Fake: The bill provides for the arrival of 10 million immigrants to Ukraine by 2030

A number of news outlets and social media accounts are spreading false information claiming that Ukraine allegedly plans to bring in 10 million immigrants by 2030, including “Arabs and Asians”, in order to “massively replace Ukrainians”. This disinformation narrative, which refers to a bill submitted to the Verkhovna Rada titled “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding the Employment of Foreigners and Stateless Persons”, was debunked by StopFake fact-checkers.

In reality, claims about bringing in millions of migrants to “replace” Ukrainians are yet another distorted propaganda narrative.

Bill No. 14211, which is currently under consideration in the committees of the Verkhovna Rada, contains no plans or quotas to attract 10 million migrants and does not aim to replace the population.

Its main purpose is to simplify legal procedures for foreign nationals and stateless persons who have already expressed a desire to work in Ukraine. In particular, it concerns simplifying the procedures for issuing temporary residence permits and work permits. These changes are intended to align Ukraine’s migration legislation with European Union standards, which is an important step on the path to European integration.

The figure of 10 million cited by propagandists is not part of the bill and is not a state plan.

This number was previously mentioned by individual experts and politicians, including former Minister of Economy of Ukraine Tymofii Mylovanov, solely as a personal, approximate assessment. It reflects a potential future need for labor migrants in Ukraine after the war to stabilize the economy and compensate for the sharp decline in the working-age population and the demographic losses caused by the war and high levels of emigration.

Thus, the figure of “10 million migrants” represents individual estimates highlighting current demographic challenges, not an approved government plan or a legislative commitment. The bill merely legalizes and simplifies existing procedures for those willing to work, without establishing any quotas.

Russian propaganda Telegram channels claim that due to changes in Portuguese legislation, Portugal will expel 60,000 Ukrainian refugees. They also allege that 5,000 Belarusians who have political asylum will supposedly be forced to return home. “It seems that European hospitality evaporated exactly at the moment when it had to be paid for,” such posts comment sarcastically.

This fake has been debunked by fact-checkers at StopFake.

However, this story is a fake. In reality, Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) has launched a review of residence permits (mainly affecting foreign students) in order to comply with European Commission regulations. This process does not lead to automatic deportations; on the contrary, it allows students to switch to alternative legal statuses and remain in the country to continue their studies even after temporary protection ends.

The figure of 60,000 refers to the total number of Ukrainian refugees currently residing in Portugal. The country is not planning mass expulsions, but rather aims to regularize the legal status of migrants after the expiration of the temporary protection period. At present, this protection for Ukrainians in Portugal – like in other EU countries – has been extended until March 2027.

The Portuguese government has indeed amended its legislation, extending temporary protection for Ukrainians until March 4, 2027. This status guarantees the right to reside, work, access healthcare, and receive education, as stated in the original legislation. However, new applications for temporary protection from Ukrainians are no longer being accepted: to enter the country, individuals must now obtain a visa in advance at a Portuguese consulate, as is required for citizens of other countries planning to relocate.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale aggression, the Kremlin has continuously fabricated falsehoods about the status of Ukrainian refugees abroad. Yet none of these grim predictions about “mass deportations” or the “sudden cancellation of assistance” have come true.

In the pro-Russian segment of the internet, a story is being circulated claiming that a group of Ukrainians was allegedly detained in Spain for attacking restaurants at night, stealing chairs, and selling them. Propagandists present this absurd incident as “proof” that Ukrainian citizens abroad bring only harm to society. This fake was debunked by experts from StopFake.

However, this publication is yet another fabrication by Russian propaganda. While the story about a gang itself is real, no reputable media outlet mentions the nationality of the perpetrators. Spanish police did indeed report that six men and one woman were detained in Madrid as members of a criminal group that, in August and September 2025, stole more than a thousand chairs from 18 restaurants in Madrid and the town of Talavera de la Reina. It is known that the stolen goods were resold in Spain, Romania, and Morocco. In other words, the police made no mention whatsoever of any connection between the gang and Ukraine.

Russian propaganda has repeatedly used real criminal or controversial incidents, inserting Ukrainians into them in order to discredit Ukrainian citizens. For the same purpose, propaganda also spreads entirely fabricated stories.

