After pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk was detained, anonymous telegram channels controlled by the Russian special services launched a series of manipulative messages designed to undermine Ukrainians' trust in the authorities. For the most part, these messages and theories are built on assumptions, such as "Medvedchuk is wearing a new uniform, which means that his things are not suitable for photographing. In fact, the new uniforms can't prove that Medvedchuk's things are "unsuitable for photographing. Moreover, there is no evidence that he was dressed up on purpose. Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that Medvedchuk tried to disguise himself as a Ukrainian military man by wearing a uniform and crossing the Ukrainian border. It is noteworthy that the telegram channels avoid affirmative sentences and build messages on assumptions: "Zelenskyy knew about the start time of the attack on February 24, so the SBU could calmly take Medvedchuk to a safe place."

In addition, the telegram channels use the prefix "gossip" for their manipulations, after which one can write anything and retract his words if necessary. For example, "weaved in that the Russians knew that Medvedchuk was in the SBU, and negotiations on his exchange were unsuccessful. If Russia really did not plan to exchange Putin's cousin for Ukrainian defenders, it would mean that the Kremlin is not interested in Medvedchuk's future fate. If so, Russia, which keeps trying to discredit the Ukrainian authorities, would benefit from publicly stating that Medvedchuk is being held by Ukrainian law enforcers, as opposed to fleeing Ukraine's official statements. Medvedchuk's wife, host Oksana Marchenko, who recorded an April 13 address to Vladimir Zelensky, may also have previously claimed that her husband had disappeared. She, like the pro-Russian TV channels, says that Medvedchuk is allegedly "illegally detained by the SBU." Recall that Medvedchuk was announced suspicions and the court selected preventive measures in the criminal proceedings on oil and gas extraction in the Black Sea and on aiding the activities of a terrorist organization through the supply of coal from the occupied territories of Donbass. He should be under house arrest, but escaped from his estate, thereby violating the obligations under the preventive measure.

This assertion is spreading en masse on social networks. In particular, the posts quote an excerpt from an interview of a "refugee from Ukraine" to Spanish television, in which he allegedly admits the torture of civilians by Ukrainian border guards. According to StopFake, the video begins with a guest in a news program on the Antena television channel saying that he and eight other men on the border between Ukraine and Poland allegedly "wanted to be beaten" by Ukrainian border guards. Based on this statement, network users write that Oleh - that is the name of the program's guest - confirms the torture of civilians by Ukrainian "security forces". However, as the fact checkers point out, the circulating excerpt of the interview is taken out of context and misleads network users. "From the full version of Oleh's interview we learn that the man had already made several unsuccessful attempts to leave Ukraine at the time of the interview. According to him, he and several other men tried to cross first the Ukrainian-Hungarian border and then the Ukrainian-Polish border through different checkpoints, but Ukrainian border guards refused him the right to leave Ukraine. He claims that he could not leave the country for 6 days because of the actions of the officers of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, who sent him for questioning, behaved very rudely to him, threw his passport in his face, etc. In fact, the actions of the border guards complied with the norms of the Ukrainian wartime legislation, and the statement about the order not to let all the men leave the country was not true at all," the fact checkers wrote. More details.

Information that these banks have cancelled credit vacations for their customers is spreading in social networks, in particular in telegram channels. The message says that these banks are now writing off interest on loans, driving Ukrainians into "minus". However, as the fact checker of the project "Spooner" found out, this is a manipulation. "Credit vacations are preferential terms of the contract, when customers have the right not to make the mandatory minimum payment, which is especially relevant in the case of being in a war zone or due to loss of income. PrivatBank's credit vacations for credit cards are valid till June 1, 2022. So, we can conclude that the credit vacations - it is preferential terms of the contract, when customers have the right not to make the mandatory minimum payment, the bank will not penalize for late payments, but they do not mean the absence of interest for the use of credit funds. We also could not find information on the cancellation of credit vacations on the Monobank's website," write the fact checkers.

