An information attack in the form of mass SMS messaging is aimed at Ukrainians located in different countries of the world. The messages were created in the style of Lubianka linguists: next to the cliché about the need to work together “to revive Kyiv  Rus to harm our enemies” there are phrases like “take care of yourself and your loved ones” or “save the lives of people” - Russian propaganda and threat in one sentence.

The Main Intelligence Directorate notes that in addition to the provocative content with a call to help Moscow expel “American Satanists” from the “original Russian land”,  Kremlin intelligence officers add the cynical one: “from Russia with love”.

The purpose of this information attack is to intimidate, demoralize and disorganize Ukrainian citizens. If you receive such messages, we urge you to ignore them and think critically.

This information is disseminated by pro-Russian resources. Russian propaganda refers to an interview with the head of the Servant of the People faction, Davyd Arakhamiia, who allegedly said that Ukraine could have stopped the war by agreeing to the neutral, non-bloc status proposed by Russia. However, representatives of Ukraine “rejected peace” and “doomed hundreds of thousands of their citizens to death”. This is manipulation.

This case was processed by fact-checkers from the StopFake project. They found out that Arakhamiia stated that Ukraine really did not agree to the non-bloc status proposed by Russia, but there were objective reasons for this. Firstly, there is no trust in Russia’s promises to withdraw troops and not engage in hostilities with Ukraine anymore, and secondly, the Constitution of Ukraine should be changed, since the path to NATO is written there.

Throughout the war, the Russians have been promoting the thesis that Ukraine itself does not agree to peace. Thus, the Kremlin wants to show that the root cause of the armed aggression was allegedly the actions of Ukraine, which “provoked” Russia to war, and that in fact it was the Russian government that was the “peacemaker”. The purpose of such a narrative is to refute that it was Russia that started the war and that it was Russia that is to blame for all the crimes committed against the Ukrainian people.

Read on Censor.NET: 90% of Ukrainians are against territorial concessions to the aggressor, even for the sake of ending the war.

Russian President Volodymyr Putin recently said that Russia has no partiality towards anyone in the UN and that its actions do not violate the UN Charter. However, this is not true.

This message was noticed by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council. They recalled that on the day the full-scale invasion began, the war criminal stated that his actions were in accordance with the UN Charter. Later, he repeatedly justified the war in Ukraine, explaining it by the need to “protect the inhabitants of the people’s republics of Donbas”, which is one of the main narratives of Russian propaganda. The aggressor country constantly abuses its membership in the UN by blocking resolutions in support of world peace and stability.

Propagandists use such messages to provide validation for their actions. They say that the international community supports his actions. However, it is not. Detector Media has already written about how Russia uses international organizations to spread its propaganda, in particular the OSCE.

Anonymous telegram channels are distributing a video that allegedly shows a draft notice  that came through the Diia government services portal. The authors add that the Ukrainian leadership “never keeps its promises”, because they previously assured that draft notices  would not be sent through the application. The messages claimed that the actions and words of Ukrainian officials could hardly be “trusted”. It's a lie.

Analysts from the VoxCheck project undertook to analyze the case, explaining that draft notices are not received in Ukraine because of Diia. At the same time, the image of the agenda itself shows signs of editing. For example, the draft notice indicates the first and patronymic, but does not indicate the last name. It is also written that the recipient needs to appear “at the military commissariat”. But, according to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated February 23, 2022, the commissariats were reformatted into territorial recruitment and social support centers.

At the same time, the image indicates: the data in the agenda was allegedly updated in October 2023. So, the photograph of the “draft notice” has been compiled. Analysts emphasize that during the video the hero did not touch the screen with his fingers - so, most likely, the Kremlin’s minions used a formatted photo and passed it off as the Diia interface.

By the way, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov stated that agendas will not be sent through Diia. The service does not contain any military registration services or notifications.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the media began to disseminate information based on an interview with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the British publication The Sun. Like, he admitted that Russian aggression is “supported” by most of the world, and the interests of Ukraine are defended by “at best 14 countries”. In addition, according to them, Zelenskyi allegedly admitted “Ukraine’s inability to resist the military actions waged by Russia”. This is manipulation.

