Kremlin propaganda media are spreading information citing American reports that the Ukrainian army is allegedly preparing to blow up the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The US military gave Ukraine sensors that help detect a surge of radiation, and, according to propaganda, this confirms that “the Americans are afraid of the explosion of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during the offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”. It's fake.

As the fact-checkers of the StopFake project note, the Russian propaganda used the New York Times article, took the information out of context and built its own fake on it. There is no information in the NYT publication about the “blowing up the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant”, however, the United States did indeed transfer sensors to Ukraine. The Nuclear Accident Support Team (NEST), affiliated with the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, has deployed sensors in Ukraine to warn of an emergency or report a radiation disaster. It has to do with Russia's nuclear blackmail.

Moreover, this equipment will be able to decipher the so-called atomic signature, which is formed after the explosion. If Russia wants to stage a provocation, hiding behind the Ukrainian flag, the US will be able to expose it.

Thus, propaganda is trying to intimidate not only Ukrainians, but the whole world with nuclear weapons. And also to shift the responsibility for Russia's crimes to the victim. Previously, Detector Media described how Russian propaganda uses intimidation tactics.

Such information was disseminated in Russian propaganda media, referring to the head of the Kharkiv military garrison, Serhii Melnyk. He believes that Ukraine “will never have enough people and equipment to defeat Russia”. Russian propaganda also stated that “the combat-ready part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed, and the professional military was out of action”. This is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project drew attention to the case. Russian propaganda media used an interview with General Serhii Melnyk for the Spanish edition of El País. Melnyk spoke about the defense of Kharkiv in 2022 and the upcoming counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2023. The general noted that Ukraine needs not only a large amount of equipment and ammunition, but also the military, so that rotations can be carried out more often. It was this statement that took the propaganda out of context and created the manipulation that the Ukrainian army had “already been killed”.

After the Russian propaganda media began to spread this manipulation, Serhii Melnyk explained his words. He noted that although the fighters are heroic, however, they are exhausted, some are injured, and someone dies. He also noted that Ukraine has enough resources for a counteroffensive, but the most important thing is to get enough weapons to save the lives of the fighters.

This is not the first time Russian propaganda wants to undermine the reputation of the Ukrainian military leadership and cause discouragement among Ukrainian society by manipulating the topic of a counteroffensive. Like, even the military leaders do not believe in the victory of Ukraine over Russia. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the manipulation that if the Ukrainian military fails the counteroffensive, the West will allegedly stop supporting Ukraine.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that the Lviv regional state administration “ordered” employees of budgetary institutions to donate blood for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Like, if they don’t donate blood, they “remain without a bonus”. As evidence of the publication, the authors of the messages cite an announcement-order, which, they say, is placed in state institutions for workers. In addition, propagandists add a screenshot of the correspondence on the telegram, where the user comments on the message of the local telegram channel and claims that “Lviv residents are forced to donate blood”. It is not true.

The specialists of the VoxCheck project worked on the case, and found that the order itself did not mention forced blood donation. It notes that blood can be donated voluntarily, not forced. Fact-checkers did not verify the authenticity of the order itself, however, reliable and relevant information is posted there. The authors of the messages simply came up with a different content for the “forced” order. According to Ukrainian legislation, blood donation is exclusively voluntary. That is, a person cannot be forced to donate blood, since the patient gives written consent before the procedure. The questionnaire can be completed online, however, according to fact-checkers, many blood centers do not accept such applications. In most cases, the patient must fill out the consent to donate in the presence of a doctor.

As for the message itself from the user in one of the local telegram channels, the fact checkers did not find this comment. As they explain, one comment is obviously not evidence that “Lviv residents are forced to donate blood”. Probably, it was forged and distributed in the Ukrainian telegram segment, and then deleted.

There is no significant shortage of blood in Ukraine, which means there is no need to force people to donate it either. At the same time, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine indicates that sometimes there is a need for a rare blood type, but there is no critical shortage. In April, the agency also said that thanks to donors, the daily supply of erythrocyte blood components has increased, but there is a shortage of donors with negative rhesus blood.

