The network is spreading information about a 4-year-old boy who was allegedly left unattended at a bus station in Kherson. The message about this received more than 35 thousand shares on Facebook in two days, and the information was picked up by propagandists. However, this is fake.

It was noticed by journalists from the Kherson regional media Kavun.city and the NotaYenota project, which provides informal education on recognizing fakes. In their opinion, the account that spread this is not a personal page, but rather a bot that systematically duplicates information from the banned Russian social network Odnoklassniki. Most of the content on it consists of holiday greetings, quotes, etc. The message about the child from Kherson did not have any links to official sources of information.

This situation actually happened, but in June 2021. A four-year-old child was left unattended at the Kherson bus station. After a conversation between the police and the grandfather, it turned out that the father, while doing military service in Mariupol, left the child in the care of his partner. After a quarrel, she promised that she would take the child to the soldier’s parents, but did not fulfill her promise and left the boy at the station.

According to the aforementioned experts, the spread of such fakes is likely an attempt by Russian propagandists to identify the incentives that cause the greatest public reaction and concern. This time, the Russians decided to test the reaction of Ukrainians on children, using an old story. In addition, in this way they want to discredit Ukrainians in general and military families in particular. They say that Ukrainians treat children carelessly, which means Russia must correct this.

Propagandists are disseminating information in the media that representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) oppose the imposition of sanctions against the Russian state corporation Rosatom. Like, this was stated by Rafael Grossi, Director General of the IAEA. However, this is manipulation.

StopFake specialists drew attention to it. They pointed out that in fact the IAEA cannot impose sanctions and has no influence at all in this matter. Grossi said that he sees the possibility of negative consequences from the introduction of sanctions against Rosatom in terms of nuclear safety.

Rosatom combines assets in the energy, construction and engineering sectors. The corporation leads the world in terms of the largest portfolio of orders for the construction of nuclear power plants and provides services of this type in many countries. For example, Rosatom is building power units in Turkey, India, and Hungary. That is why, according to Grossi, although countries may politically support Ukraine, they will not support the imposition of sanctions against Rosatom, since they need the services of the corporation.

It is beneficial for Russian propagandists to spread fake information about the position of the IAEA, since this is an element of a campaign to depreciate the impact of sanctions on Russia. Within its framework, the Russians are trying to highlight the sanctions as not beneficial to anyone, which is why supposedly more and more Western politicians and representatives of international organizations refuse to support their introduction.

The Ukrainian “energy manipulation” conspiracy theory is one of the new conspiracy theories, according to which the West is allegedly deliberately provoking an energy crisis by supporting Ukraine. Proponents of this theory believe that the United States and European countries are using the war in Ukraine to achieve their own economic and political goals, in particular, increasing energy prices and increasing the profits of their energy corporations. They say that the main problem is the “shortage of oil and gas” in the EU, and the attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid are allegedly fiction or exaggeration.

Conspiracy theorists claim that the West is allegedly deliberately creating a shortage of energy resources through sanctions against Russia. Propagandists note that sanctions lead to higher prices on world markets, which benefits Western energy companies. Part of the theory also includes the idea that energy companies are using the situation to strengthen their position in the market, increasing their income and influence with governments, without thinking about ordinary residents.

By spreading and using this theory, Russians are replacing the concept in the current situation. The main reason for the crisis in the energy sector is Russian aggression against Ukraine, which results in sanctions against Russian energy resources and attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

This conspiracy theory is actively spread by Russians through social networks, blogs and alternative media. It is often accompanied by misinformation and distorted facts, making it difficult to refute. The main goal of such conspiracies is to undermine trust in governments, international organizations and traditional media. For example, disseminating reports that electricity in Ukraine is being turned off allegedly in collusion with the Territorial center of recruitment and social support for easier mobilization. However, in fact, these shutdowns are not related to the mobilization process in Ukraine.

Russia is using this conspiracy theory in its information war against Ukraine and the West to justify its military aggression against Ukraine. They say that its actions are a response to the West’s “economic war” against Russia. This conspiracy theory is helping to fuel anti-Western sentiment both within Russia and among international audiences. This undermines trust in Western governments and their actions. The spread of this theory also contributes to the destabilization of the unity of Western countries and leads to internal disputes in European countries and the United States over their policies of support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia.

Propagandists are distributing information in English and Russian on social networks about seventeen-year-old female students who are allegedly preparing for mobilization and “meat assaults”. However, this is fake.

Fact-checkers from Reuters drew attention to it. They found out that the fake was created on the basis of an event on June 11 at the military institute of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, at which they honored the memory of deceased graduates - Major Oleksii Chubashev and Senior Lieutenant Oleksandr Marchuk. It was attended by military personnel, chaplains, cadets and others.

However, propagandists in their messages decided to focus attention specifically on the female cadets. In a comment received by Reuters fact-checkers from the university press office, it turned out that all cadets present at the event were already 18 years old and there was no campaigning before joining the army.

In addition to the English-language segment of social networks, propagandists also spread this fake news on Russian-language anonymous telegram channels, however, with sexualized overtones. They back this up with a fictitious quote from an unnamed officer about the importance of “feminine qualities” in the Armed Forces.

Russian propagandists spread such fakes in order to discredit Ukraine. They say that they mobilize children, which means Ukraine violates international law, because it lacks strength. In addition, in this way, Russian propagandists spread misogyny and sexism, noting the professional qualities of military personnel in Ukraine, but other subjective things. All this is being done to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Propagandists are distributing an image on social networks that allegedly proves that the Ukrainian language is a “dialect” of Russian. In this they refer to various organizations, mentioning “UN decisions” and other “documents”. They also mention an article on the Russian Dzen platform on the same topic. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that an article on Dzen talks about how in 2018, People’s Deputy of Ukraine Andrii Teteruk discovered infographics on the official UN accounts on Facebook and then on Twitter that showed the development of languages. This image showed a branch with the inscription “Old Russian language”, which branched into “Russian language” and “Belarusian language”, and another branch branched off from the Russian branch - “Ukrainian language”. After the deputy addressed the UN with reproaches for anti-Ukrainian propaganda, the image was deleted from Facebook, but remained in a 2017 publication on Twitter.

However, the text of the publication did not note that the Ukrainian language is a dialect of Russian. The post informed that UNESCO had published an updated version of the atlas of endangered languages and most of the text was devoted to Russia and its language problems.

Previously, a mention of this image was found in the material of Petro Zolin on the website proza.ru dated August 26, 2008, where the author calls it a “scientific reconstruction”. However, there are many strange aspects in the image, such as the origin of the Moldovan language from French and Romanian from Spanish. Recognized historians in Russia itself consider Zolin’s ideas to be pseudoscience. Candidate of Historical Sciences Artur Chubur notes that under the guise of patriotism, which often turns into chauvinism, pseudo-historical publications and resources are actively promoted.

The hypothesis about the existence of a vast group of related languages of Europe, Asia and Africa was first put forward in 1903 by the Danish linguist Holger Pedersen. It was given a scientific form by Soviet scientists, but it is often criticized by Western linguists.

StopFake journalists did not find any “UN documents” proving that the Ukrainian language is a dialect of Russian. At the same time, UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay noted that the Russian language has been formed over the centuries, mixing various Slavic dialects, Church Slavonic and even Greek.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to justify Russia's actions and devalue Ukrainian national identity. So, she helps spread the conspiracy theory that Ukraine is not a real state.