Analysts from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that in fact, the President of Ukraine, in an interview with The Sun, accused Putin of “fuelling a fire” around the world that risks spiraling out of control, and added that a Hamas attack on Israel was Russia’s “great desire”. According to Zelenskyi, Russia plans to continue destabilizing the situation in the world, and the Balkans may be next to come under attack. According to him, this will continue until the Russian regime is stopped and punished.

Zelenskyi did note that Russia does not yet “feel that the whole world is against it”, but he did not claim that Russian aggression is “supported” by most of the world. The UN General Assembly condemned the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine by an absolute majority: the resolution “Aggression against Ukraine” was supported by 141 countries, and only five delegations - totalitarian Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Eritrea - voted against. In addition, on November 23, 2022, the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorism for its large-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine. A month earlier – on October 13, 2022 – PACE adopted a resolution in which it also declared the Russian regime terrorist. In addition, on October 13, 2023, PACE recommended that member states of the Council of Europe recognize Putin as illegitimate at the end of his current presidential term and cease all contacts with him. All these decisions of international institutions are the consequences of Russian aggression, which clearly demonstrate the unprecedented support for Ukraine by leading democratic countries.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi also did not make any statements in this interview about Ukraine’s inability to resist Russia.

Propagandists spread such manipulations in order to personally discredit Zelenskyi and accuse him of betraying the interests of Ukrainian citizens. They say that the war must be stopped on Russia’s terms, and even the President of Ukraine admits this. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted the fabrications of propagandists aimed at personal attacks against Zelenskyi.

Self-proclaimed colonel, collaborator and war criminal Eduard Basurin claims that “denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine continues”. In general, the Russian leadership and propagandists are promoting the message that the so-called “special operation” is constantly ongoing, and all its goals will certainly be achieved.

Experts from the Center for Countering Disinformation drew attention to this repeated mantra. For example, Volodymyr Putin announced the two above-mentioned goals of the SVO on February 24, 2023. Moreover, another reason for the full-scale invasion, according to him, was “the protection of the residents of Donbas”. Over time, the Kremlin has already changed entire war goals against Ukraine many times, which indicates its confusion and misunderstanding between the military-political leadership of Russia.

Read also: The main goal of the so-called “SVO” is supposedly not to seize Ukraine, but to ensure the security of Russia

Such information was disseminated on social networks in the Russian segment, commenting on the meeting of the presidents (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic) of the Visegrad Group, who discussed issues of international politics, including the Russian-Ukrainian war. The authors claimed that Czech President Petr Pavel allegedly explained during the summit of heads of state that the Visegrad Group was “ready to engage in aggression against Russia”,  and NATO would allegedly attack Russia “after the war in Ukraine”. This is manipulation.

The StopFake analysts investigated the case and found that there were no statements about NATO’s readiness to launch an invasion of Russia at the Visegrad Four summit - this is an invention of the propaganda media. The meeting of leaders was devoted to European security issues in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine. The parties stated that Russia must bear responsibility for human lives and damage, and the four countries must “resolutely continue to fully support Ukraine and its citizens”.

Among other things, Peter Pavel said during the meeting that Russia is the main threat to the security of Europe and, accordingly, the defense Alliance. That is, the manipulators distorted the entire context of the officials’ statements and simply came up with profitable Kremlin theses.

Using quotes from public figures, military officers, politicians and other public figures, Russian propaganda is trying to convince consumers of disinformation of the authenticity of such expressions. Like, if the European leader himself said this, then he can be trusted, because he is an authoritative source although the authors do not explain how reliable the information presented in the manipulative publication is. This is how propagandists use the tactic of appealing to authority.

