Fake emails from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine have started arriving in Ukrainians' email inboxes. These emails talk about the so-called “rocket attack” on the Rivne NPP, which resulted in increased radiation levels. The emails contain evacuation instructions and links to unknown resources.

Experts advise the Center for Countering Disinformation to mark such letters as spam and not to follow the links under any circumstances. If you do follow the link, contact the Cyberpolice.

Russia is speculating on the use of a “dirty bomb” to sow distrust in Ukraine and force the world to spend resources on refuting the accusations of propagandists. An IAEA commission came to Ukraine to check whether a “dirty bomb” was really being developed at the sites that Russia claimed to be developing – the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Vody and the Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The result of the inspection was that the Agency did not find any signs of such a weapon at Ukrainian nuclear sites.

The fake news about Ukraine creating a “dirty bomb” is a mirror response from Russia, the purpose of which is to try to convince the world that it is Ukraine that is acting as a terrorist group. This, by the way, is one of the most common messages of Russian propaganda, constantly trying to accuse Ukraine of terrorism, saying that it itself is shelling Ukrainian civilians and launching missile strikes on its own critical infrastructure.

Read more: “Dirty Bomb”: What is it and why did Russia come up with this fake?

The anonymous telegrams refer to the words of the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Kateryna Pavlichenko, who said that children will be taken away from residents of the Sumy region for refusing to evacuate. At the same time, in the propaganda message itself, they add that in this way, the Ukrainian authorities, under the guise of evacuation, are taking children away to be sold into slavery or for organs.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the report does not provide any evidence that children are being sold. Accusations of selling children into slavery and for organs are baseless theses, with which Russia is only trying to intimidate residents of frontline territories.

Evacuation from the 5-kilometer zone along the border with the Russian Federation in the Sumy region was announced back in July 2023. In March 2024, forced evacuation of children from three settlements also began, and in April this order was extended to two communities in the Sumy region. During May-June, mandatory evacuation was announced in several more settlements.

Parents do not have the right to refuse the evacuation of their children. Parents who refuse evacuation may bear administrative or criminal liability for failure to fulfill their responsibilities to raise their children. In case of proof of violation of Article 166 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (malicious failure of parents to fulfill their statutory obligations to care for a child), by decision of the court or the guardianship authority, the child may be transferred to other relatives at their request, or, if there are none, to the guardianship and trusteeship authority. In exceptional cases, in the event of an immediate threat to the life or health of the child, the guardianship and trusteeship authority or law enforcement officers may decide to immediately remove the child without depriving them of parental rights or depriving them of parental rights.

However, in this case, the priority is the safety of the children, not the punishment of the parents. Therefore, law enforcement and local authorities try to persuade parents or other guardians to leave with the children.

“Black transplantology” in Ukraine is a conspiracy theory that Russians have been developing for a decade. The constant return to the topic indicates its importance for Russia. These messages are promoted to both domestic and international audiences.

Read also: How and why Russia uses the topic of “black transplantology” in Ukraine

Due to the operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region, local Russians are fleeing their homes. In Russia they call this voluntary evacuation. Residents of the Kursk region allegedly voluntarily leave their homes and property, voluntarily, in a hurry, grab their children with them and voluntarily evacuate. Russian official sources resort to such rhetoric when depicting the situation in the Kursk region. In fact, more than 120 thousand Russians have already evacuated.

Some pro-Russian public pages even sneer at the term “voluntary evacuation”, saying that this is “something like mass entertainment, a new type of active tourism”. They also add that the Russians “listened to the victories of the Russian army and voluntarily evacuated”.

The evacuation itself in the Kursk region is difficult, as evidenced, in particular, by the video appeal of the local residents to Putin with an appeal to help them, since the local authorities are doing nothing. For example, one of these videos was recorded by residents of the village of Huievo, Sudzhanskyi district, Kursk region, complaining that they did not evacuate.

