According to the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security Council, as confirmation of their thesis, the Kremlin media cite the Financial Times article concerning the words of the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Ihor Zhovkva. However, in this material, Zhovkva did not state that Ukraine refuses to join NATO. The text states that NATO should recognize Ukraine as a "cornerstone" of security arrangements on the European continent. Zhovkva also emphasized that the Alliance "rejected the aspirations" of Ukraine to join, and "we will not do anything else about it."

The so-called "deputy head of the military-civilian administration" of the temporarily occupied Kherson region, collaborator Kyrylo Stremousov, told the Russian propagandist publication "Ukraine.ru" about this. He is wanted on charges of treason. His statement that the EU is allegedly considering the possibility of deporting all-male Ukrainians who are on the territory of the EU to help Kyiv with mobilization into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, almost all leading Russian mass media spread.

"Now the European Union is considering the possibility of deporting all Ukrainian men to Ukraine to replenish the ranks of "mobilization." Not mobilization, but "mohylyzation," Stremousov said. It is not true! There must be legal grounds for deportation, as well as a court decision, which provides for the deportation or voluntary departure of the violator. The reason for deportation may be the following violations: unpaid fines, overdue visa, invalid invitation, a criminal record not specified at the time of visa issuance, violation of public order, or illegal stay in the country.

None of these points envisages the "deportation" of male Ukrainians for their mobilization into the ranks of the Armed Forces.

In June, the Russian mass media already spread a fake that Ukraine allegedly asked Poland to deport all men from the country to send them to the front. For greater credibility, Russian propagandists published a forged letter from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland.

The Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine refutes fakes about Ukraine's candidacy for the European Union. EU candidacy for Ukraine is not just a formal decision. The status of a candidate for joining the EU opens up access for Ukraine to new grants and investments from EU states.

To become a full member of the EU, Ukraine must take several steps:

- continue the reform of the judicial system;

- strengthen the fight against corruption;

- ensure compliance with anti-money laundering legislation with FATF standards;

- implement the anti-oligarchic law;

- bring media legislation to EU standards;

- improve the legislation on national minorities.

Such messages are distributed on pro-Russian Telegram channels. In particular, propagandist Anatoliy Shariy, whose party is also banned in Ukraine, claims this. However, ше is manipulation. Ten pro-Russian political parties have been prohibited in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. As for seven, the ban process is still ongoing.

However, as StopFake writes, banned parties can be called left-wing only partially. Most of them did not identify themselves as leftists before and came up with this argument after the ban. Furthermore, the reason for the ban is their anti-Ukrainian activities. "The grounds for restricting the activities of these political forces are anti-Ukrainian political and organizational activities, war propaganda, public statements and calls to change the constitutional order by violent means, the threat of violation of the territorial integrity of the state, actions aimed at illegal seizure of power, demonstration of manifestations of cooperation with the enemy, spreading information regarding the justification or recognition of the legitimacy of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine," the Security Service of Ukraine reports. Therefore, those parties that worked against Ukraine were banned, and the ban will in no way affect the accession to the EU.

With such statements, pro-Russian Telegram channels reacted to Ukraine's obtaining the status of a candidate country for joining the EU. In fact, such a message is a development of manipulation on this topic. At first, Russian propagandists spread the idea that Ukraine would never be accepted into the European Union. "European leaders do not need Ukraine as part of the European Union," propagandist Solovyov said. Further, before the official decision of the EU leaders appeared, the Russian media was convinced that the candidate status did not guarantee anything for Ukraine because it was unknown when after that it would be able to join the European Union and whether it would become a member of the union at all. Propagandists have now emphasized that other countries felt "pity" for Ukraine because of the Russian invasion, although Russian politicians deny the "invasion" and call it a "special operation."

Messages of this content are actively spreading on the network after the news that the European Parliament adopted a resolution supporting granting Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidates for EU membership. The final decision on this has not yet been made.