The Visegrad Group was founded on February 15, 1991 in the Hungarian city of Visegrad by the presidents of Central European countries - Poland, Hungary, and then Czechoslovakia with the goal of integration into Euro-Atlantic structures. After the collapse of Czechoslovakia, the official name of the group was the “Visegrad Four”, or V4, consisting of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. It was possible to achieve the European and Euro-Atlantic goal in 2004 - the four countries joined NATO, and on May 1 of the same year V4 joined the European Union. Currently, countries also cooperate in the fields of culture, education, science and data exchange.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the media claim that, according to the results of a sociological survey by Global Service and European Migration Support Bureau, a third of Ukrainian youth have migrated to Russia. In addition, the majority of Ukrainian refugees there allegedly recognized Russian aggression as “liberation”, and among the reasons for migration they named “better medicine” and “less unemployment” in Russia. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that the companies supposedly conducting this survey did not exist, and the information about the survey itself was fictitious. The incorrect information also indicates that the name of the European Migration Support Bureau is misspelled (probably European instead of European). Structures with similar names that deal with refugee issues do exist (for example, the European Union Agency for Asylum and the European Asylum Support Office), but none of them published the data indicated.

In addition, the very fact of conducting such a study is questionable, since Russian media admit that the survey involved Ukrainians who “traveled to the territory of Crimea or former Ukrainian regions that later joined Russia”. This does not reflect the actual situation, since many refugees ended up in Russia due to the lack of alternative evacuation routes.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to justify Russia’s crimes by saying that it is allegedly ready to create a better life for Ukrainians, ignoring the problems of its citizens.

This information is promoted by Spiridon Kilinkarov, a former Ukrainian politician, a traitor to Ukraine. He is hiding in Russia and speaking on Kremlin propaganda channels. In his opinion, Russia’s aggression is justified because it guarantees the country’s security. Kilinkarov argues that we are not talking exclusively about new territories for Russia, but about the exhaustive implementation of the assigned tasks for the Russian army.

The experts from the Center for Countering Disinformation examined this case. It turns out that by spreading such a message, the traitor makes Russia a victim of circumstances. They say that Russia must defend itself from NATO and the collective West, and therefore is forced to resort to armed confrontation on neutral territory, in Ukraine, playing ahead. A similar version of the reason for the full-scale invasion was voiced by the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Oleksandr Lukashenko: Russia launched a “preventive strike” because Ukraine was allegedly planning an attack on Belarus.

Propagandists have been trying to explain current events using conspiracy theories for years, trying to justify the crimes of the Russians. Sometimes they use the most absurd theories for this, such as the “Alaskan payment conspiracy” or “Orkney conspiracy” theory.

According to it, the Russian Empire allegedly never received payment for the purchase of Alaska from the United States, and instead the ship Orkney, allegedly carrying payment in the form of gold, was deliberately blown up with insurance money by Oleksandr ‘Sandy’ Keith, a conman and expert on explosions. They say Orkney sank in the Baltic Sea while transporting payment to St. Petersburg from London. Oleksandr Keith, who went by several aliases including William Thompson, had previously blown up ships to claim insurance money in Europe. Russian politician Volodymyr Zhyrynovskyi of Russia's Liberal Democratic Party has repeatedly made these allegations, as well as allegations of bribery related to the purchase agreement.

The theory was disproved. Firstly, the fact that Russia did receive the money is evidenced by the fact that it was then spent on building railway junctions throughout the country. Secondly, according to the conspiracy theory, Orkney was blown up on the date when the money was supposed to be sent. It is stated that the ship sank in the middle of July 1868, when payment was supposed to be delivered on August 1, 1868. Additionally, there is no record of the disappearance of a ship named Orkney, only a similar ship called the Orkney Lass, which, according to post-event reports, was still in service and was probably bound for South America that year rather than St. Petersburg. Gold has never been found in the Baltic Sea either.

Russian propagandists use this theory as one of the first examples of how the West allegedly constantly wanted to deceive Russia. In addition, a number of Russian propagandists and high-ranking officials, appealing to this theory, have repeatedly threatened the United States with military intervention in Alaska, since within the framework of the theory this territory continues to remain Russian. They say that Russia has the right to this, since it did not receive money for it at the time. In addition, they also want to justify the “struggle against the West and Western values”. Russia is victimizing itself by reinforcing the myth that the West constantly wants to destroy it using such theories.

