Information about the alleged occupation of part of the Sumy region, in particular near the village of Oleksandriia, which is being spread by propagandists on anonymous Telegram channels, is false.

This is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. The Sumy Regional Military Administration confirms that the situation on the border remains fully controlled, with no recorded hostilities or enemy breakthroughs. The spokesman for the State Border Service, Andrii Demchenko, also noted that the border with Russia functions as a front line. The Ukrainian Defense Forces firmly hold their positions, providing protection and countering any attempts by the enemy to penetrate the territory of Ukraine.

Propagandists are spreading disinformation about the alleged occupation of part of the Sumy region for several reasons. Such messages are intended to cause panic among Ukrainians, causing distrust in the actions of the authorities and the military. Fake news about breakthroughs or occupation is designed to create an impression of the weakness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is important for Russian propaganda to maintain the narrative of its “successes”, even if they are not true. This may also be an attempt to divert attention from the real problems and defeats of the Russian army.

Russian sources are spreading information that only the western part of Ukraine might be admitted to NATO, allegedly citing the publication Politico.

“The West has an idea to include only specific regions of the former USSR in NATO. This list will reportedly include only the western regions, while the Kyiv region and Kyiv itself, apparently, will not be considered part of the alliance”, propagandists write.

However, the original Politico article does not state that western Ukraine will join NATO separately from other regions. Instead, the article presents several models for ending the armed conflict in Ukraine.

One such model, referred to as the “German model”, suggests the possibility of NATO providing security guarantees only to the western regions of Ukraine or to territories currently under the control of the legitimate Ukrainian government. Moreover, NATO membership can only be extended to Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. Security guarantees might be offered depending on the military and political situation in different regions.

In other words, the journalists cited models of conflict resolution, and did not come out with the news that this is exactly how it will happen. For example, the article also wrote about the “Israeli model”, under which the country “is not formally part of a defense alliance like NATO; rather, it is a close ally of the United States and many European countries, which supply a huge amount of weapons and also provide diplomatic support”. The advantage of such a model, according to the publication, is that it does not link Ukraine to an alliance that could drag other countries into a war with Russia, with its arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Another model discussed is the “Finnish model”, which would entail Ukraine abandoning its occupied territories and adopting neutrality. However, the article notes that this model would likely fail to protect Kyiv from future Russian aggression, as Ukraine had been neutral even before Russia invaded its territory.

Moreover, the journalists wrote that those were not necessarily peace plans but reflections on how relations between Ukraine and Russia might be structured to permanently end hostilities.

Russian media is circulating an infographic that allegedly shows how Ukraine's territory has been entirely divided among various foreign companies.

“Everything has a price. The war in the DPR and LPR was, from the start, a war for resources for the West”, the creators of this fake content assert.

However, foreigners do not have access to Ukraine's land market. In 2020-2021, Ukraine passed a package of land reform laws, which included a compromise on granting foreigners access to the land market. This decision, however, requires approval through a nationwide referendum. Conducting such a referendum is impossible during martial law.

As Ukraine strives for EU membership, aligning its land legislation with EU laws represents the third and final stage of the land reform process. This reform aims to allow individuals and legal entities from EU member states to participate in Ukraine's land market, which is expected to benefit landowners the most.

In contrast, the reduction in arable land has been directly caused by Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. For example, the Kherson region, which accounted for 40% of Ukraine's annual vegetable harvest, has been severely impacted. Due to combat operations and the occupation of parts of the region, previously cultivated fields can no longer be used for their intended purpose. As a result, many entrepreneurs have been forced to relocate their businesses.

Thus, the rise in vegetable prices has no connection to Ukraine's pro-European path. Instead, it is a direct consequence of Russia's aggression. Propaganda efforts, however, aim to manipulate Ukrainian aspirations and frame the country’s distancing from Russia as the root cause of all issues, including the ongoing armed aggression.

Propagandists are writing on social media that former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg allegedly stated that “if the ceasefire line provides for the preservation of Russian control over the territories, this means that Ukraine must permanently give up these territories”. However, this is not true.

The experts of the Center for Countering Disinformation were the ones to debunk this. They found out that in fact, in this interview for Table.Briefings, Stoltenberg emphasized that if the ceasefire line means that Russia continues to control all occupied territories, that does not mean that Ukraine has to give up the territory forever. Propagandists distorted his words, claiming that the West allegedly agreed to territorial concessions.

