Russian propagandists are circulating images of what is purportedly the new cover of Titanic magazine for December 2024. It depicts the head of the Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak, who is supposedly a footstool for the newly elected US President Donald Trump. The cover also contains captions: “Ukrainian leadership will be very useful to the new US president” and “Trump will appoint everyone to the right positions”.

The VoxCheck project reports that this is a fake cover. It shows issue number 4352. In fact, Titanic released a magazine with a different cover under this issue in December. It depicts the candidate for German chancellor, leader of the Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz, with his wife Charlotte.

After all, all the covers that Titanic has ever created can be viewed on the magazine’s social media pages or on the magazine’s website in the Archive section. The cover with Trump and Yermak is missing there — an additional indication that the Russians created it themselves.

Also at the top right of the fake cover is the inscription “Internet-Aufgabe”. Presumably, the authors of the fake article wanted to use the word “ausgabe” (issue) instead of “aufgabe” (task). This mistake was also present on previous fake covers.

Titanic is a German satirical magazine that is published monthly and publishes mostly political cover images.

During the full-scale war, we recorded at least six fake Titanic magazine covers created by propagandists. A detailed analysis of each fabricated cover can be found on our website by typing the word “Titanic” into the search engine.

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.

Pro-Russian resources are spreading information that the hosts of the American television channel CNN are allegedly laughing at the news about ten thousand Ukrainian refugees who were evicted from social housing in France.

In fact, this is a fake, the VoxCheck project reports. The video that the propagandists are referring to was published back in November 2020. And in it, journalists from not CNN, but LOCAL 12 from the American city of Cincinnati, Ohio, talked about a Christmas tree that was installed in the city center.

There is no “news” about the eviction of 10,000 Ukrainian refugees from social housing in France on CNN, or on media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Only pro-Russian sources write about it.

While there may indeed be problems at the local level, they are not on the scale that propagandists claim. For example, in October of this year, there was news that in one region of France, Ukrainian refugees were being asked to move out of the housing they had been provided due to budget cuts. However, at that time, we were talking about 600 Ukrainians, not ten thousand.

Previously, we analyzed the manipulation that Ukrainians allegedly became the leaders of “migrant crime” in Germany.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading information that George Soros, an American businessman and philanthropist, has allegedly undergone a heart transplant. The donor is said to have been a Ukrainian soldier who died in the war.

In fact, this is another Russian fake, the VoxCheck project writes. No reputable and reliable media have reported on any operation by the 94-year-old Soros, let alone a heart transplant from a deceased Ukrainian soldier. In addition, there is no evidence in open sources of illegal organ harvesting from Ukrainian soldiers. Soldiers, like others, can consent to posthumous donation. However, according to Ukrainian law, in the event of their death in battle, harvesting organs, even despite their consent during their lifetime, is strictly prohibited.

Apparently, Russian propagandists invented this “news” to discredit Soros, who supports Ukraine - his Open Society Foundation alone, as of November 2023, provided Ukraine with over $230 million in support in the form of grants.

Soros has also repeatedly criticized the Russians. For example, he claimed that a victory for Ukraine would be the end of Russia and then it would no longer pose a threat to the rest of the world. In turn, Soros's funds were banned in Russia back in 2015.

Today, pro-Kremlin resources continue to wage a discrediting campaign against the businessman. In particular, in 2023, they spread rumors about the alleged death of Soros, who denied this on social networks the same day. And propagandists also spread conspiracy theories about Soros, saying that he is connected to “reptilians”, is the “owner” of Ukraine, “secretly rules the world”, and others.

Russian Telegram channels are writing and distributing material from Military Watch Magazine. This publication, citing Ukrainian intelligence, writes that Russia can supposedly produce 25 Oreshnik missiles per month, that is, 300 missiles per year.

In fact, this information is not true. This is what the VoxCheck project writes about. Thus, the Military Watch Magazine website did publish the relevant material, but this publication is not a reliable source of information - it regularly spreads pro-Russian propaganda. The Media Bias/Fact Check resource, which collects assessments by independent fact-checkers of the IFCN network, considers Military Watch Magazine's publications biased and dubious.

In the text, the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, however, on December 4, 2024, in a comment to Babel, a GUR representative reported that Russia could produce up to 25 medium-range ballistic missiles per year, not per month.

