Propaganda anonymous telegram channels disseminate information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly failed during the offensive in the Kursk region and, in “desperation”, attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security drew attention to it. In fact, the fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occurred on August 11, and Russian propagandists immediately accused the Ukrainian army of attacking the station. Now fake news is filling the information space with messages about supposedly “Ukrainian drones” and that “it is not profitable for Russia” to set fire to nuclear power plants.

However, an IAEA statement dated August 12 noted that agency experts checked the fire site and did not find any “remnants of drones”, which refutes the Kremlin propaganda claim that the station was shelled.

The only source of threat to the nuclear power plant is Russia, which has seized the plant, turned it into a military base and is using it for provocations and nuclear blackmail. Russia has more than once organized provocations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and accused Ukraine of attacks on energy facilities.

Propagandists disseminate information in pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels that the slogan of Kharkiv Pride is supposedly the phrase “Better is an AFU gay than a straight draft dodger” (the original spelling has been preserved). However, this is fake.

The official accounts of Kharkiv Pride on social networks do not have this slogan. Moreover, the fakeness is indicated by the fact that the propagandists made a number of grammatical errors. In Ukrainian, the correct spelling of “evader” is not a copy of Russian and is not used by Ukrainians. In addition, the slogan itself is provocative in nature and was created with the aim of manipulating public opinion.

This fake is part of an information war aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian military and further dividing society. The use of such slogans aims to sow discord among citizens, cause negative attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community and discredit the Ukrainian army. Russians are trying in every possible way to increase homophobia through various manipulations and fakes. Thus, they want to justify their aggression against Ukraine. They say that Russia is fighting for real values that do not exist in the West.

Propagandists are actively spreading disinformation, claiming that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, allegedly supported the idea of lowering the mobilization age in Ukraine to 18 years. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Security drew attention to it. They found that Russian propagandists had taken Budanov’s words out of context, which he said during a meeting with students and teachers of the Kyiv School of Economics. At this meeting, he did not support the idea of lowering the mobilization age, but only voiced the calculations of the Russian side: if Ukraine starts mobilizing citizens from 18 years old instead of 25, it will be able to resist Russia until 2033. However, he immediately criticized this idea, noting that Ukraine values the lives of its citizens, and prolonging the war for such a long period is unlikely, since “no economy can withstand so much time in a state of war”.

This fake is part of an information campaign, the purpose of which is to demoralize Ukrainian society, create panic and attempt to disrupt mobilization processes in the country. Russian propaganda is trying to push Ukrainians to believe that their leadership is ready to sacrifice young lives, while the reality is completely different. Russia seeks to split the unity of Ukrainians and raise doubts about the advisability of defending their country, thereby simplifying its tasks at the front.

Photos of an alleged advertisement for the Armed Forces of Ukraine with an appeal to join their ranks are being circulated online. It depicts a gray-haired military woman, as well as the supposed inscription: “Son, I need your help”. Propagandists write that this is “a typical Ukrainian mobilized over 60 years old”. This advertising of the Armed Forces of Ukraine seems to call young people to the front.

In fact, this is a photo fake. When checking this image in the FotoForensics tool using ELA analysis (Error Level Analysis), which identifies areas of the image with different levels of compression, it was possible to identify signs of text editing on the advertisement. They are highlighted in bright colors.

With this fake photo, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the mobilization process in Ukraine. Previously, we refuted information that in Ukraine they are calling on people to mobilize into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as whole families.

Russian telegram channels are distributing a screenshot of supposedly one of the house chats in the capital. According to it, the Pechersk district state administration in Kyiv calls on citizens to evacuate if they live near “decision-making centers”.

However, the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council, after verifying this “news” in the Pechersk district administration, reported that it was a fake. The administration did not send out any similar messages.

This disinformation was spread against the backdrop of a publication in one of the foreign media about a possible missile strike on “decision-making centers” in response to an operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region. And the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council, Andrii Kovalenko, responded to this in particular on his telegram. He called on Ukrainians to read less loud headlines about massive shelling.

