Pro-Russian sources are spreading the “news” that one of the world's largest payment systems, Visa, is returning to the Russian market. As “proof” of this, the propagandists cite information provided by Visa to Rospatent (in Ukraine, Ukrpatent, an organization that registers intellectual property) requesting an update of its trademarks for banking services and cryptocurrency in Russia.

However, Visa is not returning to the Russian market. The company has not even announced such a decision on any of its official pages. And the payment system has no legal right to return to Russia due to the effect of American sanctions. Government sanctions require Visa to suspend access to its network for a number of Russian financial companies, including the country's central bank and the country's second-largest financial institution, VTB Bank.

That is, returning to the Russian market would be a direct violation of US sanctions. And updating the trademarks, which Visa actually did in Russia, is standard practice to preserve the right to use certain technologies and its own brand and logo in the country. For example, in this way the company avoids reproduction or imitation of the brand by Russia.

Anonymous Telegram channels are spreading a photo of what appears to be a desecrated gravestone. It depicts Azov Brigade fighter Vitalii Oliinyk, who died in Mariupol.

But the burial place of Vitalii Oliinyk differs from what Russian sources are spreading. His grave was not actually destroyed.

Our colleagues,  VoxCheck fact-checkers, investigated that the fake photo depicts a tombstone with the name of Oliinyk Vitalii Ivanovych. The fact-checkers found information about him on the “Memorial” memory platform. It posts information about Ukrainian civilians and soldiers killed as a result of the full-scale Russian invasion.

With the help of Memorial, we managed to find out that Vitalii Oliinyk (call sign - Oscar) died on March 25, 2022 in Mariupol, Donetsk region. He was buried in a cemetery in Vinnytsia region. With the help of a reverse Google search, the fact-checkers determined the burial site which is different from the one that propagandists are spreading. In fact, no one ruined it, it's all a fiction of Russian propagandists.

In this way, Russian propaganda seeks to sow discord among Ukrainians, allegedly they do not honor soldiers at all and are ready to destroy the graves of the fallen.

In the Russian segment of social networks they write that by the end of next year, Ukraine’s public debt will reach more than 1000% of GDP.

“They had a great time jumping on the Maidan”, the propagandists mock.

First of all, propagandists have defiled the information about the country's external debt. In general, such debt is an important indicator of the country's financial stability and has a significant impact on economic development. It is an indispensable part of any country's policy and can be both a source of financing for economic development and a factor limiting economic growth.

For example, such a high figure is not uncommon even in countries with developed economies that are not at war. For example, the public debt of France, Belgium and the UK is 112%, 105% and 104% of GDP, respectively, and in Japan this percentage reaches 254 (data as of 2022).

So the propagandists have inflated the state debt figure by 10 times, and also completely ignored the context of the original news. Since the announcement of the Ministry of Finance was about reducing the external debt from 100.5% to 97% of GDP in 2025, that is, about the positive dynamics of this indicator. In total, the volume of external and internal state debt will amount to 8.2 trillion UAH. But this is, in general, a general economic factor accompanying the economy of many countries - and there is literally nothing “catastrophic” about it.

“Of course, this is a significant indicator. But we must not forget that we are a country at war. Therefore, at the current stage, the issue of debts is only in the context of the possibility of servicing and paying them off in the short term”, explained Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko at a briefing at the Ukrainian Media Center.

Information is being spread on social networks that the Ukrainian energy company, the Sumyoblenergo joint-stock company, allegedly promises to leave without wages those workers who refuse to donate blood to the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The publications include a photo of an announcement stating this.

“Ukrainians are forced to donate blood for the Zeus members who defend the independence and security of Ukraine in the Kursk region. And if they don't donate, they won't get paid…” - this is how the fake news scammers describe the situation.

StopFake specialists analyzed the case and contacted Sumyoblenergo with a request to confirm or deny this information. The company's press secretary stated that the ad was fake and indicated where exactly the propagandists had miscalculated. For example, the company does not have such a department as the “personnel department”, since it was this department that allegedly posted the ad.

Propagandists have been systematically spreading fakes and manipulations on the topic of an alleged blood shortage in Ukraine. In this way, the authors of the messages are trying to convince that everything is bad in Ukraine and that there are many wounded who are not receiving adequate care because “there is not enough blood”. We managed to refute several fakes on this topic. For example, one of the fakes said that Ukraine is banning all foreign citizens from becoming blood donors. We also checked the authenticity of a message on social networks about a Ukrainian woman abandoning her husband because he was “transfused with Russian blood”.

Read on Censor.NET: In Ukraine, LGBT community representatives were allegedly banned from “donating blood”

The Russian segment of social networks writes that an ecological catastrophe is approaching Kyiv. The messages claim that the pollution, which began in the Seim river in Sumy region, has reached the Desna river in Kyiv region.

“Will Kyiv do something about this? We'll see. There's been no progress so far - just a statement”, the propagandists write.

However, the pollution of the Seim and Desna did not affect the state of the water in the Dnipro River; there is no threat to Kyiv and the more southern regions.

On August 14, 2024, pollution of the Seim river, which flows from the Kursk region of Russia to the Sumy and Chernihiv regions, was recorded. According to the official version, sewage entered the Seim from a sugar factory in the village of Tiotkino in the Kursk region. About 6 thousand tons of sugar processing products entered the water.

Acting Mayor of Chernihiv Oleksandr Lomako stated that the pollution was caused by Russia's destruction of treatment facilities in Kursk. And already on August 27, the pollution reached the Desna, where the Seim flows. In fact, 70% of Kyiv's drinking water comes from the Desna, so rumors began to spread online that Kyiv could be left without water. However, on September 15, pollution along the Desna reached the Kyiv region, but in a lower concentration.

In Kyiv, the Kyiv City Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports daily on the quality of drinking water. It has not detected any excess of harmful substances. As of September 26, 2024, the indicators are still within the normal range. There are also no threats to water intake in Chernihiv and Sumy regions, because water is obtained not from the river, but from artesian wells.

Swimming, fishing and using this water in the economy are prohibited on the Seim and Desna rivers in Chernihiv, Sumy and Kyiv regions. However, the environmental disaster in Kyiv predicted by Russian Telegram channels did not happen.

By spreading such a message, propagandists want to feed the narrative that Ukraine is allegedly uninhabitable due to the lack of electricity, high prices for utilities; or due to various diseases, pandemics that are spreading exclusively in Ukraine due to the war. In this way, the authors want to sow panic among Ukrainians in order to destabilize the mood and create a feeling that “nothing will change”.