Also, instead of the term “voluntary evacuation”, Russian officials may use the word “displacement”. Thus, on August 12, 2024, the governor of the Belgorod region, Viacheslav Hladkov, announced the activity of Ukrainian troops on the border of the Krasnoyaruzh region and announced the beginning of the evacuation of residents from there. “We are having an alarming morning (...) In order to protect the life and health of our population, we are starting to move people living in the Krasnoyaruzh district to safer places”, Hladkov said in his address on the telegram channel.

Concepts such as “voluntary evacuation” or “relocation” help official structures in Russia curb the panic among its ordinary citizens caused by military operations in the Kursk region. And also to downplay the scale of what is happening, thereby disfiguring Russians’ perception of reality. Accordingly, everyone inside the country should think that the situation is under control and “everything is going according to plan”. However, in fact, the reality is different as the war has come to Russian territory, and the Russian authorities are trying in every possible way to deny this, which is why they resort to such absurd terms.

Russian resources are again trying to manipulate the topic of the evacuation of children by Ukrainian military personnel and volunteers from active combat zones in the Donbas. Thus, propagandists are distributing an interview in which a local resident allegedly recalls a family of three children whose mother died, and claims that they were forcibly evacuated and then “given to organs or pedophiles”.

However, this is a fake, journalists from the StopFake project write. Such interviews are not supported by any evidence, but only by the words of people who call themselves residents of front-line settlements. Moreover, one can find news materials about this family on the Internet. After looking at them, one can find out that in fact the volunteers took these children to their relatives.

In March 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a resolution on the forced evacuation of children from such zones. “This is not about taking children away from their parents. This is not about the use of physical coercion. The legal peculiarity of the forced evacuation of children is that at least one of the parents does not have the right to refuse evacuation and must accompany the child during the evacuation”, Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, commented on the decision.

However, even with the advent of a mechanism for evacuating children from dangerous areas, police and volunteers still have to spend a long time persuading families to agree to leave. Some remain, and no one takes these children out by force.

Russia is conducting a separate disinformation campaign targeting Ukrainians living in front-line cities and villages. Its goal is to disrupt the evacuation, sow distrust in the Ukrainian authorities and incline towards collaboration. Previously, we have already analyzed a similar Russian fake that in Ukraine children are allegedly sold for organs or into sexual slavery.

Propagandists are disseminating information about alleged preparations for the evacuation of authorities from the Orikhovskyi and Huliaipilskyi districts of the Zaporizhzhia region. This was stated by the coordinator of the so-called Mykolaiv underground. However, this is fake.

The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council drew attention to it. Its specialists checked the information with the head of the Polohivskyi district state military administration, Artur Krupskyi, who confirmed that this information was not true.

Several inaccuracies also indicate unreliability. Firstly, Orikhovskyi and Huliaipilskyi  districts were liquidated in 2020 in accordance with the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No. 807-IX dated July 17, 2020. On their basis, the enlarged Polohivskyi district was created. Secondly, the “news” about emergency evacuation is based on a false interpretation of information about a meeting of the Coordination Headquarters at the regional level to prepare plans for evacuation work in case of emergencies. Such events are regularly carried out at both the district and regional levels, including planned evacuation drills. In addition, a significant part of the Polohivskyi district is located in a zone of active hostilities, so the evacuation of civilians from populated areas near the conflict occurs daily.

By spreading such fakes, Russian propagandists are trying to sow panic among the local population and discredit local authorities. In this way, they try to create a feeling of uncertainty and fear in people. They say that the situation is so critical that local authorities are planning to evacuate, which means they are not able to cope with the situation and are leaving their citizens to fend for themselves. This could undermine confidence in the Ukrainian authorities, raising doubts about their ability to protect the population and maintain order.

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that a special evacuation flight to Germany for children from Okhmatdyt was planned even before the attack on the hospital. This was reported by the Russian-language service of Deutsche Welle, citing the words of the German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach. Propagandists claim that this statement proves that Ukraine itself attacked the Okhmatdyt building as a provocation on the eve of the NATO summit in Washington.

However, this news is a manipulation, write StopFake. Yes, the screenshot from the Deutsche Welle account is real, but the publication’s journalists incorrectly conveyed the essence of the German Health Minister’s statement.