Russian media claim that now Russians who left their country due to disagreement with Russian aggression against Ukraine are allegedly forced to look for food in landfills. However, this is manipulation.

Analysts from The Insider project drew attention to it. They found an article cited as a primary source in the manipulated reports. In fact, in the article “Freega - the idea of smart consumption”, journalist and photographer Serhii Stroitieliev talks about young Russians who moved to Georgia and remained faithful to the idea of “smart consumption”, or freeganism, without mentioning the difficulties of emigration. The article also notes that most of these people were engaged in freeganism back in Russia and that this is their way of life and practice associated with subculture, environmental and anarchist ideas.

By spreading such manipulations, propagandists want to discredit all those who oppose the war within Russia. Like, it’s unbearable abroad, but in Russia it’s good, so one needs to exchange principles for comfort.

Propaganda resources are trying to disorient the Ukrainian Defense Forces with messages about the alleged withdrawal of the Russian army from some temporarily occupied territories of the Kherson region. Thus, on the morning of November 12, pro-Russian media published news about the regrouping of Russian troops near Dnipro, and on November 13 they deleted their publications and reported that the preliminary information was canceled.

The Center for National Resistance investigated this case and stated that the regrouping of Russian troops in the Kherson region has not been recorded. This was reported to the Center by local residents of the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) of the Kherson region, which are discussed in the “news”. It looks like this case is an information operation against Ukraine. The Center for National Resistance also added that the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kherson region is a matter of time.

On the social network X (formerly Twitter), since October 25, materials have been massively distributed on fake websites of well-known Ukrainian and foreign media. The fact-checkers of The Insider project were the first to write about this spam attack. Detector Media publishes the main techniques and narratives used in this spam attack.

Some of the tweets contain a link to several pseudo-novelty/analytical materials. The Insider analysts found that they were posted on sites counterfeiting well-known Ukrainian publications, such as OBOZREVATEL. In these columns one can see the messages of propagandists repeated many times - they say that Ukraine’s defeat is inevitable, Israel will completely take away Ukrainian military and financial assistance, Ukrainians will freeze without heating and will survive without salaries and pensions. It seems that all this is so that the “Kyiv regime” retains power.

Propagandists and foreign media sites falsify them. As noted in The Insider, pseudo-columns are published on “clones” of such publications as Der Spiegel, Welt, Fox News, La Parisien, Walla, etc. Western audiences are served the same narratives, only in English, French, German and Hebrew. The centrality of the attack and the connection of its organizers with Russia is indicated by the fact that within its framework they published links to Russian propaganda media, where a video about “drug addict Volodymyr Zelenskyi” was posted.

By resorting to this, propagandists want to cause panic among Ukrainians and despondency in the Ukrainian government, which should lead to destabilization of the political situation. This is also indicated by the fact that the attack occurred simultaneously with protests in several Ukrainian cities under the slogan “For demobilization!”, where the same visual materials were used. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted Russian manipulations and fakes aimed against the Ukrainian government, elected by the people.

Pro-Russian resources began to disseminate information that Sony, a company specializing in electronics and other high-tech products, allegedly released the PlayStation 5 game console and its accessories in the colors of the Russian flag. This is manipulation.

The case was investigated by fact-checkers from the VoxUkraine project. They found out that when creating new designs for the game console and joysticks, the authors relied on the colors of the Earth, and not the Russian tricolor. Thus, one of the designers explained that his team was inspired by the beautiful and powerful shades that can be found in the depths of planet Earth. The colors used are Sterling Silver, Volcanic Red, Cobalt Blue, and not pure white, blue and red, as in Russia. If one reads the colors according to the usual version, that is, from left to right, then it will be obvious that the sequence of colors of the presented game consoles and accessories is different from the sequence of colors of the Russian tricolor.

