On May 4, the pro-Kremlin media reported that "black clouds of smoke" could be seen over Stariy Saltov in Kharkiv Oblast, which appeared after "Ukrainian units staged a showy assault on an unoccupied peaceful settlement. According to the Russian media, the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly "staged" an attack on Stary Saltov and "a battalion of amnestied criminals, Kraken, entered the village and carried out terror in the village," StopFake wrote. The Russian military occupied the village of Stariy Salty immediately after the invasion on February 24, 2022.

Reports that Ukrainian troops were conducting an offensive operation near Stariy Saltov near Kharkiv appeared in early May. On May 4, the head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, Oleg Sinegubov, reported that fighting continued around the settlements in the direction of Stariy Saltiv. Two ambulance workers came under fire. "To dismiss the settlement is 30%. 70% - our guys are trying to hold it and consolidate their positions there. We can't say right now whether it's our settlement or not," Sinegubov said.

In the evening summary for May 5, the General Staff of the AFU reported that Russian troops in the Slobozhansky direction "tried to regain lost positions near the city of Kharkiv, conducted an unsuccessful offensive attempt near the settlement of Stary Saltov." After losing Stariy Saltiv, the Russians began to actively terrorize the civilian population of the settlement and nearby settlements. Due to the huge losses of manpower, Russia has massively used indiscriminate shelling of liberated Kharkov villages from multiple rocket launchers and artillery. The information was confirmed by fighters of the Kraken special unit, a separate reconnaissance and sabotage unit within one of the military units of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. Kraken had nothing in common with the "criminals": one of the main requirements for recruiting to the unit is the absence of a criminal record of the candidate. The Russian media assert that the assault by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Stariy Saltiv was a "demonstration," since the village was supposedly "a peaceful settlement that no one had occupied. It is noteworthy that as early as May 3, the Russian media themselves actively distributed a video with the hashtag "we do not abandon our own," which showed the distribution of humanitarian aid in the temporarily occupied Stary Salty.

The Russian thesis that Stariy Saltiv is "occupied by no one" is also refuted by the daily updated online maps of the war zones. Moreover, both Ukrainian and Russian propaganda maps. If we compare data from the Ukrainian Liveuamap resource, which allows real-time monitoring of the war in Ukraine, the map perfectly shows that Stariy Saltiv was still under Russian occupation on May 1 (red color). This can also be seen on the Russian map of the invasion of Ukraine from the Readovka resource.

However, as early as May 5, according to the Ukrainian online map Liveuamap, the Ukrainian Armed Forces drove the Russian invaders from the territory of Staryi Saltiv - the settlement was sacked. A "fighting" sign appeared on the Russian map on the same day in the area of Stariy Saltivka.

Anonymous telegram channels spread information that in the temporarily occupied territories the Russian authorities allegedly write off debts for public utilities. The authors of such reports also claim that with the spread of rumors that the western regions of Ukraine may be ceded to Poland, Romania, Slovakia or Hungary, people living in these regions are also allegedly not allowed to pay utility bills, because then the debts will be written off, as Russia does.

First of all, there is no question of the annexation of the western regions to any other country. It is only Russia that has attacked Ukraine with a war and seeks to seize our territory. Second, Russia may be writing off debts in the temporarily occupied territories, but in cities where Russian troops were already present, there are significant problems with communications, because Russia is purposefully destroying Ukrainian infrastructure. In particular, it blows up water and sewage pipelines, etc., and electricity and gas disappear in cities due to rocket and other shelling. In addition, such a message is dangerous because it seems to tell Ukrainians that it is advantageous to surrender to Russia because they will not have to pay for utilities and will be able to save money.

On April 30, pro-Kremlin media circulated materials stating that Crimean Tatars declared "full support for Russia's foreign policy course" and "unanimously" supported Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. How Crimean Tatars are "ready to participate in the special operation in Ukraine."

According to Stopfake, the Kremlin-controlled occupation "authorities" of seized Crimea held an ostensible "congress" on the peninsula on April 30, at which Crimean Tatars allegedly "supported" Russian aggression against Ukraine.

According to the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, to create a "beautiful picture" and mythical "mass" Russia forcibly summoned students of the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University, as well as employees of budgetary organizations, including teachers, to the meeting. Chubarov notes that this measure has no political weight and does not reflect the real pro-Ukrainian position of the indigenous people of Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars.