Earlier, Detector Media debunked a made-up story about the alleged detention of “Ukrainian terrorists” in Jerusalem.

A video has circulated in the Russian-language segment of social media in which a woman allegedly from Ukraine complains about the contents of a package of Polish humanitarian aid. In the clip, the woman says she will “give the canned food to dogs” and expresses shock that the box supposedly did not contain “shrimp and alcohol as a gift”. StopFake reported on the spread of this fake.

Russian audiences quickly picked up the video, accusing Ukrainians of being “ungrateful” and even calling on Poles to “stage a Lviv-style massacre against refugees”.

In reality, the video is yet another fake. An audio track was added to the footage using artificial intelligence: the voice sounds unnatural and has intonations typical of synthetic speech. For example, the “Ukrainian woman” says the canned food is suitable only for dogs and wonders why there was not even “some miserable prosecco” in the package. Such linguistic mistakes immediately reveal the forgery.

Fake information is spreading on social media about the alleged detention of two Ukrainian refugees for involvement in a high-profile robbery at the Louvre that supposedly took place on October 19, 2025.

This was reported by StopFake.

Russian accounts are posting messages with photos of two men in handcuffs, claiming that they were responsible for stealing nine valuable items from the so-called Napoleon collection. However, these images have nothing to do with the investigation by French police.

The photos show two Ukrainian citizens who were detained by Polish law enforcement on the night of October 9–10 in the town of Opole Lubelskie. The men were intoxicated and attempted to steal a tractor from a private yard. This is confirmed not only by accompanying reports in Polish media, but also by the police uniforms – the images clearly show the word “POLICJA”, indicating that it was the Polish police, not the French authorities.

French police, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, the French Ministry of Culture, and leading global news agencies have not reported the detention of Ukrainian citizens in connection with any robbery at the Louvre.

Disinformation experts note that this fake story is being actively spread through pro-Russian Telegram channels and other resources linked to Russian propaganda. Such campaigns are part of a systematic effort to discredit Ukrainian refugees abroad and to create a negative image of Ukrainians in EU countries. Their goal is to provoke distrust and hostility among local populations, thereby increasing social tensions.

Russian propaganda is spreading false information about an alleged statement by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney regarding the deportation of Ukrainian refugees who are supposedly evading mobilization. A video of the politician’s speech is actively circulating on social media with a fabricated Russian-language translation added. In the clip, Carney allegedly says that Canada will “deport all Ukrainians who should be at the front” and replace them with “cheaper and more hard-working Indians”. In reality, this is a manipulation – the prime minister made no such statements. The fake was debunked by StopFake fact-checkers.

In fact, the video is an edited fabrication. The footage was taken from Mark Carney’s speech at an off-site meeting of the Liberal Party of Canada held on 10 September 2025 in Edmonton. In the version with the fake translation, the beginning of his speech can indeed be heard, where he says in English: “This won’t always be easy”. This phrase helped fact-checkers locate the original recording published by CBC News.

The video shows that the prime minister’s intonation, gestures, and direction of gaze match the moment in the real speech. However, the subsequent words attributed to him have nothing to do with what propagandist sources are spreading. In reality, Mark Carney was speaking about challenges related to changes in the global economy and the new trade policy of the United States.

“We must continue to be honest with Canadians: this won’t always be easy. The United States is fundamentally transforming all of its trade relationships, not only with Canada. The consequences are profound – jobs are being cut, supply chains are being disrupted, and uncertainty is increasing, which restrains investment and raises unemployment,” the Canadian prime minister said in his actual speech.

Nowhere in his nearly 25-minute address is there any mention of deporting Ukrainians or similar claims. Therefore, the circulating video is a deliberate forgery created to discredit Ukrainian refugees and incite hostility.

Propagandists are spreading a story on anonymous Telegram channels about a ‘Ukrainian waiter’ at a Polish restaurant who allegedly added his semen to customers' dishes. It is claimed that this was reported by the leading Polish publication Rzeczpospolita. However, this is a fake.

Experts from the publication Farwater.Skhid have drawn attention to the issue. They discovered that propagandists used a manipulated screenshot, supposedly taken from the publication. The falsification involved altering the headline, section, and illustrations, though stock images were retained in the photo. The unnatural structure of the categorization and the use of stock images prove the manipulation. The analysis also shows that this information was spread exclusively through propagandist Telegram channels and is absent from the pages of Rzeczpospolita.

