Such a message is being spread by Russian propagandists against the backdrop of the liberation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Russian invaders of territories in the Kharkiv region. The reports say that for people living in the liberated territories of the Kharkiv region, a big problem will be that immediately after the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and maybe with them, real punishers will come. Like, they showed themselves perfectly in the fight against civilians even before the war: they fearlessly killed prisoners, fought against the flow of humanitarian aid, etc. The authors of such messages add that people in the liberated territories need to be careful. 

In addition, according to the Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Russian propaganda accuses the Ukrainian authorities of plans to persecute traitors and collaborators among the residents of the territories of Ukraine de-occupied from the Russian occupiers. And Russia calls on international organizations to “force Kyiv to abandon punitive measures against civilians”; appeals to all UN states "to influence Kyiv in order to prevent severe humanitarian consequences for civilians"; accuses the Armed Forces of Ukraine of "looting, torture, beatings, in order to later shift the responsibility for their crimes to Russia".

In fact, the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not persecute the civilian population in the liberated Ukrainian territories. Since the liberation of cities and villages from Russian invaders, dozens of videos have appeared on the network, which show how civilians welcome the Ukrainian military with hugs and thank them for their struggle. However, Russia once again seeks to create the image of evil Ukrainians-punishers who mock their citizens; torture them, etc.

Thus, the propaganda wants to justify the war that Russia started in Ukraine. Like, the Russian army came precisely to liberate the Ukrainians from the captivity of the terrible Nazi punishers. In addition, the Kremlin seeks to create an alibi for itself regarding the possible discovery of war crimes by the Russian army in the liberated territories in order to avoid negative reputational consequences by analogy with the tragedy in Bucha.

The Russian Ministry of Defense assured that the Russian army is not retreating from the Kharkiv region, but is regrouping to the occupied part of the Donetsk region "to step up efforts in the Donetsk direction" in order to achieve the goal of a special military operation to liberate Donbas. The Russians said that during this operation a series of "disgusting and demonstrative events were carried out with the indication of the real actions of the troops".

The Russians circulated such a statement in order not to admit that the Ukrainian army carried out a successful offensive and liberated more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region, and allegedly they themselves decided within three days to curtail and organize the transfer of troops to the occupied Donbas.

Such theses are disseminated by propaganda channels, in particular by RIA Novosti. These reports say that Polish companies have organized the purchase of farmers’ products at a reduced price. In this way, allegedly Poland dooms Ukrainian enterprises to bankruptcy. And since then the Poles seek to buy the assets of companies and Ukrainian lands at reduced prices. However, this is all lies.

As the specialists of the Brekhunets (Lier) project explain, the current harvest campaign is really difficult. Due to the loss of access to ports, after the full-scale invasion of Russia, those who grew grain were the first to suffer. In addition, part of the crops in the temporarily occupied territories was also lost: fields were burned, equipment was destroyed.

The Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine noted that there are only a few bankruptcy cases.

Now, for example, ports have started to work, and if the dynamics are the same as now, then export volumes will be at the level of 4-4.5 million tons, it is quite possible that in September talks will begin between banks and manufacturers about new repayment and credit schedules.

Media Detector has already written about a fake on the impossibility of selling agricultural land to foreign citizens. Moreover, this applies as well to legal entities - food companies.

They also allegedly have a big request for literature in Russian. This is reported by Russian media on anonymous telegram channels. This is not true.

In fact, the occupiers are destroying Ukrainian textbooks and teaching methodology books, books on the history of Ukraine, books by Ukrainian writers, and the Ukrainian language is being made an optional subject in schools. Even fairy tales and illustrated children’s books with almost no text were destroyed. As the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center writes, the Russians decided on their own about the language of instruction in schools.

Since May, the occupiers in the Kharkiv region have emphasized that education in schools will be according to Russian programs and Russian standards. For this, delegations of teachers from the occupied territories of the Kharkiv region traveled to Russia for the so-called retraining. At the end of August, propagandists reported that the United Russia party set the task of developing a plan for the phased Russification of schools and kindergartens in the temporarily occupied Vovchansk,Kharkiv region. In particular, the subject “History of Ukraine” will be replaced by “History of the Russian Federation”. Classes taught in Ukrainian will be replaced by “Russian-speaking” classes. Ukrainian literature will be taught exclusively in Russian and there will be a separate “Russian fiction (Russian literature)”. All entries in students’ registers and diaries will be made in Russian.

