Propagandists are spreading information in the media that the attack by Ukrainian forces on the Kursk region allegedly indicates the “agony” of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and that panic and a coup d’etat will soon begin in Kyiv. In doing so, they refer to statements by American political scientist Scott Bennett.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security drew attention to this message. They note that this is not the first time that propaganda has been trying to predict the collapse of the “Zelenskyi regime”, starting in 2023, constantly spreading fiction about a military coup, a “third Maidan” or the elimination of the President by third forces. The goal of these Kremlin manipulations is to impose on Ukrainians and Western audiences the idea of Ukraine as a “fragile” and “vulnerable” state.

Scott Bennett is a longtime darling of Russian propaganda. For example, in November 2023, he visited the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas and spread lies that Soledar was allegedly destroyed by “American weapons”. And in March 2024, Bennett even approached Putin with a request to grant him Russian citizenship, declaring a desire to use his skills “for the good of Russia”.

The pro-Kremlin resource RT (formerly Russia Today) reported that it had in its possession a video of a “captured Ukrainian saboteur” who was allegedly captured by the Russian military at the Kursk border checkpoint. The person in the video, kneeling and blindfolded, says in Russian that “they were going to Sudzha” and that “it was necessary to “remove” the village of Hordiivka for those who took it (the village - Ed.)”.

In fact, this video is static and it is evidenced by several facts. First of all, the person in the video has a strong Russian accent, which is not typical of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, but rather of Russians. In addition, even one of the Russian so-called “military correspondents” with an audience of 95 thousand subscribers could not remain silent and said that “this is our fake”, adding that “this is not the time for this”. And many Russians themselves did not believe in the veracity of the video, claiming that it was a decree.

Previously, Detector Media denied the information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces using an American Stryker armored personnel carrier near the Judge shot up a car with civilians.

Pro-Russian propaganda telegram channels, including Polish ones, are distributing a video in which a Russian military UAV allegedly recorded a war crime by Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel. Propagandists claim that the Ukrainian military shot at a civilian car in the border village of Zelenyi Shliakh near the town of Sudzha (Kursk region, Russia). The car, “from the fire of an American Stryker armored personnel carrier”, allegedly camouflaged in a forest belt, rolled to the side of the road and burst into flames. As a result, on an anonymous telegram channel they add that the driver and passengers of the car died.

In fact, there is no real evidence that such an incident actually happened. In the video, which was first distributed by one of the so-called Russian “military correspondents” (that is, the same propagandist), it is impossible to establish what exactly caused the car to catch fire.

Russia has once again decided to resort to fake accusations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the killing of civilians. This time near the city of Sudzha, where fighting continues. Thus, the Russians are trying to divert attention from the war crimes of the Russian army itself against the civilian population of Ukraine by resorting to a propaganda tactic called “deflection”.

At the same time, by recalling the American Stryker armored personnel carrier in this fake, propagandists are fueling a narrative aimed at both internal and external audiences: they say that NATO has broken into Russian territory.

Information is being spread in Russian telegram channels that Ukraine is going to surrender the Kharkiv region to Russian troops. Propagandists claim that this is evidenced by the “decision” of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to fire 10 thousand teachers in the eastern regions, in particular in the Kharkiv region, where it seems that only 40-50 schools will remain. Also, the number of children studying remotely is supposed to increase significantly.

After verifying this information in the Kharkiv Military Regional Administration, the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council reported that it was untrue. Order No. 850 provides for a reduction in the school network, but with the transfer of teachers to the personnel reserve while maintaining their salaries. Contrary to the words of propagandists, the Ministry of Education and Science, on the contrary, plans to gradually move away from distance learning and move to offline or mixed format learning. It is planned to increase the number of distance classes in Ukrainian specifically for children abroad.

In fact, these days the discussion of draft order No. 850 on obtaining general secondary education under martial law continues. The order has not yet been approved by the Ministry of Education and Science and, accordingly, has not entered into force. The Ministry of Education and Science writes that after joint discussions and developments, they will make changes to the draft order and submit it for approval.

