Russian propaganda media are spreading an excerpt from a video from an interview with a German Bundestag deputy, where a bus with the inscription “Zelensky is a black hole” is allegedly visible. According to the Kremlin media, such transport appeared on the streets of Berlin.

Also, messages on the network say that the driver has already been fined for the inscription on his transport. However, this whole situation is a fiction of Russian propaganda.

According to Vox Ukraine analysts, the video shows an interview with German MP Nina Scheer for Die Welt, which she shared on her Facebook page. The clothing and location are identical to those in the bus video. In the recording from the interview, at about the third minute, the bus already known to us appears, but it is clearly visible that the inscription there is completely different: Busmobil 24.

Also in the German media there is no mention of the existence of a bus with the inscription “Zelensky is a black hole”, as well as no reports of a driver's fine.

With such fakes, Russia is trying to discredit the Ukrainian authorities. With the beginning of a full-scale invasion, this happens all the time. Recently, the enemy media spread information that the Minister of Defense allegedly rejoiced that the Ukrainians had become a “shield” for NATO. The Russian propaganda does not ignore Volodymyr Zelenskyi either, reporting on cartoons on the covers of foreign magazines or that he and other officials increased their fortune in 2022.

The Russian media are massively spreading the news that American analysts “counted” Western volunteers participating in the war in Ukraine. The news claims that “the West is not only providing weapons, but also sending the military”. It's fake.

All this “news” refers to an article by The Washington Post, from which it is obvious that Western countries not only do not send their soldiers to Ukraine, but will also have a lot of problems in the future with people who voluntarily left to defend Ukraine. Firstly, because of the laws of some European countries that prohibit fighting for money in other armies (it is also prohibited in the USA). Secondly, the journalists of the American edition, after talking with volunteers, came to the conclusion that many of them ended up at the front, because their own states could not provide their veterans with the necessary level of support. That is, it is obvious that all these people went to war for personal reasons and no one “sent” them to Ukraine.

In addition, the article indicates the approximate numbers of warring foreigners - from 1,000 to 3,000, since the beginning of the war, about 1,000 were wounded, one hundred died.

All these data are approximate, the journalists could not get official data. But some Russian publications began to write that “out of 20,000 foreigners in Ukraine, only 3,000 remained”. This is another fiction: the figure of 20,000 volunteers and volunteers at the beginning of the war was voiced by representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, who claimed that approximately the same number of people responded to the call to defend Ukraine. In fact, this figure has never been confirmed by anyone. The Washington Post writes that most people who came to Ukraine have already returned home, but it is not known exactly how many of them.

Russian propaganda constantly speculates on the topic of foreign volunteers: since the beginning of the war, it has written that almost no one has come to Ukraine. Then, especially during the defeats at the front, the Russian media began to write that only foreigners were fighting against the Russians in Ukraine, and they were defeating the Russian army. The last such fake was spread by representatives of the illegal DNR group, claiming that it was foreigners who were fighting against them in Bakhmut. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to convince the audience that Russia is fighting against NATO countries, and not against Ukraine. Although in any article devoted to foreign volunteers in Ukraine, it is immediately emphasized that the number of Ukrainian military is such that a thousand or even three thousand foreign volunteers cannot significantly affect the situation at the front.

Russian media, as well as social media users, are spreading information that President Zelenskyi allegedly admitted that the supply of Western tanks will not be able to change the situation at the front and turn the tide of the war. This is manipulation.

As StopFake writes, in an interview with the ARD TV channel, Zelenskyi said that Germany still cannot decide on the supply of Leopard tanks to Ukraine. He also said that the decision of an individual country to transfer or not to transfer a dozen tanks cannot significantly affect the course of the war:

“When they (the Russians) have a thousand tanks, not a single country that can give us 10 tanks, 20 tanks, 50 tanks, solves the problem. But they do one very important thing: they motivate our warriors to fight for their values, because they show that the whole world is with you”.

