Russian media and pro-Russian social media accounts are circulating videos with the Euronews logo and a similar style of English subtitles. The story says that supposedly the auction house Bolland & Marotz is holding an auction where participants will be able to purchase Dostoievskyi's letters, Chaikovskyi's handwritten notes, a series of Vrubel's sketches and other exhibits. Moreover, after the sale, all these exhibits will allegedly be destroyed, because Russia has discredited itself in the war with Ukraine. So the destruction of the Russian cultural heritage is a logical consequence. It is not true.

According to the Georgian fact-checkers of the MythDetector project, the story spread on behalf of Euronews is fictitious. The video is modified with computer software, the media did not prepare such a story. Auction house Bolland & Marotz also denied the organization of such an auction. The company also said that the idea of ​​such an event is contrary to internal policy.

Russian media are quoting Volodymyr Putin and calling Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine a "civil war." According to Russian "experts", Russia's attack on Ukraine is not a foreign intervention, but a "civil battle between two parts of the Russian people".

This message has been promoted since 2014. Thus, earlier they tried to hide the presence of Russian troops on the east side of Ukraine. Now propagandists continue to deny the aggressive policy of Russia against the Ukrainian people. Propagandists use the tactics of substitution of concepts and call the occupation of Ukrainian territories the theses of “reunification of Crimea with Russia”, “civil war in Donbas”. To replace the concept of war, the "special military operation" phrase is used.

There is no “brotherly” and “single Russian people”, this is a Russian myth. According to StopFake, after the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine became the only state that approved its independence by popular vote. The All-Ukrainian referendum on the independence of Ukraine was held on December 1, 1991. The Ukrainian people confirmed their desire to live in a free state - 90.32% of the referendum participants voted for the independence of Ukraine. The turnout in the referendum was 84.18% of the population of Ukraine. After the All-Ukrainian referendum, the worldwide process of recognizing Ukraine as an independent state began - in particular, Russia recognized the independence of Ukraine on December 5, 1991.

By showing aggression towards Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, Russia continues to violate international law and a number of international agreements in the field of security, in particular, fundamental treaties guaranteeing the sovereign equality and territorial integrity of states, as well as the rules of law governing the basic principles of warfare.

Some of these stories are published under the hashtag "Russian Whisper," which is used for the stories of the residents of Kyiv, which they allegedly tell propagandists. Propagandists published the story of Olya, who allegedly lives in Kyiv without electricity and writes to Russian propagandists that "not everyone here is abnormal," that she is "very much waiting for the Russians" and cannot talk about it because otherwise, she will not live to " of your victory." The fake checkers of the NotaYenota project drew attention to how the Russian letter "ы" is written in the message - the Ukrainian soft sign and the letter "I"- this writing indicates the fakeness of the message. The Russian letter "Э" was also used in the text. Another of the posts under such a hashtag promotes "historical scraps" about a girl whose passport was written that she is Ukrainian, although she has a Russian surname. The post also talks about "Ukrainization in the 20s and 30s", which was allegedly carried out by force, and it was in the USSR that Ukrainians were created. This message is related to the thesis from the article and the speeches of the Russian president. This girl's friend wrote in her passport that she is "Russian," and now she allegedly fasts with Ukrainian symbols. It is how Ukrainian propaganda supposedly "washes the brain."

With the help of so-called "eyewitness accounts," propagandists promote messages about "Ukrainian Nazism" and "discrimination against Russian speakers" and create the illusion that the Russian army is expected in Ukraine "as liberating heroes."

Russian actor Ivan Okhlobystin tried to motivate Russians at a "holiday" concert on the occasion of the illegal "accession" of temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia. For this purpose, he suggested reviving the "originally Russian" battle cry "hayda." As it turned out, the cry is not Russian; its etymology dates back to the times of Kyivan Rus. As the fact-checkers of the "Brekhunets" project write, such a word doesn't exist in any "canonical" Russian dictionary. Experts explain that "hoyda" is an exclamation used as a predicate in the meaning of "hoydáty" (swinging). It is the meaning of this word in the dictionary of the Ukrainian language. Also, "swing" was a characteristic of a thin, tall girl in Bukovyna.