Propagandists systematically spread fakes and manipulation about the alleged lack of blood in Ukraine. Thus, the authors of the messages are trying to convince that everything is bad in Ukraine and that there are many wounded who are not being given worthy assistance, since there is no blood. We managed to refute several fakes on this topic. For example, one of the fakes said that Ukraine forbids all foreign citizens from becoming blood donors. We also verified the authenticity of a message on social networks that a Ukrainian woman left her husband because he was “transfused with the blood of Russians”.

Such a message was circulated on social networks, in particular on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that the military of the 128th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine beat a man with his hands tied with a stick on his back. Like, it was a Brazilian volunteer who tried to escape from the position. A bound man in military uniform asked in Portuguese “not to beat him”. As proof, the authors add a video showing the process of beating an allegedly Brazilian volunteer with the participation of the Ukrainian military. At the same time, the authors of the messages note that the video was found on the phone of one of the prisoners of war of the Ukrainian military. It is not true.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project drew attention to the case, and they investigated that the video was not real. As analysts explain, this is another production of Russian propaganda because the Brazilians are indeed among the volunteers but do not serve in the 128th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Like other volunteers from other countries, the Brazilians serve only in the Foreign Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In addition, StopFake analysts checked the video using language detection tools. That's how they figured out that the bound man in the video was speaking Portuguese. In Brazil, the official language is Portuguese. However, later the fact-checkers turned to Brazilian colleagues to clarify whether it was possible to determine from the pronunciation of the man in the video that he was Brazilian. They were told that the man was definitely not a native speaker and that he was studying European Portuguese, not Brazilian Portuguese. Actually, European Portuguese is spoken, in particular, in Portugal, and not in Brazil. These two varieties of Portuguese, for example, have a significant difference in phonetics that can be easily heard and recorded.

Such information appeared in the Russian propaganda media. In particular, the reports said that The Times allegedly published information about the losses in the Armed Forces of Ukraine that shocked the public. Like, the losses are so great that they shock not only the public, but also NATO instructors. It seems that the Alliance has not encountered this before. The authors of the reports also add that the British publication allegedly claims that the nature of the injuries is severe, and doctors need to constantly choose “who would live and who would die”. However, this is fake. The publication did not publish materials of this kind.

The fact-checkers of The Insider drew attention to the case. In fact, The Times published an article entitled “Putin’s forces will face a dead end in Donbas, Kyiv vows”. The article says Zelenskiy said his soldiers kill hundreds of Wagner fighters every day as they try to outflank the city in a frontal attack. “In less than a week, starting on March 6, in the Bakhmut direction alone, we managed to destroy more than 1,100 enemy soldiers, an irretrievable loss of Russia right there, near Bakhmut”, Zelensky said. The article also said that Ukrainian forces would also suffer losses, in particular, the Russians reported that more than 220 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in 24 hours. “But none of these figures can be independently verified”, the article said.

That is, The Times did not write about excessive and shocking losses in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The journalists only described that Ukraine and Russia report enemy losses. However, Russia needs such fakes to create the appearance that the situation at the front is constantly deteriorating, and the Ukrainian army is weak and incapable of combat.

Pro-Russian telegram channels write about this. They say that Ukraine itself does not take any decision on military operations. Allegedly, the Ukrainians are assigned the role of “cannon fodder”. Like, this is confirmed by the visit of CIA Director William Burns to Kyiv to give instructions to Zelenskyi. The United States is slowly “pushing through” the decisions they need, affecting the speed of military assistance. Allegedly, sanctions against Russia are introduced gradually as an element of bargaining with Russia.

These messages nourish the “outside governance” narrative in Ukraine that has been going on since before the full blown upheaval. Also, Russian propaganda has repeatedly distributed memes that in Ukraine Russia is at war with the United States, NATO or the “collective West”. Thus, propagandists are trying to undermine the credibility of both the Ukrainian authorities and Western partners and destabilize the situation in the country. The United States is helping Ukraine resist Russian aggression, so Russia is trying to discredit the aid in every possible way.