Russian propagandists are distributing photos of an announcement in one of the Ukrainian grocery stores. It warns that the store imposes a 20% tax on Territorial center of procurement and social support employees. However, this is a fake photo.

The “announcement” distributed online contains signs of editing, and stores do not have the right to independently introduce taxes, especially discriminatory ones. This was reported in the VoxCheck project.

Checking the photo “ad” in the FotoForensics tool using ELA analysis (Error Level Analysis), which highlights areas of the image with different levels of compression, indicates obvious signs of editing.

Also, the Tax Code of Ukraine provides for the equality of all payers before the law and the prevention of any manifestations of tax discrimination, such as social, racial, national, religious, etc. Place of employment also cannot be a cause of discrimination. Such discrimination contradicts Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which enshrines the equality of citizens. According to Article 17 of the Law “On Protection of Consumer Rights”, the needs of all consumers must be satisfied equally. That is, for the independent establishment of such taxes by the store, administrative, and in some cases, criminal liability is provided.

There are no taxes at all in Ukraine; the store can set it for the buyer independently. There are only national and local taxes and fees. National taxes are established by the Verkhovna Rada, which also determines the list of local taxes established by local councils.

With such fakes, Russian propagandists are trying to disrupt mobilization in Ukraine and sow discord in Ukrainian society.

The pro-Kremlin resource RT (formerly Russia Today) reported that it had in its possession a video of a “captured Ukrainian saboteur” who was allegedly captured by the Russian military at the Kursk border checkpoint. The person in the video, kneeling and blindfolded, says in Russian that “they were going to Sudzha” and that “it was necessary to “remove” the village of Hordiivka for those who took it (the village - Ed.)”.

In fact, this video is static and it is evidenced by several facts. First of all, the person in the video has a strong Russian accent, which is not typical of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, but rather of Russians. In addition, even one of the Russian so-called “military correspondents” with an audience of 95 thousand subscribers could not remain silent and said that “this is our fake”, adding that “this is not the time for this”. And many Russians themselves did not believe in the veracity of the video, claiming that it was a decree.

Previously, Detector Media denied the information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces using an American Stryker armored personnel carrier near the Judge shot up a car with civilians.

On social networks, pro-Kremlin channels are disseminating information that The Independent newspaper published an article on the front page of the newspaper dated August 5, 2024 entitled “While we were watching Ukraine, we lost our country”.

In fact, The Independent did not publish such material. Journalists write about this for the VoxCheck project. Propagandists generated an article with a similar title on a fake page of The Independent. The basis was taken from the present publication dated August 5, 2024 about the unrest.

Also on the cover they announce an alleged interview with Valerii Zaluzhnyi with a sensational confession. They say that in his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he “wanted to commit suicide”. However, this is also not true as Zaluzhnyi did not say this, because not a single reliable source wrote about this.

Voxcheck adds that the fake article about the unrest is part of the pro-Russian Operation Matrioshka, the organized spread of disinformation on X and other social networks, often on behalf of well-known media or public figures.

The purpose of this fake is to increase the unstable mood in the UK after the tragedy in Southport.

A video allegedly published by the German publication DW is being circulated in the Russian segment of social networks. It allegedly talks about a “new Bellingcat investigation” about a plan to imitate an attempt on Zelenskyi’s children, which was allegedly developed by the Office of the President and the Main Intelligence Directorate. In fact, the Russian authorities and intelligence services planned to blame the terrorist act.

“The Ukrainian side allegedly contacted the US Central Intelligence Agency to talk about the planned provocation, but received a sharp refusal - after all, the American partners think that such a scenario, on the contrary, would escalate the confrontation”, they write in the messages.

StopFake specialists examined the case and found out that this story was completely made up. This news was not distributed by either Deutsche Welle or Bellingcat. Moreover, Deutsche Welle’s videos have a completely different format - in their videos they use original footage and voice-over of the announcer, while on the Internet they distribute cut-ups of stock photos with superimposed text and music.

