Russian propaganda Telegram channels are spreading a video in which ABC meteorologist Mike Rizzo, when a screenshot of a news story with Volodymyr Zelenskyi appeared on the studio screen by mistake, says: “This is not a storm, this is a little spinach”. In fact, this information is not accurate. In January 2024, during a broadcast, when the host was commenting on an approaching storm in the region, a spinach image indeed appeared on the screen, prompting Rizzo to joke, “This is not a storm, this is a little spinach”. However, propagandists distorted the context by replacing the image of spinach with a fake BBC news story. In this manipulated version, an image of Volodymyr Zelenskyi appeared alongside a fabricated claim that, supposedly, the Pentagon had stated that over a million Ukrainian soldiers had died.

However, such information is fake. In November 2024, in an interview with Kyodo News, Volodymyr Zelenskyi stated that the number of Ukrainian casualties on the front since the beginning of the full-scale invasion was much less than 80,000.

“Some recently in the American press reported that 80 thousand Ukrainians had died. But I want to tell you, no, it’s less. Much less”, the President said.

According to estimates by The Economist, based on leaks from Western intelligence agencies, by the end of November 2024, at least 60,000–100,000 Ukrainian military personnel could have died during Russia's full-scale invasion. Around 400,000 others were injured, making them unable to continue serving in the army.

Russian agitprop manipulates facts and distorts contexts to sow distrust in Ukrainian leaders and reduce international support for Ukraine. Such manipulations create an atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty, which, in turn, can weaken Ukraine’s ability to effectively counter Russia’s aggression.

Russian anonymous Telegram channels are actively circulating a video claiming that a sniper from the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine allegedly killed several pensioners near Pokrovsk. This is being presented as another fabricated ‘war crime’ by Ukrainian forces. In reality, this is a complete fake.  

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security reports that propagandists distorted the context, portraying Russian soldiers as ‘pensioners’ in their disinformation. The original video, published by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense Intelligence, shows a person in camouflage carrying a water bottle in their left hand and a rifle in their right hand. This clearly identifies the individual as a combatant, not a civilian, as falsely claimed by Russian propaganda.  

This is not the first instance of such disinformation. Since early January, Russian propaganda resources have been spreading dozens of synchronized fake reports, aiming to manipulate public opinion. In the first half of January alone, over 600 fake messages were detected on Telegram, alleging ‘murders’ of civilians, prisoners, and the wounded, allegedly committed by Ukrainian forces.  

These disinformation campaigns are designed to undermine trust in Ukrainian military personnel and distort the reality of the war. A central tactic of Kremlin propaganda is to depict Ukraine’s armed forces as ‘criminals’ committing acts of violence against civilians. Propagandists seek to reverse the narrative, presenting Ukraine as the aggressor while framing their own war crimes, such as killing civilians and destroying infrastructure, as defensive actions.  

By spreading such fake stories, Russian propaganda also aims to weaken international support for Ukraine and justify their military operations by shifting the blame for violence onto Ukraine.

Russian propaganda Telegram channels are spreading a video claiming that a Ukrainian soldier allegedly took revenge on a police officer who had previously mobilized him. According to the video, the soldier reportedly gained the officer's trust, invited him for a drink, spiked his drink with sleeping pills, and assaulted him once the officer fell asleep.  

This claim is entirely false. Propagandists manipulated a segment from the Ukrainian TV program Ukraine Today, which aired on its YouTube channel on January 10, 2025. In the original segment, host Kateryna Nesterenko mentions that such a story had been circulating on TikTok. However, she explicitly states that apart from TikTok and certain Telegram channels, there is no evidence to corroborate the story and does not confirm its authenticity.  

Propagandists altered the video by cutting out the part where the host questions the story's credibility, presenting it as if the incident was real.  

Further investigation revealed that this manipulated video was circulated exclusively within the pro-Russian segment of the internet, with at least 14 propaganda Telegram channels sharing it.  