Modern Russia has no direct relation to this exclamation. It is an example of another "borrowing" by Russians of someone else's and passing it off as their own. Earlier, propagandists wrote that Ukraine didn't have "historical rights" to the "Northern Black Sea Region" and that the residents of Zaporizhzhia were allegedly "declared" Ukrainians without their knowledge, "in fact," they "have always been Russians."

With such a message, pro-Russian Telegram channels are distributing videos of people, allegedly, trying to get into a shelter during an alarm, but they are not allowed to go. The video is accompanied by comments that "repositories for the chosen ones" have appeared, and Ukrainians, instead of helping in times of need, are "pushing each other under bullets." The posts also say that "there is a mess in the country," and officials only "record videos as if everything is fine."

In fact, the video shows how a group of people forcefully breaks into the premises shouting, "we are in the shelter." However, it becomes clear from the words of the institution's employees that it is a school shelter, and there are children. The girl who posted the video claims that she "knows the law"; therefore, she and other people are "obliged" to be allowed to shelter during the air raid alert.

Following regulatory requirements and recommendations, outsiders may not use the school shelter. The school shelter must be organized so that children can stay safely and comfortably during an air raid, even for a long time. The area of ​​the school shelter, water and food supplies, medicines, ventilation system, and other vital things are regulated by regulations. Therefore, there is no allowance for outsiders to go into the school shelter, so the institution's employees acted by the requirements and took care of the children's safety first of all.

Such news is spread by the pro-Kremlin propaganda media, as well as by anonymous telegram channels. Reports say that Ukrainian children did not learn Russian despite their great desire. Allegedly, the Ukrainian authorities discriminate against the Russian language at the state level. However, this is not true.

According to StopFake fact-checkers, in the Kherson region and in general on the territory of Ukraine, the study of the Russian language was not prohibited. According to Ukrainian legislation, at the request of representatives of national minorities, it is possible to organize a separate class for teaching in the desired language but Ukrainian as the state language should be a priority. In the Kherson region it was not only possible to study the Russian language as a subject, but there were also schools where studies were generally held in Russian.

In fact, according to the law "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language" the language of the educational process is Ukrainian, but no one forbade learning Russian.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, pro-Russian telegram channels spread information about holding a large-scale "holiday concert" on the occasion of the completion of the "people's will" in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions and their reunification with Russia. The concert is scheduled for September 30th.

However, in order to create a picture of “enthusiastic” spectators who will publicly “rejoice” at the occupation, the Russians will use the “administrative resource” - the lists of spectators are pre-approved, and attendance at the “celebration” is mandatory. Also, according to the results of the "celebration", men will be granted a respite from mobilization.

Thus, the Kremlin propaganda is trying to impose on the world community the illusion of popular approval of the occupation of the sovereign territories of Ukraine and to legitimize it. In a similar way, Russian propaganda tried to convince that in Kupiansk they rejoiced at the occupation and celebrated the Day of the Russian flag, while temporarily occupied Mariupol allegedly celebrated the Day of the Metallurgist.

In social networks, an alleged video from the Vilnius metro is being distributed, where posters in support of Ukraine were installed, scornfully illustrating the Russian army. The video also allegedly shows discriminatory inscriptions against Russians. It is not true.

There is no subway in Vilnius. In 2018, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania passed a law allowing the construction of the metro. However, the President of Lithuania, Dalia Hrybauskaite, vetoed this law at that time. As the fact checker VoxCheck investigated, most likely the Hong Kong subway is on the video. To create a fake, a clip from the Mexican band Montez De Durango was used. Photos distributed on social networks are edited through special programs.

Russian propaganda uses fake videos and photos to promote the narrative of Russophobia in Western countries. Earlier, propagandists wrote that because of Russophobia in Latvia, it was forbidden to sing “Katiusha” at family feasts.

Like, they were simply “handed Ukrainian passports”, so now they only want to return “to their roots”.