Pro-Russian propaganda telegram channels, including Polish ones, are distributing a video in which a Russian military UAV allegedly recorded a war crime by Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel. Propagandists claim that the Ukrainian military shot at a civilian car in the border village of Zelenyi Shliakh near the town of Sudzha (Kursk region, Russia). The car, “from the fire of an American Stryker armored personnel carrier”, allegedly camouflaged in a forest belt, rolled to the side of the road and burst into flames. As a result, on an anonymous telegram channel they add that the driver and passengers of the car died.

In fact, there is no real evidence that such an incident actually happened. In the video, which was first distributed by one of the so-called Russian “military correspondents” (that is, the same propagandist), it is impossible to establish what exactly caused the car to catch fire.

Russia has once again decided to resort to fake accusations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the killing of civilians. This time near the city of Sudzha, where fighting continues. Thus, the Russians are trying to divert attention from the war crimes of the Russian army itself against the civilian population of Ukraine by resorting to a propaganda tactic called “deflection”.

At the same time, by recalling the American Stryker armored personnel carrier in this fake, propagandists are fueling a narrative aimed at both internal and external audiences: they say that NATO has broken into Russian territory.

Information is being spread in Russian telegram channels that Ukraine is going to surrender the Kharkiv region to Russian troops. Propagandists claim that this is evidenced by the “decision” of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to fire 10 thousand teachers in the eastern regions, in particular in the Kharkiv region, where it seems that only 40-50 schools will remain. Also, the number of children studying remotely is supposed to increase significantly.

After verifying this information in the Kharkiv Military Regional Administration, the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council reported that it was untrue. Order No. 850 provides for a reduction in the school network, but with the transfer of teachers to the personnel reserve while maintaining their salaries. Contrary to the words of propagandists, the Ministry of Education and Science, on the contrary, plans to gradually move away from distance learning and move to offline or mixed format learning. It is planned to increase the number of distance classes in Ukrainian specifically for children abroad.

In fact, these days the discussion of draft order No. 850 on obtaining general secondary education under martial law continues. The order has not yet been approved by the Ministry of Education and Science and, accordingly, has not entered into force. The Ministry of Education and Science writes that after joint discussions and developments, they will make changes to the draft order and submit it for approval.

The Center for Countering Disinformation adds that with such stuffing, the Russians are trying to cause a negative attitude towards government bodies on the part of Ukrainian society. Previously, we analyzed the fake order of the Kharkiv Public Educational Institution on the evacuation of heads of local administrations along with their families.

Russian telegram channels, citing material from the Italian publication Database Italia, report that the Zelenskyi family acquired a wine estate from the English singer Sting. The text notes that the corresponding agreement was concluded on June 28, 2024, and the value of the property is about 60-75 million euros. Moreover, according to the publication, data about this agreement was published in the tax register of real estate in Italy.

However, this information is fake, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council. The Database Italia website, which became the primary source of the fake, was included in the rating of web resources disseminating misinformation in Italian in 2021. This pseudo-publication published a number of fakes about Ukraine, in particular about “American biological laboratories”. After all, the “news” from Database Italia has been repeatedly refuted by Italian fact-checkers.

This fake is being spread as part of Russia’s large-scale disinformation campaign to discredit the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.

We have previously recorded similar fakes by Russians. In particular, Olena Zelenska’s purchase of a Bugatti Tourbillon for 4.5 million euros, as well as Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s purchase of one of the largest casino hotels in Europe, the approximate price of which was 150 million pounds sterling.

Pro-Kremlin media, referring to the so-called “Mykolaiv movement”, are disseminating information about the appearance of “black transplantologists” in the Sumy region. According to propagandists, they come from the West and drive foreign medical vehicles.

In fact, this information is not true. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about this. This fake is part of the Russian campaign for the prosperity of black transplantation in Ukraine. The Center for countering disinformation did an extensive study on this topic, where it described in detail such Russian stuffing.

Russians have been conducting an information campaign about black transplantology since 2014. To do this, they produce fake stories, documents, articles and news. The goal is to discredit the military-political leadership of Ukraine and create a negative image of the state in the eyes of the international community.