PrivatBank explained that it continues to be fully responsible for the deposits of Ukrainians regardless of the circumstances and adds that the standard terms of the card grace period remain unchanged. "Credit vacations do not mean no interest for the use of credit funds," explains the speaker of PrivatBank Dokia Kuzmenko. However, in addition to the "vacations," in March PrivatBank set a credit rate of 0.001%, practically making the use of credit funds free. "We did this to support all of our customers and being aware of the more pressing problems facing the country. Our bank and customers understand that the banking system has to work to provide a front and a rear. The economic front is also very important to winning. And that's why, as of April 1, we partially brought back some rates, while reducing them from the pre-war level. For example, now we set the preferential credit rate at 1.7%, which is half as much as before the war. Interest will still be charged in May, but repayment will not be obligatory until June 1 under the credit vacations," the bank explained to the fact checkers. Accordingly, the message that banks canceled the credit vacations and accrued interest, which "drive Ukrainians into deficit," is now a manipulation.

According to Euvsdisinfo, Russian propaganda, with the help of trolls, once again tried to blow up Polish support for Ukraine. On April 4-5, when the world learned about the Russian military crimes in Bucza, Poland faced a large-scale troll attack that had at least three dimensions: Polish officials were sent threatening emails, the media were spammed, and social media once again stepped up discussion of the Volyn tragedy. Such a campaign of disinformation and manipulation was not only primitive and awkward, but also failed to take into account the current mood in Polish society. The current situation obviously irritates the Kremlin. 2.6 million Ukrainian refugees entered Poland after Russia attacked Ukraine, and now Ukrainians in Poland are receiving very large amounts of aid. While the Russian war machine tries to bomb more Ukrainians into leaving their homes, the Kremlin disinformation machine will probably continue to manipulate difficult topics, using tropes of racism, xenophobia and painful events from the past, as it did in the case of the Volhynia tragedy. to discredit Ukrainians," the newspaper wrote.

In such messages, propagandists claim that "Ukrainian nationalists" and, in particular, the Azov regiment defending Mariupol allegedly seized two foreign vessels in the Sea of Azov - the "Tsarevna" and the "Lady Augusta" and respectively - are holding their crews hostage. According to StopFake, propagandists also claim that the Azov regiment is allegedly firing mortars at civilian ships, preventing the evacuation of their crews. In fact, this is not true. According to StopFake, the information that Azov allegedly seized the Tzarevna was denied by two Bulgarian ministries at once - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. StopFake was also unable to find any facts confirming the seizure of the ship Lady Augusta. "In addition, human rights activists have repeatedly recorded the fact that civilian ships were fired upon by Russian troops," the fact checkers wrote.

This is the information spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. However, according to the UN Refugee Agency, as of March 30, 4 million people - about 10% of Ukraine's total population - had left Ukraine abroad, and at least 6.5 million more had been forced to leave their homes and moved to other areas of Ukraine. . Therefore, the statements from pro-Russian telegram channels cannot be trusted, because it is not known where the propagandists got the figure of 8 million from, and as of what date they recorded such data. Recall that in such cases, only data from official sources should be considered. In addition, according to a Razumkov Center survey, as of April 5, 79% of refugees from Ukraine plan to return home after the war ends. In reports that many propagandists also claim that this is the so-called "Zelenskyy arithmetic," as if blaming the Ukrainian authorities for this situation. However, people did not leave Ukraine en masse until Russia launched a full-scale invasion and began killing Ukrainian civilians and military personnel.

Such a thesis is spreading in propaganda telegram channels. The messages claim that the media will soon begin to disperse information about the tragedy in Borodyanka in order to blame the Russian military, which recently left the settlement. The propaganda statements assure that the Ukrainian and Western media will claim that things in Borodyanka are even worse than in Bucha and claim that allegedly, according to eyewitness accounts, it was not the Russians but the Ukrainian army that shelled the residential quarters of the settlement with grads. The reports add that it does not appear from the photos currently coming from Borodyanka that there were any dead, and that is what the national police allegedly said as well, but "if the Western media write, then there will be." In fact, according to Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, Borodyanka is one of the most destroyed settlements in the Kyiv region. Locals tell how planes came in the first days of the war and fired rockets from a low height at these houses. And it was possible to save those people who were under those rubble... But the rescuers were shelled again and after that they had no access to the place. We understand that now there are no living people left here," Monastyrskyi said. As a reminder, after the photos from the destroyed Bucha were made public, after Russian troops left there, propagandists also claimed that it was all just a ruling to discredit the Russian military.