This message is spread by the Russian media in the context of holding illegal referendums in the occupied territories and the narrative about primordially Russian territories.

According to the fact-checkers of The Insider project, in 2001 almost 1 million 927 thousand inhabitants lived in the Zaporizhzhia region, of which 70.1% were Ukrainians and 24.7% were Russians. Ukrainian was named as their native language by 73.6% of the respondents, and Russian - only 24.6%.

This is not the first time Russian propaganda has manipulated ethno-national issues. Previously, they said that Ukraine does not have "historical rights" to the "Northern Black Sea" or that the Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson region have the right to self-determination under the UN Charter. Thus, they are trying to justify the invasion of Ukraine

Anonymous telegram channels and Russian media write about this. Allegedly, the Investigative Committee of Russia will open criminal proceedings on the arrest of teachers in the Kharkov region. The fake got into the Ukrainian information space because of the pro-Russian media and bloggers. They allegedly referred to a comment by Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk that the detainees would be tried under Article 483 of the Criminal Code (violation of the customs and laws of war). Like, the punishment for them provides for up to 12 years in prison and they are not subject to exchange, because they are not prisoners of war. Some telegram channels also hinted that not all teachers would live to see the trial. It is not true.

As journalist Iryna Romaliiska reported with reference to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Ukrainian police did not detain Russian teachers in the de-occupied territories of the Kharkiv region. Information about the detention was not confirmed in the office of the President of Ukraine. Subsequently, the Russian authorities denied the information about the detention of Russian teachers in Ukraine.

Most likely, this news was deliberately spread by pro-Russian resources in order to demonstrate the “ruthlessness” of the Ukrainian authorities, and subsequently its “absurdity”. This fake also echoes the Russian propaganda narrative about “Ukrainian Nazis.” Previously, fakes were spread that schoolchildren in the temporarily occupied part of the Kharkiv region were choosing Russian as the language of the studies process.

Russian media and pro-Russian resources write about this. Allegedly, there is a classical Ukrainian language, very close to the Russian language and which every Russian understands. Like, it's just a version of the Russian language. The modern Ukrainian language is allegedly the work of political technologists. As if Russian words are replaced by a large number of Polish and English words. And this “artificial, totalitarian and terrorist” modern Ukrainian language is taught to schoolchildren. That is why, according to the Russians, it is necessary to completely eliminate this “artificially created language”, since it originates from the “terrorist methods” of Ukrainian nationalists.

Ukrainian is a real language that has been different from Russian for many centuries. It is more similar to other Slavic languages ​​than to Russian.

They tried to destroy the Ukrainian language many times, and forcibly russify Ukrainians. Targeted bans and oppression of the Ukrainian language with the aim of its destruction and assimilation in Ukraine are called linguocide.

With such a hidden meaning, the first autumn lessons "Talks about important things" by Volodymyr Putin and "Historical memory as the road to the future" by Oleksandr Lukashenko were held. Allegedly, these measures should concern Russia and Belarus, respectively, but they also talked about Ukraine there.

Volodymyr Putin said that allegedly schoolchildren in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions consider the Crimean bridge a fabrication. Also, children do not know that "Ukraine and Russia were once one country - the Soviet Union." Like, they weren't taught this at school. Thus, Putin once again demonstrated Russian chauvinism based on manipulation and distortion of reality.

In fact, the automobile part of the bridge across the Kerch Strait was opened on May 15, 2018, its railway part - on December 25, 2019 for passenger transport and on June 30, 2020 for cargo. Russia occupied Crimea and part of the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014. Therefore, the question of the “quality” of education in the occupied territories should be asked precisely to the occupying “authorities”, and not to the Ukrainian one.

Putin also once spoke about Russia's modern mission - "to stop this war", "to protect both the people and Russia itself", because on the territory of today's Ukraine "they began to create an anti-Russian enclave." In fact, Putin may well end the war he himself started. To do this, he should give an order and withdraw troops from the territory of Ukraine. He transfers responsibility for the start of the war and the crimes committed to Ukraine and to the West.