The main goal of this disinformation is to discredit Ukrainian refugees by creating the impression that they are immoral and dangerous. This is aimed at reducing support for Ukrainians in Poland, provoking public outrage, and undermining trust in policies of openness towards migrants. Propagandists also seek to divide Polish-Ukrainian relations, as such provocative stories emotionally impact the audience. These actions are yet another example of Russia's informational aggression aimed at destabilizing societies that support Ukraine.

Pro-Russian sources have been spreading information claiming that in Slovakia, locals are allegedly vandalizing or removing license plates from the cars of Ukrainian refugees. According to these reports, this forces Ukrainians to return home to replace their plates, where they are supposedly detained by military recruitment officers for mobilization at the border. The supposed reason for this behavior is that Slovaks are ‘tired’ of Ukrainians.

However, fact-checkers from the StopFake resource have debunked this information. The first such reports appeared in Slovak on the Facebook page named Klub Priateľov Štefana Harabina — Dôstojnosť pre Slovensko (Club of Friends of Štefan Harabin — Dignity for Slovakia).

Štefan Harabin is a former justice minister and ex-president of the Supreme Court of Slovakia, who has openly propagated pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian views during his election campaigns. He denied the fact of Russian aggression against Ukraine and called for a complete cessation of any support for Kyiv, including financial and humanitarian aid.

Moreover, early in the full-scale invasion, Harabin stated that “if he were in Putin's place, he would have done the same”. Given this, it is clear that the page named after him regularly spreads pro-Russian narratives, rejoices in Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, and praises the policies of the Kremlin. The post about the supposed mass vandalism of Ukrainian license plates in Slovakia provides no evidence or sources. Notably, no reputable Slovak media outlet has reported such incidents, further proving the fabricated nature of this ‘news’.

Propaganda is spreading such fakes to scare Ukrainian refugees and create a sense of danger abroad. At the same time, propagandists aim to discredit countries that support Ukraine by promoting narratives of hostility from local populations. This aligns with the overall Kremlin strategy to destabilize European societies and undermine international support for Ukraine.

Earlier, we analyzed a report claiming that a Ukrainian schoolgirl in New York allegedly complained about her Black classmates and believed that her education should be funded by American taxpayers.

Propagandists are spreading information in Russian and Polish language Telegram channels claiming that 25 million people have allegedly left Ukraine, 9.5 million of whom went to Russia, and 6.6 million to the EU. However, these claims are false and do not reflect reality.  

The figures cited are significantly exaggerated. Before the full-scale war, Ukraine's population was approximately 41 million people. According to the UN, the number of refugees who have left Ukraine and are currently residing in other countries is approximately 6.8 million, not 25 million. Outside Europe, there are just over 560,000 Ukrainian refugees. Moreover, the claim that most Ukrainians voluntarily relocated to Russia is a manipulation. In reality, a significant portion of the refugees who went to Russia were forcibly deported by Russian authorities, which constitutes a violation of international law. In such cases, these individuals had no choice, and their departure was the result of coercion, not free will.  

Russian propaganda actively uses such messages to discredit Ukraine on the international stage, portray it as a failed state, and undermine trust in the Ukrainian government. In reality, despite the challenges of war, Ukraine is working tirelessly to support its citizens, including those who were forced to leave the country.

Pro-Russian sources have been circulating a screenshot supposedly from the website of the Polish Ministry of Digitalization, dated December 9, 2024, listing the most popular male names in the country. According to the screenshot, the top three names are Taras, Bohdan, and Stepan. The propagandists suggest that this indicates Ukrainian refugees are giving birth in Poland more frequently than Polish women.

However, this is a blatant falsehood, as reported by VoxCheck. There are no publications on the official website of the Polish Ministry of Digitalization regarding a list of the most popular male names for December 9, 2024. The last time the ministry published such a list was on August 6, 2024. At that time, the top three male names were Nikodem, Jan, and Aleksander. Additionally, the names Stepan, Taras, and Bohdan were not included in the ranking.

The Ministry of Digitalization of Poland has officially debunked the claim that Stepan, Taras, and Bohdan were the most popular names in Poland in 2024.