The Center for Countering Disinformation adds that with such stuffing, the Russians are trying to cause a negative attitude towards government bodies on the part of Ukrainian society. Previously, we analyzed the fake order of the Kharkiv Public Educational Institution on the evacuation of heads of local administrations along with their families.

Russian telegram channels are spreading the message that Ukraine is trying by any means to attract the attention of its Western hosts, announcing for the second night in a row that Russian UAVs are going to Romania.

Even after Romanian Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu announced on July 25, 2024 that debris from Russian drones had been found on the country’s territory, propagandists continued to stand their ground, arguing that this would still not help draw attention to Ukraine. At the same time, from the Russian side there were claims against Romania, they say, “it is taking on the role of Ukraine, a “battering ram against Russia”, and a huge NATO presence on the eastern flank”.

In parallel, propagandists deny the official report of the Romanian Ministry of Defense that the targets of the attacks on July 24 and 25, 2024 were Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. In their usual manner, the Russians claim that Russian drones flew specifically to military facilities in Ukraine, which are allegedly located near the border with Romania.

By commenting on the fall of Russian UAV debris in Romania, Ukraine does not set out to attract attention to itself, because its international partners are already closely monitoring the course of the war and numerous violations of international law by Russia and recording them. The Ukrainian side only once again announced a violation of the airspace of NATO’s eastern flank and that Russia poses a real threat not only to Ukraine, but also to its neighboring countries.

Pro-Kremlin resources are spreading the message that supposedly in February 2014 the pro-Western opposition did not disrupt the settlement agreement to which Russia agreed, then Ukraine would now be within the 1991 borders that it so dreams of. In asserting this, propagandists refer to the statement of Russian Foreign Minister Serhii Lavrov.

However, Lavrov’s words are a lie. Russia’s preparations for the occupation of Crimea and the organization of a series of Russian uprisings in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine began long before the conclusion of agreements between Yanukovych and the Maidan leaders on February 21, 2014. They write about this in the Center for Strategic Communications and Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

The agreements were thwarted by Yanukovych, since he withdrew from fulfilling his duties immediately after signing the agreement and took the path of outright treason, helping Russia in the occupation of the sovereign territory of Ukraine.

The Center adds that the nonsense spread by Lavrov is part of the basic Russian narrative, which is trying to present Russian aggression against Ukraine as an alleged “reaction” to the victory of the Revolution of Dignity. In fact, Russia was nurturing its aggressive plans long before it became known how the events on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv would end. Previously, we wrote about how Lavrov is trying to discredit the Ukrainian formula for peace in the world.

Pro-Russian resources are distributing a photo showing Ukrainian graduates at the last bell celebration ceremony, dressed in graduation ribbons. And, according to propagandists, this year the ribbons seemed to depict a map of Ukraine without the temporarily occupied Crimea.

However, this is a fake photo. The photo has been edited, because in the original photo the map of Ukraine on the ribbons is shown including Crimea. This was reported by specialists from the VoxCheck project. Using the PimEyes program, which performs a reverse face search, they found a photo of one of the girls in the feed - she was present at the Ukrainian Greco-Roman wrestling championship in Ternopil.

Then, thanks to a search using the words “last call celebration Ternopil”, it was possible to find original footage from the graduation. In fact, they were made not in Lviv, but in Ternopil - they were distributed by local media on May 31, 2024. In the photo of all graduates, the ribbons of all graduates depict Ukraine within the internationally recognized borders of 1991, including the temporarily occupied Crimea.

In addition, on the fake photo one can see signs of editing, probably with spot correction: on one ribbon in the place of Crimea there is a noticeable darkening, on the other there is a gap in the outline of the map.

Also, in all online stores where such graduation ribbons are sold or produced to order, Ukraine is depicted within the internationally recognized borders of 1991. In the end, this “news” is spread mainly by Russian websites and telegram channels. There is no mention in the Ukrainian media of the incident, which would certainly provoke outrage in the Ukrainian-language segment of social networks, because such situations are reacted sharply in the media space.