We have previously recorded similar fakes. For example, about the creation of groups of donors from the Ukrainian military or about the fact that in Ukraine children are sold for organs.

The propaganda telegram channel, in its section #нам_пишуть  (they write to us), distributed a message from a reader. The woman sent a photo of a sign containing the inscription “Ukraine is not a state”. According to her, she took this photo on vacation in Turkey.

However, the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, having verified this information with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, reported that this was another fake.

Having additionally analyzed the image using the FotoForensics tool, we found a clear light fragment in the area of the sign. Thus, the inscription on the sign was probably artificially superimposed.

The Center adds that such stuffing can be used to create tension between Ukraine and other states. Ultimately, propagandists seek to weaken the Ukrainian position both internally and externally and feed their narrative of a 404 country.

Propagandists are disseminating information to Western audiences that Ukrainian partisans in the city of Bragadiru (Romania) set fire to a fuel train used by NATO troops to conduct proxies in Ukraine. The Ukrainians did this supposedly to show their protest against the death of their compatriots in the interests of NATO. As proof that such an incident actually happened, propagandists added a video of the fire. For their part, the Romanian authorities allegedly officially reported this incident, but the cause was called a short circuit.

However, propagandists are outright lying, the Ukrainians did not set fire to the fuel composition. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, citing the Romanian Ministry of National Defense, which denied information about the fire.

The video of the fire, distributed by pro-Russian sources, has no relation to Bragadiru or to any other city in Romania. Also, the Romanian authorities did not report the fact of arson at any of the fuel compositions in the country. In the end, the Romanian media did not report such an incident either.

This fake information is spreading in the information space of European countries, in particular Romania, in order to manipulate public opinion, undermine trust in Ukraine, and also illustrate the imaginary threat from Ukrainian refugees or partisans.

Previously, we recorded Russian manipulation, saying that Ukrainian partisans burned down a drone production plant in Lviv.

Kremlin telegram channels are distributing a photo of an order allegedly from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine dated July 15, 2024. With reference to the decision of the Ministry of Defense, the document writes about the reformatting of the children's hospital in Kramatorsk into a military hospital for soldiers and their families. As a result, the admission of children will allegedly be prohibited.

VoxCheck analysts analyzed the case and found that the so-called order was forged, as indicated by numerous errors. For example, in the first sentence, the authors of the “document” did not agree on the words. In addition, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine did not publish any orders on July 4, 2024. The press service of the Ministry of Defense also did not report the orders of July 4.

The Russians also made a mistake in the number of the document itself, since the Ministry of Health of Ukraine issued the last order number 476 on March 20, 2024. The document is related to amendments to the Ministry’s Action Plan for the preparation of draft regulatory acts for 2024. In original orders, the signature of an authorized person, for example, the Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko, must be at the bottom.

The Russian media is disseminating a fake report from the Romanian Ministry of National Defense about the allegedly “failed training” of Ukrainian pilots for F-16 fighters. This document states that they were able to train only 3 pilots out of 50. The reasons for this low rate are given as “inability to learn English” and “alcohol consumption”.

“The Romanian Ministry of Defense prepared a report in which it recognized problems in the results of training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighters... Also noted is the careless attitude of Ukrainians to training, reluctance to study English and a drop in athletic performance due to weight gain and alcohol consumption”, the publications added .

StopFake analysts investigated this case and found that the Romanian Ministry of National Defense denied the existence of a report on the failed training of Ukrainian pilots for F-16 fighters. Russian propaganda created a fake document using fragments of this report, making a number of mistakes.

The department added that the fake document also states that the training of Ukrainian pilots was allegedly carried out at the European F-16 training center at the airbase in the city of Feteshte. But, as the Ministry clarified, this is also an “absolute lie”, since only Romanian pilots have studied at the center.

Russian telegram channels are distributing a video of a “telephone conversation” between a woman and an alleged Territorial center of recruitment and social support employee. In the video, during a conversation, a Territorial center of recruitment and social support employee threatens a woman to take her away along with her “evader -  husband”.