This manipulation is part of an ongoing effort by Russian propagandists to discredit the mobilization process in Ukraine. Similar tactics have been used before, such as the debunked claim that three employees of a Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center were found dead in Odesa.

Russian propaganda Telegram channels are circulating a purported NBC News clip claiming that Ukrainian hackers allegedly hacked WhatsApp and began sending mass fake news to Americans about Ukraine's military successes and minimal losses in the Russia-Ukraine war. Propagandists mockingly comment that “when victory doesn’t happen in reality, Ukrainians decided to bring it closer in WhatsApp”.  

In reality, this information is false, as reported by VoxCheck. Using Google’s reverse image search, it was discovered that the video features Gadi Schwartz, a reporter from NBC News' Stay Tuned NOW program. The fake news used a snippet from a segment titled The Future of Everything published on NBC News’ official YouTube channel on December 4, 2024.  

While the original NBC News segment did mention a large-scale hacking attack on nearly all major U.S. communications companies, the report attributed the attacks to China, not Ukraine.  

Additionally, the segment includes an interview snippet with Chris Krebs, the former director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. In the actual NBC News report, Krebs comments on China's cyberattacks on U.S. telecommunications systems, not on any actions by Ukraine.  

This is not the first instance of Russian disinformation regarding NBC News. Previously, similar claims were made, alleging that an American official admitted on NBC News that U.S. intelligence data on Russia was mostly fabricated - a claim also proven false.

Propagandists are spreading information in anonymous Telegram channels and media outlets about a fire in Los Angeles, where, according to them, eight cottages belonging to Ukrainian generals worth $90 million were allegedly burned. However, this is a fake. This fabrication was accompanied by a false video and a quote attributed to the commander of Ukraine's Ground Forces, Mykhailo Drapatyi. The propagandists imitated the style of the United24 media in this fake. It also mentioned that the generals had purchased the properties using funds provided to Ukraine by Western partners.

Analysts from StopFake emphasized that neither United24 nor other reputable outlets had published such information. Russian media used real footage of a fire in Los Angeles, manipulating it to create a false narrative. General Mykhailo Drapatyi never made the statements attributed to him by the propagandists.

These types of information attacks are aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian military leadership by spreading the notion of corruption within the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Additionally, the propaganda is intended to weaken trust in Ukraine among Western partners who provide military and financial assistance. The fake also emphasized the ‘injustice’ to further influence the emotions of the audience and generate a negative perception of Ukrainian leadership. Such information operations are part of Russia's broader strategy to manipulate international opinion and undermine support for Ukraine.

Russian media outlets are circulating a video in which a Ukrainian schoolgirl, allegedly living in New York, complains about her new school. The girl supposedly claims that she had difficulty adjusting to the “large number of Black classmates”, who allegedly offered her drugs, and that lessons were frequently canceled due to shooting threats. At the end of the video, she claims she transferred from a public to a private school, noting that while tuition is expensive, it is covered by American taxpayers - a situation she considers entirely fair.

In reality, the video was fabricated by propagandists, according to the StopFake project.

In late December 2024, Voice of America released a short video story about Ukrainian schoolchildren who relocated to New York due to the full-scale war and had to adapt to a new learning environment.

The girl featured in the video is named Sofiia Holinei, and she attends St. George’s Academy, a private school. However, the segment where she allegedly complains about Black classmates, drug dealers, shootings, and claims her education should be free was created using artificial intelligence - such remarks are absent in the original story. Propagandists manipulated audio to fabricate this segment and supplemented it with stock footage that is not part of the authentic video.

Previously, we debunked a fake claim that Ukrainian children were allegedly being beaten in Polish schools for speaking Ukrainian.

A video circulating online alleges that Russian President Volodymyr Putin announced the end of the so-called ‘special military operation’ (SVO) and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. In the video, Putin reportedly claims to have achieved his objectives and states that the West has provided Russia with all necessary security guarantees. The posts also claim that Putin has agreed to pay reparations to Ukraine.  