This manipulation is aimed at sowing despair among both Ukrainians and Ukraine’s Western allies, as well as at discrediting the position of NATO and the international community, which supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine and condemns Russian aggression.

Russian news sites are spreading information that the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has allegedly found a “use” for people with disabilities – it is going to send them, as well as women, to demine the territory of Ukraine.

“Due to the understaffing of units and the acute shortage of manpower in Ukraine, people with amputations are taken not only into the sappers, but also into the infantry”,  the propagandists add.

However, in Ukraine, the UN is implementing a program to employ people with disabilities. Within the framework of this program, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is expanding employment opportunities in the field of demining and cleaning territories - for women, veterans, victims of explosive objects and people with disabilities. However, this does not mean that these people will work directly with mines, as the propagandists said. The main goal of the program is to ensure equal access to work, creating comfortable and safe conditions.

The first participants in the project, namely four Ukrainian explosive ordnance victims, have already been hired by The HALO Trust, where they will analyse satellite and drone imagery to identify and map mine-contaminated areas. They have been trained in a programme that focuses on the technical and non-technical skills needed to work in mine action.

“Today, much attention is paid to the implementation of policies that ensure equal access to work in the field of mine action, the creation of specialized training programs that will include both technical and non-technical skills necessary for work in this field, and the creation of conditions that will ensure comfortable and safe employment”, said Colonel Oleh Shuvarskyi, Deputy Head of the Main Directorate for Mine Action, Civil Defense and Environmental Safety.

A “Ukrainian” pro-Russian Telegram channel is spreading information that 77% of Ukrainian citizens are supposedly ready to give up the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. The propagandists claim that they are citing data from a real, not a “bought and fabricated” sociological survey.

At the same time, they do not indicate which sociological company or organization conducted this survey and in what period. Presumably, this data was simply fabricated, the VoxCheck project writes. In addition, the “insider” data of the pro-Russian Telegram channel cannot be considered a reliable source of information. Even before the full-scale invasion, the SBU proved that the “Legitimnyi” Telegram channel, which is the primary source of dissemination of this data, is engaged in destabilizing the socio-political situation and sowing panic in Ukraine.

The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) has been conducting regular surveys since May 2022 on the willingness of Ukrainians to make territorial concessions in order to achieve peace as soon as possible. According to the results of a recent poll conducted from September 20 to October 3, 2024, the majority of Ukrainians are against territorial concessions by Russia. 58% of respondents said that Ukraine should not give up any of its territories, even if this would prolong the war and threaten the preservation of its independence. The institute's sociologists note that the share of those ready to make territorial concessions has not changed since May 2024 — it is 32%. In turn, the share of those who are against concessions has increased from 55% to 58% from May to October of this year.

According to another KIIS poll conducted during the same period, 63% of Ukrainians are ready to endure the war as long as it takes.

A little earlier, we analyzed a similar propaganda message, claiming that the absolute majority of Ukrainians are supposedly ready to capitulate.

Pro-Russian anonymous Telegram channels claim that supposedly “the absolute majority of Ukrainians are ready to surrender”. As “proof” of this, they cite the results of an anonymous poll published by the treason suspect Oleksandr Dubinskyi. However, this is not so.

This is reported by StopFake. Its experts point out that on November 17, 2024, he published a poll on his Telegram channel with the question: “Are you ready for peace in exchange for territory?”. By the evening of November 18, more than 15 thousand people had voted, 62% of whom answered “yes”. However, the results of this poll are not representative, since it was conducted anonymously among Dubinskyi’s audience, who is known for his pro-Russian rhetoric. Without proper sampling, such data do not reflect the real opinion of Ukrainians. In particular, Dubinskyi is in pre-trial detention on suspicion of treason. The investigation established his participation in a pro-Russian organization that was engaged in discrediting Ukraine for the money of Russian intelligence.

At the same time, real sociological research conducted by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation in conjunction with the Razumkov Center and Kyiv International Institute of Sociology shows that the majority of Ukrainians are not ready for any territorial concessions, even for the sake of ending the war.

The purpose of spreading this disinformation is to create a false impression that Ukrainian society is ready for surrender and territorial concessions. This is aimed at undermining the morale of Ukrainians, discrediting the political leadership and creating the illusion of support for pro-Russian ideas in Ukraine. Such messages are also intended to weaken international support for Ukraine and promote the spread of narratives favorable to Russia among the public.