Earlier, for this purpose, they wrote that the United States is using Ukraine as a testing ground for the development of weapons and the law on lend-lease involves huge debts, and that America is not profitable for Ukraine's victory. Like, Ukraine should fight on behalf of NATO. They also wrote that allegedly the United States is pushing Europe into the abyss.

Russian media and pro-Russian resources are spreading a video in which a Russian military man says that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were preparing an offensive in the summer of 2022 against Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog. This is allegedly evidenced by marks on maps found on abandoned Ukrainian positions near Avdiyivka. It's fake.

According to VoxCheck, the Russian military shows a Soviet, not a Ukrainian map. There are no marks in Ukrainian on it, only in Russian. Mariupol is designated as Zhdanov - this is how the city was called from 1948 to 1989. That is, the map was created no later than 1989. On it one can also notice the stamp “For official use only” in Russian language but not in Ukrainian. There is no information about who exactly and why put the marks on the map that the military demonstrates. Thus, Russia is trying to make Ukraine an aggressor, to undermine its authority in the international arena.

Earlier, Russian propaganda spread messages that Ukraine had become a laboratory for testing Western weapons, that Ukraine was a biological threat. The propagandists also spread messages that the United States allegedly conducted training and training in Ukraine with pathogens of especially dangerous diseases.

Russian propaganda media disseminate information that supposedly the Ukrainian ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, in an interview with Newsweek, acknowledged the “colossal losses” of the Ukrainian army and noted that people were dying “in the interests of the West”.

In fact, the enemy media refer to a quote taken out of context. The diplomat said that people are dying from Russian shelling and rocket attacks. There were no words of military losses “in the interests of the West” at all.

According to StopFake analysts, the quote, manipulated by the Russian media, was about the destruction and deaths from a full-scale invasion that has been going on for almost a year. In addition, he meant not only the military, but also civilians suffering from Russian occupation. Russian propaganda writes about the “interests of the West”, although in fact the diplomat did not mention them. This is a manipulation aimed at blaming Ukraine's allies for its losses.

Russian media often write about the West and its involvement in the war in Ukraine. In particular, they manipulate the topics of arms supply and call Volodymyr Zelenskyi a “puppet” in the West's war against Russia. Recently, the media of the enemy also wrote that allegedly Kyiv is not allowed to negotiate and stop the war, although Russia is trying to put ultimatums on the terms of the negotiation process.

Russian propaganda media disseminate information about the recent sharp drop in the combat capability of the Ukrainian army. Allegedly, such a statement was made by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar. The authors of the messages add that the Ukrainian army is already exhausted and most people cannot go through the military realities. That is why, according to propagandists, the Ukrainian army is no longer combat-ready. However, this is manipulation.

Analysts of the Voxcheck project investigated this case and found that on January 8, Hanna Maliar published a message in her telegram channel, where she talked about the difficult situation in Soledar, Donetsk region, and how the Ukrainian army is resisting the invaders. However, she did not say that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were sharply losing their combat capability. On the contrary, she stressed that in some areas of Donbas, the military is successfully breaking through.

However, she said that Ukrainians need to understand how civilians go through difficult moral and physical ordeal during the war. Enemies distorted the context of the official's quote.

Propagandists spread this message to destabilize the situation in Ukrainian society. Against the backdrop of heavy fighting in the Bakhmut direction, pro-Kremlin telegram channels and media resort to various manipulations and fakes to make Ukrainians despair of the Ukrainian army. Propagandists seek to create the appearance of losing Ukraine, because its army can no longer withstand the fight against the enemy.

We recall that earlier Detector Media wrote about the manipulation of propagandists, that the Ukrainian leadership allegedly forced the Armed Forces of Ukraine to leave the territory of Bakhmut due to the inability of the military to fight.

Such a thesis is distributed in pro-Russian and propaganda telegram channels, which claims that relations between the Ukrainian army and Zelenskyi have deteriorated significantly. Like, all this is due to the constant defeats of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and, as a result, Zelenskyi's discontent. Russian propaganda claims that Zelenskyi is losing his authority and his power.