That is, it was about the decision of one country, specifically Germany, to provide or not provide tanks to Ukraine, and Zelenskyi's words are essentially a response to Olaf Scholz's frequent statements that Germany cannot provide Ukraine with heavy weapons because it is afraid to become a “party to the conflict”. Thus, Zelenskyi responded precisely to Scholz's words that Germany's decision would indeed not significantly affect the course of the war,  but the course of the war is influenced by the decisions of dozens of Ukraine's allied countries, and it is collective efforts (including providing tanks to Ukraine) that will help Ukraine win the war.

And it is even known exactly how many tanks Ukraine needs to return the territories occupied after February 24: in an interview with The Economist, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi said that this requires 300 tanks, about 700 infantry fighting vehicles and 500 howitzers.

By manipulating Zelenskyi's words, Russian propaganda is trying to convince the audience that Ukraine will not be able to win the war, despite any help from Western partners, and thereby influence public sentiment in Ukraine.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels after the meeting in the Ramstein format. Like, if earlier the President of Ukraine spoke about the liberation of the territories occupied by Russia, now he asks for weapons in order to “at least stop Russia”.

In fact, the rhetoric of the Ukrainian president has not changed. Russian propaganda manipulates Volodymyr Zelenskyi's quote from Ramstein speech. The propagandists took out of context a part of the speech with a call to “start a principled supply that will stop the Russian evil”. However, Zelenskyi's calls to guarantee the kind of artillery and air defense that would break terror and ensure victory were ignored. “So, let your decisions hit exactly! Just like our heroes are on the front line”, the President of Ukraine said.

Propagandists are systematically trying to discredit Volodymyr Zelenskyi both in Ukraine and abroad. Previously, they claimed that Zelenskyi signed the act of surrender during a visit to the United States. Allegedly, Zelenskyi could stop the war, but the West did not let him do it.

Pro-Russian and occupation telegram channels say that the Security service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested a resident of Kupiansk for baking and selling bread to locals during his stay under Russian occupation. Like, this is another act of the “terror of the Kyiv regime”. This is manipulation.

In fact, the former chief engineer of the Kupiansk bakery plant is accused of collaborating with the aggressor state. The detainee is accused of helping the Russians to export Ukrainian grain to the territory of Russia, to Rostov-on-Don.

As StopFake writes, the man not only openly supported the occupation authorities, but also forcibly took away the seals, stamps, statutory documents and personal files of employees from the chief accountant of the enterprise, and then handed them over to representatives of the occupation administration. For this, the occupation administration of Kupiansk appointed him the chairman of the “Food resources” enterprise created by the Russians, which exported Ukrainian grain from the temporarily occupied territory to Russia.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads fakes about the situation in the liberated territories of Ukraine. Earlier, they said that a pensioner from Kupiansk would be judged for organizing football matches during the occupation, and in Kherson, the Ukrainian military began repressions against civilians.

“Substitution of concepts” is one of the most common tactics of Russian propaganda. Propagandists artificially substitute commonly used terms (concepts) that evoke mostly negative emotions with new ones that are perceived neutrally or positively.

Propagandists use this tactic primarily to form a modern new language. Since 2014, Russian propaganda has been talking about the “civil war” in Ukraine. Behind this term, Russia's participation in the hostilities in the East of Ukraine was hidden. Like, citizens of one country are fighting. The term “war” has stable negative associations. To avoid the sharp dissatisfaction of Russians with the fact that Russia is starting a full-scale war against Ukraine, they came up with a new, more neutral term - “special military operation”. Thus, the substitution of concepts was used to calm down the Russians.

Using the tactics of substitution of concepts, Russian propaganda called the retreat from the Kyiv region, Chernihiv region, the liberation of Zmiyinyi island a “gesture of good will”. That is, the Russian media covered the defeat on the battlefield as a voluntary withdrawal of troops, moreover, as a favor done to the enemy (that is, Ukraine). Thus, the emotions of strong disappointment were replaced by more neutral ones.

