A story allegedly from the national daily newspaper USA Today is being spread on Russian social networks, which states that an American food blogger was blocked on a streaming platform “for preparing Russian dishes”.

“A girl with 1.2 million subscribers was left without a channel and income because she dedicated an episode to making dumplings, borshch, and told how she had a great trip to Russia and got acquainted with Russian cuisine”, the propagandists say.

But there was no such story on the pages of USA Today. Moreover, using a reverse Google search and the query “YouTube blocked a blogger for a video about cooking a Russian dish”, the search engine only shows publications from pro-Kremlin media that translate their materials into English. That is, it is most likely that such news is simply made up.

And in fact, a conditional video or channel could be blocked if it violated YouTube community rules. Definitely, a channel could not be deleted because of a “video about a Russian dish”.

Thus, propagandists promote a narrative about the existence of so-called Russophobia, which Moscow fights against and protects its citizens. The Kremlin media puts the meaning of another term into the word Russophobia, namely xenophobia — a sharp rejection of another culture, language, and way of life that can manifest itself in the political life of a state through discrimination based on national and cultural grounds. The meaning of this word, in a much narrower sense, is hidden behind the term Russophobia, according to Russian propaganda. Russia also justifies its attack on Ukraine with so-called Russophobia.

Russia presents Russophobia as a separate type of Nazism that originated in Ukraine and is spreading en masse around the world. Anyone who criticizes Russia is a Russophobe, and therefore a Nazi. At first, the disinformation message about Russophobia was aimed mainly at the Ukrainian audience, but after the world community supported Ukraine in the war, it spread to European countries. It even went as far as accusing Israel of Nazism.

Against the backdrop of the start of the school year in Ukrainian schools, propagandists have claimed that first-graders from families with military personnel were given pencils with the inscription “death to Russians”. As “proof”, the Russians are adding a photo of such a pencil.

However, the inscription on the pencil was edited. In the Ukrainian segment of social networks or media, they did not report that students were given similar pencils. Using the Forensically tool, it was possible to detect that the photo has signs of editing. For example, the ELA (Error Level Analysis) tool highlights in a brighter color the elements of the picture that could have been edited. On the pencil, the photo of which is being distributed by users, one can see the blue leaves and the inscription itself. Therefore, most likely, the fakers added these marks in a photo editor.

The mistake in the word “Russians” also points to the forgery. In fact, it would be correct to use the letter i and not e. In most cases, when creating a fake, Russians incorrectly translate words into Ukrainian, which is what gives away the forgery.

We have documented fakes many times, whether they involve fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or advertising videos. In this way, propagandists aim to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. This may make readers think that the public is really unhappy with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, implying that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda is a reason for Europe to laugh.

Russia presents Russophobia as a separate type of Nazism that originated in Ukraine and is spreading en masse around the world. Anyone who criticizes Russia is a Russophobe, and therefore a Nazi. At first, the disinformation message about “Russophobia” was aimed mainly at the Ukrainian audience, but after the world community supported Ukraine in the war, it spread to European countries. It even went as far as accusing Israel of Nazism.

Russian sources are distributing a video allegedly from the BBC, which states that Ukrainian servicemen used Nazi symbols (including slogans and gestures) more than 1,000 times during the Kursk operation. This study was conducted by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The organization's Director of Advocacy and Strategic Litigation, Antoine Bernard, allegedly called on the international community to pay attention to the glorification of Nazism in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “A country that demands protection in the UN has no right to treacherously violate the organization's resolutions, much less display symbols of cannibalistic regimes”, Bernard said, according to the propagandists.

In fact, neither the BBC nor Reporters Without Borders reported the results of the corresponding study. This is what journalists from the StopFake project write. The video is not available on the website or social networks of the British media.

The latest Ukraine-related posts on the Reporters Without Borders website condemn the Russian strike on Kramatorsk that killed two Reuters journalists and expose the Kremlin propaganda network founded by Yevhenii Pryhozhyn.

Ukraine also recently joined the International Partnership for Information and Democracy, launched by the organization. Antoine Bernard, whose fake quote the propagandists used in their video, praised the decision and said that Ukraine “demonstrates a global commitment to reliable and quality information, which is essential for the proper functioning of democracy”, despite the trials of war.

StopFake journalists add that most reports about the use of Nazi symbols by Ukrainian military personnel are Russian provocations.