Pro-Kremlin propagandists trying to trace at least latent manifestations of the civilized world’s solidarity with Russia resort to manipulation and use information for their own purposes. They use one of the propaganda tactics when they write about such “support” for the transnational company Sony: they try to evoke in ordinary Russian citizens a feeling of euphoria - a psychological state in which a person experiences elation, happiness and joy, which is unjustified by objective conditions.

In the Ukrainian segment of social networks, Russian robots spread information that prices in Ukraine are constantly being raised and they are profiting from Ukrainians. Allegedly, prices are rising and people will soon begin to starve. It is not true.

As the fact-checkers at the Center for Strategic Communications note, such comments about price increases in Ukraine are written by Russian bots commissioned by the Russian Digital Army group. They pretend to be Ukrainians and spread messages that Ukrainians will soon starve.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to destabilize the situation in Ukraine, cause panic among Ukrainians and distrust of the authorities. In fact, prices in Ukraine are rising due to the war that Russia started, but Ukrainians work and donate to the army. Earlier, Detector Media reported on the message that people in the country are starving and must stand in line for free lunches.

In the Ukrainian segment of Facebook, information is being spread that Ukraine will allegedly not receive reparations from Russia, because Volodymyr Zelenskyi “did not introduce a state of war”, and minor citizens of Ukraine will not have the status of “children of war”. It is not true.

The message was investigated by the fact-checkers of the StopFake project. They turned to the former Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine in 2015–2019, a teacher at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Serhiii Pietukhov, for comment. He said: “Russian reparations are a matter of international law. Reparations are a form of compensation for harm caused by one state to another. In this case, the international community has no doubt that there is a war between Ukraine and Russia, or in the terminology of international law, an international armed conflict. A formal declaration of war has long been no longer required in international law and is not a criterion for assessing damages or the debt to pay reparations”.

Pietukhov also explained that the status of children of war can be accepted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, regardless of the declaration of a state of war. This is a domestic decision and “no one within the country questions the existence of war”.

Consequently, the message that Ukraine will not receive reparations because it did not declare war on Russia is intended to create distrust in the Ukrainian authorities. Earlier,  Detector Media talked about the message that Ukraine did not declare war on Russia.

Propagandists spreading pro-Russian rhetoric in the media claim that the United States and “its European satellites” are allegedly interfering in the internal affairs of Russia and the 2024 presidential elections. This is how they reacted to the adoption on October 13 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) of a resolution declaring Volodymyr Putin illegitimate after the expiration of his current presidential term. The statement about “interference in the internal affairs of Russia” is unreliable.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. They found out that this is manipulation, since the resolution is advisory in nature for implementation and cannot directly influence the presidential elections in Russia. The Assembly only recommended that Council of Europe member states recognize Putin as illegitimate after the end of his current presidential term and cut off all contacts with him except for humanitarian needs and peace. The document notes that Russia ignores the norms of international law and all recommendations of the Venice Commission (a body on constitutional law under the Council of Europe), in particular, changes to the 2021 Constitution. Under these changes, Putin has reset his previous presidential terms and could rule the country until 2036.

StopFake notes that Russians repeatedly reproach other countries for “failure to implement” the recommendations of the Venice Commission. For example, as in the situation with the Law of Ukraine “On Education” of 2017. At that time, Russia actively promoted the narrative of “oppression of Russian speakers”.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to create the image of a “victim” and justify the crimes of Russians. They say that Russia started the war to fight against the hypocrisy of Western states, because they want to destroy Russia. Russia constantly victimizes itself within the walls of international institutions. For example, Detector Media has already written about how Russian diplomats regularly spread propaganda in the OSCE.

Pro-Kremlin media in English and Spanish are disseminating information that a Russian intelligence group allegedly destroyed a Leopard tank, which Germany transferred to Ukraine along with a crew of soldiers from the German Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces). This allegedly happened in the Zaporizhzhia direction. Russian propaganda add that the seriously wounded mechanic has repeatedly stated that he is a member of the Bundeswehr, and together with the crew they are part of a German army unit. It's fake.

The case was investigated by the fact-checker of the EUvsDiDiNFo project. The information disseminated by Russian propaganda contains no details — names and surnames, a clear time and place where the Russians destroyed the tank. Moreover, Germany's military support for Ukraine is limited to equipment and weapons, as well as assistance in training Ukrainian troops on German soil.