Earlier, we also debunked a Russian myth about Warsaw's alleged plans to annex western Ukraine.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading manipulative information about the alleged forced return of Ukrainian refugees in Germany to Ukraine for recruitment into the defense sector. This was allegedly stated by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to the German publication Welt. Presidential Advisor for Strategic Affairs Oleksandr Kamyshin emphasized that Germany and Ukraine have already concluded such agreements.

However, the information was manipulated, and this is reported in VoxCheck. Welt did indeed publish a news item with the headline “Prime Minister wants to return Ukrainian refugees”. Denys Shmyhal was quoted in it as saying that he had discussed the technical details of the return of Ukrainians with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a visit to Berlin. “We agreed with the German side and our new Minister of National Unity to work together and find a solution on how we can return all Ukrainians as quickly as possible”, the Prime Minister said. However, there was no mention of the forced return of Ukrainian refugees.

The spread of fakes about the deportation of Ukrainians from EU countries is part of a disinformation campaign by Russian propaganda. The European Union is consolidated in its position that they do not deport anyone against their will. According to EU law, all Ukrainians who arrived in the region after the start of a full-scale invasion fall under the Temporary Protection Directive.

Russian sources are spreading Putin's statement that there are as many Ukrainians living in the temporarily occupied territories and in Russia as there are in Ukraine.

“There are already as many Ukrainians living in Russia as in Ukraine, and perhaps more. We are happy for them, they are people of our culture, part of our people”, he said.

However, this is a fake, and this is reported by VoxCheck. Among all the data from Russian sources, the largest total number of Ukrainians in Russia and in the temporarily occupied territories is 12 million people. However, this statistic is questionable, and representatives of the Russian non-governmental organization Civil Assistance indicated that this number may be overestimated. According to Ukrainian data, about 30 million Ukrainians live in the territories controlled by Ukraine. At the same time, it is impossible to calculate accurate data in war conditions. A comparison of the available, albeit inaccurate, data proves that the total number of Ukrainians in Russia is significantly smaller than in Ukraine.

A common thesis of Russian propaganda is that refugees from Ukraine are better off in Russia. Thus, Russian propaganda promotes the message, for example, about the exploitation of Ukrainians as cheap labor in Europe. This tactic is beneficial to propagandists, as it is aimed at justifying Russia's criminal actions. However, they do not note that Ukrainian refugees find themselves on Russian territory not of their own free will, but because of Russia's own armed aggression against Ukraine.

Russian propagandists claim that over 99% of Ukrainians who left the occupied territories are returning due to their inability to settle in the territory controlled by Ukraine. The propagandists write that these figures were allegedly provided by Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov, citing People's Deputy Maksym Tkachenko.

However, this information is not true. This is reported by the VoxCheck project. First of all, on Yurii Butusov's pages on social networks there is no post with a link to the words of People's Deputy Maksym Tkachenko. However, on November 24, 2024, in an interview with Ukrinform, Tkachenko commented on the return of internally displaced persons. Then his words were quoted by the media outlet Censor.NET, where Butusov is the editor-in-chief.

In an interview, Tkachenko said:

“Already about 150 thousand internally displaced persons have returned to the temporarily occupied territories. For example, according to available data, 200 thousand Mariupol residents left their city, fleeing the war that Russia brought to our land. At the same time, every third of them returned home, to Mariupol, to the occupation. According to estimates, this is approximately 67-70 thousand people”.

He noted that people decided to leave because they did not receive proper assistance from the state: housing, social support, compensation, and work.

However, the day after the interview was published, Tkachenko denied his statement:

“There is no such data. It was my unfounded and emotional assumption”.

He clarified that there are individual cases when Ukrainians go to the regions occupied by Russia for various reasons. However, we are not talking about hundreds or even tens of thousands, because “general verified statistics cannot even theoretically exist”.

It is worth noting that in this interview the MP did not mention 99% of internally displaced persons who allegedly returned to the occupation. Presumably, the creators of this fake twisted the words of the former Deputy Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, Heorhii Tuka. On November 24, 2024, on the air of Espresso, he commented on the departure of Ukrainians to uncontrolled territories:

“I have been observing the process of refugees returning to the temporarily occupied territories since 2015, when I headed the Luhansk Military Administration and then worked in the ministry. I have repeatedly communicated with people and I do not even have any hints of condemning these people. I do not know a single person who would return to the TOT of their own free will. 99% of people return because they were unable to establish a normal life in the territories controlled by Ukraine”.