European Parliament member Mick Wallace expressed disappointment that, in his opinion, Europeans in Ukraine bought more land than Russian troops captured in the east of the country. He accused the West of turning Ukraine into a colony, pointing to reform of land laws that allowed foreigners to purchase agricultural land. His statement was quickly picked up by the Russians. However, the facts show that the information is false.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this fake. They note that the Law on the Land Market in Ukraine was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on March 31, 2020, but according to it, foreigners do not have the right to buy agricultural land. This is confirmed by Serhii Datsiv, senior lawyer at Integrites. He noted that the lifting of restrictions could become the subject of an all-Ukrainian referendum. It is now impossible to predict when this will happen due to the martial law in the country.

During the two years of operation of the land market from July 1, 2021 to July 1, 2023, Ukraine sold only 1% of agricultural land that was previously under a moratorium on sales. According to the Geodetic Service of Ukraine, as of May 2024, 307,966 land plots with a total area of 677,982 hectares were sold.

Propagandists spread such fakes to discredit Ukraine among Western partners and create distrust of the government’s actions among Ukrainians. They say that there is almost no country left because all its land was sold off.

Propagandists are spreading a message in which the Russian allegedly expressed his negative opinion about obtaining Ukrainian citizenship. According to him, he was convinced of his mistake, since now, having a Ukrainian passport, he missed the opportunity to leave the country and he faces being sent to the front. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that this post first appeared on X (formerly Twitter) on April 19 and was posted by the user @KirriloUA, on whose account one can see mainly propaganda materials.

The photo used in this post does not actually belong to the author, but is taken from open sources and has been circulating since at least 2020. Moreover, in Ukraine, from November 1, 2016, only ID cards are issued, and not passports in booklet format, as in the photo. The latter forms have been taken out of circulation, and now a passport of the 1994 model can only be obtained through a judicial process.

The active dissemination of this material in pro-Russian media indicates that this may be part of an organized propaganda campaign to discredit Ukraine.

Information is being spread online that as a result of assault operations, Russian troops allegedly captured the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region and actually gained a foothold there. In asserting this, propagandists refer to a statement by one of the deputies of the Zaporizhzhia regional council.

In fact, this “news” is not true. They write about this in the Center for Strategic Communications and Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

The Defense Forces of southern Ukraine note that the information picked up by the media was published without checking its veracity by those who are not directly related to real combat work and do not have operational information about the situation in Robotyne.

The Southern Defense Forces also add that Ukrainian units are repelling Russian attacks with artillery on the approaches to Robotyne: the military of the 65th Mechanized Infantry Brigade and related units are destroying groups of invaders with strike drones and mortar crews.

Russian propagandists are spreading information that Ukraine has expressed its readiness to “give up Crimea and Donbas” by initiating peace negotiations. They refer to statements made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi during an interview with the American channel CBS. Propagandists claim that Country 404 proposes to begin a peaceful dialogue with Russia without demanding the return of the 1991 borders, although Kyiv previously insisted on this condition for resuming negotiations with Moscow. However, these statements are based on a distortion of reality.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this manipulation. They found that the actual content of the CBS News interview with Volodymyr Zelenskyi was reduced to incorrect conclusions to promote false narratives.

In fact, in an interview, Zelenskyi, answering a question about faith in the possibility of Ukraine returning all territories, including Crimea, emphasized that with sufficient support from partners, as well as a complete economic blockade of Russia, Ukraine will be able to restore its territorial integrity not only through military means. He expressed confidence that Russia’s defeat will lead to the loss of its support even by states that doubt Ukraine and will weaken positions within Russia itself, which will force it to dialogue. Zelenskyi called an important condition for such a dialogue the liberation of Ukrainian territories and the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine within the annexation of Crimea by Russia.

Propagandists spread such manipulations to discredit the President and cause a split in Ukrainian society. Detector Media previously refuted other Russian lies about Zelenskyi.

