Spilnota Detector Media

Fake Ukraine has introduced a new tax on the import of generators

Russian media write about it. Like, in Ukraine, against the background of the energy crisis caused by Russian missile strikes on the country's energy infrastructure, a new 30% tax was introduced on the import of generators from abroad. Netizens comment that it is not a sin for “sincere patriots” in power to make money on the complicated circumstances of people. This is not true.

As StopFake writes, the Government of Ukraine has not introduced a new tax as the norm on taxation of goods imported into Ukraine over 500 euros has existed since at least 2012. Moreover, due to the energy crisis caused by Russian missile strikes against Ukraine's infrastructure, on November 8, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that the government had decided to abolish import taxes on generators, transformers, batteries, etc.

Message The authorities are silent about the real state of affairs, so the Ukrainians will trust the channels in social networks, where they are given the insider information

By spreading such messages, anonymous social media accounts exaggerate their influence on the mood of Ukrainian society during the war. Allegedly due to the fact that the authorities do not tell the Ukrainians about the real state of things, what they are preparing for and where Ukraine is heading, disappointment will only grow. They say that only alternative sources of information give the people answers about what the reality will be and how to prepare for it, so Ukrainians are buying up various things that will help them survive in the event of a power outage and heating. Neither the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, nor the mayor of Kyiv Vitalii Klychko, nor any head of the regional military state administration hides the fact that the Russian army is carrying out genocide of the Ukrainian people and destroying infrastructure. Authorities urge people to prepare the necessary supplies and explain how to act and where to look for information in the worst case scenario. This means that the authorities have not given up, but are considering different scenarios in order to endure and be prepared.

Anonymous channels spreading insider information is one of the tactics of Russian propaganda. On critical days, these sources will begin to disperse panic and intimidation, which work no worse than missiles and are informational terror.

Message Russia “returned” to the grain agreement in order to outplay the West and drag the “countries of the global South” to its side

In connection with an unsuccessful attempt to withdraw from the grain deal, Russia is urgently throwing several contradictory theses into the information space in order to confuse the audience and prevent them from asking a rational question: why, when Russia "withdrew" from the agreement, ships with Ukrainian grain continued to leave ports and deliver it to other countries?

In fact, after Ukraine, the UN and Turkey "informed Russia" that they would extend the agreement, despite Russian statements, the weakness of Russia's position was demonstrated to the whole world. It cannot blockade Ukrainian ports, it cannot destroy Turkish ships, and it cannot blackmail Ukraine again because of successes at the front, since now Russia is losing. Therefore, Russia was simply forced to "return" to the agreement and its propaganda had to somehow explain it to the audience.

The explanations are as follows: Ukraine gave written guarantees that it would not use the humanitarian corridor for military operations. But this is not true: Ukraine did not give additional guarantees. She gave them first and carried them out. But now Russian propaganda is forced to explain that "additional guarantees have been provided, but Russia still does not believe in any guarantees from Ukraine". And therefore reserves the right to "withdraw" from the agreement again, whenever it pleases.

The second explanation is that Russia has returned to fulfilling its obligations in order to prevent the West from "manipulating" that Russia provokes famine in the poorer countries of Asia and Africa, and thus win over the "global South". And to show that Russia is a stable and reliable partner”. And that is despite the fact that in the last 8 months Russia massively violated contracts, agreements, promises and even guarantees. It is unlikely that the reputation of a terrorist and an aggressor can be corrected by poor compliance with a single agreement.

Such a strategy looks especially disastrous against the backdrop of numerous statements by Russian officials who on November 1 stated that Russia's return to the grain agreement on the previous terms was never possible, and the next day the agreement started working again according to the same rules.

Message Without Russian gas, Europe will slide into the Middle Ages

Russian propaganda is increasing the energy blackmail of Europe and is trying to force Europe to abandon sanctions against Russia and stop supporting Ukraine. The Kremlin seeks to pressure and blackmail European governments and create public panic over energy insecurity or rising electricity costs.

According to the EUvsDISINFO fact checkers, the EU member states are preparing for winter and the heating season both at the national and at the EU level. In particular, they adopted a resolution on filling gas storage facilities and distributing them in a spirit of solidarity, using various sources of energy resources, and committed to reducing gas use by 15% this winter. Despite the cessation of Russian gas supplies via Nord Stream, Europe is ready for winter. Underground gas storage facilities in the EU were filled to 82.5% of their capacity well before the November 1 deadline set in the gas storage regulation.