Russian propaganda spreads a fake that "Western countries supply low-quality and outdated weapons to Ukraine," or that "it is simply impossible to stop cruise missile strikes with Javelin and Stinger. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council denied these reports, recalling that since February 25, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has regularly reported on downed Russian cruise missiles: over the Vinnitsa, Kherson, Kharkov, and Nikolaev regions. "In this way the aggressor is trying to sow panic among the population. Having met resistance in the temporarily occupied territories, the enemy resorts to information terrorism in order to demoralize Ukrainians and stop their resistance, the Center said. - In this way, the enemy is probably already preparing the information field for victorious messages about "new liberated settlements in Donbass, which will be presented as territories under temporary occupation since 2014".

Anonymous telegrams controlled by Russian special services spread the message that "Ukraine has already lost those who were forced to go abroad. These manipulative messages state that "data from sociologists" show that Ukrainians who were forced to leave for Western countries because of Russia's war do not plan to return. In fact, Razumkov Center polls show that 79 percent of refugees plan to return to Ukraine after the war ends, 11 percent of Ukrainians are hesitant and only 10 percent do not plan to return. According to the UN, as of April 3, the number of Ukrainian refugees exceeded 4.2 million.

The Russian Defense Ministry and Russian propagandists spread this message, announcing their plans to "clean up the city". In fact, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is ready to evacuate the wounded and dead from Mariupol, and Turkey can also provide ships for evacuation of the inhabitants of the city by sea. However, Russia has not yet given its consent. "It is impossible to reach Mariupol. And they [representatives of Turkey] can go from Berdyansk, and you understand that it is still necessary to get to Berdyansk. In other words, we have all the infrastructure ready to transport the wounded and killed, and we are waiting for Putin's agreement. I talked to Erdogan, and Erdogan talks to him and now it's up to him [Putin] to make this happen," Zelenskyy said. In addition, the Ukrainian Security Service reported that the Russian occupants are preparing a large-scale provocation in Mariupol, in order to blame Ukraine for the alleged murder of civilians. According to the SBU, the occupants are preparing a large-scale fabrication: they plan to collect in one place the bodies of the Mariupol residents killed by the Russians themselves, and present them as "mass victims of the Ukrainian troops".

This is the claim of the French far-right politician Erika Zemmour, whose words are actively circulated in the Russian press. In fact, the leader of the Reconquista political party and candidate for the French presidency in 2022 is lying. Like his party colleague Marion Maréchal, back in early March she said that among the refugees from Ukraine "one-third are Africans and natives of North Africa". She, in turn, referred to an article in the newspaper Figaro, where the only anonymous source of the publication gave similar data. But according to the official statistics of the French Interior Ministry, of 26,000 people who arrived in France before March 31 as refugees from the war with Russia, less than 5% are not "Europeans". This data is given by the French radio RTL, which conducted its own fact-checking of the statements of far-right politicians. The article does not specify who these people are - foreign students who evacuated to Europe or citizens of Ukraine.

A video is floating on social networks that shows as if refugees from Ukraine have defaced a German train. In the video, a man from Germany complains that the Ukrainians left a lot of garbage in the cabin of the train and painted the walls with graffiti and pasted all kinds of stickers. However, according to VoxCheck, this is a fake. The train was not carrying refugees from Ukraine, but soccer fans. Read more.

Those statements are spread by russian propagandists in mass media and social networks stating that on March 28 the Ukrainian side started fire from small arms and mortars in the Summy and Zaporizhzhya directions, disrupting the evacuation of civilians.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, this is not true as there were no humanitarian corridors on that day. “Iryna Vereshchuk, the minister for Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories claimed that due to the security reasons on March 28, 2022 the humanitarian corridors will not be open”, the center reports.