However, many reports on the network have already written that resolution would not guarantee anything for Ukraine. Because it is unknown when it will be able to join the European Union and whether it will become a member of the union, such reports cite as an example Turkey, which has been a candidate for EU membership for over 20 years. He wrote that the same situation could be with Ukraine. Turkey really received the status of a candidate for joining the EU back in 1999. Currently, the status of a candidate for joining the European Union is held by: North Macedonia (since 2005); Montenegro (since 2010); Serbia (since 2012); Albania (since 2014). However, they are still quite far from the goal of joining the EU. In the case of Turkey, in 2018, the EU General Affairs Council stated that "Turkey is moving further away from the European Union.

Therefore, negotiations on Turkey's accession have effectively reached an end, and further chapters for opening or closing, as well as further work on the modernization of the EU-Turkey Customs Union, cannot be considered. That is, we can say that Turkey's accession to the EU has been going on for more than 20 years because the country does not fulfill the requirements set before it as conditions for accession. It is too early to talk about how long Ukraine's candidacy may last, and there is no reason to assume that the process may drag on for more than 20 years, as in the case of Turkey. However, obtaining the status of a candidate for EU membership is a significant step for Ukraine on the way to European integration.

Russian propagandist mass media write about it. For example, the publication "RIA Novosti" claims that the sanctions allegedly forced Austria to return to the "coal age" and reduce the use of gas. In their messages, the propagandists refer to Bloomberg, but the headline says the opposite.

Fact-checkers from StopFake found out that Austria's decision was not caused by sanctions against Russia but by the desire to minimize the risks provoked by Russia. As StopFake writes, Austria is not "returning to the coal age." However, it is only diversifying its sources to protect itself if, due to the fault of Russia, gas supply interruptions may begin in the country. The reason for this decision of the Austrian government is not sanctions against Russia, as propagandists write about it, but Russia's unilateral decision to limit the supply of natural gas to European consumers to blackmail and intimidate Europeans to force the European Union to lift sanctions against the Kremlin.

The fake about the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, who allegedly said that he "does not care about the situation in Ukraine, because he is Hungarian," is being spread to foreign audiences.

In the Russian segment of social networks, a photo was shared with a quote from Hillary Clinton that negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are impossible until Russia is defeated and that "the United States should transfer part of its nuclear arsenal to Ukraine because there is a war in Ukraine, they say "all or nothing." Later, the same photo of Clinton appeared with a slightly different caption: "As it turned out, [Clinton] explained to the whole world that Russia is not at war with Ukraine, but with the United States." However, all these quotes are fake. As researched by Georgian fact-checkers from Myth Detector, there is no information in any open source that the Former US Secretary of State called on the USA to hand over part of its nuclear arsenal to Ukraine. Regarding Clinton's position about negotiations with Russia, in an interview with Radio France on June 11, she stated that she agrees with the position of the Ukrainians regarding the resolution of the conflict as a result of the defeat of Putin and the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine.

Russian propaganda spreads an article by the Chinese political scientist Minxin Pei, talking about the "powerlessness" of the West in front of the "union of Russia and China." In this way, Russia tries to create the impression that it has strong support in the international arena.

However, it is fake. According to the Anti-Disinformation Center, Minxin Pei's op-ed piece published by Bloomberg does say that China and Russia maintain a "strategic unity" that is a geopolitical challenge to the West. He also notes that China and Russia share "similar nationalistic values ​​and deep antipathy to the West." However, in the material, the author does not mention the "powerlessness" of Western countries before the union of Russia and China. In other publications, the author believes that Putin wants to involve China in a military conflict. However, China is trying to support Russia without directly participating in the war and crossing the "red lines" of the United States.

According to Minxin Pei, China is in a difficult situation due to the statement on the strategic partnership with Russia signed on February 4, 2022. At the same time, Russian propaganda uses an exclusively beneficial part of the Chinese political scientist's statements to form the image of China as its reliable partner, rejecting part of the statements about China's efforts to maintain neutrality.

