Russian propagandists spread such information. In particular, a message appears on social networks that Kharkiv is planned to be handed over to the occupiers because the city is allegedly firing the Kharkiv Heat Networks utility company. Employees "Kharkiv authorities, by all indications, are confident that the city will come under Russian control. Otherwise, why should they destroy the entire structure of Kharkiv heating networks? The municipal enterprise Kharkiv Heat Networks dismisses all employees without compensation for unpaid salaries for three months. Operators are being fired, without whom it is impossible to start the heating season. So, do they understand that they will not have to start it? ” - it is written in a fake, widely spread the message. However, this is not true. According to the fact-checkers of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, from the first days of the war, boiler operators, locksmiths, welders, and other employees of Kharkiv Heat Networks, risking their lives, saved the city's heating system. Currently, repair works are carried out every day. There are reports about the work almost daily on the city council's website. Also, work on preparing for the new heating season has already begun and is not ending. However, the number of residential buildings in Kharkiv decreases every day, which could not be connected to heat due to shelling. That is, not all communal workers are fired from the enterprise.

Such information was spread by Belarusian propagandists, particularly Ksenia Lebedeva, on Belarus 1 TV channel. The plot said that the "Bandera" planned to capture Belarus's Brest and Gomel regions. According to the propagandist, the Bandera dream of adding to Ukraine part of the Brest and Gomel regions and from Russia such lands that passed into “their” composition in the XVIII century. "Why is the south of Belarus so important for Ukrainian nationalists? Because back in 2018, almost five years ago, they planned that this territory could become a strategical base for the introduction of Russian troops into Ukraine just in case, ” Lebedeva said. According to the fact-checkers of the project Brekhunets, the propagandist Lebedeva added that under such conditions she expressed the opinion of "the same nationalists" who allegedly believed that Ukraine would be in the circle of unfriendly states, including the West. However, this is not true. Ukraine is a peaceful country that has not carried out any attacks on any sovereign states and does not seek and did not seek to seize new territory. Instead, Russia seeks to seize Ukrainian territory, which in 2014 annexed Ukrainian Crimea and attacked Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and in 2022 started a full-scale war.

Russian media widely spread the opinion of the Permanent Representative of Crimea to the President of Russia, Deputy Prime Minister of the Crimean Government Georgiy Muradov. According to him, gross violations of the rights of the Russian-speaking population have made the Ukrainian state "unviable" and "this is former Ukraine."

"It was primarily related to the rights of the state-building Russian people, whose language rights are enshrined in the tenth article of the Ukrainian constitution. However, these principles were grossly violated," he said.

He added that Russia would no longer restrict the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and that "the lands of these territories have historically been Russian, and their population mostly speaks Russian." It is not the first year that Russian historical propaganda has spread this narrative, saying that Crimea and Donbas have always been Russian and that southeastern Ukraine is, in fact, Novorossiya. Instead, Ukrainian historians claim that only 5.6% of the written history of Crimea belonged to Russia (11.4% to the Crimean Khanate). Russians made up a relative majority, but only 4% throughout the written history of Crimea, and an absolute majority of only 2.5%. Donbas has traditionally had a regional identity, although the majority of the population, at least in rural areas, was and is Ukrainian, according to the study book Revision of History: Russian Historical Propaganda and Ukraine.

We remind you that Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that “the state language in Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The state ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life throughout Ukraine. Ukraine guarantees the free development, use, and protection of Russian and other languages ​​of national minorities of Ukraine."

This article aims not to ban Russian but to promote the development of the Ukrainian language. However, during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency, there were attempts to amend Article 10 by introducing Russian as the second state language.

In Ukraine, the eastern and southern regions are mostly Russian-speaking, or instead, they were. According to a study by the Rating Sociological Group, Russia's war against Ukraine has dramatically changed the situation. According to the survey, the number of those considering Ukrainian their mother tongue has been growing steadily over the last decade: from 57% in 2012 to 76% in 2022. There is also a steady decline in the Russian-speaking part of Ukrainians: in 2012, there were about 40% of such respondents, and at the beginning of the war - 18%.

"The unprecedented unity of society against the background of the war had a substantial impact on the attitude to the status of the Ukrainian language: today, the absolute majority (83%) for the Ukrainian language to be the only state language in Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age, and language groups. On the other hand, in a poll, almost a quarter of citizens supported granting state status to the Russian language before the war, and today - only 7%, " the sociological group said.