In fact, on his page on the social network X (Twitter), Lauterbach wrote that he promised the Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko to accept sick children in need at any time, and that an evacuation flight with Okhmatdyt patients would depart on Wednesday, July 10, 2024 . He also emphasized that the targeted attack on a children's hospital once again proves that Putin is a war criminal.

Accordingly, Lauterbach’s statement did not say that the parties had agreed in advance to export specifically Okhmatdyt patients—they meant any Ukrainian children in need of medical treatment abroad.

The evacuation itself takes place within the framework of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM). Under this program, Germany has already received more than 1,100 patients, including children - this figure is the highest among EU states. Three German medical institutions agreed to accept patients from Okhmatdyt: university hospitals in Greifswald and Rostock, as well as the Berlin Charité clinic.

With this manipulation, Russia is trying to assure its own citizens and the world community that Ukraine itself launched a missile attack on the country’s largest children’s hospital. Previously, we explained why the information about the Okhmatdyt building being hit as a result of Ukrainian air defense is a lie.

Russian telegram channels are distributing a photo of a “non-public” order of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, which allegedly states that the heads of local administrations of settlements were supposed to evacuate along with their families by June 3, and the mayor of Kharkiv was supposed to provide them with housing.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the document is fake.

After all, the contents of the order do not comply with the rules for drawing up official documentation:

- in the original orders, the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration spells out the word year in full, and does not abbreviate it, as they did in the fake document;

- the word “order” is used in the plural, although it is correct to write in the singular;

— the phrase “universal list” regarding heads of administrations is incorrect. In Ukrainian the correct word is “universal”.

Russian telegram channels are distributing photos of the alleged order of the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleh Syniehubov on the evacuation of administration representatives and members of their families from certain settlements of the Kharkiv region.

After verifying this information in the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration, the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council reported that the order was fake. The administration also noted that under number 121 B, indicated in the fake document, the Regional Military Administration already has another order. It is dated March 1, 2024 and concerns the re-issuance of a license to carry out educational activities in the field of complete general secondary education.

One should also pay attention to the design of the so-called order and the use in the text of the document of the expressions we order and general list, which does not meet the requirements of business speech.

The Russians are spreading this and other similar fakes with the aim of sowing panic among the population and destabilizing the already difficult situation in the region, the cause of which is primarily the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region and frequent terrorist attacks on Kharkiv and the region. Previously, we refuted the information that the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration allegedly fled the city.

This was recorded by analysts of the VoxCheck project. The SMS message itself states that the evacuation of Kharkiv and nearby settlements has allegedly begun.

However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations denied information about the announcement of evacuation from Kharkiv and noted that the State Emergency Service did not send out such a message.

Moreover, such emergency messages come from “DSNS UKR”, and not from the “DSNS Ukraina”, as in the screenshot.

Propagandists began a large-scale disinformation campaign in connection with the escalation of hostilities in the Kharkiv region. For example, because of propaganda materials, information was disseminated that in the Kharkiv region there was supposedly no evacuation of the local population from Vovchansk. Like, “Nazi groups are using city residents as human shields”. StopFake writes about this.

Propagandists claim that “local residents made an agreement with the volunteers, but they did not let anyone into the city or let anyone out of it”. Such publications are accompanied by a screenshot of correspondence in which an unknown person writes that “no one has arrived” and “we are not allowed in”. It is not indicated which volunteers it is about, as well as whose correspondence this is.

However, the information about blocking the evacuation of Kharkiv residents is false. The removal of the population of border settlements continues, and in recent days about 6,000 people have been evacuated from the Kharkiv region. On May 13, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, Oleh Syniehubov, visited Vovchansk, supervising the evacuation process of local residents.

The Center for Countering Disinformation also noted that the goal of this campaign is to create a destabilizing situation in the region and discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are actively opposing the Russian occupiers in the Kharkiv direction.