"The only purpose for which the FSB of the Russian Federation organizes such a "congress" is to imitate the support of the Crimean Tatars for "Putin's policy and a special military operation" against Ukraine. In fact, by holding a "congress" today, the Russian special services will once again, but completely unsuccessfully, try to deceive the world that, they say, the Crimean Tatars demonstrate loyalty to the policy of the occupying country and its president Putin," Chubarov said on his Facebook page.

The Crimean Tatars are an indigenous people of Ukraine who support the territorial integrity of the country and strongly oppose the war that Russia started. Read more.

This is the thesis spread by Russian propagandists, claiming that Carpathian Ukraine was "a small pro-Nazi state" and no one had heard of the Ukrainians of Transcarpathia before 1939. In Russia, the opinion "the Carpathian Sich was a Nazi Ukrainian organization" had spread before. In her study "Revision of History: Russian Historical Propaganda and Ukraine," Olena Sorotsynska analyzed this narrative of Russian historical propaganda: "Secrets" of Carpathian Ukraine: how the Nazi murtads built their 'state'", "In Ukraine another invented Ukrainian 'holiday of independence' is widely celebrated - the 80th anniversary of the proclamation of independence of Carpathian Ukraine" - these are some of the headlines of Russian media about Carpathian Ukraine. Some Russian media identify the OUN with Carpathian Ukraine and claim that this state is a product of the Abwehr. "On September 4, 1938, a meeting was held in Uzhgorod on the initiative of members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists at which the Ukrainian National Defense (UNO) was created. This was the Nazi center that later created the so-called Carpathian Ukraine," writes Novorossiya Information Agency. The occupation of Carpathian Ukraine by Hungarians is explained by the fact that Hungarians were more valuable allies for Hitler than the UUN, so he gave permission for Hungary to seize these territories. "The country of the victorious Euromaidan," which is known to have "no fascism," continues to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the pro-German Carpathian Ukraine declaration of independence," according to the Rus' Unity resource. This is meant to demonstrate "the gravitas of the Ukrainian fascist idea," which, they say, is flourishing today."

The electronic version of the publication is available at the link.

The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance has prepared information materials about Carpathian Ukraine. Read more about Carpathian Ukraine.

This is the information spread by the Russian media. Their message says that by this cutoff, Ukraine gave up part of the territory that was temporarily occupied by the Russians. This is a lie. In fact, it was the Russians who cut off communications and the Internet in the Kherson and part of the Zaporozhye regions, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine said in a telegram.

On April 30, residents of Kherson and part of Zaporizhzhia regions first felt interruptions with the Internet and mobile communications, then these services disappeared in significant areas. It became known that the reasons for the lack of communication were fiber-optic trunk lines breaking and the blackout of operators' equipment in these regions. "The problems that occurred simultaneously at all mobile operators, as well as providers of fixed Internet services, are nothing but another attempt by the occupant to leave Ukrainians without access to truthful information about the course of the war that Russia has unleashed against Ukraine; and to make its false propaganda a source of information without alternative, as it is done in Russia itself," the State Service for Special Communications said in a statement.

Ukrainian authorities have always advocated maximum access to means of communication for Ukrainians. And the National Center for Operational and Technical Management of Telecommunications Networks (NCM) at tate Service for Special Communications both before the war and at the beginning of the invasion expressed an unambiguous position of the state - operators must provide Ukrainians with communication and access to information.

"Cutting off Ukrainian communications, as well as the introduction of the aggressor country's currency and the forced payment of taxes by businesses to the occupation entity, should create at least the appearance of the existence of a new quasi-establishment for domestic Russian consumption. And against this background to feed the Russians with fake results of a likely fake referendum, - noted in the tate Service for Special Communications . - Ukraine will never abandon its citizens to the mercy of fate. Our defenders drove the enemy troops out of Kyiv region, Sumy region and Chernihiv region, they will drive them out of other regions. All occupied territories within the internationally recognized borders of our country will be sacked."

All Ukrainians who are in the occupied areas are asked to move to other regions if possible. They urge everyone to be careful and not to put themselves in danger. In case the Russians have disabled Ukrainian broadcasting, communications and the Internet, it is possible to listen to Ukrainian radio on medium waves (1278, 1404, 873, 657 kHz) using old receivers. Also Ukrainian channels are decoded on satellite: Satellite: Hotbird 13; Frequency: 11219 MHz; Polarization: H(horizontal); Symbol Rate: 29900; Error Correction: FEC 3/5.