That's what Russian propagandists say. This is a picture from the children's hospital in Zaporizhzhia, which shows a 13-year-old girl Milena, who was evacuated from Mariupol. After receiving a bullet wound to the jaw, she was placed in a medical coma.

However, Russian propagandists claim that the photo does not show a wounded girl from Mariupol. "Ukrainian media are spreading this photo with a description that it is a hospital in Zaporizhia, where the wounded are brought from Mariupol. However, the affected civilians from Mariupol are constantly being taken to hospitals in Russia and the "DPR". Other refugees from this city are leaving for these territories, "the propagandists write. According to StopFake, this statement is not valid. The injured girl in the photo lying by the barricaded window was evacuated from Mariupol to the Zaporizhzhia Children's Hospital. This photo by William Keo appeared on March 20 on the French website Liberation in a report from the Zaporizhzhia hospital. The article is about children and teenagers who managed to be taken out of the besieged Mariupol.

Anonymous telegram channels claim that the Ukrainian military does not receive a salary. They explain that the salary can be obtained only on the card of PrivatBank because it seems that the Minister of Defense Reznikov has a "rollback". According to anonymous people, only "alcoholics and homeless people" are recruited to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, territorial defence, and other military formations, and they do not have a card and are paid accordingly.

However, this is not true. First, PrivatBank is a state-owned company, so PrivatBank and Oschadbank operate various types of government payments. Secondly, all those who join the Armed Forces of Ukraine, territorial defence and other military formations before the start of service undergo all the necessary paper procedures, including registration of a special card for this type of state payment. Thirdly, not everyone has received their salary yet, as a significant part of the military has served in the Armed Forces and the Troika for less than a month.

Telegram channels spread information that the government had approved a certain amount of payments to each Ukrainian during the war. According to the fact-checking project "Liar", in particular, the reports were published by the channels "All about the war" and "News of Ukraine 24/7".

However, this is a manipulation, as the authors of the reports note that it seems that the Ukrainian government has approved a certain monthly amount of cash benefits that all citizens will receive without exception. Some publications have stated that the number of payments will depend on the age group of people. There are several of them. Volodymyr Zelensky announced a large-scale program of assistance to Ukrainians, covering three main areas: money, housing, and work. However, according to the official statement of the authorities, it will apply to those citizens who were forced to leave their homes due to the fighting, and not all, without exception, Ukrainians.

The representatives of Red Cross are receiving messages saying that their employees can receive certificates that give a right to cross the border without any obstacles, and the law of Ukraine on general mobilization is not applicable to those. The organization denies this information and assures that Red Cross Ukraine is not issuing such certificates. “Everyone forging and using these certificates violates the law of Ukraine “On Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Crystal Symbols in Ukraine,” the statement says.

Such statements have recently been spread in large numbers on the web in the format of copied records of "a friend from Lodz", "a sister with a small child who was sent home", and "hospitals that accept only refugees." This was reported by the ‘Brekhunets’ project with reference to PolskieRadio. Such messages say that the security guard did not let the author's four-year-old daughter into the city administration (hereinafter referred the name of the city), as he said that they only served Ukrainian children. "Hasn't it gone too far?" the message adds. In such texts names of cities, streets and offices change, but the part about four-year-old daughter and hospitals only for children from Ukraine remain the same. "This message should arouse hatred to refugees and increase panic. Unfortunately, there are people who do not check such news, but still share them, becoming unconscious parts of Russian propaganda," the fact-checkers write.

In fact, it's a fake. "It is unworthy and scandalous to spread rumors. For example, about the alleged "better beds for guests from Ukraine" or about the fact that "there is a lack of medicine" due to such a large number of refugees," said cardiologist, lipidologist, cardiovascular epidemiologist Professor Maciej Banach from Lodz Medical University. He added that it is dishonest to spread rumors that Ukrainians get to hospitals and clinics out of turn and without tests for COVID-19, because it's not true.