VoxCheck analysts analyzed the case and found out that this video was staged. The author of the video did not provide any information about the Territorial center of recruitment and social support employee who called, his phone number or a Territorial center of recruitment and social support address.

Previously, we explained the message that they were allegedly recruiting women “massively” from the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine because the men were “already tired”. And now Moscow is trying to work on this topic by demonstrating the negative attitude of the Ukrainian leadership towards its citizens. Allegedly, both women and men are already being recruited to the front. But there is nothing wrong with women expressing their own desire to serve. Kremlin propaganda presents such a situation as forced and irrevocable: as if the Ukrainian leadership is ready to “recruit” everyone so that there is someone to fight. Although this is all the absolute will of the citizens.

Pro-Russian resources are distributing an order on behalf of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which concerns changes in the work of military medical commissions at the Territorial centers of recruitment and social support. In particular, the relevant document states that the decisions of the Military medical commissions issued in the Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr regions by local Territorial centers of recruitment and social support since 2022, have been declared invalid.

The Center for countering disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council verified this order with the Ministry of Defense and found out that it was fake. The document was written in gross violation of formatting requirements. It also contains many errors. For example, the correct name is the Central Military Medical Commission of the Armed Forces of Ukraine without adding the preposition “at”.

The Center emphasizes that the purpose of such stuffing is to discredit the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, sow panic among the population and disrupt the mobilization process.

Previously, we analyzed a fake order on behalf of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to transform the children's hospital in Kramatorsk into a military hospital.

Pro-Russian sources through the social networks Telegram and X (formerly Twitter) times spread information to Western audiences that civilians in the city of Bucha, Kyiv region, were tortured not by the Russian, but by the Ukrainian military. In reporting this, propagandists refer to the words of the Czech military man Philip Seaman, who fought on the side of Ukraine and is now under investigation. Also, to the reports about the “atrocities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine” in Bucha, they add a screenshot of news from the Czech news agency ČTK, which talks about the Czech who committed offenses.

In fact, Philippe Seaman is now really on trial, but his case does not at all concern the torture of civilians. Ukrinform fact-checkers write about this. The ČTK material cited by propagandists states that the prosecutor’s office accuses Siman of illegal service in the Ukrainian army and looting in the combat zone during the occupation of the cities of Irpen and Bucha in the Kyiv region in 2022.

As for the first, the Czech did not have permission from the president of his country to fight in a foreign army. As for the looting, according to the indictment, in his free time, Siman repeatedly appropriated the belongings of both dead soldiers and civilians. Accordingly, in April 2022, the man was detained by the Ukrainian army, but was subsequently fired and returned to the Czech Republic. Today he could be sentenced to five years in prison for serving in a foreign army. Moreover, he also faces exceptional punishment for looting.

In a comment to Ukrinform, the Czech news agency ČTK confirmed that the information about the torture of civilians in Bucha by the Ukrainian military is fake and that their journalists did not write about it.

In the end, such statements by the Russians were refuted by numerous journalistic investigations by leading international media, in particular Bellingcat and the Associated Press.

Social networks in the Russian segment have disseminated information that, according to some “statistical data”, the popularity of the Russian language is supposedly gradually growing in Ukraine.

“According to statistical data, the popularity of the Russian language in Ukraine is gradually growing. The number of Nazis has decreased – and nature has begun to cleanse itself”, users write.

StopFake analysts examined the case and determined that in their messages, users do not indicate where they got such data from, but simply write “according to statistical data”. They didn't cite any studies.

On July 24, the sociological service Razumkov Center published a study “Identity of Ukrainian citizens: trends of change”, with the help of which it was possible to refute the false information of propagandists:

Actually, the popularity of the Russian language in Ukraine is not growing at all, but on the contrary is falling. According to the aforementioned study, fewer and fewer Ukrainians believe that speaking Russian is prestigious. If in 2015 there were 21.5% of all respondents, then in 2023 they became 9.4%, and in 2024 this number generally decreased to 6.1%. At the same time, the prestige of the Ukrainian language began to grow significantly: from 43.2% in 2015 to 75.5% in 2024.