The head of the Kherson regional organization of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Dementii Bilyi, said that in temporarily occupied Kherson, the collaborators spread the message that they were not going to hold a referendum. This began after the Russians failed to organize a referendum on the creation of a pseudo-republic of the "Kherson People's Republic" ("KPR") and recognition of the occupied government.

According to him, in addition to the desire of the Russians, it takes a lot of people to hold a "referendum."

"Ballots can be printed and distributed on APCs or Tigers guarded by machine guns. But commissions are needed to organize the voting. Lots of commissions. And someone has to send people to these commissions. Some party or public organization or council of deputies. A small group of traitors, which the occupants managed to recruit during two months of occupation, is clearly not enough for this complex process," wrote Belyy in Facebook.

According to him, without members of the commissions, without officials with at least some lists of voters, without agitators who will tell them that "it is necessary to participate in the voting," without the media, posters of information posters - it is impossible to organize at least some "semblance " voting.

"Thousands of military personnel with machine guns and in balaclavas will not be able to tear the Kafirs away from the fighting so that they would spend the whole day in all the villages and towns in the region handing out ballots and then counting the votes. And, most importantly, there are not that many willing voters in Kherson oblast to at least hold that "referendum. The absolute majority of the region's residents are hostile to the idea from the KNR," explains the political scientist.

On April 16, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova reported that the Russian military is planning to hold a pseudo-referendum in the Kherson region in early May. On 25 April, the Russian military seized the building of Kherson city council.

Telegram channels controlled by Russian special services, in particular Legitimny, are spreading a new message: it is necessary to surrender Ukrainian cities without a fight, because "Russia will get its own anyway," that is, occupy Ukrainian territories - but let it be better "like in Kherson than in Mariupol. ". At the same time, the messages of the telegram channels promote two theses: first, the occupied territories are "not bad," "social payments" are distributed there, and "almost everything works. Secondly, there is no point in resisting because Russia will win anyway.

Recall that the consequences of Russia's occupation of any Ukrainian cities are hundreds of murdered and tortured civilians, systematic kidnappings of activists and representatives of any government agencies, mass rapes, mass graves and looting or raiding.

The information that Russian troops "liberated" Rubezhnoye in the Luhansk region are spread by propaganda media referring to the data of the Russian Ministry of Defense. "'The 56th day of the special operation of the Russian armed forces was marked by a dismissal in the LNR," propagandists report. However, this is not true. According to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the CNBO, according to the General Staff of Ukraine, on the 56th day the enemy tried to gain a foothold in the western and northwestern parts of Rubizhne, but was defeated. "This is the third such 'liberation' by the occupiers of Rubizhne, based on information from the Russian Ministry of Defense. This settlement first came under the control of the invaders on March 1. On March 18, Russian propaganda again reported the liberation of Rubezhnoye and even its "mopping up" from the AFU. On March 20, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, Serhii Haidai, denied information about the occupation of Rubizhne," the Center reported.

Russians in Kherson distribute false leaflets in which they convince that "the Russian armed forces are not at war with the Ukrainian people," and that the war began because of "Western plans" to destroy the Russian and Ukrainian peoples. The war itself is called an operation to eliminate the anti-people Kyiv regime.

The leaflets blame the Ukrainians themselves and their elected authorities for the Russian aggression: "the grief you have suffered is the result of the criminal policies of the Kiev regime.

Such actions by Russian propagandists are a direct admission that this war has nothing to do with the mythical "defense of Donbass. Its goal is the destruction of Ukrainian statehood and the occupation of all of Ukraine, the press service noted.

Ukrainians are urged to collaborate with the Russians and noted: "Do not think it will be quick and painless." This statement becomes especially relevant given that, according to satellite images from the company Planet Lab, at least 824 new graves have appeared in the city cemetery in Kherson during the occupation.

As of today, Ukrainian and international investigators are thoroughly investigating all the crimes committed by the Russians. They will be evidence for a special tribunal over both the direct perpetrators and the Russian top brass.