Read also: New fakes about the operation in Kursk

Propagandists are distributing photos of a supposedly Ukrainian school history textbook for high school. It calls Hitler “a German statesman and politician” who liberated the Lviv region during World War II. This information was disseminated on anonymous telegram channels in other languages, including Bulgarian, French, English and Russian. However, this is fake.

Examples of fake posts about Hitler that were refuted by German and Austrian fact checkers

AFP and the Austrian-German hub GADMO checked all current Ukrainian history textbooks and found no such page or statement. The experts they interviewed confirmed that glorifying Nazism is prohibited by Ukrainian law. In 2015, the Ukrainian parliament banned propaganda of Nazi and communist regimes. All textbooks must be approved by the Ministry of Education and the Institute for Modernization of Education.

In Ukrainian schools, history begins to be taught from the fifth grade, and the Second World War in detail - from the tenth grade. All textbooks are updated every five years, with the last update occurring in 2022. AFP found that not a single textbook portrays Hitler as a “liberator”. On the contrary, it describes millions of deaths and crimes of the Nazis in Ukraine.

By spreading such false information, propagandists are trying to portray Ukraine as a country that supports Nazi ideology. The spread of fake news about Nazi ideology in Ukraine supports the Kremlin’s rhetoric about “denazification” as one of the reasons for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This creates the appearance of a moral justification for Russia's aggressive actions. The spread of such fakes may prompt international partners to doubt the need to support Ukraine, reducing economic, political and military assistance.

A network of pro-Russian telegram channels is distributing an alleged quote from the German Foreign Ministry, Annalena Baerbock: “Ukraine has managed to turn the swastika into a symbol of freedom”. Baerbock allegedly believes that Ukrainians who fight for independence and use Nazi symbols will rehabilitate it in the eyes of the Europeans. However, this is a fake.

According to information from VoxCheck experts, the fictitious quote was first disseminated by a Russian telegram channel, calling its news “a parody and satire on political reality”. However, propagandists picked up this message and began to disseminate it in their messages as true information, which later ridiculed the original source: “The trick was a success”.

Annalena Baerbock is the former leader of the left-wing German party Union 90/Green, professing the values of social democracy, pro-Europeanism and opposition to right-wing radical movements, including Nazism. Therefore, statements about Ukrainian Nazism would be completely contrary to the values of a high-ranking position.

This fake was also analyzed by German specialists from the publication Correctiv. They note that in the English-language segment of the social network “X”, along with this message, they are speculating on the alleged “genetic heredity” of the minister with her unnamed relative, allegedly a member of the NSDAP. Fact-checkers also requested a representative from the German Federal Foreign Office. The response noted that Annalena Baerbock did not make such a statement.

With this message, propagandists are trying to reduce the level of trust in the German authorities in the eyes of Ukrainians, speculating on issues of Nazism. At the same time, they seek to denigrate German officials in the eyes of European society and undermine confidence in the German Green Party. Previously, we refuted the information that Annalena Baerbock allegedly asked Ukraine not to call Leopard tanks German.

Russian propagandists are distributing a photo of a woman wearing a T-shirt allegedly with a Nazi swastika and walking through the streets of Lviv. They say this is proof that Ukrainians are Nazis. However, this photo is 0 fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. Using FotoForensics, a service that identifies areas of a photo with different compressions (which can indicate editing), they discovered that the swastika on the T-shirt was artificially added. Using an image search, the original version was found, in which the woman has a red T-shirt without any symbols.

The place where the photograph was taken was identified by the signs of the Alchemist and Welfare stores at 23 Svobody Avenue in Lviv.

Russian disinformation about Nazism in Ukraine is aimed at discrediting Ukrainians, reducing their international support, and justifying Russian aggression against Ukrainians.

A photo of a man showing a Nazi greeting is being circulated on anonymous telegram channels. In the post, propagandists claim that the man allegedly made a similar gesture during the celebration of Ukrainian Embroidery Day on the main square of the German city of Rostock.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the photo of the man was taken back in 2015 in the German city of Freital. The Nazi gesture was addressed to a group of demonstrators.

This man, a former miner who grew up and worked in the German Democratic Republic under socialism, in an interview with the German publication Welt called his action a “complete failure” and assured that he gets along well with foreigners and has nothing against them.