Russian resources are disseminating information that the President of Ukraine promised the West that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will use long-range weapons provided by partner countries only against targets in territories that Ukraine considers its own. However, according to a recent presidential decree, the list of “ours” now allegedly also includes one area (krai) and five regions of Russia, propagandists say.

In fact, this information is distorted, as reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. Zelenskyi’s decree on the territories of Russia historically inhabited by Ukrainians concerns exclusively the protection of the national rights of Russian citizens of Ukrainian ethnic origin, but propagandists pass it off as a demonstration of “territorial claims”.

The weapons transferred by partners are used exclusively to defeat Russian targets in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine. The Defense Forces are destroying objects on Russian territory by Ukrainian-made weapons.

By manipulating information, in this case, Russian propaganda seeks to mobilize Russians for war against Ukraine and the “collective West”, resorting to demonization. Propagandists also want to intimidate Ukraine’s Western partners with “escalation” from Russia in order to disrupt further assistance. Previously, we denied information that NATO countries would try to capture “six Russian regions”.

Russian propagandists are distributing a video on anonymous telegram channels in which the author claims that old German maps published in 1881 and 1908 contain no mention of Ukraine or Ukrainians. However, this is a distortion of facts.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the term “Ukraine” designating the territory of the modern state of Ukraine had already appeared on the maps of European cartographers at the end of the 17th century.

Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak explains that the word “Ukraine” as a geographical name was first mentioned in the Kyiv Chronicle of the 12th century as a designation of the territory of the Pereyaslav Principality. The term had different interpretations among Ukrainian historians: Mykhailo Hrushevskyi believed that “Ukraine” meant the Middle Dnipro region, and Agatangel Krymskyi argued that this was the territory where the Cossacks later arose. The term “Ukraine” began to acquire a specific geographical meaning throughout the 16th century, and its final consolidation in cartography occurred thanks to the maps of the French engineer Guillaume de Beauplan in the mid-17th century.

Therefore, if one carefully examines the map in the propaganda video, they will notice that the territory of modern Ukraine is designated as “Malorossia” or “Little Rus”, which was a derivative of the term “Hetmanate” or Left-Bank Ukraine. This approach of Russian propagandists is aimed at discrediting Ukraine, but it has no scientific basis, since the term “Ukraine” has been known since ancient times and was used to designate certain territories.

Accordingly, the thesis of propagandists that there are no mentions of Ukraine on old maps is unfounded.

Pro-Russian telegram channels are disseminating information that the bookmaker Betfair has begun accepting bets on which city the Ukrainian Armed Forces will leave next. As confirmation of their own statements, Russian propagandists distribute an image with corresponding content. According to them, “Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kherson, Kharkiv, Odesa and even Kyiv are at stake”.

In fact, this is another Russian fake. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council. There is no section with bets on the war in Ukraine on the official Betfair website. Accordingly, the image distributed by propagandists is fake.

The purpose of such fakes is to create the illusion of the Kremlin’s control over the situation in Ukraine and to assure that Russia’s victory is inevitable. However, the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not intend to give up their positions, and partner countries continue to provide military assistance to Ukraine, thereby making their contribution to the speedy de-occupation of the territories occupied by Russia.

• Read also: Betting on political assassinations in Ukraine has allegedly gained popularity in the United States

Russia continues to promote the message that “Hungarians are encroaching on Transcarpathia”, despite a direct statement by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó about supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. The corresponding information leaks took place against the backdrop of Szijjarto’s arrival in Uzhhorod to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, as well as the head of the Office of the President Andrii Yermak.

An important goal of such a meeting was to improve relations between the two countries by organizing a frank and constructive dialogue. Another goal of the conversation was to create the preconditions for a meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

At the same time, the result of negotiations in Uzhhorod between Szijjártó, Kuleba and Yermak was the beginning of an important dialogue on the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine. Hungary and Ukraine agreed to create a joint commission, which, 10 days from the date of the meeting, should present a complete list of controversial issues regarding the rights of national minorities.

Also during the meeting, they discussed Ukraine’s membership in the EU, cooperation in logistics, development of transport links, energy and financial projects, etc. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation.

