Propagandists began disseminating information in the media and social networks that a Ukrainian military man was allegedly injured during a training session to drop ammunition from a UAV. As “evidence”, they add a video of a man in military uniform dropping a grenade from a drone, which allegedly explodes near him. However, this is fake.

Analyzing the distributed video, StopFake specialists noticed that the “explosion” looked unnatural. The moment of detonation is not visible on the recording. The image of an explosion suddenly appears and immediately blocks out what is happening on the screen. In the video editing program Adobe Premiere Pro, one can see that the “explosion” overlaps the original video in one hundredth of a second.

Such a sudden change in frames suggests that the video has been edited. StopFake analysts began looking for similar “explosions” on the Internet. It turned out that this is a very popular effect that can be applied to any video. For example, on Instagram it is called Explosion. Fact-checkers created a similar video of the explosion and also divided it into frames in Adobe Premiere Pro. The frozen footage taken overnight from this effect and the fake video indicates that this is one and the same “explosion”.

It seems that propagandists added an “explosion” to the video of the military man or passed off someone’s joke as reality to discredit the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This video fake began to spread not only in the Russian segment of the Internet, but also in different languages of the world. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted other fakes of Russian propaganda against the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Russian telegram channels are disseminating information that a drug courier was detained in Kharkiv, he was allegedly involved in supplying some prohibited substances to the military of the 113th separate territorial defense brigade.

In fact, this information is fake. Propagandists took as its basis a publication from the page of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, dated April 25, 2024. It talks about a man who, back in 2021, was exposed with 200 bundles and five transparent plastic bags containing a psychotropic substance. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about this.

It should be noted that this is not the first time that propagandists have spread misinformation regarding the 113th separate territorial defense brigade. Systematic fakes about the military of this brigade indicate that it does its job efficiently, protecting the state.

The Russians are trying to discredit the brigade in various ways. This time it is due to the imposition of the image of “drug addicts” on the military. In general, the goal of this information campaign is to sow despondency and panic among both the brigade fighters and the civilian population of the Kharkov region, which they protect, the Center adds.

Previously, we refuted information that officers of the 121st battalion of the 113th separate territorial defense brigade allegedly beat an elderly man because of his reluctance to leave his home.

Russian resources are disseminating information that Ukraine is allegedly recruiting mercenaries abroad into the International Legion, thereby violating the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In asserting this, propagandists refer to the corresponding statement by the speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Mariia Zakharova.

In fact, this information is not true. Ukraine does not recruit mercenaries. They write about this in the Center for Strategic Communications and Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Indeed, according to international law, a mercenary is a person who is not part of the Armed Forces of a state and who participates in hostilities in order to receive material compensation. In addition, it significantly exceeds the remuneration of a combatant of the Armed Forces of the same rank and function. The International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is an integral part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with material support at the same level as other formations.

With this fake, the Russian propaganda machine is trying to divert attention from the recruitment of mercenaries by Russia itself. Moreover, the message about the International Legion as “mercenaries” is being spread with the aim of removing its military personnel from the scope of the Geneva Convention, which protects combatants, in particular in captivity. We previously wrote about how Russia blurs reality using the term “foreign mercenaries”.

Information is being spread online that a new “Women’s Day” campaign has appeared in Ukrainian gyms. It seems that only women and men with homosexual orientation are allowed to train on such promotional days, and the trainers are representatives of the LGBT community. As evidence, they add advertisements from Instagram of one of the fitness clubs in Zhytomyr, SportFit.

“Is this really the Europe that people were so eager to get to?”, propagandists comment.

VoxCheck analysts determined that there is no announcement on the Instagram page of the SportFit fitness club about holding promotional “Women’s Days”. In the propaganda note you can see the date on which the announcement was supposedly published - April 10. The gym's page posted only one message that day and not a single so-called announcement.

Russian propaganda presents any attempts by Ukraine to create a tolerant environment as a threat to the younger generation. Allegedly, children suffer from the dominance of “Sodom”, which, according to the Kremlin, is turning Ukrainians into homosexuals. We described the horrors of Western “homodictatorship” and how Europe allegedly influences Ukraine in this way in a large study about homophobia on social networks.

Moreover, homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality.

By the way, how Russia is trying to protect children from the “undesirable influence of LGBT people” - read here. And how it also justifies its invasion as an LGBT invasion - find out in a study based on the results of an analysis of messages during the year of a full-scale invasion.

Social networks in the Russian segment are disseminating information that the Ukrainian bank Monobank has sent out a warning to users about limiting a number of financial transactions for “evaders” - that is, individuals who may evade mobilization.

As “proof”, the fake robs attached a screenshot from the phone that allegedly received such a message.

This case was investigated by StopFake specialists, who determined that the Ukrainian bank Monobank did not send clients notifications about restrictions for “evaders”.