Russian telegram channels are spreading information that Russian military personnel crossed the border with the Chernihiv region and installed a Russian flag on the bridge over the Sudist River near the village of Hremiach.

However, this information is not true. This was reported to the Center for Counteracting Disinformation by the representative of the State Tax Service of Ukraine Andrii Demchenko:

“There was no breach of the border. The Russian tricolor was installed on the destroyed bridge near the border, but the saboteurs did not enter the territory of populated areas. The area is under the control of Ukrainian forces and additional units are providing anti-sabotage defense”.

Also, the head of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation, the officer of the Defense Forces Andrii Kovalenko wrote on his telegram channel that there is no threat of Russian invasion of Chernihiv region, there is only a limited threat of sabotage and reconnaissance groups. He also added that “the story about Hremiach is false and is exclusively an information operation of the enemy”.

Earlier, we refuted the information that Polish politicians “flaunted” the Russian flag in the Vatican.

Russian and Belarusian propaganda resources are disseminating information in a coordinated manner on social networks, trying to present the Ukrainian Armed Forces as using the “human shield” tactics in the Kursk region. These accusations are based on the statements of an unnamed Russian soldier without any confirmation. This means that it is not true. This is what the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security writes.

The “human shield” message is typical of the Russian army, which has repeatedly used civilians in the occupied territories as cover since 2014. For example, in December 2023, the Ukrainian prosecutor's office opened a criminal case on the use of Ukrainian prisoners as a “human shield” in the Zaporizhzhia region. This is another attempt by Russian propaganda to shift the blame for its crimes to the Ukrainian side.

The purpose of disseminating disinformation about the alleged use of civilians in the Kursk region by the Ukrainian military as a “human shield” is to discredit the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the international arena and to increase hostility towards Ukraine among the Russian population and its presence in Ukraine to shift attention to the numerous war crimes committed by Russian troops, accusing the Ukrainian side of such crimes.

Russian propaganda telegram channels are spreading information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces could allegedly launch a full-scale offensive deep into Russian territory — into the Saratov, Oriol, Leningrad and Moscow regions — using Western weapons. In reporting this, the propagandists cite Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Office.

However, Podoliak's words were manipulated. This was reported by the VoxCheck project. In an interview with the German media Die Welt, published on October 14, 2024, Mykhailo Podoliak did mention the listed Russian regions, but in a different context. The adviser to the head of the OP spoke specifically about air attacks on military targets deep in Russian territory, and not about a full-scale offensive. When asked by a Die Welt journalist about the depletion of Russian resources and when a turning point would be reached, Mykhailo Podoliak replied:

“This year, the Kremlin is spending $140 billion on the war and investing heavily in the military industry. But the deficit is growing, especially in ammunition, shells and missiles. That is why our air strikes on Russian territory are so important. First, it destroys production, warehouses and logistics, which affects resources and further exacerbates exhaustion. This is the military component, but there is also a social component. When attacks are carried out on a large scale, not only in Kursk and other border areas, but deep in Russia, in Saratov, Oriol, Leningrad and the Moscow region, then the social mood is completely different. People understand that there is a war going on in Russia too”.

So, in his answer, Mykhailo Podolyiak emphasizes the importance of Ukrainian air strikes on military targets deep inside Russian territory.

In the end, the adviser to the head of the Presidential Office repeated similar theses in a commentary for RBC-Ukraine, published on October 16, 2024. In it, he indicated that the classified appendices to the Victory Plan state, in particular, what kind of weapons should be used to destroy logistics, military facilities and concentrations of manpower on Russian territory.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the German newspaper Pioneer that Ukraine had allegedly been a disputed territory for centuries. During the conversation, the correspondent tried to draw parallels between the events in Budapest in 1956 and Russian aggression against Ukraine. Orban said that the situation in Ukraine is completely different and that Hungary was never part of the Soviet Union. “There has never been a Russian-speaking community in Hungary on our territory. Ukraine is a territory that has been a subject of dispute for centuries, which makes it significantly different from Hungary”. He also added that Europe, acting as if aggression against Ukraine is its problem, allegedly ends up in a losing situation. However, this is a manipulation of historical facts.