At the same time, the GUR did not specify whether it was about the production of 25 missiles exclusively of the Oreshnik type or all medium-range ballistic missiles in general. In any case, the figures of Ukrainian intelligence are much lower than those given in the Military Watch Magazine material.

Previously, we analyzed fake footage of the alleged Russian Oreshnik missile flying during an attack on Dnipro.

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.

Russian propagandists in their media, including Telegram channels, are spreading new fakes, accusing the Ukrainian military of inhumane crimes, such as killing civilians in Donbas, dumping bodies into wells, and destroying churches and drinking water sources.

This is what experts from the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council write about. They found out that these statements are based on unconfirmed “testimonies” of Russian military personnel or residents of occupied territories who are spreading rumors without any facts.

Propagandists purposefully spread such stories to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine, undermine the international community’s trust in Ukraine, and justify their own numerous war crimes, including the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure and violence against civilians. Such manipulations are a classic tool of information warfare aimed at creating a false image of the enemy.

Information about the alleged occupation of part of the Sumy region, in particular near the village of Oleksandriia, which is being spread by propagandists on anonymous Telegram channels, is false.

This is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. The Sumy Regional Military Administration confirms that the situation on the border remains fully controlled, with no recorded hostilities or enemy breakthroughs. The spokesman for the State Border Service, Andrii Demchenko, also noted that the border with Russia functions as a front line. The Ukrainian Defense Forces firmly hold their positions, providing protection and countering any attempts by the enemy to penetrate the territory of Ukraine.

Propagandists are spreading disinformation about the alleged occupation of part of the Sumy region for several reasons. Such messages are intended to cause panic among Ukrainians, causing distrust in the actions of the authorities and the military. Fake news about breakthroughs or occupation is designed to create an impression of the weakness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is important for Russian propaganda to maintain the narrative of its “successes”, even if they are not true. This may also be an attempt to divert attention from the real problems and defeats of the Russian army.

Anonymous propaganda Telegram channels are spreading claims that Ukrainian instructors from the GUR are in the Syrian province of Idlib, allegedly training Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants to fight in Syria. In reality, this is part of a Russian information campaign aimed at discrediting Ukraine.

This is what experts from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security write about. They found out that Moscow has used similar accusations before, in particular regarding the supply of weapons to Hamas or participation in terrorist attacks. No evidence of these accusations has been presented. On December 4, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denied these accusations, emphasizing that Moscow itself is the main exporter of violence and chaos, in particular by supporting terrorist organizations.

In this way, propagandists are trying to create a negative image of Ukraine in order to undermine its international reputation and relations with partners. It is also done to divert attention from Russia's own actions in Syria and other regions where it actively supports violence and chaos. In addition, it is an attempt to reduce the level of assistance to Ukraine from Western countries by sowing doubts about its actions and moral principles.

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 Telegram channels are spreading a video in which a man says that Ukrainian stores sell dry rations intended for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the video, he shows soup packed in a khaki-colored vacuum-sealed bag as supposed evidence.

However, the label of the soup shown in the video differs from the label of the original dry rations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The manufacturer of the soup is the company Veres, which sells these products legally, and both civilians and military personnel can buy them in Ukrainian stores.

The packaging clearly indicates that the producer of the buckwheat soup with pork is Veres. This soup, along with other ready-made meals by Veres, is available for purchase at stores like Epicenter and other retail chains in Ukraine. Nowhere on the packaging does it state that the product is exclusively for military use.

While AFU rations do include liquid meals, the packaging of the Veres soup is distinctly different from the standard military rations. Ukrainian military ration packaging typically features a minimalist design with white labels and black text. The khaki-colored vacuum-sealed packaging in the video is the only resemblance to the AFU rations.

A purported December cover of TIME magazine is being circulated online, showing a nuclear mushroom cloud with the headline “Third World War First Nuclear War”. The post claims that unlike TIME, other outlets are intentionally stoking fear with headlines suggesting scenarios like Russia using nuclear weapons, NATO opening a second front, and the inevitability of World War III.

However, TIME magazine has not published an issue with such a cover. The official TIME website does not feature any such cover. As of the publication date of this clarification, TIME had announced only one December 2024 issue. Its cover features a photograph of Elon Musk, highlighting his achievements and potential future plans.