Oleksandr Lukashenko told Belarusian schoolchildren that the alleged events in Bucha were an artificially created picture. They say that in Belarus they “calculated” the numbers of cars and established the identities of those who brought “corpses in plastic bags” for “provocations”. Lukashenka also recalled an old fake that supposedly now “grain and black soil” are being exported from Ukraine to “rich Europe”. As the fact-checkers of The Insider write, the last time this fake appeared in the information space was in April, on a site of parody news.

In the temporarily Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, the Russian authorities are distributing Russian educational materials in schools. In particular, according to the Institute for the Study of War, pro-Russian authorities from Sevastopol arrived in Starobelsk, Luhansk region, to hand over backpacks and official state symbols of the Russian Federation to local schools. The Russian-appointed head of Crimea, Serhii Aksionov, also urged teachers in Crimea to strengthen the patriotic program in Crimean schools, in particular, to inform children about the decision of Russian President Volodymyr Putin to conduct a “special military operation” in Ukraine. In addition, the first lesson, which will be held in schools in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, is focused on the lesson outline, which is taken from Putin's article "The Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", his speeches on the recognition of the independence of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, as well as the start of a "special military operation". According to the Institute's analysts, in these speeches, Putin rejected the legitimacy of Ukrainian identity, saying that it "is a product of the Soviet era ... and historical Russia was developed on this land." Institute experts call such actions of the Russian authorities an attempt to erase Ukrainian identity in the territories occupied by Russia. Remember that in the temporarily occupied Melitopol, the occupation authorities are trying to resume the work of schools and, according to the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, they want to open 4 schools, for which teachers will be brought from distant regions of Russia. As for pupils, due to the frantic "deficit" of schoolchildren, the occupiers are frightening parents that they will deprive them of parental rights.

Russian propaganda convinces of this. But this is not the case at all, the Center for Strategic Communications notes.

In fact, Ukrainians are:

going to rallies en masse,

cooperating with the Armed Forces,

fighting the invaders on their own,

This is stated in a letter allegedly signed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Marcin Przydacz. It is not true.

The letter from the Polish Foreign Ministry is a fake response to a fake letter from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. The "letter of response" speaks of a positive decision to rename a street in Warsaw in honor of Stepan Bandera, which houses the Russian embassy. In addition, the "letter" refers to the ways of future promotion of Bandera among the Polish population. According to the Center for Countering Disinformation, a bot account on the social network Facebook, which contains almost no messages of other messages, was likely the primary source.

The information that Serhiy Shnurov visited the city of Irmino in the Luhansk Region was spread by the Russian propaganda media with reference to the Russian actor Georgy Bolonyev. Later, a photo in which Shnurov is allegedly in Luhansk Oblast also appeared on the pages of Ukrainian online media. However, this is not true.

The photo turned out to be a fake. Shnurov accused Russian propagandists of having photoshopped his old photo into a picture with Prigozhin and Bolognev. Pro-government Russian media also denied the fake, referring to the words of Shnurov's press secretary Serhii Guguchkin. Like, the singer is currently in Turkey and taking part in a corporate event. Later, Bolonev published other attempts of the same photo on the Russian social network Vkontakte and wrote that Shnurov is being confused with the Russian actor Sergei Garusov. And this is done not only by readers of social networks, but also by residents of occupied Stakhanov who saw Harusov in person.

"Media Detector'' checked the photo. It is impossible to establish the author and the location of the shooting, as metadata about who created the image is erased in social networks. Reverse search of the original image on the Internet through search engines and the TinEye extension is not convincing due to the clutter of image reposts. However, analyzing the image in the InVid application shows traces of editing. Especially, the right part of the image, where Shnurov is supposed to be. This shows that Shnurov is not really in the photo from Irmina. Harusov is only three centimeters shorter than Shnurov, this difference can be muffled by a hat, higher shoes or lifting on the toes. So, they could really be "confused".

The use of photos of celebrities who were not actually in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories is a novelty for Russian propagandists. Previously, they published news about stars who really visited the occupied territories for, apparently, ideological reasons.

This information is spread by pro-Kremlin sites, and for illustration, they used photos of the Iversky Convent destroyed during the fighting for the Donetsk airport in 2014.

