This thesis was circulated on social networks, in particular on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that there are long queues of Ukrainian citizens at the Latvian border who are allegedly trying to leave for Russia. The authors refer to the materials of the Latvian Radio and the Latvian Television LSM. This is manipulation. 

Fact-checkers of the Stop Fake project took up this case and investigated that the journalists’ material does not say that Ukrainians are “trying to leave” for Russia. The interviewed people are trying to get through Russia to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine for personal and family reasons. For example, the story was about a man who was on his way to Kakhovka to help evacuate his relatives. Another couple said they were going to pick up their children from Russia. That is, the propagandists simply distorted the context of the material and began to claim that everyone was heading to Russia en masse, allegedly with the idea of staying there. 

By spreading such manipulation, propagandists succeed in whitewashing themselves, showing that Ukrainians want to live in Russia and are generally ready to stand in long lines to get to Russia, despite their daily war crimes against Ukraine, in particular, the deportation of children.