This is the lie spread by Russian propagandists. This was reported on Facebook by the deputy mayor of Izyum, Kharkiv region Volodymyr Matzokin.

"Advice to Russian propagandists: if you are already molding fakes, at least try not to use the recipe of g...na. According to the official data of the General Staff of the AFU, Izyum was occupied on April 1, 2022. Occupied by Rashist troops. So what's April 9? Let me give you a hint, the destruction of multi-story buildings on Khlebozavodskaya and Pervomaiskaya Streets took place on March 8-9, 2022. It was done by the barbarians of the Russian army during the capture of the city. About 60 people died and 44 were found. Attempts by such fake reports to destroy the truth will lead to nothing but punishment," Matzokin wrote.

In the story of Russian propagandists on camera speaks a resident of Izyum Serhiy Shtanko, born in 1989. The gray-haired 33-year-old man notes that windows and doors in the house flew out first after the shelling, and that on April 9 at 9 a.m. a tank seemed to have fired and hit the slab. When asked from behind the frame: "Whose side was the beating? From the side of the AFU or Russia?" Shtanko answers: "They were beating from the side of the hunting store, which is 200 meters away. I do not know who was beating them. Both of them could have done it. But ... it was our guys who were beating.

According to him, a total of seven people escaped from the house.

Izyum mayor's office believes that Shtanko was forced to give such an interview under the threat of death.

Beginning March 6, the Russians began intensive shelling and airstrikes on Izyum, destroying the entrances of multi-story buildings and destroying all infrastructure. Izyum has been under Russian occupation for a second month. On May 10, in the temporarily occupied city of Izyum, the bodies of 44 civilians were found dead in the rubble of a five-story building. Among the dead, there are two families of five and two others of three.

Olena Kalaitan, editor-in-chief of the Priazovsky Rabochiy newspaper, reported, that the publication had temporarily stopped coming out due to the Russian occupation. However, it recently became known that along with the "humanitarian aid" in Mariupol a fresh issue of the newspaper was distributed. "Well, our editorial board predicted in advance that the occupiers would use the trust of our readers gained over the years and the authority of the "Priazovsky Rabochiy" newspaper, which we have been carefully developing, cherishing and preserving. Dear readers - I ask you not to take everything that the collaborationist authorities are now passing off as our position - the Ukrainian editorial board of "Priazovsky Rabochiy" has no line of this new-found newspaper," Kalaitan said.

This fake was spread by the Russian media, in particular, the May 9 edition of Izvestia made a story about an allegedly burnt-out train that was in the building of a sports complex in Luhansk Oblast. Although the propagandists did not specify which sports complex they were talking about, StopFake managed to identify the building in the video. It turned out that this was the Luhansk regional sports center Olimp, which burned down back on March 18 as a result of artillery shelling of the city by the Russian military. Before the temporary occupation of Kreminna by the Russian military, humanitarian aid had indeed been stored in the building. However, it had been organized by local authorities, not by Russia and its controlled fighters, as early as March 22.

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The Russian Orthodox Church spread a fake about the alleged "forced transfer" of the church in Dubyshche to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. According to the Liar Project, "Russian church propaganda calls the PCU a schismatic structure, and the legal will of the religious community is a forced transfer. In fact, the PCU is canonical and is recognized by the Orthodox Church. And the parish of the village Dubyshche decided to join the PCU on May 30 - 284 people voted "for" and 59 "against." "In addition, the text manipulates that the decision was made by the residents of the village, not the church community. Thus, Russian church propaganda denies the right to the will of the church founders - the people who through their donations have joined in the construction of the church and its functioning, who have the right to use the services of the church," writes "Liar".

Read more about the role of the Russian church on the occupation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine here. Recall, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Kirill supports the war against Ukraine. Previously, he had already spread a fake that Russia "never attacked anyone." By the way, for such statements Instagram marked the fake post of a supporter of Russian aggression against Ukraine, singer Nikolai Baskov.

Pro-Kremlin media actively spread the opinion that the temporarily occupied cities of Ukraine are preparing to celebrate Victory Day openly for the first time in many years and that the St. George Ribbon is becoming increasingly popular among the local population, especially among children. A video circulated on social networks shows a Victory volunteer in Mariupol tying a St. George's ribbon to children's clothes and asking what it means. The girl replies: "It's beautiful" and says that she has never worn such ribbons before.