Russian telegram channels are spreading information that the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other Ukrainian military units have blocked the evacuation of civilians from Vovchansk, Kharkiv region. The purpose of such actions is to use city residents as “human shields”.

In fact, this information is not true. As of May 12, 2024, about 6 thousand residents were removed from the Vovchansk community and settlements in the Kharkiv region. At the same time, the evacuation of the civilian population continues. On May 13, it is planned to evacuate about 1,600 more local residents. According to the Kharkiv military regional administration, 200-300 people remain in Vovchansk. And they continue to communicate with them about leaving for safer places.

Due to the aggravation of the situation in the Kharkiv region, Russian propaganda has increased the number of information attacks related to this region, of a destabilizing and discrediting nature. At the same time, the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council notes that the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to repel the Russian occupiers in the Kharkiv direction.

Even before the offensive of Russian troops in the Kharkiv region, we recorded an increase in disinformation regarding the region. Thus, we refuted information about the “flight of local authorities”, “announcement of deportation of Kharkiv residents”, “panic mass exodus of Kharkiv residents from the city”, etc.

Kremlin media state that territorial recruitment centers announced free evacuation from Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and then workers handed out draft notices to men leaving these cities. In the message, the authors attach a screenshot with evacuation vehicles and a phone number - 050 444 1005.

VoxCheck specialists analyzed the case and came to the conclusion that the number in the screenshot belongs to the Good Deed charity organization. The organization is engaged in free evacuation of people from front-line territories (Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson regions, etc.) to Dnipro. The photo shows cars with the name of the organization. Cars with the same stickers appeared in videos published on Good Deed’s social media pages.

That is, a charitable organization organizes the evacuation process and there is no talk of “handing out” draft notices; this is an invention of propagandists.

Information about the “evacuation” from populated areas of the Poltava region due to possible rocket attacks on the Kremenchuh hydroelectric power station is distributed by anonymous users in personal messages. In doing so, they refer to the State Emergency Service.

However, this is disinformation, as reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. At the same time, the State Emergency Service has already responded to this. They stated that such messages are “hostile information injection aimed at destabilizing the situation”.

The Center also urged to trust only verified sources of information. We previously wrote that unknown people, on behalf of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, announced a fake evacuation from Kharkiv.

Propagandists claim that the Ukrainian Defense Forces, according to them, are preventing the evacuation of civilians from the city of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. Russian media, citing Russian Ihor Kimakovskyi, claim that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are allegedly using people as human shields to stop the Russian offensive. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region was no exception to Russian propaganda. The invaders systematically destroy the city, shelling every meter of the populated area. Voluntary evacuation of the civilian population there began in 2022; in August 2022, the evacuation of Donbas residents became mandatory, and by March 2023, the Ukrainian military evacuated all children from the city.

As of April 2024, about 700 people remained in Chasiv Yar; by the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 16 thousand people lived in the city. Therefore, speaking in such conditions about the Ukrainian military’s obstruction of the process of saving people is a cynical fake of Russian propaganda. According to Serhii Chaus, head of the mountain military administration of Chasiv Yar, explanatory work is carried out with these people every day, but the main argument for evacuation is the destruction of housing.

“We've actually seen a slight increase in evacuations in recent weeks. Every day the number did not change: one or two, maximum three people, but in fact every day people left... the moment may come when we simply physically cannot do this. We say this openly, we warn people”, Chaus emphasized in an interview with Radio Svoboda (Liberty) on April 15, 2024.

Any evacuation is carried out in close cooperation between the Ukrainian military, volunteers, human rights activists and international organizations, for example, people from the Donetsk region were evacuated under the auspices of USAID. The entire evacuation process takes place openly and under the supervision of Ukrainian and foreign observers. People are transported in organized columns, evacuated families are provided with free housing in safer regions of Ukraine, social guarantees, humanitarian assistance and psychological support are provided.