The history of Ukraine testifies to its long existence as a separate state and its struggle for independence. Although Ukraine has experienced interference from various empires - Russian, Austro-Hungarian and others - this does not cancel out its own historical burdens and aspiration for self-determination. The Ukrainian people have been fighting for their freedom and sovereignty for centuries, and modern Ukraine is a state recognized by the international community with clear borders, secured by international agreements.

Hungary, like Ukraine, was part of the Soviet bloc and was heavily influenced by the USSR. The events in Budapest in 1956 were a consequence of Soviet repressive policies, which were similarly manifested in Ukraine. Therefore, emphasizing the differences between Ukraine and Hungary is artificial, since both countries experienced Soviet pressure and fought for real independence.

Orban’s claim that the “conflict” in Ukraine is moot because of historical disputes distracts attention from the fact that Russia’s current aggression against Ukraine is a clear violation of international law and Ukraine’s territorial integrity. After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine’s borders were recognized internationally, including by Russia, as recorded in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994.

Orban claims that Europe is losing by supporting Ukraine. However, this claim ignores the fact that the EU, NATO and other international partners are helping Ukraine to defend its independence and the security of all of Europe. Support for Ukraine is critical to deterring aggression and preserving the international principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Propagandists are spreading information on social networks that 47% of Ukraine's territory belongs to BlackRock, and that company representatives came to Kyiv and asked not to bury the dead soldiers on their lands. However, this is a fake.

It was refuted by fact-checkers of the Lithuanian version of the Baltic media conglomerate Delfi. They found that the claim that BlackRock banned Ukraine from burying its military is wrong. According to the press service of the President of Ukraine, in late 2022, Volodymyr Zelenskyi held a remote meeting with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, during which they discussed possible projects to help structure funds for the country's recovery. In 2023, the Ukrainian government signed an agreement with BlackRock and JPMorgan to create a fund designed to attract hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment to restore the Ukrainian economy, but this did not include restrictions on burying the military. In addition, about 70% of Ukraine's territory is agricultural land. As of 2020, about 31 million hectares, or 75%, were privately owned. The largest companies controlled only 16% of agricultural land, or about 6.45 million hectares. There are more than 10 foreign agricultural companies operating in the country, owning about 3-4 million hectares of land. The largest of these are the US-based Agroprosperis (300,000 hectares) and the Saudi Arabian Continental Farmers Group (195,000 hectares), but BlackRock has not invested in either company.

Georgian fact-checking portal Mythdetector found a recording from a Telegram channel that this claim is based on back in July. The author of the post claims that the CEO of BlackRock allegedly advised Ukraine not to pollute arable land with the bodies of dead soldiers and to use crematoriums. The description of the channel indicates that this information may be satirical or false.

This fake is intended to portray Ukraine as a country that has lost its sovereignty and is completely dependent on Western corporations. Successful partnerships between Ukraine and international companies, such as BlackRock, could become a tool for post-war reconstruction. The propaganda attempts to sow distrust in such investors, portraying them as a threat to sovereignty and national interests. By spreading such fakes, propagandists try to demoralize the population of Ukraine, creating the impression that even burying fallen defenders could become a problem due to the loss of control over national lands. Propagandists also use this fake to distract attention from their own failures and problems, in particular, Russia's crimes in the temporarily occupied territories, economic instability, and poor human rights situation.

Propagandists are spreading information on anonymous Telegram channels that allegedly Ukrainian Armed Forces units, which include Polish, French and American “mercenaries”, are displaying “extreme cruelty” towards the civilian population in the Kursk region. The source of such statements is said to be unknown “security agencies” of Russia.

However, in reality, in the territory of the Kursk region, which is not controlled by Russia, there are no “security structures” to which one could refer. These accusations pursue only one goal - to dehumanize Ukrainians in the eyes of the Russian audience. This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

Many foreign journalists from independent and influential media have already visited the territories controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and in their reports they have not confirmed any atrocities against either captured Russians or the civilian population. In addition, as reported by the speaker of the Operational-tactical grouping Siversk Vadym Mysnyk, it was Russia that refused to provide a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians from the territories of the Kursk region controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which also refutes the statements of Russian propaganda.

Russian propaganda continues to produce new fakes about the events in the Kursk region. The Center for Countering Disinformation has discovered another wave of false publications aimed at discrediting Ukraine.