Russian propaganda widely uses the substitution of concepts to highlight the participation of foreigners in the war on the side of Ukraine. They call all foreigners fighting in Ukraine mercenaries. In fact, foreign citizens who receive financial rewards for participating in hostilities are required to enter the service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and they are subordinated to its command. Otherwise, they fight as volunteers. Now Russian propaganda says that supposedly the fighters of the Wagner group are “courageous selfless volunteers”. Actually, the Wagner militants are mercenaries. The private company is not part of the Russian army, but receives financial rewards from Russia for participating in the war against Ukraine and coordinates its operations with the Russian military command. That is, Russian propaganda deliberately replaces one concept with another in order to confuse and change the attitude towards Ukrainian foreign military personnel and Russian mercenaries.

This text is the first in the “Tactics and tools” section, which Detector Media is launching as part of the Disinformation Chronicles project. In it, we will explain how the most common tactics, technologies, and tools that Russian propaganda uses to spread disinformation work.

This is the message propagandists use in their telegram channels and in the pro-Kremlin media. The report says that the propaganda TV company “Russia Today” is massively shut down in European countries. In particular, the enemies cited the example of France and said that there is no “freedom, equality and fraternity” there, hinting that the countries of the European Union do not profess the foundations of freedom of speech and the EU states comprehensively regulate their own media. It seems that one will not find out any truth from local media.

In fact, Russia Today is the center of Russian propaganda that spoke to a multinational audience by spreading Russian propaganda narratives against Europeans. The TV company was repeatedly accused of spreading lies, including about the war in Ukraine.

At the same time, on December 7, 2022, the European Commission made a proposal for the ninth package of sanctions against Russia, which provides for a restriction of almost 200 individuals and legal entities. In addition, the EU sanctions provided for the blocking of propaganda of the Russian Federation in Europe. As suggested by the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the ninth package provided for the impossibility of broadcasting four Russian channels. That is, the broadcasting of channels in Europe is stopped in order to prevent the spread of propaganda by Russia, which is waging a bloody war in Ukraine, and not because of the lack of freedom of speech.

This is the message propagandists use on social networks and on enemy telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. It says that Ukraine “provoked an ecological catastrophe” by allegedly lowering the water level in the Dnipro river lower and lower so that the river would freeze faster. As “evidence”, the authors of the messages publish various photographs and videos in which you can really see the shallow Dnipro and dead fish.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project investigated the case and found that the drop in the water level in the Dnipro was not at all connected with the work of the Ukrainian army, but with Russian shelling, as a result of which the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was damaged. On January 19, the Zaporizhzhia regional prosecutor's office opened criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Art. 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine “On violation of the laws and customs of war”. Currently, priority investigative actions are underway to establish the amount of damage caused to the environment.

“Due to the hostilities and terrorist activities of the occupying troops, it is impossible to plan and carry out any repair and restoration work at the Kakhovka HPP. But everything needs to be fixed and the losses must be counted. According to preliminary data, the amount is already about 105 million hryvnia. The revealed facts have all the signs of a crime against the environment. The aggressor country must answer for them in full”, said Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration.

Such a message is being shared by propagandists in their telegram channels and in the Kremlin media. The report says that during his speech in Davos, Zelenskyi allegedly “revealed Ukraine's weakest point” and assured that it was the air defense system. However, this is manipulation.

In fact, StopFake's fact-checkers examined the case and found that propaganda resources omitted the context in which it was said and reduced Zelenskyi's response to just this phrase.

The propagandists distorted the president's quote. In fact, it was an answer to the question of how Ukraine defends itself from the destruction of civilian infrastructure by Russia. This is what the actual quote looks like:

“Defend our weak points. Defend places with partners where the enemy hits. Air defense system. This is our weak point. Maybe this is not a weak point in Ukraine compared to other states,”. That is, we are talking about the fact that, in general, our air defense is quite powerful, however, unfortunately, there is a hit on civilian infrastructure. Therefore, it does not cope with all enemy missiles or drones.

In addition, earlier Volodymyr Zelenskyi repeatedly said that the air defense in Ukraine is strong enough, and in 2023 it will become even more powerful.

By spreading this manipulation, the enemy is trying to prove that the means of Ukrainian defense or, for example, weapons are meaningless and can be quickly destroyed. Allegedly, not a single Western technique can be compared with the domestic Russian one.