Recently, the Russians made a video about a winter without gas in Europe, which was supposed to scare the Europeans. However, the “powerful gas country” used winter footage from the hitherto non-gasified Russian city of Krasnoyarsk to shoot the film. Propagandists also claimed that 60% of British factories would stop working due to rising electricity prices provoked by anti-Russian sanctions. They tried to scare and fake that the United States is killing Europe, since it is beneficial for them to refuse Europeans from Russian gas.

Message Poland started the “economic capture” of Ukraine

Such a thesis is being circulated on social media as a continuation of the Kremlin’s narrative that Poland intends to annex Ukraine. To promote the message, they used the news that Ukraine and Poland intend to build a pipeline to transport Ukrainian sunflower oil to the Polish port of Hdansk.

The construction of such a pipeline is, first of all, beneficial to Ukraine, since it will contribute to the partial unblocking of Ukrainian exports in the face of Russian aggression. It was previously reported about the construction of an oil pipeline 600 km long and with a capacity of up to 2 million tons of oil per year. The pipeline will be laid from Yahodyn (Volyn region) to Hdansk.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine explains that the start of a full-scale military aggression by Russia and the blocking of Ukrainian seaports forced the government to look for new routes for the transportation of Ukrainian agro-food products. Ukraine is a major world producer and exporter of grain and vegetable oils, and by the beginning of the war, more than 90% of these products were exported through ports located on the Black Sea.

Poland believes that in addition to partial unblocking of Ukrainian exports, the implementation of the memorandum will also contribute to improving the food security of countries facing famine. As a consequence, this should reduce migration pressure on Europe.

We are not talking about any capture of Ukraine by Poland. It was Ukraine that initiated the project to build a pipeline to the Polish port of Hdansk as Russia continues to threaten exports from Ukrainian seaports.

Russia is constantly spreading fakes that Poland intends to seize part of Ukraine. In July, propagandists wrote that two Polish brigades would take control of Western Ukraine in August. They also wrote that Ukraine is a “dying donor”, each country wants a “piece” for itself, and Poland takes the most. Thus, the propagandists are trying to destroy the partnership between Ukraine and Poland. 

Fake 60% of British factories will close due to rising electricity prices provoked by anti-Russian sanctions

 This thesis is spread by the Russian media with reference to a study published on the Bloomberg website. In fact, in an article about how skyrocketing electricity bills will affect entrepreneurs in the absence of state support, not a word mentions that the crisis was provoked by anti-Russian sanctions.

On the contrary, the author of the article, Julian Harris, notes that there is such a risk, six out of 10 British manufacturers are in danger of decline due to high electricity prices. The article notes that in order to avoid a crisis, the government should announce a wider support package. "The new government needs emergency action", said Stephen Phipson, CEO of MakeUK.

Russian propagandists love to find international economic articles that talk about hard times for European businesses due to high utility bills and lead to the fact that this would not have happened if it were not for anti-Russian sanctions. They say that the West suffers more from these sanctions than Russia, so it is enough to introduce them, make friends with Russia and get low bills for electricity and gas.

At the same time, the Russian media are silent about the fact that sanctions against Russia will be lifted if it retreats from the territory of Ukraine and does not kill the civilian population and destroy cities and villages.

Fake Foreigners buy Ukrainian agricultural land

This news is spreading across the web. The report says that foreigners allegedly buy agricultural land in Ukraine without any problems and freely dispose of it. Like, all Ukrainian land will soon not belong to the Ukrainians themselves. However, this is not true.

In fact, according to Ukrainian law, foreign citizens do not have the right to buy agricultural land in Ukraine. From 1992 to 2021, there was a moratorium on the sale and purchase of agricultural land in Ukraine, even citizens of Ukraine could not trade agricultural land.

According to the current legislation, the purchase of non-agricultural land for foreigners is allowed only on the condition that there is real estate (for example, a house) on this land and the land belongs to an urban-type settlement.

So far, agricultural land in Ukraine can only be purchased by individuals who are citizens of Ukraine, and not more than 100 hectares. This thesis is being expanded to show that Ukraine is subject to the West and is a puppet in the hands of European officials: it does everything under dictation, it is ready to give up its lands.

Message Ukrainian farmers are doomed to bankruptcy

Such theses are disseminated by propaganda channels, in particular by RIA Novosti. These reports say that Polish companies have organized the purchase of farmers’ products at a reduced price. In this way, allegedly Poland dooms Ukrainian enterprises to bankruptcy. And since then the Poles seek to buy the assets of companies and Ukrainian lands at reduced prices. However, this is all lies.