Propagandists are distributing a video on social networks where a man in military uniform claims that mining of the borders with Hungary has begun in Transcarpathia. In the comments, social media users suggest that this is being done to stop border violations or because of the presence of Hungarian troops. However, this information is unreliable.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. The State Border Service of Ukraine (SBS) has denied information about mining of the borders with Hungary. Project analysts were also unable to identify the serviceman depicted in the video, and Ukrainian media did not have relevant reports on this topic. Instead, the State National Security Service reported the continuation of mining of the borders with Belarus. According to the speaker of the State National Security Service Andrii Demchenko, the direction to Belarus is a priority for Ukraine from a security point of view.

Propagandists spread this misinformation to create panic among the population. They say that an attack is already underway on the western borders of Ukraine.

Russian propagandists are spreading the message proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The bill on multiple citizenship is a preparation for the sale of Ukrainian territory. They say that the Ukrainian authorities will grant citizenship to Western businessmen so that they can buy Ukrainian land and enterprises and transport Ukrainian wealth to the EU or the USA.

This information is false. In fact, the Bill is intended to provide the opportunity to obtain Ukrainian passports, in particular, to representatives of the diaspora whose ancestors left Ukraine during various waves of emigration. Also, the proposed changes will allow a Ukrainian passport to foreigners who voluntarily defend Ukraine from Russian invasion. The bill does not provide for any preferences for the purchase of Ukrainian assets. This is stated by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

Thus, the Russians are trying to sow panic among Ukrainian society and split it. It should be noted that citizens of the aggressor country will not have the opportunity to obtain a Ukrainian passport. Previously, we analyzed the message that Ukraine would allegedly ask for new military loans and sell its lands at the economic forum in Davos.

Pro-Kremlin resources are disseminating information that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has issued a decree on the annexation of Russian territories to Ukraine. With this decree, he allegedly declared the right of sovereignty over the Krasnodar Territory, Voronezh, Kursk, Rostov, Briansk and Belgorod regions.

Thus, on January 22, 2024, Zelenskyi signed a decree “On the territories of the Russian Federation historically inhabited by Ukrainians”, but it does not talk about the “annexation” of these territories to Ukraine or the “declaration of sovereignty” over them. Propagandists resorted to yet another manipulation of facts, because the real purpose of the decree is to begin work to preserve the national identity of Ukrainians living in Russia. This is written about in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

This decree, in particular, is about restoring and preserving the historical memory of crimes against Ukrainians in the past and present; on countering disinformation and propaganda; development of cooperation between Ukrainians and other peoples conquered by Russia; preparation and distribution of materials, as well as updating and inclusion in educational programs of information about the true history of ethnic Ukrainians in Russia.

With this media manipulation, Russian propaganda seeks to fuel its narrative: “Ukraine is the aggressor”, so Russia had no other option but to attack Ukrainian lands. They say that in this way Russia wanted to protect its territorial integrity, as well as Russian-speaking Ukrainians who were allegedly “oppressed” in Ukraine. However, the truth is that this is only a justification for Russian aggression by Moscow, which has been encroaching on Ukrainian territories for centuries and seeking to seize them, today committing a real genocide of the Ukrainian people.

• Read also: Map from a bar in Baghdad proves that Ukraine was going to conquer Russia and Georgia (photo fake)

On January 8, a Georgian Facebook user posted a photo of a card that was described as being sent from one of the bars in the so-called Green Zone in Baghdad. There this card is used as a table cover. On the map, the contours and names of states have been changed, and the territory of Georgia has been merged with Ukraine. The user writes: “It turns out that our Ukrainian friends not only planned to conquer Russia, but also consider Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan part of their territory”.

Georgian fact-checkers from the Myth Detector project drew attention to this post.

In fact, the photo shared by a Facebook user shows a card from the board game Risk and has nothing to do with Ukraine's attitude toward other countries' territories or its plans for conquest. The borders of states on the map of the game are placed arbitrarily and cannot be perceived as a source of information about geography.