This is the message propagandists use on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. It says that Denmark deeply regretted the transfer of its howitzers to Ukraine. Like, Denmark was left with nothing now, because it was waiting for a very long time for howitzers, which in the future would form the defense basis of the country. The authors of the message refer to the words of a military analyst who allegedly said it. This is manipulation.

The StopFake project specialists explained what the comment to the Danish publication Berlingske actually says: military analyst Christian Christensen expressed concern that replacements for the 19 Caesar howitzers would not be easy to find due to the realities of the modern arms market. However, the expert did not say that the decision of the Danish government to transfer weapons to Ukraine was a mistake and that Denmark “regretted” this step. That is, there was no such official position of the country, although the expert noted that howitzers are an important element in the country's defense capability.

Propagandists are spreading this manipulation to nourish the narrative that by handing weapons to Ukraine, other countries are left light and weak. Thus, propagandists want to encourage Western states not to send weapons to Ukraine.

Such a message is being shared by propagandists on social networks and in telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. It says that Ukrainians allegedly started calling Russian schoolchildren on behalf of representatives of the gas service and asking them to turn on the gas and go and get some rest. Allegedly, peaceful Ukrainians are arranging sabotage and want to blow up multi-storey buildings. The authors of the messages add to the publication the so-called “audio recording of the call”, during which the woman asks the child to turn on the gas burners, “and go to rest in another room for two hours”. The woman herself claims that she is calling from the gas service, and so they conduct “remote checks”.

As the StopFake fact checkers explain, in fact, such an audio recording was previously distributed among users in the Kazakh segment, and has nothing to do with Ukraine. Back in 2018, this case was discussed on the national TV channels of Kazakhstan. It was discovered that the recording itself was made somewhere in their country, as local names were used.

Propagandists spread this message in order to destabilize the situation and once again nourish the narrative that Ukrainians are Nazis who do not even feel sorry for children.

Such a message is being shared by propagandists in their telegram channels and in the Kremlin media. It says that Moldova is preparing for war, and the West and World Health Organization are helping it in this. They say that the Western leadership, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, arranges training in medical care. That is why, according to propagandists, Moldova is preparing for an offensive. However, this is not true.

The specialists of the StopFake project explained that the Western countries are not preparing Moldova for a war with Russia - this is a stuffing and a conspiracy theory of the pro-Kremlin media. The WHO training for doctors from Moldova was aimed at training doctors to provide assistance to the wounded who arrived from Ukraine.

In addition, the representative office of the World Health Organization in Moldova emphasized that the need for such training is closely related to Russian aggression against Ukraine. The WHO noted that the acquired skills will help Moldovan doctors provide the necessary assistance to refugees from Ukraine who suffered from Russian aggression. There was no mention of “training Moldovan doctors for military operations against Russia” at the training.

This is the message propagandists share on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. It says that the draft notices allegedly began to be handed over even to teenagers, because all the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already been exhausted. Like, they are “still children” who Ukraine transfers to the front. The authors of the message add to the publication a likely draft notice, supposedly issued by one of the territorial recruitment and social support centers. However, this is not true.

As the StopFake fact checkers explain, the draft notice spread by the propagandists is actually fake. First of all, the “document” does not correspond to the official model: it has the wrong column names, and some information is completely missing from it. Also, the name of the “military commissariat” is constantly used in the fake draft notice, however, starting from 2021, military registration and enlistment offices in Ukraine are called “territorial recruitment and social support centers”. Fact checkers are sure that the so-called document was created using special editors.

By spreading such messages, propagandists are once again trying to promote the narrative that there is no one left to fight in Ukraine, so even children allegedly have to be mobilized.

Such a message is being shared by propagandists on social networks and telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. It says that Ukraine wants to destroy Orthodoxy and at the same time promote paganism, because supposedly there are no real shrines left on the territory of Ukraine after the sanctioning of the Moscow Patriarchate church. That is why, according to propagandists, there is reason to believe that the process of abandoning the Moscow Patriarchate is aimed at replacing canonical Orthodoxy with “neopaganism”.