As the specialists of the Brekhunets (Lier) project explain, the current harvest campaign is really difficult. Due to the loss of access to ports, after the full-scale invasion of Russia, those who grew grain were the first to suffer. In addition, part of the crops in the temporarily occupied territories was also lost: fields were burned, equipment was destroyed.

The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine noted that there are only a few bankruptcy cases.

Now, for example, ports have started to work, and if the dynamics are the same as now, then export volumes will be at the level of 4-4.5 million tons, it is quite possible that in September talks will begin between banks and manufacturers about new repayment and credit schedules.

Media Detector has already written about a fake on the impossibility of selling agricultural land to foreign citizens. Moreover, this applies as well to legal entities - food companies.

Manipulation Macron’s help to Ukraine is to no purpose as it is the most corrupt country in the world

France’s policy towards Ukraine, the supply of weapons to it and financial assistance is supposedly suicide for this country, since Ukraine is the most corrupt country in the world. In addition, sanctions against Russia do not work because they are the main supplier of raw materials in the world. This is manipulation.

Euvsdisinfo.eu. writes about it. In fact, Ukraine in the ranking of corrupt countries, which is compiled by Transparency International, was 122nd out of 180 countries in 2021, and Russia, for example, was 136th. In addition, in order to fight corruption, Ukraine has taken and is taking a number of important steps, in particular, it is implementing judicial reform, changing the composition of the High Council of Justice, and strengthening anti-corruption bodies - SAPO (Specialized anti-corruption prosecutor's office) and NABU (National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine). The latter recently announced suspicion to deputy Trukhin for offering a bribe to a policeman.

As for the sanctions, Russia suffers from them because it lacks the technology for, in particular, the military-industrial complex.

This fake is being spread to distract the West from helping Ukraine and lifting sanctions against Russia. Their constancy in time allows Ukraine to keep the defense in an unprovoked war and hope for its victorious end.

Manipulation The heating season has been "canceled" in Kyiv due to sanctions against Russia

Russian propaganda continues to disperse the topic of dependence on gas from the Russian Federation throughout Europe and Ukraine, in particular. This time, the pro-Kremlin media wrote that centralized heating was canceled in Kyiv and called on the people of Kiev to “buy warm clothes” and they named the reason for this: sanctions against Russia. The propagandists referred to the words of the mayor of the capital, Vitalii Klychko. In fact, he did not talk about the abolition of the heating season, but warned the townspeople about possible blackouts of heat and electricity and possible terrorist attacks at thermal power plants.

Vitalii Klychko said in an interview with Babel that there is gas for the population, but in the conditions of the Russian war, the capital is preparing for possible terrorist attacks on Kyiv thermal power plants. The mayor of Kyiv did indeed warn of possible power and heat outages and urged people to warm up. However, there are no quotes about sanctions and the energy crisis.

“The average readiness for the heating season in Ukraine as of August 17 is 73%. As of mid-August, Ukrainian storage facilities have accumulated 12.6 billion cubic meters of gas, as well as 1.89 million tons of coal. The task of the Cabinet of Ministers is to accumulate 19 billion cubic meters of gas - this volume will allow a successful heating season in Ukraine. According to the chairman of the board of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, Yurii Vitrenko, before the onset of cold weather, Ukraine will provide part of the missing gas through domestic production, and about 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas will need to be imported,” StopFake fact checkers explained.

Pattern: in the context of frozen messages about Europe, propagandists always mention sanctions against the Russian Federation. Therefore, the dissemination of these fakes, manipulations and messages are attempts to intimidate the population in order to influence the circle of decision-makers on sanctions.

Earlier, Russian propaganda already wrote that the mayor of Lviv called on residents to buy firewood for the winter, the next winter without Russian gas is an important test for Germany and Europeans are panicking due to a reduction in Russian gas supplies.

Fake The National Bank acknowledged that Ukraine's gold and foreign exchange reserves were transferred to Poland

Anonymous telegram channels and Russian media "quote" an interview with Deputy Head of the National Bank of Ukraine Serhii Nikolaichuk to Rabbit Hole. They say that the stocks were transferred for storage "until the situation normalizes," but now Kyiv is unlikely to be able to return them. It is not true.

Serhii Nikolaichuk did not say that either in this interview or in any other. There are no mentions of gold reserves in the Rabbit Hole interview. They are talking only about the problems and challenges of the Ukrainian economy during the war. The information was checked by the StopFake fact checkers. No amendments were made to the article on the export of gold and foreign exchange reserves.