This thesis, referring to an article in The Washington Post, is spread by pro-Russian Telegram channels and media. In fact, it is manipulation. On June 17, The Washington Post published an article titled "With limited options in Ukraine, the US and allies are preparing for a protracted war." The authors of the article wrote that "the US and its allies are preparing for a long war in Ukraine, although the Biden Administration is trying to prevent Putin from winning by sending military aid to Ukraine while trying to reduce the impact of this war on world hunger and the global economy." . Therefore, in terms of "preparation for a long-term conflict," according to the context of the article, it is more about preparing a plan in case of one of the possible variants of the development of events. Furthermore, this is quite logical from the view of responsible state leadership. However, it is the context that Russian propaganda leaves out of the discussion.

The same applies to the "dead-end for Ukraine" issue. The article does include the following sentence: "But analysts say that despite the surge in foreign aid and the strong morale of Ukrainian troops, Kyiv and its supporters can hope for little more than a stalemate with Russia's much larger, better-armed army." And again Russian propaganda took the sentence out of context. In this case, we are talking about the battles in Donbas essentially in "real-time." That is, the assumptions of experts relate to the state of affairs on the part of the front at a certain point in time and do not generalize the opinion about the war as such. Also, the events in Donbas are compared with the Ukrainian army's successes in the Kyiv battle. So, it is generally about certain successful actions of both warring parties.

The Russian propaganda media spread such a statement concerning the words of the press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov. The report says that Great Britain has decided to recognize the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" because London will appeal the death sentence handed down by the court of the so-called DNR to two Britons who fought on the side of Ukraine.

Propagandists claim that in this way, the leadership of Great Britain will have to recognize the jurisdiction of the so-called LDNR and start a dialogue with them. Instead, as the StopFake fact-checkers write, the Foreign Ministry of Great Britain stated that the decision of the "court" of the so-called "DNR," which passed the death sentence to British citizens, is fictitious and "has no legal force." "The people whom the Kremlin propaganda calls mercenaries are servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - according to the Geneva Conventions, the legal status of combatants (participants in military operations) applies to them. "Foreigners who have been captured have the right to be treated as prisoners of war," the fact-checkers write.

Russian propaganda media spread such information. Reports say that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is allegedly tired of Ukraine, as evidenced by his words in one of the interviews.

"The world is tired of Ukraine. (…) The topic of Ukraine is getting boring; British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said about it in an interview with Sky News," the propagandists write. However, this is manipulation. In fact, the Prime Minister of Great Britain expressed his full support for Ukraine in the war with Russia and warned against "a little fatigue" that began to appear in the world around the topic of Ukraine.

As StopFake writes, Johnson also emphasized how important it is now to show that "we are with Ukraine for the long term" and to ensure the "strategic stability" that Kyiv needs. He added that even a theoretical success of Russia in the war against Ukraine would be a disaster.

Citing an article in The Economist, Russian media tell their audience that even Western experts admit that Russia has increased its oil exports despite sanctions. However, this is manipulation. In fact, as the Center for Combating Disinformation writes, economists emphasize that Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have increased their purchases of Russian oil. At the same time, according to the same experts, Russia is forced to sell the surplus at huge discounts and, therefore, to its detriment.

The use of certain theses in the Western media creates a false impression among the Russian population about Russia's successes on the economic and military fronts. They are trying to convince Ukrainians of the same, spreading such messages through social networks and messengers. It should be noted that this is not the first time Russian propaganda has tried to convince its citizens and the outside world that the imposed sanctions are not working, although it is not true.

This statement was issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. They claim that Russia demands Lithuania cancel the ban on the transit of goods to Kaliningrad, and in case of refusal, they threaten "actions to protect national interests." Much Russian propaganda media wrote about it.

Such a statement arose as a reaction to Lithuania's ban on rail transit of several goods subject to sanctions. As Zaxid.net writes, this concerns the transportation of construction materials, cement, and metal. In turn, Putin's press secretary Dmytro Peskov called such a decision by Lithuania a "blockade" and added that before making any decision, the Russian authorities would "analyze in detail" the ban. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia also stated that they consider Lithuania's decision "provocative and hostile" because it violates international legal obligations.