“Ukrainian Nazism”. One of the fakes concerns a supposedly British TV channel, which counted 1000 cases of the use of Nazi symbols by Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. This is a completely fabricated story, since no British media resource has published such information. The purpose of this fake is to reinforce old Kremlin narratives about the “Nazi” character of the Ukrainian army and to create an image of an enemy that allegedly poses a threat to civilization.

“Torture of Russian prisoners”. This is a fake video in which Ukrainian soldiers are accused of abusing Russian prisoners. Such materials have repeatedly proven to be fakes, and they are aimed at demoralizing the Ukrainian military and justifying the cruelty of the Russian army. It is also supposed to intimidate Russian soldiers so that they do not surrender.

“Stolen Headphones”. Propagandists are spreading a story about looting by Ukrainian soldiers, claiming that a “resident of the Kursk region” allegedly tracked her stolen headphones to the Sumy region. This fake is aimed at creating a negative image of the Ukrainian military, but there is no evidence to support its veracity.

“Training of the military in school”. The enemy claims that Ukrainian military personnel were trained in a school in the Zhytomyr region for operations in the Kursk region. This information is part of a strategy aimed at destabilization and preparation of the information base for possible missile strikes on peaceful targets.

“Civilian atrocities”. Russian media are spreading “testimonies of refugees” from Kursk, where they accuse Ukrainians, without evidence, of mass murder and abuse of civilians. The propaganda fabrication even mentions the French flag raised by “foreign mercenaries”. This is another attempt to denigrate the Ukrainian Armed Forces and frighten both the Russian population and the international audience.

The video states that 74% of Ukrainians are against military action on Russian territory. The Ukrainian voiceover claims that a significant portion of Ukrainian citizens hoped for the end of the war and the signing of a peace agreement, but their hopes were dashed by the Kursk operation.

In fact, the analyzed video is fake. This is reported by journalists from the StopFake project. The video was spread by pro-Russian sources, the first to publish the news was a propaganda Telegram channel with an audience of over 200 thousand subscribers. In addition, the video has a logo that could not be identified. It was probably created by propagandists based on stock images.

Also, the Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region began quite recently and continues. Accordingly, there are no valid and reliable statistics yet. However, some street polls of Ukrainian citizens and interviews with the military show a completely opposite picture - Kyiv residents call the operation “fantastic”, and Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen say that the advance of troops into Russian territory has raised morale and brought relief in all directions of the front.

Earlier we analyzed Russian manipulation, saying that Foreign Affairs wrote that the Kursk operation changed the “balance of attrition” not in favor of Ukraine.

The Center for Countering Disinformation continues to monitor the Russian information space and expose new fake news and manipulations that the enemy is spreading regarding the events in the Kursk region.

So, the Center for Countering Disinformation has recorded another wave of disinformation around the following topics:

“Shoot your own soldiers”. In order to undermine the fighting spirit of Ukrainians and discredit the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russian propaganda reports that Ukrainian commanders in the Kursk region are executing their subordinates for refusing to carry out orders.

“Attack on pensioners”. Propagandists created a story about the work of combat medics in the Kursk region, where it is about saving two pensioners after an alleged attack by a Ukrainian drone on their car. However, the story only shows assistance to wounded Russian soldiers, not pensioners.

“Genocide”. Russian propaganda continues to spread eyewitness accounts of Ukrainian war crimes in Sudzha in the Kursk region. In the video, “eyewitnesses” talk about “Ukrainian Nazis who shoot everyone indiscriminately” and allegedly seek to exterminate the Russian people. The operation in the Kursk region has been going on for almost a month, but no evidence of these “Ukrainian atrocities” has been provided.

“Looting in Kursk region”. A video of a Ukrainian-language blogger is being distributed, claiming mass looting in the Kursk region, citing reports from a wounded Ukrainian soldier. This information operation is aimed at the Ukrainian audience in order to sow doubts about the actions of our military leadership. The video uses narratives that have long been actively promoted by Russian propaganda - that the Kursk operation is a “conspiracy” and that Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers should fight not in the Kursk region, but in Donbas.

Propagandists on anonymous Telegram channels claim that the Kursk operation allegedly changed the “balance of attrition” to Ukraine’s disadvantage, since it allegedly lacks reserves to respond to Russian breakthroughs and is short of ammunition. They say this is what Foreign Affairs writes about. They compare it to other battles where, according to propaganda, Ukraine suffered heavy losses, and predict that a prolonged positional war could undermine public support.