However, as analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project explain, the Ukrainian authorities neither plan to ban Orthodoxy, nor promote “neopaganism”. Parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate can freely transfer to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which received the tomos of autocephaly in January 2019. In addition, 78% of Orthodox believers declare their allegiance to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

By spreading this message, propagandists are trying to downplay the significance of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine for Ukrainians, presenting it as schismatic, separated from the real, canonical one. In contrast, propagandists do not stop positioning the Moscow Patriarchate as the only possible way to practice Orthodoxy. Thus, the enemies want to ideologically unite Ukrainians and Russians in order to promote the narrative of one people. At the same time, those who do not recognize the Moscow Patriarchate are sinners and schismatics.

This message is being spread by propagandists on social networks and telegram channels. The report says that the Russian military near Soledar destroyed the first American M1 Abrams tank from the RPG-18 Mukha. It is not true.

As experts from the Center for countering disinformation explain, the occupiers used an old photo that was not even taken in Ukraine. Moreover, the US has not yet handed over a single such tank to Ukraine, which makes it impossible to destroy it.

Propagandists are spreading this fake in order to distort reality and show that Ukraine is constantly losing and even powerful American equipment does not help, because the Russians are successfully destroying it. Against the background of previously initiated military assistance from the United States, Russian propaganda is trying to convince people that all weapons are ineffective and can be easily destroyed.

This is the message propagandists share on social networks and telegram channels that broadcast pro-Russian rhetoric to the Polish audience. The report says that Poland understood who is real in the war in Ukraine and is ready to help enslaved Russia: it sent almost 100,000.00 Polish zlotys, which is 1.5 million rubles, to help the Russian army. The author of the message adds a video to the publication, which allegedly shows collecting  money. However, this is manipulation.

In fact, there were no official statements from Poland about helping the aggressor country. We cannot say that the person really did not transfer funds, but this is definitely not the official position of the country. Both the Polish leadership and the citizens of Poland strongly condemned the large-scale war provoked by Russia against Ukraine. Poland is and remains a faithful partner of Ukraine.

Regarding the video, it is published on a propaganda resource and demonstrates the process of withdrawing cash from an ATM. The video is not accompanied either by the hero's comments, or by the hero himself, because the video work consists of video parts mounted together, showing how people withdraw cash.

By spreading this manipulation, propagandists are trying to distort reality and show that Ukraine is gradually losing its support even from the most loyal partners. They say that Ukraine will soon remain on its own, because at last the whole world has learned who the real aggressor is. However, our partners do not stop condemning and sanctioning a terrorist country that daily commits war crimes against Ukrainians. Also, partners continue to support Ukraine, supplying weapons to fight the enemy.

A network of telegram channels supervised by Russian intelligence began to spread the message that in response to the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine, Russia could use nuclear weapons. It seems that British intelligence warned Ukraine about this.

Threats of nuclear weapons have been one of the most widespread messages of Russian propaganda since the beginning of the war. Back in April, propaganda was spreading this message, but then the reason was the “use of nuclear weapons by Russia” due to the fact that Ukraine should recognize Crimea and Donbas as Russian. If it refuses, Russia “retains the right” to use weapons.

Another wave of discussions about the “use of nuclear weapons” occurred in September, when, against the backdrop of the defeat of the Russian army near Kharkiv and the liberation of the Kharkiv region by the Ukrainian army, Putin announced the start of mobilization. Then and later, he stated that he “does not bluff about the use of nuclear weapons” if hostilities begin on the “territories of the Russian Federation”. Following these statements, Russia annexed parts of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk regions. And every day there is fighting on these territories. The Ukrainian army has since liberated a significant part of the Kherson region, along with Kherson, as well as settlements in other regions, but the Russians did not use nuclear weapons. Now the propaganda is back to the “use of nuclear weapons” thesis because of the actions of the West, which finally decided to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons.

This is the message propagandists use on social networks and telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. It states that the goal of the World economic forum is to reduce the number of people to 1 billion of “chosen ones” because there is not enough space and sources in the world for everyone. For this, WEF members, according to propagandists, have developed a special plan, which is already underway due to the war in Ukraine and the pandemic. It's a lie.

As Eu vs Disinfo experts explain, this is a propaganda stuffing built on conspiracy theories. The World economic forum is a well-known independent international organization. As noted in the program of the Annual meeting of the forum 2023, the current event is dedicated to various situations, in particular, the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic. The agenda of the Forum “focuses on solutions to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges”.