Additionally, a reverse image search on Google reveals that the nuclear mushroom cloud cover is primarily shared on pro-Russian Telegram channels. One such post links to a Telegram channel titled TIME | Finance. This is a closed, anonymous channel mimicking the visual style (name and logo) of the authentic TIME magazine.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading information claiming that the President's Office is preparing for elections. Allegedly, state institutions in the Kharkiv region have been sent questionnaires containing questions related to support for and approval of President Zelenskyi.

However, the President's Office does not have a specific department responsible for conducting surveys. If government agencies were to organize social surveys, they would most likely hire specialized companies capable of providing such services. The inaccuracies in the questions further suggest that the forms were fabricated.

For example, according to Ukrainska Pravda, the President's Office regularly commissions private, closed surveys from sociological services. Meanwhile, the alleged survey forms do not include the name or address of the organization conducting the survey. Instead, at the bottom of the form, the address of the President's Office — Bankova Street, 11 — is listed, which points to this being a fake.

Anonymous Telegram channels are spreading a photo of a school board with an announcement supposedly banning the combination of blue, red and white, as they make up the Russian flag. The photo states that violators will pay a fine.

But this is a fake announcement. No such order exists. Moreover, only Russian and pro-Russian sources are spreading this fake. There is no such news on official government pages, school resources or reliable media outlets.

The announcement states a ban on the use of these colors in drawings, clothing and stationery. However, there are many mistakes in the text:

— they wrote “connection”, although initially they used the correct phrase “combination of colors”;

— “in one origination” — most likely an incorrect derivation from the Russian phrase “in one composition”;

— the phrase “money funds” is incorrect in Ukrainian. Money and funds are synonyms and are not used together. This is an incorrect derivation from a Russian phrase.

Real official orders would not contain so many mistakes.

Russian media claim that the Pentagon has allegedly recognized Ukraine as one of the most corrupt countries, and claim that this is “an obstacle to the country’s integration with the EU and NATO”. In their reports, the creators of this fake content refer to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense.

In reality, the Russians distorted the context of the quarterly report presented by the Pentagon’s special inspector general for the period from July to September 2024. However, the document does indeed devote a separate section to anti-corruption activities in Ukraine.

The US Department of Defense did indeed emphasize that concerns about corruption and the rule of law in Ukraine could become a serious obstacle to the post-war economic recovery and the attraction of foreign investment.

The inspector also noted that corruption continues to complicate Ukraine’s efforts to achieve its aspirations for integration with the EU and NATO. It was these two sentences that the propagandists focused on, ignoring all further information about Ukraine’s significant anti-corruption progress, which is outlined by the Pentagon’s inspector general across four pages of the report (pages 66-70). In general, the document commends Ukraine’s efforts to reform its institutions.

The inspector reported that Ukraine has implemented reforms aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in areas such as defense procurement, corporate governance, human resource management, professional military education, logistics, and democratic civilian control over the military.

In the Russian segment of social media, users are spreading a claim that Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s company, Film Heritage Inc., allegedly purchased the Palace des Neiges hotel in Courchevel for €88 million. According to the propagandists, the hotel at the exclusive ski resort is now supposedly being prepared for renovation and reopening for the 2026-2027 winter season. As proof, they assert that information about the new owner has already been published on the hotel's website. This material was allegedly distributed by the French outlet Les Echos de la France.

However, Les Echos de la France is not a legitimate French media outlet but a “one-time” website created by malicious actors specifically to spread this narrative. Using the whois.com tool, which provides domain and IP address information, it was revealed that this domain was registered in late November 2024 on a Lithuanian server hosted by Hostinger.

This server has previously been identified in international fact-checking investigations, as Russian propaganda has used it multiple times to create fake websites for spreading disinformation.

The fake site, which was created just days earlier (on November 22), indeed claims that Film Heritage Inc. is the hotel's owner. However, no such mention appears on the legitimate hotel website. Neither any reputable Western media nor Monte-Carlo SBM - the business group that actually owns this property - reported any sales involving companies associated with Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

These so-called investigations into the property ownership of Ukrainian officials have become part of a systematic campaign to discredit them. This way, propagandists and Moscow-aligned entities aim to depict Ukraine as rife with corruption — which could further harm Ukraine’s European integration path, as combating and reducing corruption is one of the key requirements for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.