However, this video is disinformation, as reported by the VoxCheck project. A reverse search on Yandex revealed that the footage used in the video was taken from Putin’s speech at a ceremonial meeting marking the 220th anniversary of the Russian Ministry of Justice, held on September 20, 2022. In that address, Putin discussed the operations of prisons, the establishment of correctional facilities for convicted individuals, and plans for new prison placement schemes across the country.  

In the fake video, it is noticeable that Putin's lip movements do not match the audio, indicating the use of artificial intelligence-generated dubbing. The Hive Moderation tool, designed to detect AI-generated content, confirmed with 91% probability that the audio was AI-generated.  

Previously, similar fake statements attributed to Putin have been debunked, including one claiming that the number of Ukrainians living in temporarily occupied territories and Russia equals the population remaining in Ukraine.  

This is yet another example of misinformation aimed at misleading audiences about Russia's stance on the war in Ukraine.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading a fake video allegedly from UNITED 24, claiming that women in Kyiv protested demanding the cancellation of priority exchange lists for fighters from “nationalist battalions”, which are keeping other servicemen in captivity longer. The video also includes footage of MP Oleksandr Kunytskyi, who allegedly advised women to “return to their women’s affairs” and raise children, and to “leave the decision on the exchange to the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”.

However, UNITED 24 did not publish such a video, and Oleksandr Kunytskyi did not make such statements. Once again, propagandists created a fake video to spread Russian narratives by using authoritative sources.

Russian propaganda systematically uses disinformation aimed at manipulating public opinion and accusing Ukraine, for example, of disrupting or delaying negotiations on the exchange of prisoners of war. In addition, it discredits representatives of the Ukrainian government in order to undermine trust in the political elite among Ukrainians and create unstable socio-political sentiments.

A video is being circulated online, purporting to be from UNESCO. It claims that Ukraine has destroyed more monuments than the Taliban in Afghanistan - 5,400 monuments to cultural figures and cultural heritage sites over two years. The Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, Mechtilda Rössler, allegedly stated in this regard: “Such an attitude towards monuments and history is typical of terrorist regimes, but not of European civilization”.

However, UNESCO did not publish such a video on its official resources. Mechtilda Rössler is no longer the director of UNESCO and did not make such a statement. The video was created from photos from open sources, not related to each other. And besides, Mechtilda Rössler is no longer the director of the World Heritage Center.

Using reverse search, it was possible to find out that propagandists used photos from open sources for the fake video. In particular, photos with Taliban militants were published on the official website of the AFP publication in August 2024.

The Taliban is a political and military group whose goal is to liberate Afghanistan from foreign military presence. The movement is made up of many different tribes and peoples inhabiting the country, with different views, including religious ones.

The movement's ideology was based on the religious movement of Islam, Ash'arism, which is part of the Sunni tradition. The Taliban's political program was based on calls to organize life in Afghanistan on the basis of the norms of Islamic law - Sharia - in its radically traditional interpretations. According to the Taliban, anyone who contradicts the ideology of Ash'arism is subject to persecution.

Their rule was characterized by religious intolerance towards non-believers and cruelty - for example, thieves had their hands cut off.

A so-called excerpt from a Euronews story about Volodymyr Zelenskyi's visit to Paris is being circulated online. It allegedly broadcast mocking photos of the Ukrainian president, posted on Twitter with the hashtag #MerryChristmasEuronews2024.

But this is a fake video. Presumably, the fakers edited the video using the official Euronews video. There is also no publication on Twitter under the hashtag #MerryChristmasEuronews2024. Indeed, the publication published news about Volodymyr Zelenskyi's visit to Paris. And the publication contains the video used in the fake. Thus, the frames and captions (except for the Twitter feed) in the real video coincide with those in the fake video.

Euronews does indeed have a Twitter feed during live broadcasts. However, the channel does not broadcast posts from anonymous users. Instead, there are posts from Euronews itself, journalists, politicians, organizations, etc. In addition, there is no post on Twitter with the hashtag #MerryChristmasEuronews2024. Euronews also did not report anything about such a campaign on its official resources.