The Iversky Convent belonged to the so-called Moscow Patriarchate and suffered as a result of the battles for the Donetsk airport in 2014-2015. Videos of Convent’s damage, which the Russian propaganda is using today to illustrate new lies, appeared as early as 2015.

Instead, the Russian occupiers are purposefully destroying Ukrainian cultural heritage, including churches and temples. According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the Russians damaged 101 objects of valuable historical buildings and destroyed or damaged 145 religious buildings. More details.

This information was spread by the Russian media and social networks. It is not true.

The VoxCheck team verified this information and reports that according to the band's concert program in Tallinn, any Russian song was played at the concert in Estonia on July 20, 2022. This is also confirmed by videos from the concert posted by fans on YouTube. The band has openly expressed its support for Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Concerts planned for 2022 in Russia have been canceled.

On social networks were spread the video of a concert in Mariupol, at which the residents allegedly celebrated en masse and sang along to "a white swan on the pond..." of the soloist of the Russian group "Lisopoval." Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels distributed photos and videos of the "very massive" participation of citizens in the concert from the "press service" of the so-called DNR. Then these videos were shared on Facebook. It is manipulation.

Indeed, July 17 is celebrated in Ukraine as the Day of Metallurgical and Mining Workers. A similar holiday is also celebrated in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. As NotaYenota writes, the occupiers decided to hold several events for Metallurgist's Day, including a concert with the participation of a special guest, Serhiy Kuprik. In the comments to the video of the show, Ukrainian users write, "who are our guys fighting for," "look, we felt sorry for them," etc. It is precisely the effect the occupiers sought — to convince the Ukrainians of the "treason" of the Mariupol's residents.

More than 400,000 people used to live in Mariupol. Probably, among them, some have pro-Russian views. However, at least 22,000 Mariupol residents died due to the hostilities. The occupiers forcibly removed thousands of people through the so-called "filtration camps" to Russia. Many citizens left for safer places earlier. According to the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushchenko, 50-100 people still leave the city every day. Therefore, the information of the occupiers that the city's population is now 220,000 is invalid. There are no more than a thousand people in the "holiday" video, but there is no evidence that these are Mariupol residents, not specially brought actors. From another perspective, the picture of the crowd of the event is significantly different. The event is sparsely populated compared to videos from previous years. Probably some of the people were collected by distributing food packages because there are problems with food in the city. The propagandists also attracted Russian bloggers, who, in their comments, talk about the support of the residents of Mariupol by the residents of Russian cities and talk about the "peaceful" life in Mariupol.

The Russian media report it concerning the reports of politicians. They said that the Russian army has nothing to do with the destruction of cultural objects - historical buildings are deliberately destroyed by Ukrainians themselves with "Western weapons." It is not true.

Ukraine's UNESCO experts and international partners recorded Russian attacks on 160 cultural objects: 72 religious objects, 12 museums, 32 historical buildings, 24 buildings for cultural events, 17 monuments, and 7 libraries. The occupiers also destroyed 2,100 buildings of educational institutions in Ukraine. Three-quarters of destroyed cultural objects are located in Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions. However, there is destruction all over the country. The Russians are looting museum exhibits and other cultural values in the temporarily occupied territories. According to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the number of destroyed objects has increased to three hundred. The fact of the destruction of Ukrainian cultural values ​​by the Russians was confirmed by the UN Security Council during a special meeting, "Destruction of cultural heritage as a result of Russian aggression against Ukraine," the holding of which was supported by 38 UN member states. Other international organizations recognized the destruction and promised Ukraine to help overcome the war's consequences. StopFake writes about this in more detail.

Russia, on the other hand, continues its tactics of denying deliberate missile strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine. Moreover, Russian politicians accuse the West of hypocrisy, as they allegedly first provide weapons to destroy cultural heritage and then funds for its restoration. In this way, Russia is trying to avoid punishment for crimes committed in Ukraine.

US scientists support Putin's ideas. It is reported by the Russian media and anonymous Telegram channels regarding the words of the US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul. It is not true.