With this message, the propagandists are trying to reach several goals. First, to discredit the President and expose him as an incompetent head of state. They build the image of an evil, greedy to victory leader. Allegedly, Zelenskyi demands constant victories and no defeats from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, at the same time, the army suffers from tyranny. Secondly, to undermine the confidence of the army in the President, who is allegedly under pressure from the leadership and is trying in every possible way to please the top.

Such a message is spread by pro-Russian telegram channels. Like, censorship has become the main tool of power for concealment of corruption, criminal orders or command errors. It seems that the situation with the shelling clearly demonstrated this - the Ukrainian authorities are “rejoicing” at the shelling of Makiyivka, but they are silent about Druzhkivka.

Pro-Russian telegram channels write that the Americans are allegedly satisfied with the state of affairs in Ukraine, in particular, the course of the war. Like, the Americans understand that statistically there are four times more Russians than Ukrainians, but they “like everything”.

To promote the message, the Russian propaganda took the words of US Senator Lindsey Graham out of context. Graham said that he likes the way the United States is now supporting Ukraine in the war against Russia and this is very important. It was about the fact that US assistance allows Ukraine not to give up. The propagandists are shifting the focus to the literal perception of Graham's words about “struggle to the last Ukrainian” and manipulate the reference to statistics.

Russian media and pro-Russian resources are spreading messages that Europe will get tired of supporting Ukraine if the Ukrainian army fails to demonstrate new successes on the battlefield. Allegedly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi understands that prolonging the conflict will entail criticism and therefore signals to the West that in 2023 he will be “ready for peace talks”. Like, that's why Zelenskyi initiated the convening of a special peace formula summit this winter.

To spread such messages to an international audience, the propagandists used the words of the former national security adviser to former US President George W. Bush, Michael Allen, who has repeatedly spoken out in support of Russia.

This was written by Russian propagandists, anonymous TV channels and media. Allegedly, near Bakhmut, Russian soldiers killed an ardent nationalist, a former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, a participant in the Revolution of Dignity, Mykhailo Havryliuk.

In fact, Mykhailo Havryliuk is alive. This was confirmed by his wife, Yaryna Havryliuk, and the godfather of Havryliuk's wife, Myroslav, reported it to TSN.ua.

“Friends, everything is fine with Mykhailo. He is alive. This is another clear demonstration that telegram channels are evil,” Yaryna said.

Myroslav added that Mykhailo is now in Kolomyia.

Russian propaganda spreads information that France has recognized the futility of the attempts of the Ukrainian army to defeat the Russian one, and writes about the “disappointing situation” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine due to heavy losses. Propagandists refer to an article in the French economic publication La Tribune. But this is manipulation.

The article, which belongs to an anonymous group of analysts called Mars, makes no claims about the “disappointing situation of the APU”. The fact-checkers from Insider drew attention to this. The article says whether Ukraine can defeat Russia on the battlefield, liberating only by military means the entire territory of Ukraine up to the borders of 1991. The authors of the French edition are convinced that it is not, because one should take a "realistic" look at this war, offering not only Ukraine, but also guarantees of Russia's security. Ukraine is invited to “guarantee entry into NATO”, but at the same time to abandon the territories that will be a “demilitarized zone under the control of the UN”: we are talking about the Donetsk, Luhansk regions, Crimea and parts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. In the future, the authors write, it will be necessary to hold a referendum on the self-determination of these regions, and they will become “independent”, “a buffer zone between NATO and Russia”.

Recently, "security guarantees for Russia" were also offered by French President Emmanuel Macron. There are also some political forces in the EU and the US that are trying to promote the idea of understanding Russia's interests and security guarantees for an aggressor country that no one has attacked. This is presented as “realpolitik” as opposed to “ideal ideas” that cannot be implemented. The same “real politicians” believed that Russia would capture Ukraine in three days. The anonymous French think tank also writes about “an ideal world in which Russia must withdraw troops from Ukrainian territories" and “a reality in which the Russian army cannot lose the war, given the nuclear deterrence force”.