When propagandists spread such fakes and use conspiracy theories, they want to achieve a distortion of reality that is beneficial for Russian propaganda to spread their narratives. They say that the war in Ukraine has long been planned by third parties, and Russia has nothing to do with it. So, Russia blurs the borders and justifies itself, creating the appearance that people in Ukraine are dying not because of its aggression, but because of the collusion of large organizations.

This is the message propagandists use on social networks and telegram channels that broadcast pro-Russian rhetoric to the Polish audience. It says that Zelenskyi signed the act of surrender during his visit to the United States. Like, one of the officials took an autograph from the president, but in fact it was not just a piece of paper with a signature, but a real act of surrender. Thus, Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed it without even knowing it, and at the same time admitted defeat in the war. It seems that the president will soon stand down. The authors of the messages add a probable act of surrender to the publication. However, this is not true.

In fact, not a single act of surrender was signed. Ever since the start of the full-scale invasion, Volodymyr Zelenskyi has been saying that Ukraine will not capitulate. At the same time, a series of talks held between the Ukrainian and Russian sides in February-March 2022 convinced the Ukrainian leadership that Russia wanted one thing, namely, a quick surrender of Ukraine and recognition of the Russian victory. However, Ukraine disagreed and called for an immediate Russian ceasefire. The so-called document, attached by the propagandists, contains spelling and lexical errors, indicating that it was compiled.

By spreading this fake, propagandists are trying to nourish the narrative that America wants to get rid of Zelenskyi and is ready even for such tricks. It seems that this is all a secret plan, a conspiracy against the president, and he does not even suspect how, as they say, his most devoted partners actually support him.

Such a message is being broadcast by propagandists on social networks and in telegram channels with pro-Kremlin rhetoric. It says that the EU and NATO want to unleash a world war. The Declaration of cooperation recently signed between the EU and NATO clearly shows that NATO leads the European Union. Propagandists claim that the leaders of these organizations want to unleash a large-scale war aimed at aggression against Russia. However, this is not true.

According to EU vs Disinfo analysts, on January 10, 2023, the EU and NATO signed a Joint declaration of cooperation that emphasized the strategic partnership between NATO and the EU, condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine, and presented NATO as the backbone of European and American collective defense. The EU-NATO cooperation declaration is aimed at strengthening the mechanism of collective defense, this document does not provide for any aggressive actions against Russia.

Since Russia began aggressive actions against Ukraine, Russian officials have accused NATO of a series of threats and hostilities. NATO is a defense alliance whose main objectives are to maintain peace and protect the independence, security and territorial integrity of its members.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists are trying to demonize Western partners and at the same time nourish the narrative that Russia is fighting not only against Ukraine, but also against NATO or the EU. Like, these organizations are the center of war and devastation, and Russia is only defending itself from the armed aggression of the West. However, the real aggressors are Russia and the Russian military, who unleashed a war on the territory of Ukraine and daily commit terrorist crimes against peaceful Ukrainians.

In the Ukrainian segment of social networks, a video with allegedly featuring Yurii Lutsenko is being shared after a hard battle in Soledar, Donetsk region. In particular, the Volyn politician Volodymyr Bondar published a screenshot from the video on his personal page. However, according to the fact-checkers of the “Brekhunets” (Lier) project, this video is a deepfake.

According to the fact-checkers, with the help of special programs, the authors created a so-called deepfake, because the video footage shows a man in military uniform, who really looks like Ukrainian politician Yurii Lutsenko. In the video, the hero's face moves a lot, it increases or decreases in size, which is not typical of a live, non-supporting video. Analysts are convinced that the authors of the video took a photograph of a military man and, using computer technology, superimposed Lutsenko's face on it.

Moreover, the video was recorded for several seconds and contains only musical accompaniment, although the military himself is silent in the video and does not add a single comment.