In August, Putin instructed the Russian government to pay 10,000 rubles at the same time to one of the parents of schoolchildren in the occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions, provided that the child starts studying according to Russian programs by September 15.

Russian media write about this with reference to the so-called “head of administration” Yevhen Balytskyi. They reported that from September 05 in the occupied territories the hryvnia will allegedly “cheapen” and amount to 1.25 rubles. Allegedly, soon the “rate” of the hryvnia and the ruble will be 1:1, and then the hryvnia will completely “depreciate”. This is manipulation.

The occupiers are artificially withdrawing the hryvnia from circulation and forcibly making payments in rubles. It is impossible to talk about an economically justified ratio of the hryvnia and the ruble in the occupied territories. The Ukrainian banking system in the temporarily occupied territories does not work, so it is impossible to replenish the turnover of hryvnias.

Thus, due to the “depreciation” of hryvnias, the occupiers are trying to promote the idea of ​​depreciating everything Ukrainian and to emotionally influence the Ukrainians who remained in the occupation.

Earlier, the occupiers spread fakes that allegedly in the shops of Ternopil and Lviv regions prices are indicated in hryvnia and zloty.

The Poles demand that Ukraine return the property lost after the Second World War. Russian media are massively spreading a fake about “thousands of lawsuits” that descendants seem to have filed

Poles who lived in Lviv until 1939, demanding that their apartments be returned to them.

In fact, there are no such claims. In their materials, the Russian media refer to the article of the publication “Strana” (“State”), which for many years promotes pro-Russian theses. This time the publication took a comment from the chairman of the Polish organization “Restitution of Kresov” Konrad Renkas, who stated that such claims are prepared. But during the war they decided not to sue.

At the same time, the Russian media wrote that the Ukrainian courts were already “overwhelmed” with these lawsuits.

The Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine warned: Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region receive SMS with fake information and a link to the enemy's Telegram channel. The report says that 85% of the region's residents are in favor of joining Russia.

As the specialists of the Center found out, the link leads to the Zaporizhzhia Vestnik Telegram channel, owned by the Russian occupation authorities and aimed at residents of the Zaporizhzhia region.

“This channel was created just a month ago, and its main goal is to incline people to the side of Russia, demonstrating “all the beauty of the Russian world” and at the same time to discredit the Ukrainian authorities,” the CСD wrote.

Together with the CCD, we urge you to use time-tested, reliable sources of information, as well as those where you can identify the author of the content.

Such messages are spread by pro-Russian telegram channels and Twitter accounts. Allegedly, such a crime is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The propagandists also refer to the "law on collaborationism", which supposedly came into force on August 16. It is not true.

Ukrainian legislation does not provide for liability for receiving Russian humanitarian aid in the occupied territories. According to StopFake, the new bills, on the contrary, are designed to include humanitarian aid in the list of activities that are not considered collaborationism, if there is no cooperation with the Russian occupiers.

There is no single “law on collaborationism” in Ukraine yet. On March 15, separate rules on liability for cooperation with the occupiers came into force. There is also no single punishment for collaborators yet. Depending on the circumstances, it can be different: from a ban on holding certain positions to life imprisonment.

Russian propaganda convinces of this. But this is not the case at all, the Center for Strategic Communications notes.

In fact, Ukrainians are:

going to rallies en masse,

cooperating with the Armed Forces,

fighting the invaders on their own,

This was written by the pro-Kremlin media with reference to the mayor of Lviv, Andrii Sadovyi. It is not true.

Allegedly, such a request was made by the rector of this educational institution. It's fake.

In fact, the educational institutions of Melitopol and Berdiansk received re-registration in Zaporizhzhia and have already announced the conditions for the admission campaign in accordance with Ukrainian law. The propagandists' reports speak of a fake educational institution called "Melitopol University", which the occupiers created on the basis of the premises of the Tavriisk State Agrotechnological University and the Melitopol State Pedagogical University in temporarily occupied Melitopol, as well as universities in temporarily occupied Berdiansk. As StopFake writes, the occupiers appointed a collaborator, anti-Maidanist, police lieutenant colonel Andrii Chuikov, who until 2014 worked at the Kharkiv Academy of Internal Affairs, to lead the fake university. It is the “rector” Chuikov who believes that according to “performance indicators”, the fake university can be considered a full-fledged federal university in Russia.