Information about this is spread in social networks and Russian propaganda media. Such reports refer to the data of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly "were replacing the chlorine tanks at the water supply plant" which are planned to explode "when the occupation troops approach the village of Bilohorivka, Luhansk Region. However, this is a fake. In fact, the threat of chemical attacks exists not from the AFU, but from the Russian army. Therefore, in order to avoid a potentially dangerous situation, the specialists of the utility enterprise "Popasnyansk district vodokanal" no longer have stocks of chlorine To disinfect water in the area during military operations use another substance - safe under the threat of explosion. local vodokanal, on the possibility of provocation by Russian occupants. At present, the reagent is stored in Dnipro. As already reported by the "Detector Media", three days ago there was information that the enemy is preparing information provocations on the so-called chemical crimes of the Ukrainian army. In particular, then it was also reported about a possible provocation about the settlement of Bilohorivka.

The Russian Defense Ministry and Russian media are spreading a fake that the Ukrainian authorities imposed a long curfew in Irpen, Kiev region, to allegedly prepare "staged filming of pseudo-proofs of Russia's guilt in the mass deaths of local residents. In fact, during this time, municipal services must clear Irpen of explosive objects, abandoned cars, consequences of explosions, etc. Back on March 30, Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Makrushyn reported that up to 300 civilians and 50 military personnel had been killed in the city, according to preliminary data. At the same time, images of Irpen liberated from the Russian occupation began to be published.

This is the thesis of pro-Russian telegram channels referring to the words of the mayor of Russian-occupied Kherson in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda. They say that the head of the city, who "drowned for Kiev and Ukraine," supported Russia for the first time, saying that the Ukrainian government ignored the city's problems during the entire period of independence and did not send any budgetary funds to Kherson, and since 2014 (i.e. after the Revolution of Dignity and the annexation of Crimea) the situation has become even worse. In fact, the head of Kherson Ihor Kolykhaiev in an interview with Sevgil Musaeva does say that Kherson region has "sagged" economically over the past 8 years, but he says nothing about how the situation in the region has deteriorated throughout the years of Ukraine's independence. Also Ihor Kolykhaiev did not take the Russian side and there is no mention in the interview of his commitment to the Russian army. With the interviewer, he discusses the situation in the city, the probable causes of the occupation, and why he did not leave the city at the beginning of the war, as some local officials did. He also added that he "always asks the President's Office not to forget about the city," but one cannot conclude from these words that Ihor Kolykhaiev defected to Russia.

Russian propaganda spreads a fake that "Western countries supply low-quality and outdated weapons to Ukraine," or that "it is simply impossible to stop cruise missile strikes with Javelin and Stinger. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council denied these reports, recalling that since February 25, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has regularly reported on downed Russian cruise missiles: over the Vinnitsa, Kherson, Kharkov, and Nikolaev regions. "In this way the aggressor is trying to sow panic among the population. Having met resistance in the temporarily occupied territories, the enemy resorts to information terrorism in order to demoralize Ukrainians and stop their resistance, the Center said. - In this way, the enemy is probably already preparing the information field for victorious messages about "new liberated settlements in Donbass, which will be presented as territories under temporary occupation since 2014".

The Russian Defense Ministry, Russian propaganda media, and telegram channels are actively working to justify the situation in Bucha, where at least 400 murdered and tortured residents were found after Russian troops left. Russian propaganda does not have a unified approach for this case, so it spreads completely different messaging and manipulative messages, from versions about staging and fake photos to the version allegedly killed by the Ukrainian military "for the picture" for foreign media. "The Media Detector recorded 18 variations of propaganda messages. Not all of them are related, but all of them are aimed at justifying Russia.

The most popular message promoted by the Russian authorities is a "staging" or "provocation" by the Ukrainian authorities to force the West to give weapons and aircraft, discredit the Russian army, disrupt peace agreements, and incite violence.

Along with this message spread allegedly:

- "not a single civilian was harmed while Russian troops were in town";

- "residents of Bucha were able to leave the city while Russian troops were there";

- "photos of the dead in Bucha were shown only on the fourth day after the Russian troops left";

- "the video from Bucha shows the dead moving their arms and removing their limbs in order to avoid being hit by the wheels of military equipment, and getting up".

Another group of messages is based on a technique that Russia has already tried - shifting responsibility to the Ukrainian defenders. Among other things, they spread the theses that:

- "the residents of Bucha were killed by the local terrorists";

- "the residents of Bucha were killed by artillery fire from the AFU and Azov when they entered the city";

- "there are white bandages on the bodies of the dead - they were used by the Ukrainians";

- "tying hands is the handwriting of the Ukrainian military and terrorists".