Information is being spread online that the SBU is allegedly detaining fortune tellers and psychics who predict the defeat of Ukraine and the illness of President Zelenskyi. A video report from the so-called Really_UA says that 8 tarot bloggers have already been detained for fortune telling with predictions of Russia’s military successes. They are accused of tax evasion and discrediting the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

VoxCheck analysts reported that a telegram news channel or full-fledged media called Really_UA does not exist at all. There is no information in other Ukrainian media about the detention of tarot readers.

Read on Censor.NET: Good evening, we are from the “Battle of Psychics” - “witches”, “molfars” and “fortune tellers” - have occupied the airwaves of media that call themselves information.

And the video report itself is a clipping of unrelated frames that are easy to find on the Internet. For example, the first photo from the video was used at least back in 2018.

Russian propagandists publish photos of one of the stores of household and professional equipment of the German brand Kacher in Ukraine. And they add that they seem to have posted an announcement in the store: “Generators are not for sale. Everything has been reserved for the needs of the National Police and the Territorial centers of recruitment and social support”.

VoxCheck analysts add that this photo is fake. The screenshot itself was taken from a video of the Kacher store in Kamianets-Podilskyi: it was edited and information about the alleged reservation of generators was added. But in fact, the poster is an advertisement for vacuum cleaners.

The video was published on the Toktok page of a store from Kamianets-Podilskyi. The fact that the propagandists took the frame from this particular video is indicated by the shooting angle, the identical location of the vacuum cleaners and the design of the tiles on the floor.

So, it is not about “reservation” of generators at all.

Russian anonymous telegram channels spread the news, allegedly due to the fact that Nestlé Waters France is suspending the sale of mineral water due to problems with its quality - and the remaining products in the warehouse will be sent to Ukraine as humanitarian aid.

Before publication, they are milking the so-called statement of the organization from the social network X, which states that Nestlé Waters refuses to admit that “contaminated water” remained in the warehouse. Therefore, propagandists are trying to prove the opposite - supposedly Nestlé representatives are lying about the quality of water in order to get rid of defective products as quickly as possible.

VoxCheck specialists investigated this case and found out that the company had not made such statements at all, neither about stopping the sale of water, nor about denying the fact of “pollution”.

Analysts said that in February 2024, the international consumer organization foodwatch filed a lawsuit in France against mineral water producers Nestlé Waters and Sources Alma. Companies disinfected contaminated water using prohibited methods and thus sold ordinary tap water as mineral water. Nestlé admitted their guilt and stopped this practice.

But Nestlé Waters France did not publish the news about sending contaminated water to Ukraine and the Gaza Strip on its website, YouTube or X. Moreover, X’s account has been inactive since March 2022. That is, there cannot be a statement for July 2024, as indicated in the fake screenshot.

Russian telegram channels disseminate information that Spanish translators are wanted  in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. OSINT analysts seem to claim that the search for such a specialist means that a large number of “mercenaries” from Latin America will soon arrive in Ukraine. As proof, publications add a screenshot from the LobbyX job search platform.

VoxCheck analysts analyzed the case and found out that the advertisements were indeed published in the Lobby X ARMY telegram channel, but similar offers had appeared before. It is still unknown about the exact number of foreigners in the Ukrainian Defense Forces. That is, propagandists simply came up with this information based on translator vacancies. Although no evidence of the arrival of the so-called mercenaries was provided.

Russian propaganda replaces the concept and calls the foreign legion mercenaries. The Foreign Legion is legally part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces; the exact number of its participants is not reported, like all other fighters. Accordingly, Russian propaganda wants to downplay the importance of the Ukrainian army, contrasting it with the so-called “mercenaries”, of whom there are supposedly more on the battlefield. At the same time, Moscow equates “mercenaries” with criminals in the context of Ukraine. However, mercenaries really fight on the Russian side, for example, the Wagner group representatives.