Other similar fabricated cases which related to the acquisition of real estate with stolen funds include Zelenskyi allegedly purchasing a villa once owned by Hitler’s propaganda minister Goebbels for €8 million, and Zelenskyi’s mother-in-law supposedly acquiring a villa on the coast of Egypt using Western humanitarian aid intended for Ukraine.

Russian media is circulating an infographic that allegedly shows how Ukraine's territory has been entirely divided among various foreign companies.

“Everything has a price. The war in the DPR and LPR was, from the start, a war for resources for the West”, the creators of this fake content assert.

However, foreigners do not have access to Ukraine's land market. In 2020-2021, Ukraine passed a package of land reform laws, which included a compromise on granting foreigners access to the land market. This decision, however, requires approval through a nationwide referendum. Conducting such a referendum is impossible during martial law.

As Ukraine strives for EU membership, aligning its land legislation with EU laws represents the third and final stage of the land reform process. This reform aims to allow individuals and legal entities from EU member states to participate in Ukraine's land market, which is expected to benefit landowners the most.

In contrast, the reduction in arable land has been directly caused by Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. For example, the Kherson region, which accounted for 40% of Ukraine's annual vegetable harvest, has been severely impacted. Due to combat operations and the occupation of parts of the region, previously cultivated fields can no longer be used for their intended purpose. As a result, many entrepreneurs have been forced to relocate their businesses.

Thus, the rise in vegetable prices has no connection to Ukraine's pro-European path. Instead, it is a direct consequence of Russia's aggression. Propaganda efforts, however, aim to manipulate Ukrainian aspirations and frame the country’s distancing from Russia as the root cause of all issues, including the ongoing armed aggression.

Russian propaganda is spreading claims in the media about an alleged NATO plan to deploy troops in Ukraine, labeling it a “plan for occupation”. However, this information is not true.

This was reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. These fake narratives are based on statements from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and are actively promoted by pro-Russian media outlets. In reality, the narrative of a Western “occupation” of Ukraine has been propagated by Moscow since the Revolution of Dignity. It is, in fact, Russia that has been violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity since 2014 and attempted a full-scale occupation in 2022. There is no evidence to support claims of such NATO plans. President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has repeatedly emphasized that Ukraine has no intention of involving NATO troops in the war against Russia, as this would contradict international law and the positions of NATO member states.

Such fakes are aimed at undermining Ukrainians' trust in their Western allies, destabilizing the unity between Ukraine and its partners.

Russian propagandists are spreading false claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly bought the Palace des Neiges hotel in Courchevel. According to them, the hotel has 70 rooms, a spa area, a swimming pool, and a restaurant, and its reopening is planned for 2026–2027, upon completion of renovations. However, this is a fake.

This was reported by the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security. Its experts remind that such statements are part of a systematic Russian propaganda campaign, which since the beginning of the full-scale invasion has been circulating fakes that the Zelenskyi family is buying luxury real estate and luxury items. Previous alleged purchases include Sting’s villa, a royal residence in the UK, Goebbels' estate, and even Hitler's limousine.

These falsehoods have been repeatedly debunked as they lack any evidence. The goal of such manipulations is to discredit the President of Ukraine in the eyes of the public and international partners. The propaganda aims to create the illusion that the Ukrainian government is indulging in luxury and engaging in corruption during the war, allegedly misusing international aid. 

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.

Russians often send their fellow citizens to the occupied territories of Ukraine to engage in propaganda and militarize Ukrainian children. One of those involved in this process in the occupied part of Kherson Region is Serafim Ivanov, a Russian citizen. This is reported by the Kherson Region media outlet Vhoru (Up).

He arrived in Kherson together with Russian propagandist Oleksandr Malkevych, who organized occupation television not only in Kherson (Tavria), but also in Melitopol (Za TV) and in the Donetsk region (Mariupol 24). The latter calls Ivanov an “information-patriotic driver” and an “information guard”.

Initially, Ivanov was appointed as the head of the public relations and promotion department at the TV and radio company “Tavria”. Later, in early November 2022, Ivanov claimed that based on this company, a branch of the “Youth Army”, which he subsequently led, was established. In addition, Ivanov serves as the head of the local branch of the Russian “educational” organization Knowledge in the occupied Kherson region. He is also a member of the fictitious Public Election Observation Headquarters and the Public Chamber in the occupied Kherson region.

On the eve of the liberation of Kherson by Ukrainian troops in November 2022, Ivanov fled to the left bank of the Dnipro river, where he continued to engage in the militarization of Ukrainian children and their propaganda processing.