Bucha had been under the occupation of the Russian army since the beginning of March, only on April 1 the AFU reported liberation of the city. After Bucha was returned under the control of the AFU, hundreds of dead were found there. These crimes by the Russian military are already referred to as the "Bucha massacre. President Vladimir Zelensky visited Bucha on April 4 and said that Russia committed war crimes and genocide in Ukraine. The European Union accused Russian authorities of committing atrocities.

"Detector Media" urges readers to take care of their mental health and try not to distribute the photos to their acquaintances and loved ones, because the purpose of such activities of the Russians is to terrorize the Ukrainian population. They seek to intimidate and break the spirit to make it harder for Ukrainians to resist.

This thesis is spread by the Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels The Center to Counter Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine warned that another attempt by Russia to prepare an information field to justify war crimes and an attempt to intimidate the population against the background of redeployment of occupation troops to Donbass and the south of Ukraine. "A similar disinformation campaign in the Russian media was recorded on February 27 to spread panic among the population. The enemy reported alleged Ukrainian provocations with phosphorus in Gostomel. On March 25 and April 2, the Kafirs used phosphorus in ORDLO. Then the Kremlin media tried to shift responsibility for the use of banned weapons to the Ukrainian armed forces," the report said.

Several Kremlin media disseminate such information regarding the so-called "LPR forces". According to StopFake, the killings of civilians are attributed to the Ukrainian army, which allegedly "drove people out of basements and used them as human shields".

“There are no photos and video evidence of such "burials". However, this is not confirmed by locals. On the contrary, the Russian occupation forces continue to fire on civilian targets and kill the civilian population of Ukraine," the fact-checkers wrote.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, the enemy is producing a wave of disinformation aimed at the residents of Kherson. "Kherson is the only large Ukrainian city that has been under temporary Russian occupation since the beginning of a new phase of the war. Russian propaganda is actively "working" with the minds of the local residents, and through its agents in Kherson is spreading false messages that are beneficial to Russia and discredit the actions of the Ukrainian authorities," the Center said in a statement. Among the messages there are the following: "Kherson has been left", "Ukraine does not need Kherson", "Ukraine has left the civilians without means of subsistence."

In fact, this is not the case at all. "Ukraine will never leave the people of Kherson in trouble. Сonsidering the situation at the front line, the Ukrainian army is reckless to start fighting within the city, sacrificing civilians. Ukraine highly appreciates the efforts of the local residents, who, despite the temporary occupation of Russia, go out to rallies in support of Ukraine," the Center added.

This information was shared by French journalist Anne-Laure Bonnell. Fake has already been refuted by fact-checkers from StopFake. According to the report, since the beginning of the open invasion of Ukraine, the Russian occupation forces have been intentionally shelling residential areas and civilians in Donbas.

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Social networks and Kremlin media sources spread a fake video of Ukraine allegedly blowing up a dam blocking water from the Dnipro river, so that “the water went” to the occupied Crimea. The leader of the Crimean occupation administration, Serhiy Aksyonov, says that the dam was destroyed by "our military (occupiers — DM)".

According to StopFake, the video does not show the dam that blocks the water supply to the occupied Crimea. This can be seen in the photo.

Such announcements have appeared on the internet during the day. However, the Vasylkiv City Council denies this information. “The Territorial Defense Forces and Kyiv Regional Council are not evacuating the population due to the residents' life threat in the region. In some districts of the region, the situation is complicated, but controlled, because of russian occupation troops’ attempts to take over our cities and, eventually, Kyiv”, — the city council informed.

People are also asked to stay in safe places, shelters, at home. Don’t leave them.

This message is spread by Ilya Kiva the People's Deputy from a pro-Russian and Eurosceptic political party: Opposition Platform — For Life, on his telegram channel. He urges everyone to be objective but claims that all the stories about the victories of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in battles with Russia are supposedly faked. He says that there are already a lot of Russian tanks and special forces in Kyiv and that they are preparing to storm the administrative buildings.

Kiva also states that "Zelensky and his mono-majority are involved in the current situation in the country." In fact, according to official data, since the beginning of the open large-scale invasion of the Russian-occupation forces into Ukraine on February 24, they have lost more than 2,800 soldiers, 80 tanks, and 516 armored vehicles. The Ukrainian military keeps the defense in many cities of Ukraine.