Russian media and anonymous telegrams write about this. They say that British instructors are preparing units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for small arms battles in cities, and are not preparing aviation, artillerymen and tankmen. It seems that no one in the West is preparing the Armed Forces of Ukraine for an offensive, because this requires completely different resources and scales. It seems that the British consider preparation for defensive battles necessary, because they plan to “gradually give each part of the Ukrainian land destroyed and at the lowest cost for themselves, but at the maximum cost for Russia”, because then the Russians will need to “restore devastation and beggarism”.

In fact, foreign instructors teach the Ukrainian military not only to shoot small arms, but also to use all types of weapons provided by Western partners. According to Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, today the Ukrainian military is being trained in the UK, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, France and Germany. The main focus is on the training of application specialists:

artillery systems of large caliber; multiple launch rocket systems; means of artillery reconnaissance; air defense means; different types of wheeled and tracked vehicles; demining systems, including underwater; different types of ships and their weapon systems, including anti-ship ones.

The shooting training, which the propagandists write about, is allegedly included in the basic combined arms training course for the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which has recently begun with the support of the UK.

Russian media write about this with reference to the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmytriy Peskov. Like, it's not Russia holding a referendum, but local residents. Thus, the Kremlin is trying to legalize the processes in the occupied territories.

According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine is the business of the entire Ukrainian people, and issues of changing the territory of Ukraine are resolved exclusively by an all-Ukrainian referendum. Ukrainian law prohibits holding elections or referendums during martial law. Any attempt to hold a referendum in the temporarily occupied territories is illegal and violates international law. The decision on the ownership of Ukrainian territories can be made and recognized by other states only if all the norms of the current Ukrainian legislation are observed.

This is reported by the Russian media with reference to the CNN story. He said that the report was a "miscalculation of the Western media", which "suddenly admitted" that "what is happening in Ukraine". This is manipulation.

The Russian media used the CNN story, distorting its essence. As the StopFake fact-checkers write, it is actually about people who are forcibly returning to the territories occupied by Russia for various reasons. At the same time, the Russians do not allow Ukrainians who, on the contrary, would like to leave the occupation. Journalists also say that traffic from the occupied territories was blocked on the day of the shooting. According to CNN, 6,000 people were stuck on the Russian side, only 76 were able to pass through the checkpoint. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine also confirmed that the movement at the Kamianske checkpoint is mostly due to the occupation, but on that day the Russians blocked Ukrainians from leaving. Currently, this is the only way to get to the occupied territories, traffic on other roads is blocked for various reasons. Russian mass media do not talk about it.

People who entered the territory occupied by Russia said that they did not want to leave their relatives there. However, pro-Kremlin media made their own "conclusions". In their opinion, these people finally decided to leave Ukraine. This is allegedly indicated by the large number of things they carry with them. Some of the cars in the plot do carry a large number of personal belongings. However, most of them are not. This is visible in the general footage present in the CNN story. Therefore, the conclusion that everyone returns to the occupied territory for permanent residence is an exaggeration. The CNN journalist does not draw such conclusions but notes that those who want to stay on the Russian side may not admit it. The stories of the heroes of the plot also do not contain grounds for such conclusions.

Such information is distributed in social networks and messengers. It is not true.

The secretary of the city council, Anatoly Kurtev, said that now there are no reasons for the mass evacuation of citizens. The other day, the city authorities started an information campaign to clarify the rules of behavior of the population during an emergency, including during evacuation. However, the official says, these are only preventive measures, because, in the conditions of a full-scale war, such knowledge should be available not only to Zaporizhzhia but also to the entire country. Kurtev urged residents to remain calm and trust only official sources of information, not speculations and rumors on social networks.

Recently, fake reports about the evacuation of residents of Odesa were also spread. Local authorities denied these rumors.

The occupiers distribute invoices with allegedly new details of the water utility and send them to the heads of condominiums. Screenshots of tariffs and requisites were published by the Deputy Chairman of the Kherson Regional Council Yuriy Sobolevskyi. These accounts do not exist, writes the "Nota Yenota" project.

"The information stated in the material regarding the opening of accounts in rubles does not correspond to reality. It is forbidden to open accounts in rubles in Ukraine. We checked the details indicated in the material. Such does not exist. Details are fake. We ask you to remove the mention of Alfa-Bank from the material and use only verified information, not to mislead readers," Alfa-Bank's press center replied to Kavun.City journalists. In addition, the IBAN (International Bank Account Number) account format is not used in Russia and for the Russian ruble.