It is worth noting that Kimakovskyi, used by propaganda to create anti-Ukrainian fakes, cannot be a reliable source of information - a Russian citizen occupies a fictitious “position” in a non-existent “government body” of the temporarily occupied parts of the Donetsk region of Ukraine. In 2015, the Security Service of Ukraine accused a citizen of the aggressor country of spying for Russia. According to Ukrainian intelligence services, Kimakovskyi is an agent of the Russian FSB who collected information about the redeployment of Ukrainian military personnel in the Donetsk region. The Russian was also accused of interfering in the territorial integrity of Ukraine. In 2019, an FSB agent was exchanged for Ukrainian political prisoners, among whom were Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Stanislav Klykh, Roman Sushchenko, Volodymyr Balukh, as well as a number of other illegally detained Ukrainian citizens, including sailors abducted by Russia in the Kerch Strait in November 2018.

Propagandists are spreading another fake about the Ukrainian military in order to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russian propaganda systematically spreads disinformation about the evacuation of civilians from advanced Ukrainian settlements, traditionally keeping silent about the root cause of the complicated situation - Russian aggression against Ukraine, daily shelling, killings of civilians, destruction of critical infrastructure of settlements.

Users of such messengers as Telegram and Signal began to receive messages on behalf of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine that the Ukrainian authorities recommend that residents of Kharkiv evacuate from the city by April 22, 2024 due to its likely encirclement by Russian troops. In addition, these messages are accompanied by a reminder about what to do in case of evacuation.

In fact, the State Emergency Service stated that they did not send such messages to Ukrainians. The military leadership of Ukraine is constantly monitoring the situation and has not recorded any signs of Russia’s readiness to attack Kharkiv. They write about this in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

The very messages about the evacuation from Kharkiv are informational stuffing aimed at destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, the State Emergency Service notes and urges not to trust dubious sources of information.

This is not the first time that disinformation about the “evacuation from Kharkiv” has been spread. Previously, we refuted the information that “panic sentiments allegedly prevail in Kharkiv - city residents are leaving en masse”, “Ukraine allegedly announced the deportation of Kharkiv residents, preparing it for defense”, or that “Kharkiv authorities are allegedly planning to flee the city”.

Information is being disseminated online: they say that China, Kazakhstan and India strongly recommended that their citizens urgently leave the Kharkiv, Kyiv and Odesa regions. However, this is not true.

The information was processed by specialists from the VoxCheck project and found that, in fact, the embassies of China and India in Ukraine did not publish such recommendations. The Indian Embassy last recommended citizens leave Ukraine back in October 2022. The Chinese Embassy did not encourage citizens to leave Ukraine even on the eve of a full-scale invasion, but also in October 2022 published advice on how to evacuate from Ukraine. In addition, Chinese state media also made calls for evacuation in the fall of 2022. In 2024, recommendations to evacuate from Ukraine did not appear on the official websites of the Foreign Ministries of India and China. In the end, there is no mention in the media of the recent calls of these states, allegedly addressed to their citizens, to leave the Odesa, Kyiv and Kharkiv regions.

At the same time, at the end of March, the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Ukraine actually recommended that citizens of their country consider leaving the Odesa and Kharkiv regions due to “increasing tensions and an unstable security situation”. However, even here there is a noticeable difference with a fake message, because a recommendation to “consider the possibility” of leaving the city and a “persistent recommendation to urgently” leave the city are still different things. Also, the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Ukraine called on all citizens not to ignore the air raid warning and to go to shelter in a timely manner.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists are trying to sow panic in different regions of Ukraine. Previously, we refuted information that Ukraine allegedly announced the deportation of residents of Kharkiv, preparing it for defense.

Russia is silent about the situation in the Belgorod and Kursk regions - the Putin regime is not able to ensure security in the border areas. Russian authorities are hiding attempts by residents there to evacuate on their own, and are also blocking the evacuation.

That is, propaganda is doing everything possible to hide the truth about the security situation in the country. Russia’s goal is to use the population as a “human shield” and hold “elections” at any cost. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

Propagandists in the media are disseminating information that the Ukrainian authorities are allegedly removing archives and exhibits from Kharkiv, preparing for evacuation, due to the likely threat of a new Russian invasion. However, this is fake.