In addition to promoting the “Great Patriotic War” and its symbols, such as the red flag, Ivanov conducts “courage lessons”, in which children undergo military training. The goal of these classes is to make Ukrainian children “defenders of the Fatherland-Russia”. It can be argued that this is preparation for the recruitment of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories into the Russian army. At the same time, such actions are prohibited by the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War: “Any pressure or propaganda aimed at ensuring voluntary enlistment in military service is prohibited”.

It is for such activities that Western countries have imposed sanctions on Serafim Ivanov. In addition, according to the GUR portal, Ivanov is involved in the transfer of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia under the pretext of “rehabilitation, rest and education”.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels are spreading information that Dmytro Savchenko, an officer of the 1st Separate Assault Battalion “Da Vinci” of the 67th 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade, allegedly criticized the interview of the President of Ukraine for the FoxNews channel, in which Volodymyr Zelenskyi spoke about the probable defeat of Ukraine in the event of a reduction in aid from the United States. The propagandists attribute the following quote to Savchenko: “We need to remind the [overdue one] that it is not the Americans who have been saving Ukraine since 2014. But Ukrainians - with their blood, their homes, their bodies, their savings”. The propagandists add that, allegedly, according to Savchenko, Zelenskyi usurped power after May 20, 2024 and continues to lie to Ukrainians.

In fact, this is another fake, Savchenko did not say anything of the sort. The propagandists refer to the unreliable Ukrainian media, which is known for publishing outright fake and unverified materials, in which numerous violations of journalistic standards can be traced. In addition, Savchenko did not publish any such information on his social media. And the words that the propagandists attribute to Savchenko were not repeated by any reliable sources.

This piece of disinformation is intended to fuel the Russian narrative about the “illegitimacy of Zelenskyi”. Previously, we recorded numerous fakes being spread as part of this narrative. In particular, we refuted the information that posters with the overdue - or “expired” - Zelenskyi allegedly appeared in Kyiv.

Russian propaganda resources are distributing a photo of an alleged instruction for schoolchildren in Ukraine, which explains how to properly kneel to greet a fallen Ukrainian defender from the front.

In fact, this instruction is fake, the Kherson region media outlet Vhoru (Up) reports. The reverse image search function on Google helped establish that the drawing from this instruction is being sold on several stock photo sites. The description of the drawing says that these are football players protesting on their knees against racism and police brutality. This is how they express support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

The propagandists also added an excerpt from the poem On the Shield by Facebook user Oksana Lesyk-Paduchak to the fake instruction. It was published on January 26, 2024. Presumably, an excerpt from this poem was placed on the instructions to give greater credibility to the fake photo and because of the poem’s mention of “Bandera’s flag”, one of the “favorite” words of Russian propaganda.

In the end, the photo of this instruction was not published in any reliable Ukrainian or foreign sources, but was only distributed in the pro-Russian segments of social media.

In Ukraine, people honor the memory of fallen soldiers by taking a knee. This is a voluntary gesture of respect. In many cultures, people also kneel to pray and ask for forgiveness. However, the creators of this fake put a negative connotation into this symbolic action, which on their photo instruction can be perceived as an act of submission, humiliation or weakness.

Earlier, we refuted the information that in Lviv, first-graders are forced to kneel to honor the memory of fallen defenders.

On November 29, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had allegedly shot down 10 ATACMS missiles in a week, adding this to the total “successes” in November: 15 ATACMS missiles and 37 HIMARS. Moreover, the Russian Defense Ministry regularly reports about the “destruction” of HIMARS launchers, the number of which has already exceeded the number received by Ukraine. However, this is not true.

This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. These kinds of statements are aimed at supporting Russia’s illusions, because Russian propaganda has long operated on the principle of quantitative exaggeration. For example, back in 2017, Serhii Shoihu reported on the “liberation” of 500,000 km² in Syria, although the area of ​​the country is only 185,000 km². At the same time, the real facts remain outside the official reports. November 2024 was the deadliest month for Russia since the start of the war: during that month the Russian army lost 45,720 soldiers, in both killed and wounded. But this data remains unnoticed by propagandists who focus on creating illusory victories.

Russian fake “reports” not only create a false picture of reality for domestic audiences, but are also designed to distract attention from Russia’s massive losses and failures on the front.