Fact-checkers assumed that the goal of the occupiers was either to discredit the utility company or to assure the people of Kherson that "Russia is here forever." We will remind you that earlier propagandists tried to discredit Khersonoblenergo. 

As the press service of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports, in the temporarily occupied cities of the southern part of the Zaporizhzhia region, representatives of the self-proclaimed authorities are searching for collaborators to create a "mass" for the so-called "spontaneous actions" in referendum support. The occupiers believe that such television stories will reduce the degree of dissatisfaction with the war among Russians. Despite the "material incentives", the local residents are not active enough, so the "mass" is brought from the occupied Crimea.

Russian propagandists falsified the front page of the Polish publication “Dziennik Wschodni” and published it on Facebook and VKontakte. On a fake newspaper page, the propagandists posted the material under the heading: "Zelensky will return Ukraine to Poland." This is, of course, a fake, which shows quite well how Russia works on social networks.

The thesis that the western part of Ukraine should allegedly become part of Poland was actively promoted by Russian propagandists from the beginning of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine. The fiction was "reinforced" with fake maps that seem to demonstrate Poland's intentions to seize the western regions of Ukraine; then forged documents with seemingly orders to attack these territories; then about the alleged battalions of Poles in Ukraine; then about the "Poles legalization"; then about the alleged plans of Poland "to go over to the Russian side and then capture the western regions of Ukraine", etc.

In this way, the Russians want to provoke enmity between Poles and Ukrainians.

Information is spread by the Russian media concerning the Ministry of Defense of Russia. Allegedly, in Dnipro, a school and a dormitory are used as cover for Ukrainian military and equipment. Similar reports are being spread about Kryvyi Rih, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly settled in residential buildings. It is not true.

Photos of price tags from stores in the Ternopil and Lviv regions for basic products (buckwheat, eggs, and cabbage) on which the prices are indicated not only in hryvnias but also in zlotys are allegedly being distributed on the network. Because of this, residents allegedly are afraid of joining the regions of Poland, especially because of the draft law on a special status for Polish citizens. It is a fake. These photos have been edited, and the prices are not correct. More details. As for the law on the special status of Polish citizens in Ukraine, the president introduced the relevant draft law to the Verkhovna Rada on July 11 in compliance with the principle of reciprocity of international law. It is a response to the law on assistance to citizens of Ukraine, adopted by Poland in March. There are no provisions of law that would provide for the accession of Ukraine to Poland.

Another historical fake used by Russian propaganda is the myth that Ukrainians never lived in the Black Sea region. It is part of the great myth about "originally Russian lands," which Russia allegedly went to "return to itself," restoring "historical justice."

As the history of the last 30 years shows, Russia started wars everywhere without using historical myths - for example, in South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Syria. Propaganda did not need an explanation about "Russian peace" or "liberation of suffering peoples" from the "Nazis." But to explain the invasion of Ukraine since 2014, propaganda uses all sorts of fakes to prove its own "right" to kill Ukrainians. Sometimes they are directly opposite. In some cases, propaganda proves that Ukrainians do not exist at all; in others - they exist but "did not live" in certain territories and therefore do not have the right to them.

One of these fakes - that Ukrainians never lived in Odesa - was analyzed in detail by StopFake.

Images with data on the national composition of Odesa in 1894 are being distributed on social networks. According to these data, Russians, Jews, Poles, Germans, Greeks, and French lived in Odesa then. As the publication writes, the data indicated in the picture are more or less comparable with the data of the Odesa population census of 1892. His results were published two years later, in 1894. At that time, 336,000 people lived in Odesa. But, as the researchers explain, the population distribution took place according to many parameters, such as native language, religion, and whether the resident was: a Russian citizen or a foreigner. At the same time, people were not asked about their nationality; however, later census, held in 1897, there were statistics by nationality - and in the Kherson province, which included Odesa, 1,462,039 Ukrainians lived, which was 53.5% of the population of the region.

Here, read more about population censuses and historical data about Ukrainians in Odesa and Kherson regions.

Propaganda telegram channels spread the message that rocket strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Antoniv bridge in Kherson are irrelevant - it is "a matter of three beams and two liters of concrete." These messages were recorded by the Center for Strategic Communications in its study of propaganda telegram channels.

In fact, although the bridge is currently standing, it is closed to all types of vehicles. Moreover, according to the standards of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the army must stop moving on the bridge in the event of any, even minor, damage. However, according to satellite images, the bridge cannot be patched with "two liters of concrete", it has significant surface damage.