Since February 24, 2022, when the Detector Media team has been conducting the Disinformation Chronicles, this is the first time a board game map has been used as evidence of the propagandists’ worldview. Maps have long been used to justify territorial claims or intimidation over the seizure of territories. For example, Russians say that the Poles are planning to occupy Halychyna and Volyn, because when these territories were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Rzeczpospolita. They also say that all Ukraine’s neighbors have territorial claims against each other. Despite these reports, Russia is the only state on Ukraine's border that has invaded other states in the 21st century. The Russians invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014.

Such information is disseminated by pro-Kremlin media and anonymous telegrams. They say that 46% of Ukrainians living in the front-line regions are in favor of ending the war without returning the territories. In asserting this, propagandists refer to the all-Ukrainian public opinion poll Omnibus of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), which was conducted from November 29 to December 9, 2023. However, Russian propaganda manipulates its results.

In the “BezBrekhni” (No Lies) project, experts worked on this case. It turned out that the majority of respondents - 58% - are inclined to believe that even in the event of a significant reduction in assistance from Western countries, military operations should still be continued to put pressure on the occupiers. Moreover, this should be done even taking into account the risks for the territories controlled by Ukraine now.

Still, in the south and east of Ukraine, opinions were divided approximately in half, with a slight predominance of sentiment in favor of continuing hostilities. Yes, in the south 46%, and in the east 47% of Ukrainians believe that even with limited Western assistance, fighting should continue. At the same time, 40% and 42%, respectively, are ready to agree to a cessation of hostilities.

None of the options says that any part of society is willing to cede territory. In the survey, there is the following wording: “The fighting stops with serious security guarantees from the West, but the liberation of the territories is postponed for an indefinite future”. That is, we are not talking about the surrender of territories, as propaganda claims, but about the fact that their de-occupation will occur in the future.

KIIS also notes that “in this case, the factor of proximity to the front line plays an important role. The south and east are significantly closer to the active combat zone, which largely leads to a higher willingness to cease hostilities in the face of limited assistance (although, remember, the vast majority in these regions believe that with proper assistance Ukraine can succeed)”.

By manipulating the results of this survey, propagandists are trying to influence the morale of Ukrainians - to sow panic, fear and uncertainty in the future of the country. Moreover, in this case, Russian propaganda also encourages Ukrainian citizens to rethink the course of the war, saying that “the long-awaited victory may not happen”.  Detector Media has previously denied information that the majority of Ukrainians allegedly want to capitulate.

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that the Ukrainian authorities seem to have begun to prepare for the surrender of the central and western regions of Ukraine to Poland. This is evidenced by the fact that children began to be taught Polish in schools in the Poltava region. However, this is a fake.

This case was studied by specialists at the Center for Countering Disinformation. They managed to find out that the Polish language in the Poltava region is taught in only two schools, and not in all, as propagandists claim. This was reported by the Poltava City Council. Moreover, at the beginning of the school year, in addition to compulsory English, children in the region were offered to study Polish or German as a second foreign language, which indicates free choice and not coercion.

By claiming that Ukraine is ready to surrender its territories to Poland, Russian propaganda  is trying to demoralize Ukrainian society and assure everyone around that the defeat of the Ukrainian side in the war against Russia is inevitable. Propagandists also aim to create an image of Poland as an enemy among Ukrainians by spreading disinformation, as in this case. As part of the narrative that Poland will supposedly “absorb” Ukraine, we wrote about a conspiracy theory called “Ukrpolin”.

Social networks began to spread messages in Ukrainian with the information that “our army liberated 270-300 km², losing 71 thousand soldiers killed”. The publications also say: in order to de-occupy all territories, it will be necessary to “kill” almost 29 million Ukrainians.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security analyzed such messages. They found out that such publications are Russian IPSO. As for the deoccupied territories, this is the case – as of September 10, 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine actually liberated about 270 km². However, the data on the number of Ukrainian military deaths during hostilities is invented, since this information is a state secret and will be made public by Ukraine only after the end of the war. It turns out that the “calculation” of future losses was made on the basis of imaginary data, so it cannot be considered reliable.