This was brought to the attention of the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. They found that no official statements about the “evacuation of the city” were published on the websites of the local regional military administration or city council. There is also no information on the communication channels of the country's top leadership. Moreover, Kharkiv is not in danger of a Russian occupation invasion.

Propagandists spread such fake news to intimidate the local population and discredit local authorities.

According to such reports, the next evacuation from Zaporizhzhia to “Odesa, Poland and Germany” was supposed to take place on December 11, 2023. However, after processing this information, the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council found out that in fact no evacuation is planned. Such messages are part of the Russian IPSO. By resorting to such cynicism, propagandists pursue the goal of sowing panic among the population of Ukraine. If such a notification is received, the Center calls on citizens not to click on the links and block the number from which the SMS came. More enemy speculation on the topic of evacuation of Ukrainians can be found here.

Pro-Russian resources claim that Olena Zelenska’s foundation is allegedly involved in various child trafficking schemes. They say that the foundation of the first lady of Ukraine, under the pretext of saving children, allegedly systematically sent orphans into the hands of pedophiles in different European countries - France, Great Britain, Germany. However, this is a fake.

The fact-checkers from the StopFake project analyzed this case. They investigated that one of the sources of disinformation picked up by the Russian media is the online publication The Intel Drop, which has already repeatedly disseminated fake news. In addition, the website of the mentioned online resource was created only in September 2022, presumably by Russian intelligence services to make the propaganda more credible. Another source of misinformation was the online newspaper The DC Weekly, which publishes a lot of conspiracy theories. The author of the article about the Zelenska Foundation on this resource is allegedly journalist Jessica Devlin. However, no information at all could be found about this author. Moreover, using a reverse Google image search, it was discovered that the photo purportedly of Jessica Devlin was an image of Canadian writer Judy Batalion.

Many first ladies around the world are involved in the protection of children, orphans, their education and healthcare. Olena Zelenska is no exception. Children are a vulnerable category of the population that needs special protection, especially in conditions of armed confrontation. The Kremlin aims to discredit Olena Zelenska, as well as Volodymyr Zelenskyi, because these people have influence in Ukraine. To blow up the people's trust in the spouses means to deal a powerful blow from within the country. We also analyzed previous attempts to discredit Olena Zelenska as disinformation, that allegedly the Russians found the Russian passport of the first lady of Ukraine in Crimea or Olena Zelenska spends tens of thousands of euros on accessories.

Pro-Kremlin resources claim that on the evening of October 29, mass riots at Makhachkala airport allegedly occurred as a result of information “stuffing” by telegram channels controlled from Ukraine. They allegedly announced the arrival of a flight with refugees - Israeli citizens - in Dagestan. In addition, propagandists claim that they have already established the probable involvement of Iliia Ponomariov, a former State Duma deputy under the control of the SBU, in the situation at the airport. One of their arguments is that Ponomariov even had an “interview on this topic” before.

Propagandists do not provide any evidence for their statements. They assume that a “provocation” was prepared, but for some reason their government allegedly deliberately did not notice the problem. At the same time, some opinion leaders in Russia do not condemn the actions of the Dagestanis, but rather dissociate themselves from the situation, which is another reputational blow for the Kremlin. For example, Russian blogger Yurii Podoliak says that activists behaved in a similar way on the Maidan in Kyiv. They say that everything happened according to the same method, and the participants in the riots seemed to be working for the “Kyiv regime”.

It should be noted that in this case, pro-Russian sources use one of the propaganda tactics called “scapegoat” - they make amends for the Dagestanis and shift responsibility for the events in Makhachkala to Ukraine. Previously, we wrote about how Russian propaganda uses anti-Semitic stereotypes against Ukraine.