Photos from the exhibition of “captured” weapons in Moscow's Patriot park, including allegedly banned Italian-made mines, are being circulated on social networks. Propagandists say that they were neutralized by Russian sappers in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The original source of the photos is the Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in Italy. It's fake.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto denies any allegations by Italy of supplying banned weapons to Ukraine. According to Stop Fake, the Italian Ministry of Defense reported that the objects in the photo are not of Italian origin. This is indicated by the corresponding marking. The production of such mines in Italy was stopped 28 years ago, after a moratorium was introduced in accordance with the Ottawa Convention. The signatories are obliged to get rid of stockpiles of these weapons, it is forbidden to transfer anti-personnel mines to third parties. Ukraine ratified the Ottawa Convention in 2005, unlike Russia.

Russia systematically accuses Ukraine of using prohibited weapons. Earlier propagandists wrote that Turkey supplies Ukraine with cluster munitions; they wrote that Ukraine used chemical weapons against the Russian military in the Zaporizhzhia region. Russian propaganda also said that allegedly Russia does not have banned chemical weapons.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. The messages include a video with the participation of the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Pavlo, in which he calls Patriarch Filaret a “schismatic”, and the head of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifanii, a “self saint”. He also says that the Uspenskyi (Holy Assumption) cathedral was given to the OCU for holding a festive service. As if people from all over Ukraine would be “specially” brought there and paid for participation in the liturgy.

For these statements criminal proceedings were opened against Pavlo, the Metropolitan of the church of the Moscow patriarchate, on the fact of inciting religious hatred. This was announced by People's deputy Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.

In January 2019, ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew signed the Tomos on the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian church was officially established on January 30, 2019. The Church of the Moscow patriarchate has not yet recognized the creation of the OCU.

In January 2023, Metropolitan Epifanii held a festive Christmas service for the first time at the Uspenskyi (Holy Assumption) cathedral. After that, Russian propaganda spread messages that only militants and the press were present at the liturgy.

After the Security service of Ukraine (SBU) opened a case about the glorification of the “Russian world” in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Russian propaganda began to spread messages in defense of the Moscow patriarchate church. In particular, they said that Ukraine is “destroying” the largest religious denomination. They also wrote that Ukraine is on the verge of the largest interdenominational conflict in Europe.

After the events in Brovary on January 18, Russian propaganda began to spread messages that Russians sympathized with the death of Ukrainian children. Allegedly, this emphasizes the “humanity” of Russians, in contrast to Ukrainians, who “hate” all Russians, including children. They say that the Ukrainians are calling for the destruction of Russian children so that “they will not turn into orcs”.

Thus, Russian propaganda uses the tactics of “disuniting the enemy”. That is, he deliberately depicts Ukrainians as extremely aggressive and vengeful. This nourishes the propaganda messages about the “Nazism of the Ukrainians”. Russian propaganda used a similar tactic, in particular, when covering the explosions in the Crimea. They wrote that supposedly Ukrainians are happy that war has finally come to Crimea.

In fact, Ukrainians showed sympathy for the Russians even after 2014. For example, they carried flowers, candles and toys to the Russian embassy in 2015 after the crash of the Russian plane. Or in 2018 after the tragedy in the Kemerovo cinema. However, the full-scale invasion significantly affected the emotions of Ukrainians. As of January 2023, due to Russian aggression in Ukraine, at least 459 children were killed, more than 909 were injured of varying severity. These figures are not final, since the recording and investigation of Russian war crimes, including those against children, in places of warfare and in the liberated territories.

By spreading messages allegedly about “sympathy”, Russian propaganda is trying to hide aggressive anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, an example of which is the statements of Russian propagandist Anton Krasovskyi about Ukrainian children and the positive reaction to them on pro-Russian resources.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels as a reaction to the statements of Ukrainian partners in the supply of weapons to Ukraine. In particular, the reaction was caused by the speech of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the Davos form. He stressed that Ukraine needs a significant increase in arms supplies at a key moment in the war.

In this way, Russian propaganda nourishes narratives that Western military aid “really” only prolongs the war and increases the number of casualties.

The purpose of these messages is to influence the emotional state of Ukrainians, to intimidate and force them to surrender. Previously, propagandists spread a similar message that the desire for peace and the desire to further stuff Ukraine with weapons are mutually negative actions.