That is, this time, Russia is almost openly threatening Lithuania with war, hinting that it will solve the issue with the ban in any way. In particular, Andriy Klimov, the head of the Federation Council Commission for the Protection of State Sovereignty of the Russian Federation, said this, and Andrey Klimov, ​​the head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation, promised in response, "tough and legal actions on the part of Russia." Remind you that the Russian authorities consider the war in Ukraine completely legal and call it only a special military operation, not considering their actions aggressive and violating international law.

Russian propaganda media wrote that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, is settling with Western countries to supply weapons for museum exhibits. Reports claim that even at the beginning of this year, until February 24, exhibits were being prepared for evacuation in Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Odesa museums. Such messages are illustrated by a photo showing workers taking the painting out of the museum.

The authors of the texts associate such a museum evacuation with the payment of a debt for weapons. However, it is not true. According to fact-checkers of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, museum exhibits are not transported abroad to pay for weapons. Works of art are "evacuated" to protect them from Russian bombing and destruction. "Actually, it is a frame taken from a report about protecting museum exhibits from Russian shelling. After all, the Russian occupiers are shelling Ukrainian cities and destroying Ukrainian museums. Moreover, they have recently taken exhibits away, as with the paintings of Arkhip Kuindzhi in Mariupol," write fact-checkers.

The information about it was spread by the propagandist Russian Channel One. The report states, "while hotheads compete in militaristic rhetoric, ordinary Europeans wonder how to save their budget. 80 thousand people came to a rally in Brussels demanding to stop spending tens of millions of euros on Ukraine and send this money to the indexation of wages. However, it is not true. As The Insider writes, from the beginning of the war to the beginning of June, Belgium allocated EUR 77 million to help Ukraine.

The population of the country at the beginning of 2022 was 11,584,008 people. Thus, 6.65 euros were allocated to each resident of Belgium (in writing: 6 euros 65 cents). Not for a month, but for more than three months. In April, the Belgian TV channel VRT reported that Prime Minister Oleksandr De Cro promised to send a much larger sum to help Ukraine — €800 million — and this money has already been included in the budget agreement approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. In this case, each person will have €69.06 per year. "Probably, the First Channel considers the Belgians so petty that they can make a mass demonstration because of this," the fact-checkers write. In fact, there really was a demonstration in Brussels. People came out against rising prices and the rising cost of living. However, only the First Channel guessed to connect it with the demand to stop aid to Ukraine.

The Kremlin media is spreading disinformation that Liz Truss insists on returning Ukraine to the negotiations and connecting the Baltic countries and Poland to the negotiation process, the Center for Countering Disinformation at the NSDC warns.

In fact, on June 16, Liz Truss announced the UK government's support for Ukraine.

An excerpt of Liz Truss' direct speech from the released statement: "We must also support Ukraine in the negotiations. So far, Russia has shown that it is not serious about the negotiations. We cannot allow Ukraine to be pressured to give up territory in a way we would never agree to. Through the G7 and NATO, we are doing everything possible to strengthen the hand of Ukraine. We also need to make sure our Baltic and Polish friends are involved. Sanctions should be in force as long as Russian boots are on Ukrainian soil. Moreover, we have to keep increasing the pressure."

The Kremlin media is spreading disinformation that Liz Truss insists on returning Ukraine to the negotiations and connecting the Baltic countries and Poland to the negotiation process, the Center for Countering Disinformation at the NSDC warns.

In fact, on June 16, Liz Truss announced the UK government's support for Ukraine.

"News" under this title was published by Russian and Belarusian publications concerning the mayor of Riga, Martins Stakis. Allegedly, he stated that the hotels in the capital may soon stop accepting Ukrainian refugees for free and that on July 1, the agreement between the Latvian government and representatives of the hotel business may terminate. On June 15, Martins Stakis gave an interview to Latvian Television (LTV) and spoke about Ukrainian refugees.

He said the state should provide more compensation for hosting refugees in hotels. Otherwise, they will no longer provide these services, and refugees will have to find new accommodation.

Dozens of Kremlin media write that "Ukraine is being demanded to stop glorifying Stepan Bandera for the sake of membership in the European Union."