Later, the editorial staff of Espresso corrected the headline. It was like this:  “Almost 99% of refugees are returning to the occupied territories because they could not establish a normal life in the controlled part of Ukraine, former Deputy Minister for TOT Tuka”, and now - “almost 99% of refugees with whom I spoke are returning to the occupied territories because they could not establish a normal life in the controlled part of Ukraine, Tuka”.

After all, it was only about the people the former employee communicated with, not 99% of internally displaced persons throughout Ukraine. That is, this is his personal assessment, not a calculation based on real statistics.

Previously, we analyzed Russian manipulation, saying that 77% of Ukrainians are ready to give up the occupied territories.

Pro-Russian resources are spreading information that the hosts of the American television channel CNN are allegedly laughing at the news about ten thousand Ukrainian refugees who were evicted from social housing in France.

In fact, this is a fake, the VoxCheck project reports. The video that the propagandists are referring to was published back in November 2020. And in it, journalists from not CNN, but LOCAL 12 from the American city of Cincinnati, Ohio, talked about a Christmas tree that was installed in the city center.

There is no “news” about the eviction of 10,000 Ukrainian refugees from social housing in France on CNN, or on media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Only pro-Russian sources write about it.

While there may indeed be problems at the local level, they are not on the scale that propagandists claim. For example, in October of this year, there was news that in one region of France, Ukrainian refugees were being asked to move out of the housing they had been provided due to budget cuts. However, at that time, we were talking about 600 Ukrainians, not ten thousand.

Previously, we analyzed the manipulation that Ukrainians allegedly became the leaders of “migrant crime” in Germany.

A fake news story with a link to a Euronews video appeared on a number of pro-Russian platforms, claiming that Ukrainians in Europe are illegally connecting to power grids in order to get (earn) cryptocurrency. According to the claim, these activities were motivated by the rising value of Bitcoin. The report alleges that over 400 Ukrainians were arrested last month alone and that their actions even caused energy shortages across the continent.

However, this is fake news: the video with such content was not published on the official Euronews website or its social media platforms. Many other details betray the falsity of this story: in particular, it is suspicious that this report did not even name the country where these attackers allegedly operated, but used the abstract wording “Europe”. Moreover, an online search for news about similar incidents did not yield any results either.

This fake news is part of a broader propaganda effort aimed at portraying Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, both a cultural and economic threat to European society, attempting to reduce support for Ukraine. As noted in our prior findings, Russian propaganda has consistently sought to discredit Ukrainian refugees since the start of the large-scale war in Ukraine.

Propagandists regularly spread fakes about them—they call refugees dependents, claim that these Ukrainians went abroad not for safety, but for profit, that they spread various diseases, and so on. Propagandists find these means necessary to perpetuate the idea that Ukrainians are bad people who do not appreciate the help that residents of other countries provide them and that they take advantage of the kindness of people from other countries.

For example, we recently reported that people online spread a fake story allegedly from the French publication Le Figaro, which talked about a Ukrainian refugee accused of murder.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading manipulative information that Ukrainians made up 33.1% of criminals in Germany, citing data from the 2023 report of the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA).

“The country’s authorities are alarmed by the number of rapes or harassment. The number of thefts has also increased by 34.6%, and the number of intentional and unintentional murders has increased similarly”, the propagandists write.

But the data was manipulated, and this is reported by StopFake. In fact, this percentage (33.1%) was used in the report to indicate the share of Ukrainians among all migrants living in Germany. Instead, 11.6% of Ukrainian refugees were suspected of committing crimes. For comparison, the figures for immigrants from Syria are 21.4% and 19.2%, respectively. Moreover, according to the report, they are the leaders in migrant crime.

With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, agitprop is spreading theses that Ukrainian refugees are allegedly organizing pogroms, behaving impudently, not wanting to work, etc. And therefore they will soon “start being expelled from Europe”.