Let us remind you that in Paris on December 7, 2024, Volodymyr Zelenskyi met with Donald Trump. This was their first meeting after Trump's victory in the US presidential election on November 4. French President Emmanuel Macron also participated in the meeting, which lasted 35 minutes. He invited the politicians to the opening of the restored Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral.

According to Reuters, during the half-hour conversation, Zelenskyi explained to Trump Ukraine's need for security guarantees to end a full-scale war with Russia. But the conversation did not include specific details about any vision for peace.

Read more: Propagandists about the meetings between Zelenskyi, Trump, and Orban.

The network is spreading words that the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, allegedly said during the forum Ukraine 30. Healthy Ukraine in 2021: “Some Ukrainians are too Ukrainian. We need to become a little less Ukrainian, and then peace will come to society”.

However, in her speech during the forum Ukraine 30. Healthy Ukraine, Olena Zelenska did not say this. In particular, the First Lady spoke about the reform of the school nutrition system. And we could not find a mention of this quote during her other speeches. This quote was not distributed in Ukrainian or English in reliable media.

The first mention of the words can be found on the page of the user X with the nickname Mantelepa, the post was published back in June 2020, that is, before the forum. However, neither this nor the other posts had a video or link with a quote from Zelenska.

A snippet of a story on the American channel KMAX 31 is being shared online. In it, the hosts of Good Day allegedly laughed after a report about the colossal losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

But this is a fake video. In the original story, the host laughed because of a mistake during the weather forecast. The fakers edited the video.

A search for the channel and show name revealed that the full name of the show is Good Day Sacramento. It is indeed broadcast on KMAX 31. If one checks the official Good Day Sacramento YouTube channel, one can find the same plot that the propagandists used for the fake video.

The original video was published back in December 2019. In it, the host laughs not at the supposedly colossal losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but at a slip of the tongue during the weather forecast. Instead of “visibility” (translated from English - the distance one can see as determined by weather conditions), she said “disability” (translated from English - incapacity for work).

A video is being actively shared on TikTok, in which a Ukrainian serviceman allegedly talks about significant losses, criticizes the command, and claims that Russian captivity is the “best choice”. However, it is fake.

This is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. Its experts found that this video is the result of the use of deepfake technology. The analysis shows the unnatural pronunciation of the character, and other videos on the page confirm that its content was created for manipulation.

The main goal of this fake is to undermine trust in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, create panic among citizens, and demoralize the military. TikTok was chosen because of its popularity and the speed of information dissemination. Such deepfakes mislead people if detailed analysis is not conducted. The Center is working with the TikTok administration to reduce the amount of disinformation spread by Russian propagandists on the platform.

Russian propagandists are spreading a video on anonymous Telegram channels and media outlets in which journalists from the Good Day Sacramento American show  allegedly mock the combat losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, it is a fake.

This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security and Ukrinform. It was Ukrinform experts who found out that the original video is dated December 2019. This is confirmed by the New Year decorations in the studio, identical to those that were in the show then. Modern episodes of the show use completely different decorations. In addition, the fake video does not have the large mask of the Grinch character, which was in the real show. The show itself has a purely entertainment format, where the hosts joke and cover local events, and do not discuss political or military topics.

Such actions once again demonstrate Russia's methods of information warfare, which include distorting reality to achieve propaganda goals. This fake news is aimed at spreading false messages about the Armed Forces of Ukraine, lowering the morale of the Ukrainian military, and demoralizing society.

Russians are spreading a video with the logo of the American TV channel ABC, claiming that Ukraine allegedly lost about one million servicemen and had hundreds of thousands of people disabled due to injuries sustained in the war.