As proof of this "requirement," Russia cites the thesis of Arno Klarsfeld, the lawyer of the Association of Sons and Daughters of Jews Deported from France, who voiced on the air of the French BFM TV about the need to rename Ukrainian streets named after Stepan Bandera. The exact figure once said that Russia and Ukraine should find a compromise regarding Donbas. We remind that the main requirements for Ukraine's accession to the EU remain reforms and compliance of Ukrainian legislation with European legislation.

A 15-point action list appeared in the National Interest magazine, immediately distributed by the Kremlin's propaganda media. The Center reported it for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

Among the proposed:

- Ukraine, at the constitutional level, recognizes neutrality and renounces Crimea;

- Russia is withdrawing troops to positions on February 23, 2022;

- until September, a referendum on the state ownership of these territories is held in ORDLO;

- Ukraine breaks all ties with NATO, reduces the army, destroys heavy weapons;

- neither party pays reparations.

"This action plan is an element of an information and psychological operation, the main purpose of which is to create an impression of the strong positions of the Russian army on the battlefield against the background of the lack of real achievements at the front. According to the ECFR poll, the population of Western countries is convinced that it is Ukraine that should win the war," the Center for Combating Disinformation noted.

The Government Security Center of the Republic of Poland has found a fake letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland with a request to provide information about all Ukrainian men under the age of 60 who are in Poland. According to the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, this letter is supposed to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine mobilize them to participate in the war against Russia. The fake letter first appeared on the Russian news agency "Krasnaya Vesna" website on February 3, 2022. On June 17, the same fake was repeated by the DNR Joker telegram channel.

In this way, the enemy tries to obtain personal information about Ukrainians abroad for further information and psychological operations to reduce the general trust level in Ukraine.

Russian media are actively spreading the news that the Americans have accused the United States and Ukraine of stealing $ 40 billion in military aid. In particular, RIA-Novosti wrote about it. Do reports say that under the news of allocating a new tranche of aid, Americans ask the authorities where the previously given money went? Also, Americans under this post seem to be concerned about the use of taxpayers' funds and financial responsibility for government actions. Russian propaganda turned the comments of anonymous users into loud headlines such as: "Where did the money go?", "Ukrainians spent the previous 40 billion too quickly!" etc. However, all this is manipulation. According to StopFake, the news was made based on the comments of seven anonymous users of the social network Twitter. Their authors are not opinion leaders, experts, or analysts. In addition, comments were added almost simultaneously, which is a sign of the activity of bots. Therefore, it is evident that such an opinion cannot reliably reflect Americans' views. Russian media often use this technique to create news and mislead readers artificially. It is not the first time Russian propaganda has tried to discredit US aid to Ukraine. Earlier, we wrote about how similar attempts were made based on extracted citations from an article published in The Wall Street Journal. Similarly, during the week, propaganda used comments from individual social media users from France and Germany to spread the idea that citizens of these countries did not support and "dislike" Ukraine.

Such messages were spread by Russian telegram channels and the media on the eve of the visit of EU leaders to Ukraine. Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov quoted French President Emmanuel Macron to support his thesis, saying that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia on its own. We should notice that Russia has repeatedly used manipulation to pressure the world to change the situation in its favor. These manipulations are refuted by statements made at a joint press conference of Germany, France, Italy, and Romania leaders after they visited Ukraine. "We always support the dialogue because one day the conflict will end, and negotiations must begin. But the terms of the talks must be determined by Ukraine: France and Germany will never be mediators behind Ukraine and will never demand conditions from Ukraine," he said. President of France Emmanuel Macron. "Russia is trying to force the borders inside Europe. And this is unacceptable. Therefore, Germany and other countries have sided with Ukraine from day one," said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. "Italy wants to see Ukraine as part of the European Union. So, it will support Ukraine's status as a candidate and in the future accession to the EU. This path involves deep reforms," ​​said Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. "Today in Kyiv with my European colleagues - Chancellor Olaf Scholz, President Emmanuel Macron, and Prime Minister Mario Draghi - to show our strong support and full solidarity with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian people," said President Ioannis. It should be noted that after such statements by EU leaders, the Russian media again began to actively threaten Russia's use of nuclear weapons, which is also an element of pressure and intimidation.