After all, propagandists are trying to show that Ukrainian refugees are supposedly a total threat to the sovereignty and security of EU countries. Propaganda primarily seeks to discredit Ukrainian refugees in the eyes of Europeans and present them as supporters of Nazi ideology, who are ready to resort to vandalism, violation of the law for their own purposes. All this contributes to a decrease in aid to Ukraine from EU countries.

We recommend reading our previous cases on this topic, because the Kremlin systematically speculates on this: allegedly the Poles declared that they “do not want to see” Ukrainian refugees in their country; allegedly a refugee barista from Ukraine “demonstrated his Nazi tendencies” by drawing Nazi symbols on coffee. And in our weekly review of disinformation, we told how propagandists lied about the mobilization of Ukrainian refugees in Europe.

Russian propaganda Telegram channels are distributing a video story allegedly created by the German WELT, which says that in the city of Dresden (Germany), the police allegedly found more than 400 gold dental crowns in the house of a morgue attendant, a Ukrainian refugee Mykyta Tereshchuk. He allegedly took them out of the mouths of corpses in the Dresden morgue. In turn, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Oleksii  Makieiev, allegedly publicly apologized for his compatriot and promised to send him to the front.

In fact, this information is not true. WELT did not create or distribute such a video story,  it cannot be found either on their official website or on their social media pages. In addition, the style of WELT videos differs from the style of the story distributed by propagandists. One can verify this by watching any video of this format on the WELT Instagram page. Also, WELT creates all such videos in German, not English, as in the fake version.

The “news” about the alleged discovery of “more than 400 gold dental crowns” on a Ukrainian refugee in Germany was not disseminated by any other reliable Western or Ukrainian media.

In the end, there is no information on the forgiveness of the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makieiev, and his promises to “send to the front” a Ukrainian refugee, because this supposedly “outrageous case” is a primitive fake.

With this disinformation, propagandists are trying to discredit Ukrainian refugees in the eyes of citizens of those countries that have accepted Ukrainians. Thus, with this specific case, Russian propaganda wants to show the “true nature” of Ukrainians, resorting to the typical tactics of Russian propaganda of “thoughts of the enemy”.

Earlier, we analyzed a Russian fake about a refugee from Ukraine shooting at a church icon in Zurich.

Propagandists are spreading information on anonymous Telegram channels that American actress Milla Jovovich allegedly fired her Ukrainian housekeeper because of her ‘Russophobia’. They claim that the Ukrainian refused to speak Russian with the actress’s 16-year-old daughter, Ever Anderson, thereby allegedly violating her duties. It is reported that the housekeeper’s name is allegedly Svitlana Chornykh, and she is a refugee from Ukraine. However, this is fake.

It was noticed by experts from the StopFake project. When checking this story, they found several suspicious moments. Firstly, not a single authoritative foreign publication reported on this incident. English-language mentions appear only from anonymous users of the X (former Twitter) and Odysee platforms. Secondly, all publications, both in Russian and English-language media, have the same text.

StopFake has established that the message about the departure of the Ukrainian Jovovich appeared on September 28 on the satirical Russian Telegram channel The Empire is Very Evil, which publishes fictitious news. In its description, the channel directly warns that the published materials may be fakes or satire. Like other publications on this channel, the “news” that Milla Jovovich fired the Ukrainian because she refused to speak Russian is fiction. In the comments under the corresponding message, users come up with further fictitious details and mock the Russian media, which took this satire for reality and spread it on their social networks.

The purpose of spreading this fake is to discredit Ukrainians and reinforce the narrative of alleged “Russophobia” among Ukrainians, which portrays them in a negative light. Such fictional stories are used to spread hostility between nations, manipulate public opinion and justify Russia’s aggressive policy towards Ukraine amid the war.

Russian Telegram channels and pro-Russian users of the social network X are distributing a video allegedly published by the BBC. The material says that Polish schoolchildren allegedly do not want to study together with Ukrainian children because of the latter’s “low academic performance and bad behavior”. In turn, Polish parents are even allegedly ready to bribe the directors of local schools just to protect their children from studying in mixed classes. However, this is fake.

The video clip being distributed online has nothing to do with the BBC, Ukrinform journalists report. There is no corresponding clip on the British Broadcasting Corporation's website or on its official social media pages.

Additionally, all BBC videos on YouTube Shorts recently contain information about when they were released. However, the fake video does not have a publication date.

Russian propaganda faked the video using photos and videos found on the Internet. Some of them do not even concern Ukraine. For example, the frame with which the video begins appeared online back in 2021 - it can be found on foreign websites.

It should also be noted that earlier the Russians distributed a fake video on behalf of the BBC, which concerned the “mass use of Nazi symbols” by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region. The audio track in that video matches the audio track present in the video about the negative attitude towards Ukrainian schoolchildren in Poland.

With this fake, propagandists are trying to sow discord between Ukrainians and Poles, as well as weaken relations between Ukraine and Poland. Earlier, we refuted the information that the Volyn tragedy will not be studied in Polish schools where Ukrainian children study.

Propagandists are spreading information in the Polish segment of social networks about possible job cuts for Polish teachers in favor of educators from Ukraine. Specialists from Demagog decided to contact the Polish Ministry of Education to verify these statements.

In its response, it stated that the admission of Ukrainian children to schools “does not result in Polish teachers losing their jobs”. Current regulations do not envisage Ukrainian teachers teaching children in Polish schools. According to the Ministry of Education, 3 million people have come to Poland since the start of the war in Ukraine, 43% of whom are children and young people. It is not known exactly how many of them have stayed permanently. The ministry notes that these children may in the future help rebuild Ukraine or become part of Polish society if they decide to stay. The ministry emphasizes that all students, including Ukrainians, must study according to the Polish curriculum, which means that teachers must know Polish at a sufficient level to teach lessons.

Spreading false information that Ukrainian teachers may displace Polish teachers from their jobs is aimed at inciting social conflicts and tensions between the two nations. This may cause fear and discontent among Poles, especially in the professional sphere. Such fakes are also aimed at reducing public support for Ukrainian refugees and aid to Ukraine in general. Creating the impression that Ukrainians are “taking” jobs or influencing the budget may push people to believe that supporting Ukraine is harmful to Polish society. Propagandists may use these fakes to create an impression of incompetence or betrayal on the part of the government, which allegedly puts the interests of Ukrainians above those of Poles. This may undermine trust in state institutions and the current authorities.

Russian Telegram channels have spread the news that a Ukrainian refugee shot at a church icon in Zurich. The publications are accompanied by a screenshot from the woman's Instagram profile, where she shared a photo in yellow and blue colors with the hashtag #standwithukraine.

But the person pictured is Sania Ameti, a Swiss politician of Bosnian origin with no ties to Ukraine. She is a member of parliament for the Green Liberals and heads the political movement Operation Libero.

Amethi shared a photo on her Instagram in which she was shooting at an image with Christian iconographic motifs online. Following a flurry of outrage, Sania Amethi deleted the post and apologized.

As a result, the Green Liberals leadership determined that the politician's actions did not cause a reputational blow to the entire organization, and will continue to ask Ameta to leave the party.

Kremlin media is spreading information that more than 50% of workers in brothels in Germany are Ukrainians. This is reported by the German publication Die Welt, which allegedly interviewed a sex worker.

“There are about 400,000 registered sex workers in Germany, so there are 200,000 Ukrainian women officially working for the European economy? And how many more are unofficial? This is the result of the war and Zelenskyi's policies”, the propagandists add.

However, the Die Welt article does not cover all of Germany, but only the capital, Berlin. The text cites the words of a social worker who hides her name.

She notes that in Berlin brothels, about half of the workers, according to her own feelings, are Ukrainian. That is, the information provided is not even official data, but is based only on the words of an unnamed social worker.

The title of the article from Die Welt is called “There are about 50% Ukrainian women in brothels now”, but it is based on anonymous comments and no official statistics are provided. That is, such a title can be considered manipulative and created to attract the attention of readers. After all, even the article itself is about Berlin, and not the entire Federal Republic geographically.

The interview also raised the issue that some of the Ukrainian women who were invited to live for free in German apartments at the beginning of the full-scale invasion were later forced to “pay for housing with sexual services” and even engage in prostitution. At the same time, those who lured them with false offers of housing blackmailed women from Ukraine and exploited their vulnerable social status in an unfamiliar country. That is, the material also points out the problems due to which many Ukrainian women were forced to engage in prostitution in Berlin, often against their will.

Thus, propaganda tries to diminish the role of Ukrainian women in society as a whole; to hint that they can only work as sex workers. And this is caused by the fact that, supposedly, a Ukrainian refugee is lazy and worthless. She can only dress “daringly” and “wander” around Europe.

Russian resources are spreading information that the Volyn tragedy will not be taught in Polish schools in classes where Polish children study together with Ukrainian schoolchildren. The reason for the decision was the reluctance to create tension and interethnic conflicts among students. The corresponding “news” is being spread by propagandists, citing the English-language media about Ukraine United24.

However, this is a fake, StopFake journalists claim. There is no such story on the website, as well as on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the United24 resource. The “news” was also not published in Polish media or on the website of the Ministry of National Education of Poland. That is, no one actually made such a decision.

The Volyn tragedy (in Polish historiography - the Volyn massacre) occurred in the summer of 1943 and is still a subject of debate among historians. At the same time, after the full-scale invasion, Ukraine and Poland leaned towards a policy of reconciliation and memory. “We are pursuing a calm policy. Not a policy of running around with pitchforks, but a policy of calmly seeking agreement on historically complex issues, decades-old, very complex, extremely painful for a significant group of our compatriots”, said Polish President Andrzej Duda in June 2023. In July of the same year, on the 80th anniversary of the tragedy, he arrived in Lutsk together with Volodymyr Zelenskyi to honor the memory of the victims of the tragedy.

Russia regularly speculates on the Volyn tragedy. For example, a little earlier we recorded a Russian fake about Babel publishing a quote from a Ukrainian director with the idea for the film “Volyn Chainsaw Massacre”.

Anonymous Telegram channels, in particular the propaganda channel Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny, are spreading so-called graffiti, which was allegedly drawn by Ukrainian refugees in one of the Polish cities. In the picture, you can see a red and black flag and the inscription “Our Father Bandera”. In another photo, there is the text: “... children, do not learn Polish, only Ukrainian”. The messages claim that the photos were taken in one place.

However, using reverse Google search, it was possible to establish that the graffiti photos were published only in pro-Russian segments of social networks. Moreover, the photos were first published 5 days ago as of September 2, 2024. Before that, no important Polish media, including local organizations, had published such news. So, it is most likely that the photos were faked with the help of special editors.

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.

Thus, Russian propaganda tries 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. Since the beginning of the great war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda has been trying to discredit refugees who were forced to leave Ukraine to save their lives.

Propagandists regularly spread fakes about them; they call refugees dependents; they claim that they went abroad not for safety, but for profit; they spread various diseases, etc. Propagandists need this to stake out the opinion that Ukrainians are pagans who do not appreciate the help that residents of other countries give them; they take advantage of the kindness of residents of other countries.

For example, we recently reported that anonymous people were spreading a fake story from the supposedly French publication Le Figaro, which spoke of a “Ukrainian refugee killer”.

Kremlin telegram channels are spreading information that the number of measles cases in Switzerland has increased due to Ukrainian refugees. The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) assumes that the pathogen was brought to Switzerland from abroad. And propagandists have concluded that it was Ukrainians who brought this virus, since measles is allegedly actively spreading in Ukraine.

VoxCheck specialists explained that the Federal Office of Public Health of Switzerland responded to a request that the increase in measles cases was not related to Ukrainian refugees. In fact, it is unknown whether there were Ukrainians among the sick. This was not reported on the Federal Office of Public Health's social media pages or website.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, 152 cases of measles were recorded in Ukraine in the first 7 months of 2024. While in 2023, there were only 30 patients during the same period. That is, the number of patients has indeed increased, but we are not talking about a large-scale outbreak measured in thousands. The last time there was a measles outbreak in Ukraine was in 2017-2019, when more than 110 thousand people fell ill with measles.

Thus, Russian propaganda tries 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. Since the beginning of the great war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda has been trying to discredit refugees who were forced to leave Ukraine to save their lives.

Propagandists regularly spread fakes about them; they call refugees dependents; they claim that they went abroad not for safety, but for profit; they spread various diseases, etc. Propagandists need this to stake out the opinion that Ukrainians are pagans who do not appreciate the help that residents of other countries give them; they take advantage of the kindness of residents of other countries.