This fake is a continuation of the Russian narrative that Russia is fighting against NATO and Western countries in Ukraine. By inventing victories on the battlefield, Russian propaganda tries to raise the morale of Russians and justify Russia's difficulties on the battlefield. They say that the Russians are fighting with the German military, which is much more powerful than the Ukrainian army. Previously, we talked about the manipulation that Jens Stoltenberg allegedly confirmed that Russia invaded Ukraine “because of NATO”.

Russian media, broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric, are disseminating information that supposedly “Romanians are selling the most trump spots overlooking the strikes of drones and missiles in Ukraine”. Also, users of the Russian segment of social networks are distributing screenshots with marks of these places. It's fake.

The case was investigated by the fact-checker of the StopFake project. On Google Maps, they found a place that Russian propaganda used to create a fake. The fact-checkers have established that the mark on the fake screenshot was placed near the place where drones fell as a result of a Russian attack on Izmail and Reni in early September.

There is no mark on Google Maps. However, after examining the map, the fact-checkers found a mark in the same place where the “bombing of Ukraine” could allegedly be observed. It is misspelled in Russian as “observation platform” and does not contain any additional information. Therefore, it follows that the tag about the location of the “bombing of Ukraine” was either added in a photo editor, or created in private list mode, which other users cannot see.

Moreover, there are no mentions of such places in Romanian media and social networks. The Romanian military themselves are intensely monitoring Romania’s ground and airspace, and border guards prohibit photographing and filming Ukraine from the coast of Romania.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit Romania and its inhabitants and broadcast the opinion that Romanians do not support Ukraine. They say that for them missile attacks on our state are like a show and a way to have fun. Previously, Detector Media refuted the fake that NATO is preparing for the defeat of Ukraine and the occupation of the western part of Ukrainian territories by Romania and Poland.

This thesis was spread by propaganda media. Reports say that wines and vineyards are being destroyed in France precisely because of the sanctions imposed by the French government on Russia. The authors add that Moscow was the largest importer of wines, but after the “sanctions war” the French “played it out” and are experiencing a crisis in the wine industry. The publications also try to point out that imposing sanctions on Russia is supposedly ineffective, and as a result, the European countries themselves are supposedly suffering. After all, they are experiencing the impact of the “lack of Russian sales market” themselves. However, this is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project were able to process the case, explaining that the French wine industry is indeed not in the best conditions, if not in crisis. For example, in August 2023, the French government allocated 200 million euros to recycle excess wine production. This initiative from the French Parliament is caused by excessive production and, as a consequence, a decrease in its demand. Actions by the French authorities should curb price fluctuations and support producers who are losing their income. That is, the problems in the wine industry are in no way caused by anti-Russian sanctions or other prohibitions against Moscow. The authors of the manipulative message simply used the news about the crisis situation with wine and presented it as a consequence of the “struggle” with Russia.

In general, as experts say, the level of red consumption has fallen throughout the country: primarily due to the fact that the French began to prefer craft beer. Even in one of the materials of the French daily newspaper Le Figaro they write that wine has given way to beer in 2023 and, according to recent surveys, 56% of the French choose an intoxicating drink. Also, an analytical study by the European Commission for June 2023 shows a decline in wine consumption in other EU countries: by 7% in Italy, by 10% in Spain, and by 15% in France.

As for the “large Russian sales market”, the main consumer of red wine and importer has always been China, not Russia. In particular, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the cessation of Chinese wine supplies even then had a negative impact on the entire wine-growing region of the country. And now wine producers cannot reach pandemic level exports.