However, this video has been edited, reports the StopFake project. Using Google's reverse search function, it was possible to find the original video that was used to create this fake. It was an ABC News video from March 30, 2023 about the assistance of American non-profit organizations to Ukrainian veterans who lost limbs in the war. It talks about the work of the charity Kind Deeds, which provides Ukrainian veterans with prosthetics and organizes rehabilitation in the United States. The propagandists cut out individual frames from the original video and, using artificial intelligence, completely forged the audio track, mimicking the voice of the program's host. The original video report does not mention any data on the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed.

On December 8, 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi reported that Ukraine had lost about 43,000 soldiers killed since the start of the full-scale war. As for the number of people with disabilities, there is no up-to-date official statistics available today. However, in mid-2023, the American publication The Wall Street Journal reported that over one and a half years of war, about 50,000 Ukrainians had become disabled due to amputations.

Earlier, we debunked the claim that the irreparable losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly had already exceeded 500,000 people.

Propaganda sources claim that an unknown person allegedly left a marker near the Verkhovna Rada building to guide a Russian strike, accompanied by the inscription: “Putin, here”. As “proof”, propagandists have shared a video purportedly showing the individual who marked the spot.

In reality, this is another fake by the Russians, the VoxCheck project writes. Since the start of the full-scale war, the part of Mariinskyi Park leading to the Verkhovna Rada has been closed off. A regular citizen could not access the area to record such a video. Since February 24, 2022, only certain categories of individuals, such as government officials and parliamentary staff, have had access to the Verkhovna Rada’s premises. Someone among them could have theoretically recorded such a video.

However, two facts indicate that this is a fake. Firstly, public transport in the video goes to the government quarter, which is closed today. Secondly, the guards in the video are wearing medical masks, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating that the footage was recorded before the full-scale invasion.

The markers themselves began to appear at the beginning of the full-scale war. Some of them turned out to be ordinary markers on buildings that existed before the invasion. Others were deliberately created by Russians or their supporters to destabilize Ukrainian society and sow chaos. That is, it was an information and psychological special operation (IPSO). In reality, Russian strikes are guided by coordinates, not by such markers.

Russian propaganda Telegram channels are spreading a video purportedly from the BBC, which claims that Bellingcat investigators have found that “the number of Ukrainian fakes has decreased threefold since mid-November 2024”. In turn, they cite the “lack of funds” for creating and posting content as the most likely reason for this.

However, this is a fake, writes the VoxCheck project. The BBC did not publish such a video either on its official website or on its social media pages. There is also no information about it on Bellingcat's official resources.

The video clip that propagandists are spreading does not contain any original footage. For the fake, they used materials from open sources that are not related to each other. For example, the photo with Volodymyr Zelenskyi was taken from the official website of the Office of the President of Ukraine - the photo was published back in July 2022. And the shot with the President of Ukraine and European leaders was taken during the European Council summit in Brussels on October 17, 2024.

We have previously analyzed fake videos allegedly created by the BBC, in particular, a fake about Zelenskyi's “personal endocrinologist” fleeing abroad.

A video is circulating online showing a dialogue between an alleged Ukrainian serviceman and a civilian man. This was preceded by the fact that the “soldier” first allegedly walked along the side of the highway for almost 500 kilometers in the direction of Lviv, then stood on the side of the road for four hours, and no one stopped him, but the civilian man-driver in the video stopped in his car and “picked” him up.

In fact, this is a staged video. The dialogue between a civilian driver and a supposed military man is filmed by a person sitting in the back seat of the car and to whom the “military man” for some reason does not pay any attention, even when the video is shot from a very close angle. In turn, the driver reacts suspiciously calmly to the “military man’s” words about the alleged lack of money even for the bus; two years of captivity; that the “military man’s” community has already managed to “bury” him during this time, erecting a monument to him, etc.

In addition, the “military man” made a mistake when he said that he had been fighting since 2013, because the Russian-Ukrainian war began only in 2014. After all, the “military man” could not have walked almost 500 kilometers, as he claims in the video. After all, the average walking speed of a person is 4-5 km/h, and even if one walks continuously for 24 hours a day (which is physically almost impossible due to the need for rest, food, and sleep), it would take more than 100 hours (more than 4 days).