Such articles and statements are used by Russian propaganda to convince the audience that Ukraine will not win the war and that it is losing support in the West. Although the reality is that none of Russia's plans to seize Ukraine came true, and it is Russia that keeps losing the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and Ukraine is supported by most European countries, the United States and their partners in the world.

This was stated by the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, who fled Ukraine during the Revolution of Dignity together with the ex - President Viktor Yanukovych.

Currently, Azarov is in Russia and regularly acts as an expert on the Ukrainian issue. In one of his last appeals, he assures that 50,000 women who served in the Armed Forces were allegedly killed in Ukraine during the war. And this happened through the fault of Volodymyr Zelenskyi. His words were circulated by pro-Russian telegrams and other Russian resources.

Based on an article in the AR about women who volunteered to serve in the Ukrainian army, Azarov calculated that out of 57,000, only 6,000 remained alive today. “Where have over 50,000 women gone?”, Azarov asks rhetorically.

In fact, AR journalists told how volunteers help female servicemen with various equipment. They cite information that 57,000 women serve in the army, “at least 6,000 Ukrainian women are at or near the front line in such roles as paramedics and intelligence officers, as well as snipers and artillery”. Based on this quote, Azarov concludes that if 6,000 Ukrainian women are at the front, then the remaining 51,000 “died, were injured or were captured”. But it's not like that.

Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov in November of this year provided the following data: “59,786 women are currently serving in the Armed Forces. At the same time, 18,000 women are civilian workers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 41,000 women occupy precisely military positions and 5,000 are right at the front lines”.

Reznikov clarified that since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 101 female soldiers have died in the war against Russian invaders, another 50 female defenders are missing, and 100 have been injured.

Russian propaganda promotes such fakes to show the weakness of the Ukrainian army, they say, women and teenagers are fighting there, Zelenskyi sends them to their deaths. Such “facts” are thrown into the information space in order to show a professional Russian army against this background and hide Russia’s failures at the front.

Such information appeared in the Russian-language media space. In particular, messages are distributed in anonymous telegram channels broadcasting a pro-Russian position. They say that a new group of radical Islamists went from northeast Syria to Ukraine to fight as mercenaries on the side of Kyiv. However, there is no evidence in the propagandists' reports to support such a claim. Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to the case.

This message is spread by the Russian propaganda media. Like, Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted in an interview that the Russian military leader inspires fear in him. As StopFake writes, the message about the recognition of the fear of the Russian Surovikin by Zaluzhnyi is based on an interview of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the British edition of The Economist. The interview of the Commander-in-Chief is real, but he did not say that he was afraid of Surovikin. It's fake. In fact, Valerii Zaluzhnyi spoke in an interview about the course of the war, the Ukrainian counteroffensive, and also gave an assessment of Russian actions on the battlefield.

Evidence of the prosperity of Nazism in Ukraine is being disseminated in social networks and telegram channels. They write that allegedly for the Kharkiv operation, the servicemen of the 92nd brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were awarded “Steel Crosses”, like the “Iron Crosses”, which were awarded in the Wehrmacht to “the biggest thugs”. Like, the awards have a similar design. It is not true.

The “Steel Cross” badge has nothing to do with the Nazi “Iron Cross”, moreover, there are no Nazi symbols on it. The Ukrainian award “Steel Cross” combined the symbols of the regimental power of the Zaporizhzhia Host (crossed feathers) and successful campaigns against enemies (the heraldic sign of the Ukrainian hetman Konstiantyn Ostrozkyi, who defeated the Moscow army near Orsha in 1514). In addition, the modern award was created on the prototype of the “Iron Cross of the UNR Army”, founded back in 1920 by Symon Petliura after the First winter campaign.

As StopFake writes, the Wehrmacht really had an award called the “Iron Cross”. However, it is wrong to consider this military order exclusively Nazi. The fact is that the order was originally founded in 1813 in the Kingdom of Prussia, it was awarded to the military who distinguished themselves in the war against the Napoleonic army. After the establishment of the Weimar Republic in Germany, it was decided to abolish all former orders. The Order of the Iron Cross was restored in 1939 in Nazi Germany and lasted until 1945. In modern Germany, it is permissible to wear the Iron Cross from the Second World War, but only without a swastika.