The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmila Denisova reported that in Melitopol, temporarily occupied by Russian troops in Zaporizhzhia, children are forced to wear St. George ribbons and learn poems about the war. "From the media it became known that in the occupied Melitopol of Zaporozhye region forced children to wear St. George ribbons and learn poems about the war. Such actions are committed by school principals cooperating with the occupation troops," she stressed. According to Denisova, teachers distribute children's thematic drawings and videos of schoolchildren reciting poems about the war with St. George ribbons on their chests online. There is information that this is happening without parental consent. The ombudsman stressed that school is one of the means of educating a child, the formation of the worldview, which is continuously connected with the upbringing in the family. According to her, "this imposition of the racist ideology in educational institutions is aimed at destroying the Ukrainian identity in the minds of children". Denisova stressed that these actions of the Russian invaders are a violation of Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This document stipulates that the education of a child should be aimed at fostering respect for the child's parents, cultural identity, language and national values of the country in which the child resides, his country of origin. The above is direct evidence of genocide against the Ukrainian people.

According to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, the "St. George's Ribbon" is an element of Russian propaganda. The formation of the symbol "St. George's Ribbon" has a long and complicated history. It first appeared on the Order of St. George, founded in 1769 by Empress Ekaterina II. The Order became the highest military award of the Russian Empire and was given to officers for special courage in battle. Later, a whole set of awards associated with St. George was formed: the Order, the medal, the cross and the flag. They were accompanied by the St. George ribbon, which, according to official statutes, consisted of three black and two yellow stripes. It was also allowed to use orange instead of yellow.

The most likely version is that the gamma of the ribbon was taken from the black-yellow-white flag of the Russian Empire. Another version is that the color symbolizes the fire and smoke, which emphasizes its military nature. Read more here.

In 2015, instead of the "St. George's Ribbon" as a symbol of remembrance of victory and honoring the victims of World War II, Ukrainians were suggested to use the red poppy flower. Striped black and yellow ribbon in the perception of Ukrainians became a negative symbol, which is associated with danger and terrorism. Since 2015. On May 8 and 9, Ukraine celebrates Memorial and Reconciliation Day and Victory Day over Nazism in World War II. The traditional slogan of these commemorative days "We Remember - We Win!" this year is somewhat modified at the state level and sounds like "We defeated the Nazis - let's defeat the Rashists too!.

Pro-Kremlin media and Telegram channels spread information that "the Kiev government is once again engaged in a 'culture of cancellation,'" as the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture allegedly plans to withdraw Russian literature from Ukraine's library collections. In particular, the propaganda publication RIA Novosti reported that "works of Russian literature, which is considered propaganda," will be withdrawn. In fact, these statements are manipulation, reports StopFake.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy said that Ukraine will launch a process of removing Russian books from libraries, but it is not talking about all works of Russian literature, but only those that promote war and the elimination of Ukrainian statehood. The Council for the Development of Librarianship under the Ministry developed criteria, according to which books will be withdrawn. First of all, the works that meet one of these criteria will be withdrawn:

• whose content is aimed at eliminating the independence of Ukraine, propaganda of violence, inciting interethnic, racial, religious enmity, committing terrorist acts, encroaching on human rights and freedoms;

• propaganda of war, national and religious discord, changing the constitutional system or the territorial integrity of Ukraine by violence; contain justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, including by presenting the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine as an internal conflict, civil conflict, civil war, denial of temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine; glorify persons committing armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, present;

• publishers, as well as authors to whom restrictive measures (sanctions) have been applied in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Sanctions";

• authors who publicly supported the aggression against Ukraine, information about which is publicly available on the Internet.

Apparently, the Russian language of the work is not a criterion according to which the Ministry of Culture will withdraw literature from library collections.The Council for Library Development, founded in April 2022, is engaged in the process of developing the criteria according to which literature will be withdrawn. They regularly publish information about their meetings on the official Facebook page of the Ukrainian Library Association. According to the press service of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, libraries can create advisory bodies, which will give recommendations on how to update the library collection in the conditions of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Library Association says that the issue of removing propaganda literature from the libraries of Ukraine will be approached carefully and in a balanced way. Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy Larysa Petasyuk confirms this: "Propaganda is a dangerous weapon. Today Russian lies poison everything around us. We have all the means to fight this phenomenon. The Ministry has defined clear criteria according to which Russian literature will be withdrawn from Ukrainian library collections. We approach this question carefully and in a balanced way. We hope that all this will have a positive effect on the development of Ukrainian book publishing.The Ministry of Culture reports that the withdrawn books will be replaced by Ukrainian works and books of Ukrainian publishers.

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.