The purpose of this staged video is to widen the gap between the military and civilians, trying to instill guilt and shame in the latter. This is evidenced by the fact that the fake military man constantly alludes to the alleged indifference of Ukrainian society to Ukrainian defenders.

We previously wrote about a staged video that claims that “posters with the late Zelenskyi” have appeared in Kyiv.

A video is being shared on social media in which a Ukrainian soldier allegedly complains about the arbitrariness of the Territorial recruitment and social support center employees, the difficult situation at the front, the unprofessionalism of commanders, losses among personnel, and urges Ukrainian men not to go to war.

However, in fact, this video was created using artificial intelligence, the VoxCheck project reports. The original source of the video is an anonymous TikTok profile, where the author publishes videos with supposedly Ukrainian soldiers and prisoners of war. A check of the Hive Moderation AI tool showed that the profile contains videos that were generated using a neural network. Accordingly, the tool showed that the appeal of a serviceman talking about the difficult situation at the front was also created using AI.

This fake is intended to misinform Ukrainian society about the real situation on the front and dissuade civilians from mobilizing for the army. Previously, we analyzed a fake about a mutiny in one of the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

A fake news story with a link to a Euronews video appeared on a number of pro-Russian platforms, claiming that Ukrainians in Europe are illegally connecting to power grids in order to get (earn) cryptocurrency. According to the claim, these activities were motivated by the rising value of Bitcoin. The report alleges that over 400 Ukrainians were arrested last month alone and that their actions even caused energy shortages across the continent.

However, this is fake news: the video with such content was not published on the official Euronews website or its social media platforms. Many other details betray the falsity of this story: in particular, it is suspicious that this report did not even name the country where these attackers allegedly operated, but used the abstract wording “Europe”. Moreover, an online search for news about similar incidents did not yield any results either.

This fake news is part of a broader propaganda effort aimed at portraying Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, both a cultural and economic threat to European society, attempting to reduce support for Ukraine. As noted in our prior findings, Russian propaganda has consistently sought to discredit Ukrainian refugees since the start of the large-scale war in Ukraine.

Propagandists regularly spread fakes about them—they call refugees dependents, claim that these Ukrainians went abroad not for safety, but for profit, that they spread various diseases, and so on. Propagandists find these means necessary to perpetuate the idea that Ukrainians are bad people who do not appreciate the help that residents of other countries provide them and that they take advantage of the kindness of people from other countries.

For example, we recently reported that people online spread a fake story allegedly from the French publication Le Figaro, which talked about a Ukrainian refugee accused of murder.

A video with the logo of the Ukrainian media outlet United24 is being distributed online. It claims that 40 doctors in Ukraine were arrested for allegedly breaking men’s limbs for money. According to this video, the injuries were intentionally severe enough to require over a year of rehabilitation, allowing these men to evade mobilization. Now the Verkhovna Rada is supposedly considering the issue of criminal liability for such doctors and for Ukrainian individuals buying this service.

However, United24 Media has not published any such report. Propagandists falsely attribute the video to United24, but no such content exists on the official website or the media outlet’s social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X), or YouTube.

The claim also states that police have already arrested 40 doctors involved in this activity. Yet, the National Police of Ukraine has made no such announcements, and there’s no information of this sort in Ukrainian media. This story seems to have first appeared in the Russian Telegram channel Voiennyi Obozrevatel (Military Observer).

Furthermore, the Verkhovna Rada has not registered any draft law proposing criminal liability for doctors allegedly breaking limbs for money or for clients attempting to evade military service through such means.

Russian sources are distributing a video about an alleged “instruction” for Danes on how to behave during a run-in with the Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support representatives. According to the plot of the video, the man allegedly received a corresponding memo at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in Ukraine. In the video, he was surprised when he read about “the possible use of physical force by the police and the Territorial Center of Recruitment”. At the same time, the main character of the plot tries to communicate in English, but does not use Danish at all.