Such letters with a request to participate in the “charitable financial assistance program for the Armed Forces of Ukraine” are sent on behalf of the head of the Rivne regional military administration.

False letters were found in Rivne military regional administration.

Fraudsters promise that for this help, the business will allegedly receive a reduction in income tax in proportion to the donated charitable amount.

“This is the work of scammers. They are already being dealt with by law enforcement agencies”, the Rivne district police department assured and stressed that they never send out such appeals. The humanitarian activities of the administration are carried out as publicly as possible.

This information was disseminated by the Russian media with reference to the statement of a certain soldier of the Russian intelligence special forces. They say that Ukraine, for lack of personnel, is allegedly forced to send minors to the front. As evidence, propagandists cite a video where the same “teenagers” are allegedly recorded.

As the journalists of the StopFake fact-checking project noted, the video shows not teenagers, but adult soldiers serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was filmed by a military paramedic with the call sign Chaika and posted on TikTok in October 2022.

The girl’s name is Yelyzaveta, she is 23 years old. She has got two higher education diplomas and has been serving in the Ukrainian army since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine.

A number of telegram channels with the letter Z in their names have disseminated information about the accident in which the ex-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Turchynov died. This is a fake, which Turchynov himself denied.

“Don’t even wait for this”, Turchynov wrote on his Facebook.

The channels wrote that it was the “bloody pastor”, as Turchynov’s propagandists call him, who unleashed a war in Donbas. In fact, it was unleashed by Russia, starting the supply of weapons and sending its military to seize power in various cities of Donbas.

Anonymous telegram channels write about this. Like, the morgues of Zaporizhzhia are overflowing with the bodies of the dead Ukrainian military, so the city council decided to create another morgue. It is not true.

The original source of the fake was the telegram channel of the collaborator from Zaporizhzhia Volodymyr Rohanov. According to the fact-checkers of the Zaporizhzhia Investigation Center, in fact, the city council decided to create a public utility company “Patological and anatomical bureau”. The need to create such a bureau is justified by the fact that Zaporizhzhia has communal hospitals that do not have pathoanatomical departments. The pathological and anatomical bureau has nothing to do with the storage of the bodies of the dead in Zaporizhzhia: neither civilians nor military personnel.

Also, the fact checkers established that the picture published by Rohov was actually taken in the morgue of the Russian city of Novokuznietsk in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This information was disseminated by Russian resources. Like, the residents of Lysychansk told a Russian propagandist about this. Allegedly, according to them, the Ukrainian military shot at civilians from March to May 2022 in order to film propaganda materials. It is not true.

According to The Insider fact-checkers, from March to May, there were Russian troops near Lysychansk that could have shelled the city.

From the 20th of March, Russian troops tried to take the city of Rubizhne, located 18 km from Lysychansk, that is, they were directly on the outskirts of it. On May 13, the city was completely occupied. The effective range of the Russian Grad multiple launch rocket system is 21 km, the Msta-S howitzer is 24.7 km, and the Giacint-S is 28.4 km.

This is reported by Turkish media. As proof, they cite a photo in which two men in balaclavas hold in their hands the inscription “Will to the peoples - death to empires” and “Glory to the resistance of Rojava!”

Stop Fake fact-checkers found that this publication led to a wave of indignation in the Turkish media community, because Turkey considers Kurdish military formations to be terrorist. “Scandalous support for the RKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and YPG (People’s Defense Units) by the Ukrainian military!”, “Ukraine forgot about Turkey’s help”, with such headlines, the Turkish media circulated this photo.

There is no evidence of the involvement of the Ukrainian military in this photo. The photo first appeared on the Russian telegram channel Hevale, which publishes information about Kurdistan and the Middle East. From there, it was spread by Turkish media and social media users. The Ukrainian ambassador to Turkey said that the photo is "a Russian provocation and has nothing to do with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukraine".