Russian propaganda in Lithuania is spreading a fake that due to the number of refugees in the country, the level of criminal offenses is growing. In general, the majority of refugees in Lithuania from Ukraine are criminals, representatives of organized crime. But this is fake.

Data on the number of crimes in Lithuania is provided by the Delfi publication: in 2021, the police recorded 42,525 cases, and in 2022 the number of criminal offenses increased to 45,710. At the same time, such fluctuations have nothing to do with war or refugees since in 2020, when there was neither war in Ukraine nor refugees in Lithuania, the Lithuanian police recorded even more crimes than in 2022 - 46,306 cases.

The article, which blamed Ukrainian refugees for the rise in crime, was published in the Russian-language edition of Baltnews, owned by the Russian state agency “MIA Siohodni” (MIA Today), which includes, among others, propaganda resources Sputnik, RT and Ukraina.ru.

Since the first days of the war, Russian propaganda has been trying to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU, in order to reduce support for Ukraine and Ukrainians. Read more about it in the Detector Media investigation.