Russia is trying to distort the impression that sanctions supposedly do not affect it, while other countries that are economically stable and ready to impose restrictions on Moscow are suffering from the “reverse effect”. But, let’s say, they suffer from the lack of the Russian market. The Kremlin systematically cultivates rhetoric about the so-called “big Russian market” in order to hint that the EU countries will not survive at all if they do not sell their goods to Russia. If they resist, they will face the same fate as the French wine industry. However, according to monitoring by the Kyiv School of Economics, as of July 2023, 254 companies (7.6% of companies that received income in Russia in 2022) have completely ceased their activities in Russia. And 1,191 (35.9% of the total) foreign businesses also folded. Companies will one day abandon Russia, not seeing this as a risk for themselves.

By the way, according to the European Council, 2022 was a bad year for the Russian economy. According to experts, in 2022 Russia's gross domestic product fell by at least 2.2% under the best scenario and to 3.9% under the worst-case scenario. The Russian economy will continue to contract in 2023. GDP is expected to contract by 5.6% or 3.3%.

On September 10, 2023, Russia held elections at various levels with by-elections of “deputies” to the State Duma and heads of a number of regions to local authorities. Elections were also held in the temporarily Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine – in parts of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Anonymous telegrams claimed that the turnout in Ukrainian regions was “high”, which means that people allegedly show great interest in the formation of Russian politics — “competitive, fair and impartial”. And they add that the expression of the will of the people testifies to the so-called legitimacy of the past elections.

Like these elections, and any previous ones, together with pseudo-referendums, these are not real elections and sometimes not the absolute expression of the will of the Ukrainian people, in particular. Earlier, the Verkhovna Rada appealed to foreign states to recognize the illegality of the elections. Among other things, they adopted resolution No. 9581 based on the results of the plenary meeting. It states that the occupation authorities are intimidating, blackmailing and forcibly involving Ukrainian citizens in elections through illegal passporting and replacing Ukrainian identification documents with Russian counterparts.

Such elections contradict the general norms of international law and violate the legislation of Ukraine. Moreover, such actions on the part of Russia, first of all, put Ukrainians in danger - after all, they are forced to vote at gunpoint. The European Union also (back in June) condemned Russia's attempts to hold pseudo-elections at the temporarily occupied territories. Then EU representative Peter Stano said that Moscow has no legal rights to the seized Ukrainian territories and that, in fact, Russia is acting arbitrarily, ignoring all norms and rights. As a result, Russia only seeks to give legitimacy to its actions, hiding behind good goals. It seems that the desire to vote and be part of Russia comes from the Ukrainians themselves. And accordingly, they are given scope for “self-determination”.

The head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Artem Lysohor also noted that the occupation authorities have admitted the failure of their forced passportization and allow people to vote without a Russian passport. And local collaborators were allowed not to open polling stations, but to conduct voting from home.

That is, this approach to holding “elections”, on the contrary, is the result of low turnout at the polling station, the disinterest of Ukrainians in voting and resistance to the occupation authorities. However, the Kremlin is trying in every possible way to whiten itself and demonstrate “democracy” amid the widespread chaos: they even invited the so-called “foreign supervisors” who highly appreciate the work of the occupation exit polls. But those “observers” turned out to be supporters of Russia and, apparently, covered the work of the Gauleiters with bias.

This information was disseminated by Russian media. Reports say that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg allegedly confirmed that it was the North Atlantic Alliance that “started the war in Ukraine” and that Russia invaded Ukrainian territory due to “NATO expansion”. This is manipulation.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project took up this case and found out that in fact the Secretary General did not say this, and his quote was distorted. Experts explain that the quote itself was compiled from Stoltenberg’s speech at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament on September 7. Then he talked about the failed policy of dictator Putin, who, on the eve of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, blackmailed the Alliance and demanded that Eastern Europe be given to its sphere of influence.

We are talking, in particular, about how, at the end of 2021, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded that Western states “stay away from Ukraine”, preventing Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration. At that time, Russian “parliamentarians” sought a legal guarantee that NATO would renounce any military activities in Eastern Europe and Ukraine.

Actually, commenting on the events of the past, Stoltenberg said that Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine is in fact a strategic mistake and a dictatorial failure.

By distorting quotes from public figures, military officers, politicians and other public figures, Russian propaganda is trying to convince consumers of disinformation of the authenticity of such expressions. Like, if the military man himself said this, one can trust him, because he is an authoritative source. This is how propagandists use the tactic of appealing to authority.