Propagandists are distributing a report allegedly created by Deutsche Welle, which states that Polish journalist Agata Grzybowska was fired because she published her own investigation in the publication Rzeczpospolita. Grzybowska allegedly said that European media heavily edited videos of Ukrainian soldiers to hide Nazi symbols on their uniforms. However, this is not true.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to the fake. They found out that Deutsche Welle did not actually publish such a video on its official website or social networks. There is also no such investigation on the website of the Polish publication Rzeczpospolita.

A reverse image search on Google revealed that clips from other videos were used for the fake report. For example, the image of Agata Grzybowska is taken from a presentation of her work at the cultural institution Dom Spotkań z Historią in Warsaw. The photo of police detaining her was taken in 2020 during women's protests against an abortion ban in Warsaw. The video with the 59th brigade was filmed in Kramatorsk in February 2024.

Agata Grzybowska is a Polish photographer. On her Facebook page she covers events in Ukraine, in particular the Revolution of Dignity and the Russian full-scale invasion. In a comment to the Belarusian Intelligence Center, Grzybowska denied information about her dismissal and the publication of the investigation. She explained that she does not write articles because she is a photojournalist by profession.

Propagandists are spreading this fake news to once again reinforce their message about “Ukrainian Nazis” and the “need for denazification”. Thus, they justify the crimes of Russians against Ukrainian civilians.

Social networks add that the city authorities of Paris allegedly decided to rename the Aval Bridge to the Red Army Bridge.

“The corresponding decision was made to pay tribute to the Red Army and its important role in the victory over Nazi Germany”, propaganda resources say.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project write that journalists from the French media TF1 submitted a request to the Paris City Council about plans to rename it.

They denied the information and noted that the Paris City Council did not make any decision on a new name for the bridge, especially in honor of the Red Army. They haven't even considered this issue, although city council members regularly consider proposals to rename buildings and streets in the city.

Propagandists published a photograph on social networks showing Adolf Hitler allegedly hugging the grandmother of Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. They also claim that Ursula von der Leyen's grandfather, Karl Albrecht Oberg, was allegedly the “chief SS man and policeman” and sent 100,000 people to concentration camps. However, these statements are false.

Specialists from the Georgian project MythDetector drew attention to them. They found that these claims originated as a joke by American researcher Norman Finkelstein. The identity of the actual person in the photograph has not been confirmed by publicly available sources. Additionally, the claim that Ursula von der Leyen's grandfather, Karl Albrecht Oberg, was an SS general is false. In fact, the great-grandfather of the President of the European Commission was named Friedrich Karl Albrecht and he was an entrepreneur.

The photo circulating on social media is a screenshot of a message posted by Norman Finkelstein on his X network page on November 23, 2023. Finkelstein captioned the post as a joke, calling it “Photo from Ursulie von der Leyen's family album” and adding a made-up quote to the politician: “My dear grandmother did not wash her hands for a month after this wonderful incident”.

The real person in the photo remains unknown. According to the description of the American photo agency Getty Images, the photo was taken in 1937 in the city of Buckeburg, where Hitler shakes hands with a “traditionally dressed girl”.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit Western partners and justify Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Russian telegram channels are disseminating information that Kyiv has allegedly begun to prepare young men for confrontation with Russian troops during the upcoming defense in the Sumy direction. According to propagandists, “young men will have to form partisan movements and begin sabotage”. In addition, Russian propaganda says that Kyiv has allegedly already begun to use such a detachment in one of the directions. And as a result, a sixteen-year-old Ukrainian medic of the 1st Infantry Battalion of the 67th DUK Mechanized Infantry Brigade with the call sign “Troy” allegedly died.

The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council denied this information. In fact, the statement about the training of “young Ukrainian partisans” to fight the Russians is an invention of Russian propagandists that does not correspond to reality. There is also fake information about the death of a Ukrainian combat medic precisely as a result of the partisan movement again. Unfortunately, Anastasia Marianchuk with the call sign “Troy” actually died on March 18, 2024, but from enemy shelling, and not because she joined one of the so-called “detachments”. In addition, she was not 16, but 22 years old.