In fact, propagandists have distorted McFaul's words. In an interview for the project "UKRAINE NOW. The vision of the future" McFaul talked about the fact that the clichés of Russian propaganda about the "historical unity of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples" are widespread among US citizens. According to McFaul, these theses are also supported by some scientists and professors. However, the opinion of individual scientists cannot be interpreted as universal beliefs. As StopFake writes, Michael McFaul talked about the fact that Russia uses significant resources to spread disinformation in the West. The civilized world often cannot find an adequate answer to this. However, the fight against Russian propaganda continues.

It is not the first time Russian mass media have spread McFaul's quotes out of context. In particular, his words regarding lobbying for the interests of Ukraine in the USA and the fact that Volodymyr Zelenskyi's entourage allegedly participates in "schemes" for purchasing weapons were distorted earlier.

Russian propaganda spread information that a national collection of microorganisms was taken out of Ukraine - and once again linked it to the work of the "military biological laboratories of the Pentagon," which supposedly exist in Ukraine. In fact, the collection has not been taken anywhere - it is stored in Kyiv. It has nothing to do with the laboratories that were actually reconstructed with the help of US funds as part of the biological threat reduction program.

StopFake received confirmation of the location of the collection in Ukraine by talking to the curator of the National Collection of Microorganisms of Ukraine, a senior researcher at the Institute of Microbiology and Virology named after D.K. Zabolotnyy NASU, candidate of biological sciences Taisiya Nohina.

"The collection is located in Ukraine. Moreover, she continues her work," Nohina said. Now the collection includes more than 5,600 cultures of microorganisms, represented by more than 1,000 species and 300 genera. It stores microbes found in the soil, water, certain plants, human intestines, and the organisms of various animals. The depository provides samples free of charge to educational institutions for training and, on a commercial basis, to pharmaceutical companies that use them for drug testing. The collection is neither secret nor dangerous - it is needed for scientific activity, and such collections exist in any developed country. It is also in Russia.

It was said by the head of the Russian Constitutional Court, Valery Zorkin. They said that 12 million Russians who lived on the territory of Crimea and several regions that became part of Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union were left "without any legal guarantees."

According to Zorkin, due to the "Kyiv Nazi regime" actions, these people were allegedly deprived of their rights to "national identity and native language." It is not true.

The rights to the national identity and native language of the residents of Crimea were enshrined in Article 10 of the Constitution of Crimea. As for Ukrainian legislation, the Law of Ukraine "On the Rights of National Minorities" guarantees "equal political, social, economic and cultural rights and freedoms regardless of national origin, supports the development of national self-awareness and self-expression." Russians are the most significant national minority in Ukraine, but not only do they but other minorities have the right to self-identity. The same Law states that "citizens of Ukraine must respect the languages, cultures, traditions, customs, and religious identity of the Ukrainian people and all national minorities." National minorities are also guaranteed the right to receive education in their native language, but in parallel with compulsory education in the state language. That is, Ukraine strives for its citizens to know the state language and in no case forbids the use of any other language. The Russians constantly repeat the manipulative message about "protecting the Russian-speaking population from nationalists." Moreover, it became one of the far-fetched reasons for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.    

In Saint Petersburg, a vacancy for an actor for mass shooting in the previously occupied territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions was advertised. As StratCom of the ZSU writes in a telegram, this is how they recruit "local witnesses to the atrocities of the damned Ukrainian fascists." Payment for filming - 1,300 rubles (almost $24), travel to the so-called "DPR" and "LPR," "we will shoot there."

Some Russian mass media spread this information. The reports refer to a complete ban on distributing Russian-language literature in Ukraine.

Russian mass media claim that the prohibition is allegedly provided for by the law adopted on June 19, 2022. However, the amendments made to the Law "On Publishing" do not provide for the prohibition of Russian-language books. In fact, as StopFake writes, books in Russian were not banned in Ukraine. The country's authorities have banned importing literature published by publishers from Russia and Belarus. Texts in Russian (with some restrictions) can be imported from other countries and printed in Ukraine.