According to the National Bank, as of August 1, monetary gold makes up only 6.7% of the gold and foreign exchange reserves. Most of the gold and foreign exchange reserves (54.9%) are securities, another 38.3% is in cash accounts. In general, the gold and foreign exchange reserves of Ukraine are a collection of reserves that are placed in different places and forms, so it is impossible to take the “entire stock” to Poland.

Fake Ukraine has declared default

Anonymous telegram channels write about this with reference to the global rating agencies S&P and Fitch. They say that only "official default" awaits Ukraine, that is, "bankruptcy". It is not true.

Ukraine has not declared a default. Due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, there have indeed been significant changes in the state budget of Ukraine. This is stipulated, in particular, by the Law of Ukraine “On the Legal Regime of Martial Law”. The main priority during this period is the defense industry. According to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, after negotiations, the investors agreed to defer payments.

“Thanks to the solidarity with Ukraine of the private investor community, together with the official public sector, we will be able to meet the needs of the country’s state budget at war and keep our public finances stable,” said Ukraine’s Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.

According to Bloomberg, the restructuring process is supported by Ukraine's key allies, including the United States and the International Monetary Fund. The international community understands that Ukraine is now defending itself against a much larger and richer aggressor, so it needs substantial financial support and assistance.

Fake Shelling of the Kakhovka HPP by Ukraine may lead to a nuclear disaster

This information is spread by pro-Kremlin and some Ukrainian media. They said that because the Armed Forces of Ukraine are shelling the Kakhovka HPP, it is operating in an emergency mode and this may allegedly affect nuclear safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

"This information is not true. The Armed Forces are working as carefully as possible, and exclusively for military purposes and logistical points," Yuriy Sobolevskyi, the First Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Council, said in Telegram.

The other day, the Ukrainian military disabled a bridge near the Kakhovka HPP. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are striking bridges in the Kherson region to complicate logistics for the Russian army, which is based on both banks of the Dnieper in the region. In order not to admit defeat, Russian propagandists launched "news" about a possible nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhya NPP due to the shelling of Ukrainian military bridges in the Kherson region.

Fake Kyiv is guilty of attacks on nuclear infrastructure facilities

Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, accused Ukraine of this at the UN Security Council meeting held on August 11.

He voiced four propaganda messages.

1. The Armed Forces fire at the ZNPP. Russian troops protect it. Russia does not use civilian infrastructure facilities for military purposes.

The statements of the Russian Federation that the Ukrainian army is constantly shelling the ZNPP do not correspond to reality. The Russian army repeatedly tried to pass off its shelling of Energodar residential quarters as shelling of the Armed Forces.

2. Russian military personnel at the ZNPP provide assistance to the station's employees and guard it.

The fact is that the Russian military has set up a military base at the ZANP where the personnel is being held, hostage. In mid-July, gunfights took place on the territory of the station. The risk of making a critical mistake in such working conditions is very high. Russian specialists cannot replace Ukrainian ones, as the ZANP has been modernized in recent years.

3. Ukraine obstructs the IAEA's access to the ZNPP.

The danger for the visit of the IAEA mission to the nuclear power plant is created by Russia due to the constant shelling of the station territory and nearby settlements. Nikopol and Margarets, which are under fire from the Russian military, are only 8 km from the station.

Ukraine sabotaged the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and forced personnel to work without shifts.

4. Ukraine sabotaged the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and forced personnel to work without shifts.

The units of the Russian armed forces, which carried out the forceful seizure of the facilities of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, committed an act of nuclear terrorism. Ukraine did not commit any provocations at its nuclear power plants - this fact was confirmed by international organizations for the regulation of nuclear safety.

Fake In wartime, the enterprise owner cannot fire anyone

The Center for Combating Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council has refuted three fakes about the dismissal of workers during wartime.

1. If an employee doesn’t show up for work and his phone is turned off, he cannot be fired.

Such information is incorrect because Article 36 of the Labor Code was supplemented by clauses 8-3 and now "the grounds for dismissal are the employee's absence at workplace and information about the reasons for more than four consecutive months". If the employee does not answer the phone and does not go to work, he will still be fired.

2. The owner of a non-working enterprise cannot fire anyone due to a lack of raw materials.

This is not true, because according to Clause 6 of Article 41 of the Labor Code "the impossibility of providing an employee with a job is an additional reason for terminating the employment contract at the initiative of the employer." An employee can be fired if he does not have a job.