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The head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, Serhii Haidai, denied the fakes of the occupiers, who reported that 350 people from Severodonetsk, Rubizhne and Lysychansk were allegedly evacuated to occupied Luhansk. "[Rashists (Russian fascists)] demand from residents of the occupied territories to collect humanitarian aid. Forcibly! Fake administrations have ordered the workers to bring something for the "refugees". It is not true! No Ukrainian from Severodonetsk, Rubizhne and Lysychansk could leave for the occupied territories. Cities are controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, the rashists couldn’t take people out, the Armed Forces would not allow them, and people would not leave, because Luhansk region is Ukraine," Gaidai said.

Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels report that the Ukrainian military allegedly fired on Rubizhne in the Luhansk region to "create a picture for the West" about the Russian aggression. The head of the Luhansk Regional State Administration, Serhii Haidai, said that the Russian occupiers were cynically destroying residential areas and killing civillian Ukrainians. According to him, in particular, at least 27 houses in Rubizhne were caught fire on the night of March 17.

In addition, the National Guard of Ukraine refuted Russian media reports that the city was allegedly controlled by the Russian military. "Our guardsmen send greetings from Rubizhne in Luhansk region. They were genuinely surprised and laughed a lot when they saw a circus show in Russian news that the city had been "cleansed" by Chechens and terrorists from ORDLO (the uncontrolled portions of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts). They say that the city was guarded, is guarded and will be guarded by Ukrainian servicemen, border guards and police, and they do not surrender it to the occupiers," the statement says.

Russian websites share the statement of the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova that Japan allegedly loses its independence in the international arena, without preventing its citizens from fighting on the side of Ukraine. According to StopFake, Zakharova's words about Japan's "independence" due to its support of "neo-Nazi forces" are repeatedly exposed fakes.

She also says that foreign embassies and consulates of Ukraine allegedly "recruit" Japanese volunteers to the "foreign corps". In fact, participation in the International Defense Legion of Ukraine is completely voluntary. The embassies of Ukraine do not "recruit" volunteers, but provide information about the algorithm of joining the Legion. As of early March, about 70 Japanese volunteers had joined the International Legion. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, in turn, has announced an evacuation throughout Ukraine, and people are expected to stop all travel to the country, regardless of the purpose of their visit.

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Russian bots are spreading a fake that Mariupol residents do not need to leave the city and go to Zaporizhzhia. The Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said that such reports disrupted the evacuation from the city. Russian propagandists also write that Zaporizhstal (metallurgical plant of Ukraine) and Zaporizhkoks (one of the largest Ukrainian coke and chemical producers) are allegedly "mined" and that "armed Banderites are hiding in the workshops." "This is another cynical lie of the occupiers! The Russian aggressor is trying to disrupt the evacuation of Mariupol residents to safe places and destroy as many true patriots of the city as possible by ruthless shelling of residential neighborhoods," the Center said.

Russian propaganda media widely disseminate such reports. However, all this is not true.

According to StopFake fact-checkers, most refugees from Mariupol fleeing barbaric shelling by Russian troops travel to Ukrainian cities controlled by the Ukrainian government.

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Such information is spread in the Volyn region segment of Facebook. According to the fact-checking project "Brekhunets" (‘Liar’), there are indeed categories of men who can go abroad, but men who do not meet these criteria cannot cross the border.

According to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the exceptions are men of the age of recruitment from 18 to 60, who: have a certificate of deferment of conscription and notification of enrollment in special military registration; who have conclusion on the unfit for military service by the military medical commission; persons who have three or more dependant children under the age of 18; those who raise a child (children) under the age of 18 on their own; who have dependent child with a disability; who are adoptive parents, guardians; whose close relatives died or went missing during the anti-terrorist operation.

The Facebook page of the head of the State Border Guard Service, Serhiy Deineko, reported that Ukrainian border guards had died near Kharkiv and that the Russian military was threatening to retaliate. Deineko later deleted the post and reported that his page had been hacked. "The war, particularly in the information field, continues. And the aggressor uses all possible ways. Russian propagandists were the first to spread their fake. Despite this, we will continue our struggle, and victory will be ours. Glory to Ukraine!" he said.