This fake nourishes the propaganda narrative that Nazism rules in Ukraine, so the country needs to be “denazified”. However, this is only one of the justifications for unprovoked Russian aggression. In the end, propagandists seek to demonize both the Ukrainian authorities and the Ukrainian Armed Forces, since they have allegedly already begun to involve children in physical confrontation with Russia. Previously, we refuted the information that in Kyiv they allegedly distribute “propaganda” to women, elderly people and children so that they could be mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Pro-Russian resources disseminate information that after the “coup d’etat” of 2014 in Ukraine, people who were supporters of peace negotiations with Russia were killed. In asserting this, propagandists refer to Putin, who made a corresponding statement.

In fact, this information is not true, write the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. There was no coup in Ukraine in 2014. Propaganda uses this expression as a revolution of dignity, since Russia cannot come to terms with the strength and determination of Ukrainians in the struggle for independence. Then, as today, Ukrainians defended the European vector of development, democratic values, their rights and freedom.

There was no extermination of Ukrainians who sought dialogue with Russia. Proof of this can be the fact that before the start of a full-scale war, pro-Russian political parties functioned in Ukraine. Moreover, 38 pro-Russian politicians from the “Opposition platform — for life” still owe mandates. Pro-Kremlin media were and are also in Ukraine. Now there are simply clickbaits and manipulations, including about “internal problems of Ukraine”, but after the start of the great war they stopped quoting Russian disinformation, and obvious denim in the interests of Russians disappeared from them.

In the end, there can be no talk of any “peaceful relations between Russia and Ukraine”,  since in 2014 Russia annexed Crimea and started a war in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russian propaganda once again accuses Ukraine of being unprepared for negotiations, but the reason for the refusal is the lack of trust in Russia, because it has repeatedly violated agreements.

• Read also: Russia has always strived for peace, but Ukraine does not want to “agree”.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social networks are disseminating information that allegedly, during an IDF raid in the Gaza Strip, the book Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler was discovered, which was allegedly accidentally left behind by one of the Azov military units while staying at an Israeli clinic. However, this is manipulation.

Analysts from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the original source of these statements is a Russian satirical telegram channel called “here is my Yandex wallet”. The authors of the channel define their publications as “a parody and satire of political reality, only verified fakes”. This “news” first appeared on the channel on November 13 and was circulated on the Internet, appearing to be true information. The photo accompanying this story is a screenshot from an address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog on November 12, 2023. In it, Herzog stated that the book Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler was found in the personal belongings of a Hamas terrorist in the northern Gaza Strip. The Ukrainian military has nothing to do with this incident.

By spreading such manipulations, propagandists want to justify Russian aggression against Ukraine and “denazification”. Detector Media continued to refute other propaganda materials in support of “denazification”.

Propagandists say a German charity allegedly ran an advertisement comparing the cost of a Leopard tank sent to Ukraine with the cost of operations for 10 sick children. Like, they wrote about it in Reuters. Some people also claim that after the publication of this information, “defenders of Ukrainian refugees” criticized the philanthropists and called them Nazis due to the fact that German children were more important than Ukrainian ones. However, this is a fake video.

The VoxCheck analysts drew attention to it. They found out that the photos and videos distributed by propagandists were edited. The charitable organization Bunter Kreis Rheinland, against which the fake was created, stated that it did not place such advertising. It was also debunked by a reverse search of video frames via Google Images, which showed that the photos were only being distributed by Russian-language resources or users spreading pro-Russian rhetoric. The subtitles on the video also look like they were added during editing, as they contain errors in how words are related, and in some frames there are additional spaces between words.

Deutsche Welle contacted the charity Bunter Kreis Rheinland, which is listed as the author of the ad, and received confirmation from finance director Ralf Orth that the organization had no connection with the ad as their finances are based on donations and they cannot fund such things in Berlin .

The fake posters featured the logos of Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband and Aktion Mensch; both organizations denied any involvement in the advertising and said their logos were used without their permission.

The blue inscription on the billboard belongs to the company Wall GmbH, whose representatives stated that they did not produce such billboards at all.

Propagandists spread such fake news to create skepticism among European audiences about the war in Ukraine. Like, why should Europeans waste their resources on other people’s children when they have problems with their own? However, such comparisons are inappropriate, since the life of every child is priceless.

Russian media disseminated a disinformation statement by Foreign Minister Serhii  Lavrov about the “rebirth of Nazism” in the world. They say that the voting results of Germany, Italy and Japan and a number of other UN countries against the resolution condemning Nazism “cast doubt on the sincerity of their repentance for the events of the Second World War”. However, this is manipulation.

Analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that we are talking about a draft resolution “Countering the glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”, proposed for consideration by UN member states during several letters. UN Third Committee (social, humanitarian and cultural). The authors of the resolution “on the glorification of Nazism” were Russia, Belarus and Syria.

Several states categorically opposed the adoption of the Russian document. During the debate, several diplomats noted that the Kremlin resolution is a tool of political pressure, as Russia itself tries to justify its aggression against Ukraine with the fanciful excuse of “eliminating neo-Nazism” and the mythical need to “denazify” Ukraine. Several countries have stressed that Russia's actions in Ukraine, as well as its lobbying for pseudo-democratic resolutions, seriously undermine real efforts to combat neo-Nazism. During the debate and numerous votes to amend the draft resolution, the UN Third Committee recommended that the UN General Assembly adopt the document as amended. In particular, with the clause on Russian aggression against Ukraine:

“[The UN General Assembly] notes with alarm that the Russian Federation is trying to justify its territorial aggression against Ukraine with the fanciful excuse of eliminating neo-Nazism, and emphasizes that the use of neo-Nazism as a reason to justify territorial aggression seriously undermines the real efforts to combat it before the adoption of the draft resolution.

Also, during the discussion of the draft resolution, a number of countries called on Russia to immediately stop its aggression against Ukraine and abandon false narratives, “with the help of which Russia is using one of the darkest moments of history to achieve its cynical goals”. UN countries strongly condemned Russia's abuse of anti-Nazi rhetoric and “unequivocally rejected the inaccurate and inappropriate use of the term 'denazification' to justify Russia's desolate, brutal and illegal actions in Ukraine”. Therefore, several countries, in particular Ukraine, the USA, the EU and Japan, refused to vote for the resolution proposed by Russia and advocated amending the document.

Media spreading pro-Russian rhetoric are spreading a fake news story about the Ukrainian parliament passing a law that allegedly aims to “hide up torture in prisons”. According to it, since other countries refuse to extradite detained Ukrainians to Ukraine due to “non-compliance with human rights” there, the Verkhovna Rada decided to pass a law that will protect such prisoners. This, it would seem, is being carried out with the goal of “convincing partners to hand over persons unpleasant” to the regime to the neo-Nazis. However, this is manipulation.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They point out that propagandists not only misspelled the name of the Verkhovna Rada deputy who co-authored the bill — not Vadym Bozhyk, but Valerii Bozhyk — but also distorted the content of the legislative initiative for propaganda purposes. We are talking about bill No. 9451, the purpose of which is to ensure respect for the rights and freedoms of convicted Ukrainians extradited to Ukraine for prosecution or execution of a sentence. The explanatory note notes that the law was proposed due to the refusal of many countries to fulfill requests for extradition to Ukraine due to violations in Ukrainian penal institutions of Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms on the prohibition of torture, as well as due to the inability to ensure security during the stay of persons in penal institutions under martial law.

Bozhyk explained that because of this law, the Ministry of Justice receives the authority to approve a list of correctional labor or educational colonies to which Ukrainians from extradition will be transferred. It is also indicated that such institutions will fully comply with both the requirements of national legislation and Ukraine’s international obligations in the field of human rights.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to discredit Ukraine and portray it as a country that systematically violates international law. Detector Media has already repeatedly refuted other Russian video fakes.

Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric are distributing a video in which Ukrainian first-graders allegedly march to the song “We’re killing Russianns” on Knowledge Day. Russian propaganda also states that the subject Defense of Ukraine is designed to instill in children neo-Ukrainian ideology and hatred of Russians. It's fake.

The case was investigated by the fact-checker of the VoxCheck project. They found the original video, dated September 2, 2022, and featuring a different song. That is, Russian propaganda edited the video and superimposed the song “We’re killing the Russians” on it.

Regarding the subject Defense of Ukraine - it has long existed in the school curriculum and until February 26, 2020 it was called Motherland Defense. This subject aims to provide schoolchildren with knowledge to defend Ukraine. The updated program contains information on the provision of pre-medical care, terrain orientation, and mine safety. As stated in the Ministry of Education and Science: “And the skills of controlling UAVs are used by videographers, surveyors, archaeologists and many specialists in their professional activities”.