However, this information is a distortion and manipulation based on the content of the Foreign Affairs article and is part of a broader disinformation campaign aimed at demoralizing Ukrainian society and reducing international support for Ukraine.

In reality, the manipulative lifts that highlight Ukraine’s supposed weakness are taken out of context to create a false impression about the situation on the front and the ability of the Ukrainian army to resist Russian forces. These operations, such as the Battle of Bakhmut or the counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region, were important steps in countering Russian aggression. Although they were indeed complex and demanding of significant resources, they were of strategic importance and were part of Ukraine’s broader defensive and offensive strategy.

Propagandists spread such messages for several reasons. One of the key aspects of this disinformation is to lower the morale of Ukrainian society by creating the impression that Ukraine’s defense is futile and the losses are unjustified. Russia also tries to sow doubts in Western countries about the effectiveness of aid to Ukraine in order to reduce military, financial and political support. Propagandists seek to present Russia as a more powerful and experienced adversary in order to force Ukraine to make concessions or end hostilities on Russia’s terms. These messages are aimed at weakening Ukraine both internally and through international isolation, so they need to be examined critically and debunked using verified sources of information.

Anonymous Telegram channels are throwing around theories that Volodymyr Zelenskyi “started” the Kursk operation in order to once again attract the attention of the world community to Ukraine. They say that Volodymyr Zelenskyi is gradually losing the support of his strategic partners. At the same time, they allegedly referred to an article from the Financial Times, which talks about the “losing situation” around the Kursk region on the part of the Ukrainian army.

“The Kursk operation changes the “balance of attrition” not in Ukraine's favor, since it will already lose”, say the propagandists.

Ukrainian troops broke through the Russian border in the Sumy region on Tuesday, August 6. On August 12, President Zelenskyi wrote for the first time that Ukraine was conducting an operation in Russia's Kursk Oblast. On August 12, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi reported that Ukraine controls almost 1,000 km of the Kursk region. As of August 21, 93 settlements in Russia are under Ukraine's control.

The thesis about “returning attention” is another attempt by propagandists to justify the Ukrainian operation in the Kursk region of Russia. After all, in this way the fake news makers are looking for a justification for Ukraine's actions and at the same time maintaining the internal mood of the population.

Moreover, the Financial Times article does not say at all that the Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region had any “catastrophic” impact on Ukraine’s defense capability. The article emphasizes that due to the Kursk operation, Ukrainian servicemen in Donbas have to ration the amount of ammunition, and soldiers “may face an even longer stay at the front without rotation”. Moreover, this is the conclusion of the authors of the publication themselves, that is, an assumption.

Read on Censor.NET: The US is allegedly involved in the operation in the Kursk region.

Anonymous Telegram channels are spreading a video that appears to show a soldier forcibly evacuating residents of Vovchansk in order to “then freely rob their homes”.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the Kharkiv region authorities announced the evacuation of Vovchansk precisely because of constant Russian shelling and the threat of occupation. In addition, the person in the video is not a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but an employee of the National Police.

The excerpt distributed by the Kremlin's henchmen is part of a video about the evacuation of Vovchansk, which was published on May 23, 2024, on the YouTube channel by the host of Channel 24. It shows, in particular, the evacuation of a family with a child who did not want to leave. In the end, they agreed to temporarily leave the city.

Parents cannot refuse to evacuate their children. Otherwise, they may be subject to administrative or criminal liability for failure to fulfill their child-rearing responsibilities. However, in this case, the priority is the safety of the children, not the punishment of the parents. Therefore, law enforcement officers and local authorities are trying to convince parents or other guardians to leave with their children. In fact, this is also shown in the video – a law enforcement officer explains to the parents why they need to leave.

On May 10, 2024, the Russian army launched an offensive in the north of the Kharkiv region. Due to the threat to the lives and health of local residents, the evacuation of the population from the city was accelerated on the same day.

Against the backdrop of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' operation in the Kursk region, pro-Russian and anonymous Telegram channels began a series of discrediting messages about the military. In particular, one of these is the assertion that the “Kursk adventure” has escalated into “the murder of Ukraine”: as the messages claim, Volodymyr Zelenskyi ordered all forces to be sent to the Kursk region in order to achieve military success there. At the same time, other directions were left “without any military”, which allowed the Russians to advance further.