3. If a person has not received a copy of the order within a certain period, then he/she is dismissed illegally.

Manipulation Ukraine exports food, while there are queues for bread in Odesa

Russian propagandists called the Ukrainian attempt to trade from the Odesa port a crime against Ukrainians, who "could get a real Holodomor-2". At the same time, they are distributing a video that allegedly shows a queue of several hundred Odessans for bread. In other videos, the queue is mistaken for the Mykolaiv queue, writes the project "On the other side of the news".

On August 1, for the first time in more than five months, a ship loaded with Ukrainian food (26,000 tons of corn) left the port of Odesa. The export of Ukrainian grain is, first of all, another step towards preventing world hunger. Unblocking the ports will provide at least a billion dollars in foreign exchange earnings for the economy and an opportunity for the agricultural sector to plan next year's sowing, fact-checkers write.

Secondly, export is an annual routine, and Ukraine is among the top ten grain exporters. In the ports of Odesa, 16 more ships blocked by Russia are waiting for their turn.

Manipulation Egypt canceled the contract for the supply of Ukrainian grain because Kyiv "lied" about the volume of grain warehouses

Russian media wrote that Egypt canceled contracts for the purchase of 240,000 tons of Ukrainian grain, which were supposed to be delivered in February-March, but was never shipped due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Allegedly, this was decided after the visit of the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, to Egypt. The reason, they say, is Ukraine's unreliable information about the volume of grain storage.

According to Reuters, Egypt canceled the contract because Ukraine did not fulfill its contractual obligations in March-April 2022 due to the blockade of the ports by Russian troops. Egypt officially assured the Ukrainian ambassador that it does not refuse cooperation and is ready to continue purchasing grain, writes StopFake.

"Egypt will conclude a new contract with Ukraine for the grain supply, as the Ukrainian side was unable to fulfill its contractual obligations in March-April, 2022, due to the blockade of the ports by Russian troops," said Mykhailo Nepran, the first vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He added that the previous agreement did not provide for a force majeure clause, so they canceled the contract, which cannot be fulfilled, to conclude a new one and make the purchase under it. 

Fake Kherson Residents must pay for water in rubles

The occupiers distribute invoices with allegedly new details of the water utility and send them to the heads of condominiums. Screenshots of tariffs and requisites were published by the Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Council Yuriy Sobolevskyi. These accounts do not exist, writes the "Nota Yenota" project.

"The information stated in the material regarding the opening of accounts in rubles does not correspond to reality. It is forbidden to open accounts in rubles in Ukraine. We checked the details indicated in the material. Such does not exist. Details are fake. We ask you to remove the mention of Alfa-Bank from the material and use only verified information, not to mislead readers," Alfa-Bank's press center replied to Kavun.City journalists. In addition, the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) account format is not used in Russia and for the Russian ruble.

Fact-checkers assumed that the goal of the occupiers was either to discredit the utility company or to assure the people of Kherson that "Russia is here forever." We will remind you that earlier propagandists tried to discredit Khersonoblenergo

Message Russia is a serious economic player

Russian propagandists continue to talk about Russia's invincibility in the war, including because of its economic power. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security writes that Russia is a mediocre player in the international market. In particular, more than 75% of Russian exports are raw materials, more than 53% are energy carriers, and only 8% are high-tech products. A raw economy is a feature of a colony, not an empire, the Center summarizes.

Manipulation Western media admitted that sanctions against Russia do not work

Russian propaganda will spread the news that The New York Times (NYT) has stated the failure of anti-Russian sanctions. He said, "the West's attempts to stifle the export of Russian oil are returning to him with a boomerang." But it is manipulation, writes VoxCheck. In July, the NYT published an article analyzing the effect of anti-Russian sanctions. In reality, they have not worked as well or as quickly as Western governments had hoped. But this does not mean that the sanctions do not work at all or will not affect the Russian economy in the future. The authors of the NYT article admit that it has not yet been possible to stop the war, as hoped in the West. But not all sanctions have already started to take effect, and the action of some will be effective in the future. Therefore, the thesis of Russian propaganda about the "recognition of defeat" of the sanctions policy is another manipulation.

Fake American companies bought a third of agricultural land in Ukraine

At the same time, Russian publications spread the news that it is claimed that three companies - Vanguard, Blackrock, and Blackstone, the main capital of which belongs to American funds, bought 17 million hectares of agricultural land in Ukraine. But it is a fake.