This is a continuation of the narrative promoted by Russian propagandists that Nazism reigns in Ukraine, to which children are taught from childhood, and the Russians are supposedly trying to save Ukrainians. Thus, Russia is trying to justify a full-scale invasion of Ukrainian territory. Previously, we refuted the fake that in the Azov children's camp children read Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric on social media are posting images purporting to have published an article on the Diia website explaining why Nazism is normal. The title on it looks like “Why are Ukrainian fighters who fought on the side of the Nazis our heroes? Special material about fighters for Ukrainian independence who made a brave choice in the war”. The propagandists add that these publications on the website allegedly appeared after the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi in the Parliament of Canada greeted a veteran of the SS division Galicia, which was part of the Waffen SS troops of Nazi Germany. However, this is a fake.

Analysts of the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that there are no articles about soldiers who fought on the side of the Nazis in the “news” section on the Diia website after the “education” request. In addition, the published photo is dated September 25, but in fact, this section contains posts dated September 4 and 26, and they do not mention the Ukrainian military. The design of the site, the “education” section and the articles in it also differ from those in the image of the propagandists. The site only publishes news related to the Action application or digitization, so it is unlikely that an article on a historical topic will appear on it.

The inauthenticity of this message is also indicated by errors in the text. In particular, the phrase “awarded with applause” and the expression “it is important to look at many things” are inherent in the Russian language. Also, the authors made a mistake and used the word “beat” instead of the verb “struggle” in the phrase “fought against Soviet oppression”. It also has the capital letter that begins the word “Soviet” but it is a common name, not a proper name, in this sentence.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to reinforce negative stereotypes about Ukrainians. Like, they are ready to glorify the Nazis even on the website of a technological application for document management. In this way, the Russians justify their aggression against Ukraine, namely, they create a false need for “denazification”. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted fakes, messages and manipulations in which Russians manipulated the topic of Nazism.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the media claim that a number of European countries, and especially Ukraine and the Baltic countries, are systematically destroying historical memory. They say that they have forgotten about the lessons of the Second World War, and they worship racist, neo-Nazi and extremist ideas.

Analysts of the EUvsDisinfo project drew attention to this message. They note that the Kremlin media repeatedly scares with the “rebirth of Nazism” in the West and “historical revanchism” against Russia. The myth of Nazi Ukraine is refuted by the fact that Nazi and communist ideologies were banned in Ukraine at the legislative level in 2015.

By spreading such messages, propagandists want to justify Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, providing a false need for “denazification”. By baselessly calling all Ukrainians Nazis, they deliberately portray Ukrainians in a negative light. Detector Media has refuted a number of fakes and manipulations using this message.

Pro-Russian resources claim that a prayer book for children has appeared in Ukraine, in which they are invited to pray to God, saying the following words: “Protect my father near Donetsk, as you protected my great-grandfather in Galicia”. This is manipulation.

The case was investigated by the fact-checkers of Gvara Media. They contacted one of the places where this prayer book was sold, the Church Store of the Lviv Archdiocese of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with a question whether such a text existed in the book. In response to a request from the fact-checkers, store employees responded that there was no such text in the prayer book and added that it was published back in 2011, that is, long before the start of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

Propagandists are trying to demonize Ukrainians in the eyes of ordinary Russian citizens in order to justify Russia's war crimes in Ukraine. We recently published an extensive article about Ukrainian children suffering as a result of Russian aggression.

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.

This thesis was spread on social networks in the Russian segment. The messages told how Volodymyr Zelenskyi assigned the 131st separate reconnaissance battalion of the Ukrainian Ground Forces the name of Yevhen Konovalets. Meanwhile, propagandists, in response to this, added that such actions emphasize the true “Nazi” essence of Ukraine, where officials are no longer afraid to “glorify Bandera’s supporters”.

Russian propaganda is once again speculating on the topic of Ukrainian nationalism and distorting it into “Nazism”. It seems that being a Ukrainian, taking care of one’s own state interests, is already grounds for receiving accusations of Nazism from the Russians. The authors appeal to Ukrainians and call them “nationalists” to hint at supposedly radical views among civilians. Russian propaganda deliberately exaggerates the weight of bearers of nationalist views in Ukrainian society, describing them as sharing opinions with representatives of Nazi Germany and mocking supporters of Russia. And propagandists also reduce the approval of historical figures in the Ukrainian context to “Nazism”.

