The narrative that sanctions do not harm Russia is one of the most common Russian propaganda narratives. Propagandists systematically spread messages that Russia is a serious economic player and that sanctions against Russia are useless. This time, the message is being shared against the backdrop of the tenth round of EU sanctions against Russia. By spreading such messages, Russia is trying to devalue the sanctions. Like, they are not effective, so they should be canceled. In fact, if the sanctions were inactive, Russia would not have to make so much effort to cancel them.

Read more about the most common narratives and messages of Russian propaganda in Eastern Europe in the Detector Media investigation.

The Russian media write that allegedly now Ukrainians watch less television because of the “media policy of the “Kyiv regime”” and Ukrainian propaganda. The messages refer to the results of a survey by the Rating sociological group. Allegedly, compared to November 2021, the share of television in the segment of information sources fell from 55% to 43%, while the share of social networks (including Telegram) increased from 11% to 41%. This is manipulation.

According to the results of a study by the Rating group, today national TV channels and instant messengers really have almost the same popularity as a source of news for Ukrainians. However, the study does not conclude that the current situation is the result of Ukrainian propaganda on television. Moreover, over the past year, trust in the news content of national TV channels has increased from 43% to 72%, and local media - from 43% to 62%. As StopFake writes, the Russian media added to the results of the study the opinions of unnamed experts, distorting the general context.

Russian propaganda uses the tactics of substitution of concepts and tries to give out information to Ukrainians about state propaganda. Thus, they also nourish the narratives about censorship in the Ukrainian information space and the absence of independent media in Ukraine.

Historically, in the Slavic languages, it has developed so that they write “on Ukraine” instead of “in Ukraine”, when talking about the location. For example, such a version is considered grammatically correct in Polish and Slovak. And if the Council of the Polish language, after the start of a full-scale war, considers the option “w Ukrainie” to be correct, in Slovak, “na Ukrajinіe” remains the correct variant, since such a phrase is used in relation to one's own country (na Slovensku). However, in Russia they distorted the primary function of the pretext and began to use it for humiliating purposes. This was especially intensified during the full-scale invasion: Russian media now mainly writes “on Ukraine”.

At the same time, a number of Russian dictionaries still present the version “in Ukraine” as the only grammatically correct one. This only emphasizes that the frequent use of the construction “on Ukraine” is exclusively a choice of propaganda.

Thus, Russia mocks Ukraine and its people, pointing out their “inferiority”. With the help of this phrase, propagandists play along with the imperial ambitions of the Russians, since the preposition “on” in relation to the territory is used only if it is part of the state, or an island. In fact, in this way, they want to show that Ukraine is part of Russia and does not have the right to independent existence.

This is the tenth 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 used by Russian propaganda to distort reality.

There are reports in foreign media that allegedly youth organizations like the Nazi Hitlerjungend (Hitler youth) are being created in Ukraine. Like, Ukrainian girls and boys are taught to shoot and prepared to kill Russians. It seems that they wear uniforms with crosses, very similar to those that were during the Second World War. The messages refer to the American news channel News Nation. This is manipulation.

Chris Cuomo's report for the American news channel News Nation is about Ukrainian teenagers studying at a military academy, not about youth organizations. Russian propaganda laid out the plot and gave it a second context. EU vs Disinfo analysts note that there is no evidence that Ukraine involves minors in hostilities. This is confirmed by international human rights organizations.

Russian propaganda constantly nourishes the narrative about Nazism and fascism in Ukraine with various fakes. Like, even the Germans are already asking Ukrainians not to use Nazi symbols. They also systematically manipulate the topic of adolescent mobilization. Thus, propaganda uses the tactics of the inhuman enemy and justifies the war in Ukraine.

The Russian media disseminate information that due to the Ukrainians who left Ukraine because of Russian aggression, the use of the Russian language in Germany has allegedly increased. It is allegedly evidenced by the recently released data from the Destatis, Federal statistical office. It is not true.

The studies cited by the Russian media were conducted in 2021, that is, even before the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, the document states that the study does not reflect the possible consequences of changes in the German population due to Russian aggression, since only 2021 data was analyzed. Russian propaganda does not provide any explanation of how exactly the Ukrainian refugees influenced the use of different languages in Germany.

As StopFake explains, propagandists cite survey results showing that 80% of the German population only speak German at home, 15% also use one or more additional languages, and 5% do not use German at all in their families. The study showed that families who are not native German speakers use Turkish (15%), Russian (13%), Arabic (10%), Polish (7%) and English (6%) in everyday life. Similar data for 2022 is still being processed, they have not been published anywhere.