All Russian publications refer to the news of an unknown Australian site called Australiannationalreview.com, which does not provide any evidence to prove these claims. The news on the Australian website refers to material on the Auckland Institute, which is devoted to changes in legislation in Ukraine regarding the sale of agricultural land. However, in the report, there is no information about any of the three companies that allegedly bought a third of the land in Ukraine. Moreover, the material of the Auckland Institute appeared on August 6, 2021, and already the news with the names of these three campaigns and the thesis about "a third of the land sold" was published on May 27, 2022, on the Australian website. But it was reprinted in the Russian mass media only on July 26.

According to the State Service for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre write StopFake, 0.26 million hectares were sold in Ukraine during the year of operation of the land market. This figure is about 0.8% of the area of ​​agricultural land (32.6 million hectares) entered into the geocadastre. Thus, the data on 17 million hectares operated by Kremlin propagandists is 65 times greater than the area of ​​agricultural land actually sold in Ukraine.

Disclosure The Russians have created a directory for supporters of the Putin regime in Ukraine

The Russians have created a "Handbook for Ukrainian citizens on organizing resistance to the Kyiv puppet leadership," in which they advise to sabotage work in socially significant areas - in administrative positions, office workers, employees of government bodies, in the medical and educational fields, law enforcement activities, etc. It is reported by the HUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

The manual has 14 pages, which repeatedly use terminology that reinforces the propaganda of hatred towards everything Ukrainian: "Kyiv hunta," "puppet leadership," etc.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine claims that the "tips" encourage people to promote the Russian language (pretending not to understand Ukrainian), slow down the pace of work of state organizations, send various incorrect requests to state structures, make mistakes in the documentation and use more materials, including the number of medical, than required.

Manipulation Europeans are panicking about the reduction in Russian gas supplies

Such a thesis is spread on Russian social networks and the Kremlin's propaganda media pages. The reports claim that panic has allegedly started in Europe after Gazprom announced a cut in gas supplies.

Propagandists draw such conclusions after reading columnist Jacob Paul's column for the Express publication. But it is manipulation. In fact, there is nothing in the article on the Express website that there is panic in Europe due to the reduction of Russian gas supplies. As StopFake writes, the author of the material describes Russia's current situation with "gas blackmail" and writes about the European Union's plan to reduce dependence on Russian energy carriers gradually. The article analyzes the case of Germany, which received 55% of its gas from Russia. Still, at the same time, the article discusses ways to get the country out of energy dependence.

Manipulation The power blockade of Crimea has ended

The Russian media spread this thesis after the occupiers restored power lines between the Kherson region and Crimea, blown up in 2015 during the energy blockade of the occupied peninsula. Petro Kotin, president of the national energy generating company Energoatom, said that Ukrainian electricity, particularly from the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP, does not reach occupied Crimea. "If there is a threat of stealing electricity from the Ukrainian power system or supplying it from the Zaporizhzhia NPP (to Crimea), appropriate measures will be taken in advance and will need to be carried out by our Armed Forces so that this never happens," he explained to Radio Svoboda. Kotin specified, "Crimea is connected to the Russian energy system; its frequency does not coincide with the Ukrainian one, so the automatic connection is impossible without additional expensive equipment."

In addition, Russian propaganda calls the restoration of power lines "an important step towards the economic integration" of the occupied territories of southern Ukraine in the Russian Federation. The representation of the President of Ukraine in Crimea reported that despite the statement of the occupiers about the readiness of Crimea to "become a transit region" for the supply of electricity to the captured territories of southern Ukraine, the situation would likely be the opposite. "The energy system of the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula was never self-sufficient and always required the supply of electricity from other regions. It is extremely likely that in the conditions of the occupation of certain territories of southern Ukraine, particularly the city of Energodar and the Zaporizhzhia NPP, the restoration of high-voltage power lines between the Kherson region and the occupied Crimea can be used precisely to meet the needs of Crimea at the expense of the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP," the Representation noted and added that the theft of electricity by the occupiers could create a shortage of electricity for the needs of the population of the region.

Message Volodymyr Zelensky is already losing to Putin in infrastructure reconstruction

Anonymous Telegram channels promote the message of Ukraine's inability to rebuild, showing how the Russians are allegedly repairing the Melitopol-Berdyansk highway and building houses "even without a referendum."

The purpose of such a message is likely to be psychological pressure on the residents of the occupied territories, as well as to spread the message that Ukraine will not have enough funds to rebuild the country.