The other two bridges are a single-track railway bridge across the Dnipro and a bridge over the Kakhovska HPP dam in Nova Kakhovka. The latter was also shelled earlier, the Russians tried to repair it. Also, the Armed Forces of Ukraine previously attacked the Daryiv Bridge across the Ingulets River, which connects two parts of the right-bank Kherson Oblast occupied by the Russians.

It is obvious that all these bridges are now under the fire control of the Armed Forces and the supply of equipment to the occupiers in the region has been substantially closed. That is why the Russian army is trying to build a pontoon bridge instead of the closed Antoniv bridge. At the same time, propaganda tries to convince the audience that the destruction of bridges will not affect the situation in the region.

The Russian mass media spread the information that the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region has allegedly already "established international contacts" regarding the collaborator and protégé of the Russian authorities, Volodymyr Rogov. Allegedly, the occupiers began receiving "appeals from members of parliament in Germany, Spain, France, Greece."

On social networks were spread the video of a concert in Mariupol, at which the residents allegedly celebrated en masse and sang along to "a white swan on the pond..." of the soloist of the Russian group "Lisopoval." Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels distributed photos and videos of the "very massive" participation of citizens in the concert from the "press service" of the so-called DNR. Then these videos were shared on Facebook. It is manipulation.

Indeed, July 17 is celebrated in Ukraine as the Day of Metallurgical and Mining Workers. A similar holiday is also celebrated in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. As NotaYenota writes, the occupiers decided to hold several events for Metallurgist's Day, including a concert with the participation of a special guest, Serhiy Kuprik. In the comments to the video of the show, Ukrainian users write, "who are our guys fighting for," "look, we felt sorry for them," etc. It is precisely the effect the occupiers sought — to convince the Ukrainians of the "treason" of the Mariupol's residents.

More than 400,000 people used to live in Mariupol. Probably, among them, some have pro-Russian views. However, at least 22,000 Mariupol residents died due to the hostilities. The occupiers forcibly removed thousands of people through the so-called "filtration camps" to Russia. Many citizens left for safer places earlier. According to the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushchenko, 50-100 people still leave the city every day. Therefore, the information of the occupiers that the city's population is now 220,000 is invalid. There are no more than a thousand people in the "holiday" video, but there is no evidence that these are Mariupol residents, not specially brought actors. From another perspective, the picture of the crowd of the event is significantly different. The event is sparsely populated compared to videos from previous years. Probably some of the people were collected by distributing food packages because there are problems with food in the city. The propagandists also attracted Russian bloggers, who, in their comments, talk about the support of the residents of Mariupol by the residents of Russian cities and talk about the "peaceful" life in Mariupol.

It was stated by the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergey Lavrov. The Russians and Ukrainians allegedly will continue to live together.

According to the Constitution, Ukraine is a sovereign, independent, democratic, and legal state. The only source of power in Ukraine is the people. Using their rights, Ukrainians elected Volodymyr Zelensky as president. Therefore, the popular results will refute the thesis about the "anti-people's regime" in Ukraine. As a foreign state, Russia should not interfere in Ukraine's internal processes at all. Lavrov's words "the historical unity of the Ukrainians and Russians" are one of the cliches of Russian propaganda, built on the history and communist ideology rewritten by the Soviet authorities.

According to the sociological survey, only 2% of Ukrainians have a good attitude towards Russia, while 92% have a bad attitude. Therefore, Lavrov's statement about the further "common life" of Ukrainians and Russians does not correspond to reality.

In the Telegram chat "Shatskyi Tereveni," they spread the message about the beginning of the attack by the Russians from Belarus "in the morning." It is advised to collect all important things and prepare for the absence of electricity and the Internet.

Reports of military activity in neighboring Belarus have become more frequent since the start of military training near the border of the Volyn and Rivne regions was announced.

Currently, there are no facts about an attack from Belarus. Such messages are most likely sent to sow panic and destabilize the situation, write the fact-checkers of the "Rayon. Shatsk."

Several things indicate that a message is fake. For example, "in the morning" - but there is no exact date on which morning it will happen.

Later, a message appeared: "Let it not happen, but it is better to prepare." A seemingly unobtrusive message, however, makes the reader tense up. Many questions and the source of information - "Oleg, a journalist from Stryi, who was transferred from the USA."