“Now the Russian army will soon control the entire territory of Donbas, which will simplify the enemy's offensive along this entire front”, the propagandists explain.

In fact, such a thesis is not true, no directions could be left “to the mercy of fate”. In this way, the fake news is trying to convince of the failure of the Kursk operation for the Ukrainian side. It would seem that these are just wasted resources. At the same time, they feed the mood of the domestic audience: if we are talking about an attack on Russian territory, the Kremlin's henchmen find justification for such an attack. They say that the Ukrainian army is already losing, it will soon retreat from the territory of Kursk region; and during this time, Russia will attack other territories.

Although, for example, in Lithuania, they recorded a reduction in Russian ground forces due to the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia. This was stated by the commander of the Lithuanian army. That is, one way or another, the Kursk operation affected the actions of the Russian troops and there, at least, rotations to other directions are taking place.

Let us recall that Ukrainian troops broke through the Russian border in the Sumy region on Tuesday, August 6. On August 12, President Zelenskyi wrote directly for the first time that Ukraine was conducting an operation in the Kursk region of Russia. On August 12, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi reported that Ukraine controls almost 1,000 km of Kursk region. As of August 21, 93 settlements in Russia are under Ukraine's control.

Russian telegram channels are spreading a message with a video in which the media United 24 allegedly claims that the Ukrainian army intercepted a radio conversation in which a Russian commander warns his soldiers that they can only eat the food they brought with them. The video notes that there have been mass cases of fatal poisoning among Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk direction after they allegedly stole and ate food from local supermarkets.

But this is a fake. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are not looting in the Kursk region, unlike the Russian army and locals, who have been repeatedly seen robbing stores. We checked the United 24 website, as well as their social media pages, and did not find the news quoted by the propagandists. In addition, the fakeness of the message is indicated by the use of videos from Russian Telegram channels in the background, in which Ukrainian soldiers allegedly steal food en masse from Kursk stores and supermarkets.

The main goal of this fake is to spread messages about marginalization and looting among the military defense forces of Ukraine. In this way, the propagandists want to discredit the Ukrainian army, accuse it of crimes against the civilian population, and also hide their own. In addition, such news should convince Ukrainians that the operation in the Kursk direction is a failure for Ukraine, primarily due to the alleged presence of active public resistance among Russians.

Anonymous telegrams are distributing photos of the so-called draft decision of the Sumy District Council on the inclusion of the Russian city of Sudzha and the Sudzha district into the Sumy district of the region of the same name in Ukraine. The document states that a referendum and elections will be held in the Sudzha district.

But VoxCheck specialists established that on August 8 (as indicated in the document) the Sumy District Council did not hold the 29th session, at which they allegedly decided to annex the Russian city and region to Ukraine. The press service of the district council told fact-checkers that the document was fake.

Also on its Facebook page, the Sumy District Council reported that the document was a fake. “The Sumy district council is not considering the decision to include the city of Sudzha and the Sudzha district of the Russian Federation into the Sumy district of the Sumy region”, the message stated.

Actually, Ukraine does not violate international law and does not annex the territories of neighboring states. All actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the territory of modern Russia do not go beyond the bounds of the Geneva Conventions and the rules of war. In contrast to Russia, which has been occupying Ukrainian territory since 2014 and holding pseudo-referendums.

In fact, fictitious referendums in temporarily occupied territories are not the expression of the will of Ukrainians, but indicate Russia’s desire to give legitimacy to its criminal actions. In particular, the seizure of Ukrainian regions. This is not a legitimate vote at all. Its results, in addition to Russia itself, are recognized by its “sister states”, such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. That is, this is the occupation of foreign territories by Moscow.

Read also the Newspeak section: “new regions of Russia”

Russian propagandists manipulated correspondence from the Forward Observation Group on Instagram, where photos of military personnel in the Kursk region were published. They claim that this is supposedly evidence of the participation of “militants of an American private military company” in the operation.

But Forward Observation Group is not actually a private military contractor. As the Center for Countering Disinformation explained, FOG is a security and tactical training consulting company that sells tactical gear. Representatives of the company shoot videos from different places where fighting continues in order to promote their own brand.