And there is nothing wrong with the fact that the Ukrainian president named the reconnaissance battalion after a historical figure. Yevhen Konovalets is one of the most famous figures of the Ukrainian national movement of the twentieth century. Over the course of his 47 years, he managed to go from a student at the Faculty of Law of Lviv University to a colonel in the UPR army, commander of the Sichovi Striltsi, chairman of the Ukrainian Nationalists, founder and first leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The basic principle of nationalism is the value of the nation as the highest form of social unity and its primacy in the processes of the state. The term “nationalist” itself is not something bad, but is characterized by loyalty and devotion to one's nation.

Read more about the ideas of Ukrainian nationalism here. A researcher of political history of the early twentieth century, Doctor of Historical Sciences Oleksandr Zaitsev, spoke about how the nationalists of that time saw Ukraine. In particular, he explained that the Ukrainian version of nationalism is characterized by the fact that in the 1920s and 30s it was the nationalism of a stateless nation. Or a nation that lost its statehood during the Ukrainian Revolution, having suffered defeat in the creation of a single, integral state.

By the way, read the case in which Zelenskyi allegedly put on a jumper with an embroidered OUN coat of arms, although first of all it is the coat of arms of Ukraine.

This thesis was spread on social networks, in particular on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that Ukrainian refugees in Europe have begun to demonstrate their Nazi tendencies. They claim that this is a direct threat to the territorial integrity of the EU. In support of this thesis, evidence is provided that a Ukrainian barista offers Europeans coffee with a swastika on it. All this, they say, is happening in a German town. Video evidence is added to publications. It's a lie.

The analysts from the VoxCheck project analyzed the case and determined that the video is an advertisement for online late art courses in Bolivia, and there is no mention of Ukrainians in it. The video has an Instagram page tagged, so the fact-checkers decided to check it out. The page is actually active and posts are posted there.The fact-checkers came across the original video used by propagandists. There is no mention of Ukraine there either. And it is impossible to say for sure that it was the swastika that was depicted on the coffee. That is, the authors of the online courses did not add any context to the Instagram message, so there may be different interpretations. Although the video received more than 384 thousand likes with 4,800 subscribers, in the comments, users mock and hint at the theme of Nazism. The fact-checkers claim that the video could have been used to attract attention.

With all that, neither the Instagram page nor the video have anything to do with Ukrainians. Propagandists explained the video modifications in a context that was favorable to them. It’s as if a Ukrainian refugee in Germany is selling coffee with a swastika design. Thus, the authors seek to demonize Ukrainian refugees and show that Europe does not support Ukraine and Ukrainians in general. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU - in order to reduce support for Ukraine. We mentioned this in our own research.

Russian propagandists and pro-Kremlin telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric are disseminating information that Ukrposhta has issued a stamp depicting veteran of the Waffen SS Galicia division Yaroslav Hunko. It's fake.

The case was studied by fact-checkers of the Center for Strategic Communications. They established that the latest stamp announced by Ukrposhta is not with the image of Yaroslav Hunko, but with Challenger 2, Leopard 2, Patriot, CAESAR and M2 Bradley. This brand is called “Weapon of Victory. Peace with Ukraine” and it can already be ordered. The head of Ukrposhta, Ihor Smilianskyi, announced this on September 25.

Thus, Russian propagandists continue to promote the narrative that there is Nazism in Ukraine, which Russians are fighting against. This is how Russian propaganda try to discredit Ukrainians, reduce Western support and whiten Russia. Previously, Detector Media refuted the fake that in the Azov children's camp children read “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler.

Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric are distributing a photo of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson allegedly “showing a Z letter” during a visit to Ukraine. This happened at Lviv University named after Ivan Franko, where he was awarded an academic degree. It's fake.

The case was investigated by the fact-checker of the StopFake project. They determined that the photo had been edited in a photo editor. In the original photo, Boris Johnson has his arms down, while other ceremony participants hold one hand to their heart.

Moreover, in Ukraine, the use of the Nazi salute or “zigging” is prohibited by the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Article 436) as a public use of symbols of the totalitarian Nazi regime.

Thus, Russian propaganda continues to promote the narrative that there is Nazism in Ukraine, which the Russians are allegedly fighting against. Previously, we refuted the fake news that in the Azovets children's camp children read Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.