On the Internet, propagandists began to spread information that Romania is in no hurry to help evacuate its “stranded” citizens in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Hamas attack on Israel. Bucharest is supposedly engaged in saving Ukrainians, that is, it puts them as a priority. This is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project looked into this case and found out that there is no information that Romania is prioritizing the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens. Evacuation from the Gaza Strip is not yet possible, so propagandists manipulate information when they write that the Romanian authorities are saving Ukrainians, but not Romanians. On October 8, 2023, Romania made its first flight, evacuating 346 Romanian citizens from Ben Gurion Airport (Tel Aviv, Israel), as reported by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Almost a week later, the first evacuation plane to Romania with Ukrainians on board took off from the same Israel on October 14 - there were 207 Ukrainian citizens on board, mostly women, children and the elderly. Due to the fact that Ukrainian airspace is closed to aircraft due to Russia’s armed aggression, Ukrainian citizens are forced to fly first to Romania, a neighboring country, and only then travel overland to Ukraine.

Russia is trying to “create a quarrel” between Ukraine and its neighboring states, one of which is Romania, in order to reduce their support for the Ukrainian people from Russian aggression. Previously, pro-Kremlin media also spread disinformation about the rescue of Ukrainians from Israel in order to once again discredit the Ukrainian government for its inaction.

Russian media, broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric, are disseminating information that Ukraine refuses to evacuate Ukrainian citizens from Israel and Palestine. Russian propaganda refers to the words of Ambassador to Israel Yevhen Korniichuk, who allegedly said that there is no technical possibility to take Ukrainian citizens out of Israel. It's fake.

The case was investigated by the fact-checker of the StopFake project. In fact, a plan is now being developed to evacuate Ukrainians from Israel and the Gaza Strip, as reported by Yevhen Korniichuk. However, evacuation will occur according to different scenarios. The embassy has prepared the first plane to fly from Israel to Bucharest, and from the Gaza Strip, where the situation is difficult, because the region is blocked, people will be taken to Egypt.

Thus, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and sow distrust in them. Allegedly it doesn’t care about the Ukrainians who find themselves in a difficult situation. Previously, we refuted the fake news that Hamas militants are using weapons from Mukachevo.

Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric spread information that the Ukrainian military is allegedly preparing the kidnapping of 523 children in the Kupiansk district of the Kharkiv region. The children are planned to be sold, and the money to be divided between Zelenskyi's officials and Western patrons. This is manipulation.

The case was studied by the fact-checkers of the Center for Strategic Communications. The Ukrainian military does not kidnap children, unlike the Russian military, but evacuates them from dangerous areas. After the shelling of the Kupiansk district became more intense, it was decided to evacuate part of the population. Precisely because Russian troops are shelling the civilian population and infrastructure, the issue of forced evacuation of minors is being considered, but only accompanied by parents or guardians. They are promised to be provided with free housing in Kharkiv or in the West of the country and all necessary assistance.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and the military, and also diverts attention from the crimes of Russians who are kidnapping children in the temporarily occupied territories. Earlier, we refuted the fake that Ukraine is taking away children from families living in the war zone.

Such information is disseminated by the Russian media, referring to the statement of Russia's permanent representative to the UN Vasyl Nebenzia. He made it on April 5 during the so-called “Arria Formula” meeting, an informal meeting during which UN member states can learn more information on international security issues. According to Nebenzia, the Ukrainian authorities “commit crimes against children”: they are kidnapped from parents who refuse to evacuate from the war zone. It's fake.

The fact checkers of the StopFake project drew attention to the case. Ukraine does not kidnap children. On April 4, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine supported the initiative of the Donetsk regional military administration on the mandatory evacuation of 126 children from 21 settlements in the region due to active hostilities. Children were evacuated from dangerous settlements in the Donetsk region in armored vehicles, accompanied only by their parents or guardians.

Also, 49 UN member states adopted a statement accusing Russia of “spreading disinformation about mass abductions and illegal forcible deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children”. UN member states note that Russia has been solely guilty of the deportation of Ukrainian children, and the International Criminal Court has a number of pieces of evidence that confirms this.

Russia needs such statements in order to legalize aggression against the Ukrainian people, present itself as a “peacemaker” and absolve itself of responsibility for these crimes. Detector Media has already investigated how Russia justifies deportation and other war crimes in Ukraine.