This is not the first time that Russian propaganda has tried to portray the Forward Observation Group as “a private military company whose mercenaries fight in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”. Thus, former US military man Derrick Bales and the owner of this consulting company already came under the close attention of Russian propaganda after his trip to the front lines of the Ukrainian military to film a documentary about the war in Ukraine. Russian media wasted no time in using his presence as evidence that “American mercenaries are training Ukrainian soldiers”. At the same time, stories are also being circulated by alleged residents of the Kursk region, who claim that they allegedly saw foreign mercenaries among the Ukrainian military.

Derrick Bales himself was also accused of participating in hostilities as a “foreign mercenary”. In response, the American veteran told VICE News that he was not using his military skills to make money in Ukraine.

Russia continues to try to convince the world that it is allegedly at war not only with Ukraine, but also with “the entire NATO bloc”. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the Ukrainian army. Moreover, it also shows Russia’s desire to justify its own failures on the battlefield and spread the narrative of “external control” in Ukraine.

On August 19, Detector Media already wrote about Russia’s message that the United States was allegedly involved in the operation in the Kursk region.

Ukrainian troops broke through the Russian border in the Sumy region on Tuesday, August 6. Already on August 12, President Zelenskyi for the first time directly wrote that Ukraine was conducting an operation in the Kursk region of Russia. Back on August 12, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that Ukraine controls almost 1,000 km of Kursk region. As of August 13, it became known that 74 settlements in Russia are under Ukrainian control.

Russian anonymous telegram channels began to spread messages that in fact everything was happening under the so-called “cover” of the United States and the American government.

“Without Washington’s participation, Kyiv would hardly have risked entering Russian territory. Because of American interests, the residents of Ukraine are suffering, which the United States has turned from a state into a military anti-Russian project”, the propagandists add.

However, the United States officially denied involvement in organizing the operation in the Kursk region. For example, as Reuters writes, the United States is still considering an unexpected invasion of Ukraine into the Kursk region of Russia.

The Biden administration is now working to determine Ukraine's goals in its offensive, which U.S. officials say has taken Washington by surprise.

Moreover, the American government has not lifted absolutely all restrictions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the use of weapons on Russian territory: neither in range nor in use. Actually, the country's leadership is still determining the feasibility of using weapons in the Kursk region. That is, we are talking about the fact that the United States was not informed about this offensive.

And, as CNN writes, the United States does not allow Ukraine to use the American long-range weapons provided for attacks in the Kursk region of Russia, since it believes that it would be more expedient to use them for attacks on the temporarily occupied Crimea.

This is how Russia once again promotes the narrative of “external governance” in Ukraine: With this, propagandists want to show that all political decisions in Ukraine are made by Western officials. While Ukrainian politicians are subject to these decisions, without the right to appeal them. Any events occurring in Ukraine that are not in favor of Russia are allegedly caused by external control. Fake robes strive to create the image of a puppet country that cannot exist on its own. Let's say Ukraine constantly needs “protection”.

The authors convince us that most often, peaceful people who suffer from “external control” pay taxes “who knows where”, are zombied by “Western values” and have literally lost the right to be heard. That is, they show that such an “impact” is bad and leads to stagnation in all spheres of people’s lives.

Anonymous telegram channels are distributing a story from Agence France-Presse about a survey among Ukrainians from the European statistical company Eurostat. According to Eurostat results, 64% of Ukrainians allegedly do not believe in the return of Ukrainian territories to the 1991 borders. Of those surveyed, 71% of Ukrainians allegedly “do not believe” that Ukraine will join NATO and the EU, respectively, in the next 5 years. And 77% of respondents are “disappointed” regarding the level of support from the EU and NATO.

VoxCheck analysts explained that AFP and Eurostat did not publish such statistics, because the Russians deliberately created a fake story with recognizable logos. According to current research, a significant part of Ukrainians believe that Ukraine will return territories within the 1991 borders as a result of the war.

For example, in February 2024, the Sociological Group “Rating” conducted an all-Ukrainian survey commissioned by the Center for Analysis and Sociological Research of the International Republican Institute, 2 thousand Ukrainians took part in the survey.

To the question: “In your opinion, what will the borders of Ukraine be as a result of the end of the war?”

45% of respondents answered that Ukraine will retain all the territories it had in 1991. While 16% of respondents said that Ukraine will return only territories occupied after February 24, 2022. In a similar survey by the organization conducted in March 2024, 73% of Ukrainians believed that Ukraine would eventually return all occupied territories.