Propagandists manipulate information and create facts because they see this as effective and potentially influential on Ukrainian society. Such disinformation is spread with the aim of demoralizing Ukrainians and making them think about giving up. When reading similar cases that can evoke strong emotions, we encourage you to think critically. We also worked on the Russian information campaign, when on behalf of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, recipes for dishes from pigeons and dogs were sent to Ukrainians in connection with the alleged crisis in the agricultural sector in Ukraine.

Propaganda resources began distributing a video in which an unknown man in the uniform of the Ukrainian Armed Forces “warns” residents of the Transcarpathian region that he and other military personnel were allegedly given an order to start mining the border areas bordering Hungary. It's fake.

The information was analyzed by the experts from the Center for Countering Disinformation. They asked the State Border Service of Ukraine to comment on the video. They replied that the information mentioned in the recording was not true. Probably, having taken possession of the uniform of the Ukrainian Armed Forces as a result of one of the battles at the front, the Russians decided to take advantage of this and create a fake video.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to sow panic among the civilian population of Transcarpathia and resort to one of the propaganda tactics: using fear, uncertainty and doubt to achieve this goal. Previously, we denied information that the wife of the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs crossed the Ukrainian-Hungarian border with $13 million.

Pro-Kremlin resources are disseminating information that Ukraine was offered to join the North Atlantic Alliance “in exchange for abandoning” Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Propagandists refer to the words of former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who allegedly made such a proposal due to the “failure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces counteroffensive”. However, this is manipulation.

This case was analyzed by the fact-checkers of the StopFake project. They found out that Rasmussen actually promoted the idea of Ukraine joining NATO without occupied territories. However, he did not call on Ukraine to give up those territories, but had something slightly different in mind. In his opinion, the country’s early entry into NATO will help protect itself from new manifestations of Russian aggression in the territories controlled by Ukraine, since Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on Collective Defense will apply to them. That is, the invasion of Russian troops into these zones will mean an attack on NATO and the response will be immediate. If Ukraine joins NATO as soon as possible, it will also be possible to release additional Ukrainian defense forces, which, for example, are now located on the border with Belarus, and send them to de-occupy the territories captured by the Russians.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen also reminded that there is a similar historical precedent. In 1955, West Germany joined NATO and Article 5 was extended to its territory. At the same time, it did not apply to East Germany, which was then under Soviet occupation.

Russian propaganda is trying to demoralize Ukrainian society with such manipulations and declare that Ukraine allegedly cannot de-occupy the territories captured by Russian troops. Previously, we denied information that NATO is preparing for the defeat of Ukraine and the occupation of the western part of Ukrainian territories.

On the Internet, propagandists began to spread information that Romania is in no hurry to help evacuate its “stranded” citizens in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Hamas attack on Israel. Bucharest is supposedly engaged in saving Ukrainians, that is, it puts them as a priority. This is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project looked into this case and found out that there is no information that Romania is prioritizing the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens. Evacuation from the Gaza Strip is not yet possible, so propagandists manipulate information when they write that the Romanian authorities are saving Ukrainians, but not Romanians. On October 8, 2023, Romania made its first flight, evacuating 346 Romanian citizens from Ben Gurion Airport (Tel Aviv, Israel), as reported by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Almost a week later, the first evacuation plane to Romania with Ukrainians on board took off from the same Israel on October 14 - there were 207 Ukrainian citizens on board, mostly women, children and the elderly. Due to the fact that Ukrainian airspace is closed to aircraft due to Russia’s armed aggression, Ukrainian citizens are forced to fly first to Romania, a neighboring country, and only then travel overland to Ukraine.

Russia is trying to “create a quarrel” between Ukraine and its neighboring states, one of which is Romania, in order to reduce their support for the Ukrainian people from Russian aggression. Previously, pro-Kremlin media also spread disinformation about the rescue of Ukrainians from Israel in order to once again discredit the Ukrainian government for its inaction.