In fact, this is a fake video, the VoxCheck project writes. The Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in Ukraine clarified to the VoxCheck team that the employees of the department did not provide such “recommendations” and have no relation to this video. Also, the text of the fake booklet is written in poor-quality Danish, and the “instruction” itself does not correspond to the official style of communication of the embassy.

The Danish embassy website mentions martial law and the temporary suspension of air traffic in its “Travel and Stay” section. However, there is no mention of the Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support or the police either there, or on the Visit Ukraine service portal.

Earlier, we recorded a similar fake by Russians about an alleged leaflet from the British Embassy in Ukraine, in which they recommend their citizens to flee from the Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading a video allegedly created by Bellingcat. It says that in 2024 the BBC became the record holder for the number of fakes published among all the world media outlets — 2,000 fakes. In second and third place were CNN and Der Spiegel, respectively. As a result, Eliot Higgins, journalist and founder of Bellingcat, allegedly applied to the Guinness World Records, and the “record” is to be published in 2025.

This is fake news, writes VoxCheck. Bellingcat did not publish such a video on its official website or on any of its social media accounts. In addition, checking the audio fragment from the video using the artificial intelligence tool Hive Moderation showed that the voice acting had been created using a neural network.

According to Media Bias/Fact Check, the three mentioned publications (BBC, CNN, and Der Spiegel) have either a high or a mostly high level of accuracy of their materials. Also, foreign fact checkers did not report that these media outlets spread these alleged hundreds or even thousands of fakes.

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report states that according to the results of a survey of citizens of the UK, the US and Germany, the BBC has the most trust among the British — 62%, CNN — 48% among Americans, and Der Spiegel — 54% among Germans.

Earlier, we refuted claims that a Bellingcat investigation had proven Andrii Yermak paid Time Magazine for a spot in its list of The Most Influential People of the year.

Russian propaganda sources are distributing a video online, where allegedly Ukrainian soldiers from the Azov Brigade are demonstratively burning several books by Donald Trump and Tony Schwartz, The Art of the Deal. In the video, the Ukrainian fighters allegedly call Trump a “traitor” and a “coward” and say that they do not need his peace plan. The propagandists comment on this video, saying that the Ukrainian army has recognized Trump as a “fairy president” and has started smoking his books in protest.

In fact, the video being distributed online is staged. Several facts indicate this. Firstly, the voiceover is in broken Ukrainian and the man has a noticeable accent. Secondly, it was possible to find out that this video is being distributed primarily in the pro-Russian segment of the network.

Also, Ukrainian volunteer Mykhailo Lavrovskyi on his page on the social network X, pointing out the absurdity of this video statement, rightly notes that the man in the video in Ukrainian military uniform is wearing an old chevron of the Azov Brigade that has not been used for a long time. That is, it is probably a trophy uniform that Russian soldiers once acquired in battle and wore to create this video fake.

After all, we have already recorded a number of similar Russian decrees in which Ukrainian military personnel allegedly protested against Trump.

Russian propagandists on anonymous Telegram channels are actively spreading information that in one of the episodes of the animated series “The Simpsons” they predicted that “the Ukrainian ambassador to Great Britain will become president”, hinting at Valerii Zaluzhnyi. They say that this is evidenced by a screenshot from the cartoon. However, this is a fake.

In fact, the propagandists superimposed this caption on the original footage. We are talking about the second episode of the sixteenth season of the animated series, according to which Marge Simpson, the main character, receives an invitation to a cooking competition. At this moment, she reads a newspaper, which actually says “Father of eight children has disappeared”, and not the phrase that the propagandists are talking about.

By replacing real facts with absurd statements, they are trying to ridicule Ukraine and its leadership, in particular, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The use of a popular cartoon series creates a false information background aimed at distracting from current problems. The fake reinforces absurd conspiracy theories about external control of Ukraine and a “new world order” in order to justify Russian aggression.