Russia systematically deals with the distortion of quotes. This helps it promote its own theses, and if they are “consonant” with the statement of authority, the information acquires legitimacy in the eyes of users of anonymous telegram channels. Read the latest fake cases:

Russian propaganda media published information that Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tilver allegedly made a statement in which he called on the Ukrainian government to move military operations, barracks and enterprises away from the common border so that Romanian territory would not be damaged. It's fake.

The case was investigated by fact-checkers from the Myth Detector project. The Romanian fact-checking organization Factual told the fact-checkers that the Romanian defense minister did not make such a statement. Also, the Romanian Ministry of Defense officially denied this quote and published a statement on the media monitoring platform Inforadar.

The Romanian Ministry of Defense suspects that this fake appeared as an echo of Russian attacks on the territory of Ukraine, which resulted in drones falling onto the territory of Romania. Fragments of drones fell on September 4 and 9.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to quarrel between Ukraine and its allies and shift responsibility onto our state for the fall of Russian drones on Romanian territory. They say that if there were no Ukrainian barracks there, there would be no strikes. However, it was Russia that started the war in Ukraine and is destroying infrastructure and civilian objects. Previously, we refuted the fake that Ukraine confirmed that Russia carries out precision strikes exclusively on military targets.

Similar theses were heard on Russian propaganda television channels. They say that the border with Estonia lies not far from Pskov and some strange sounds were allegedly heard from there. Russian propaganda states that “the question of Estonia’s participation remains open”. “Pskov is located on the NATO border. Where did the launch come from? From Ukraine or what? In any case! From the Baltic territory? Destroy the hell out of the Baltic countries if that’s the case”, the propagandists said on air. It's fake.

As EUvsDiDiNFo analysts note, on the night of August 29, a series of explosions occurred at Pskov airport. It later became known that four Il-76 military transport aircraft were damaged as a result of drone strikes, and at least two aircraft were destroyed. A spokesman for the government of the Republic of Estonia commented to Newsweek about Estonia's involvement in the attacks on Pskov and stated: “This is false information”. Also, the Latvian Ministry of Defense issued a similar statement, denying any involvement by Latvia, and condemned the accusations against the Baltic countries.

The drone strike on Russian territory is the result of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022. Thus, Kremlin propagandists are trying to accuse the Baltic countries of “provocation” and are using nuclear blackmail to intimidate the inhabitants of these countries. Earlier, Detector Media talked about manipulation, as the UN said that Ukraine threatens nuclear security in the world.

This thesis was spread on social networks, in particular on anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that Ukraine provoked Russia and decided to “attack Ukraine”. They say that Ukraine’s constant European integration course harms Russia, because its enemy, the European Union, was approaching Russian borders. The authors conclude: Russia has carried out a large-scale offensive on the territory of Ukraine and is legitimately defending its values.

Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project analyzed the case and explained that Russian aggression is aimed at the destruction of Ukraine as a state and the destruction of Ukrainians as a nation. The Russian army is committing genocide in Ukraine. The message about the destruction of Ukraine was expressed in early April by Russian political strategist Tymofii Serheitsev in an article on the website of the propaganda news agency RIA Novosti. The author proposed to destroy everything that makes Ukrainians Ukrainians, as well as to eliminate those who cannot be broken and conquered. The existence of Ukraine was denied, because “history has shown the impossibility of creating a state in Ukraine”.

In addition, Russia argues that Ukraine's desire to join NATO or the EU is a direct threat to Russia's security. However, Ukraine’s membership in any international organizations is the choice of Ukraine and its people, and not the imposed will of third parties.

In the end, the Kremlin, with the help of this message, is trying to justify Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine and finds third parties, blaming them for all the troubles. However, any political decisions in Ukraine are made by Ukrainian officials. Ukraine is ready to join any organization and support European initiatives, if there is the will of the people. Invading Ukraine was the decision of Russia and the Russians, which they supported either with appropriate statements or silence.