Російська пропаганда систематично маніпулює мовним питанням як в Україні, так і за кордоном. У такий спосіб вони намагаються розколоти суспільство за етно-національними ознаками. Раніше пропагандисти стверджували, що нібито через російську мову ставлення багатьох поляків до українців погіршилося.

Russian propaganda systematically manipulates the language issue, both in Ukraine and abroad. Thus, they are trying to split the society along ethno-national lines. Earlier, propagandists claimed that, allegedly because of the Russian language, the attitude of many Poles towards Ukrainians worsened.

Pro-Russian and occupation telegram channels are circulating reports that Poland is amending legislation to send 10,000 to 40,000 troops to Ukraine under the guise of mercenaries and employees of a private military company (PVK). Like, the Polish military would like to go to the front under their own flag, but NATO will not allow this, because then the North Atlantic Alliance will become a participant in the war. It is also alleged that Poland is adopting a law to legalize “mercenaries” who are already fighting in Ukraine and compensation to the families of the victims. It is not true.

There are no foreign mercenaries in Ukraine. The law on the legalization of Polish mercenaries in Poland is also not being prepared. According to VoxCheck, the authors of the messages refer to the so-called “military” expert and editor of the “Arsenal of the Fatherland" publication Oleksii Leonkov, who systematically promotes Russian and Belarusian propaganda narratives. Leonkov does not provide any evidence to support his words about the arrival of the Polish military in Ukraine under the guise of mercenaries and PVK employees.

Fake stories about foreign mercenaries in Ukraine have been repeatedly refuted. The propagandists claimed that the military from the EU countries fought on the territory of Ukraine even before the full-scale invasion, or the number of foreigners in the Ukrainian army would soon exceed 50%. To confirm the message about Polish mercenaries in Ukraine, Russian propaganda disfigured the quote by the Minister of Defense of Poland. The Russians claimed that in Poland they began to openly recruit Ukrainian tank troops. It was also said that Polish professional soldiers were dying in Ukraine, and a special cemetery had allegedly been created for them. Thus, propagandists are trying to downplay the combat effectiveness of the Ukrainian army, which has been resisting the Russians for a year now, and explain their own failures by the fact that they are allegedly fighting against a stronger enemy than they expected.

Information is spreading on social networks and on Russian resources that US President Joseph Biden promised Ukraine “difficult times” during his speech in Poland. Like, Biden's speechwriters tried to build his speech in Warsaw as a winner's speech, but they only succeeded in fixing the intermediate results of the “conflict” between the West and Russia, in which Ukraine was assigned the role of a tool. This is manipulation.

The propagandists took the words of the American president out of context. During a speech in Poland, Joseph Biden said that the next five years are likely to be decisive for the world and the world's democracies. He expressed the same thesis during a speech in Kyiv the day before. Moreover, Biden stressed that Ukraine will never be Putin's victory and he will lose. At the same time, propagandists ignored the part of the speech in which Biden spoke about the plight of Russia.

Thus, Russian propaganda nourishes narratives about “external control” in Ukraine and “Russia’s war with the West on the territory of Ukraine”. Russian propaganda systematically uses quotes from politicians, distorted or taken out of context, to publish wishful thinking. Detector Media highlighted the key disinformation messages about the visit of the American president to Kyiv. More details.

In the foreign segment of social networks, videos of alleged protests in Ukraine are being distributed. Like, Ukrainians are protesting against Zelenskyi, in whom they were disappointed during the year of the war. According to correspondents, the rallies took place day and night. This video is fake.

The protests in the video have nothing to do with Ukraine or Zelenskyi. This is a video of protests in Slovakia in 2018 and 2019 as a result of the murder of a journalist. The fact checker of the Dpa-factchecking project drew attention to the spread of the fake. They found out that on February 21, 2018, the Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kushnirova were killed. This murder led to mass protests in Slovakia, specifically on March 9, 2018, March 16, 2018 and February 21, 2019. These protests led to the resignations of the chief of police and the ministers of justice, internal affairs and culture.

We recall that in Ukraine, during martial law, restrictions were imposed on holding mass events and a curfew was introduced. Russian propaganda is trying in any way to destabilize the situation inside Ukraine and discredit Ukraine and Ukrainians at the international level.