Moreover, in a comment to StopFake, bank representatives denied sending such messages. In addition, the text of the message itself was compiled with numerous errors and inaccuracies.

Russian media write that the head of the Presidential Office, Andrii Yermak, allegedly paid $27 million for a place in Time’s ranking of the 100 most influential people in the world. As evidence, propagandists cite a short video from BBC News, where they broadcast the results of the Bellingcat investigation. It's a lie.

StopFake analysts found that neither Bellingcat nor BBC News reported that the official’s place in the ranking was obtained through corruption. This is proven by a banal search on the websites of both media.

This is not the first time that propagandists have referred to Bellingcat to give their words credibility, despite the fact that this organization is recognized as a “foreign agent” and “undesirable” in Russia, and propagandists regularly accuse the investigators of political bias and manipulation.

In the Russian segment of social networks they add that in Ukraine they do not sell medicines without a reference from Territorial centers of procurement and social support. In their publications, the authors refer to the so-called new norms of the law on mobilization. It's a lie.

VoxCheck analysts write that the law signed on April 16, 2024 does not refer to restrictions on the purchase of goods, including medicines, without presenting military registration documents or updating data at Territorial centers of procurement and social support.

That is, in the law on mobilization there is no information that men will not be able to purchase medications at a pharmacy without a reference from the Territorial centers of procurement and social support. VoxCheck specialists asked the largest pharmacies in Ukraine whether they really do not sell medicines without such a certificate. The Podorozhnyk pharmacy chain responded that they act in accordance with current legislation, that is, they provide medicines to everyone in need. So the Russians’ statements are just part of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign to intimidate Ukrainians and discredit the healthcare system in Ukraine.

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that in Ukraine it will be prohibited to film and photograph the work of employees of Territorial centers of procurement and social support. According to propagandists, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine asked the Office of the President to adopt such a ban by analogy with the punishment for stopping the work of air defense.

In fact, this information is not true, write experts on the VoxCheck project. The primary source of information is a pro-Russian telegram channel supervised by Russian intelligence services. When spreading the “news” about the alleged initiative to ban the filming of the activities of representatives of the Territorial centers of procurement and social support, they refer to an anonymous “source in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. It is unlikely that the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported this information to the telegram channel, which is supervised by Russia.

In addition, this “news” was published on December 26, 2023. Then again on January 7th - this time they referred to an anonymous source in the Office of the President. However, as of April 2024, the military or political leadership of Ukraine had not indicated their intention to introduce a corresponding ban. The corresponding bill was not submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. There is no real evidence that this initiative is actually being implemented.

During martial law, it is prohibited to film and publish the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, in particular, to transmit information about the location of air defense forces. However, there is no separate ban on filming Territorial centers of procurement and social support employees. At the same time, earlier the people's deputies submitted an amendment before the second reading of the draft law on mobilization, which proposed to enshrine at the legislative level a rule according to which the police and representatives of Territorial centers of procurement and social support will carry out photo and video recording of the process of checking citizens' documents. And on April 16, 2024, the president signed the law. These changes, in particular regarding photo and video recording, will come into force on May 18, 2024.

This fake is part of the Russian information campaign to disrupt mobilization in Ukraine. Read more materials on this topic here.

Pro-Kremlin propagandists are spreading information that the television tower in Kharkiv, which was hit by the Russian army, allegedly contained equipment for Ukrainian air defense systems and fire guidance systems for Russian territory.

However, this information is fake. In fact, the Russians hit the TV tower to weaken communications in the city and limit Kharkiv residents' access to information from Ukrainian media. This was reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. On the other hand, the occupiers wanted to spread the signal of their propaganda from Russian territory, which fueled panic among the residents of Kharkiv.

The head of the local Regional State Administration, Oleh Syniehubov, states: “Now the majority of residents of Kharkiv and nearby settlements already have satellite and cable television. There are also mobile communications and the Internet”. However, it will be possible to completely restore the TV tower only after the end of hostilities.

It is worth noting that in 2022, the Russians have already attacked TV towers in Rivne and Kyiv with missiles. This is additional confirmation that Russia is a terrorist country and that it is waging war against Ukraine using terrorist methods.

Russian telegram channels write that Moscow and Kyiv held the first face-to-face negotiations on the exchange of children in Qatar. In asserting this, propagandists refer to the Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia, Mariia Lvova-Bielova.

In fact, there were no direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, according to the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. The return of Ukrainian children and negotiations are taking place through the mediation of Qatar and Qatari diplomats. This was stated by the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets: “Ukraine is negotiating with Qatar. I had a meeting with the Qatari delegation. It was through the mediation of Qatar that we returned and continue to return Ukrainian children”.

In addition, the American Institute for the Study of War also denied this information, calling it an attempt by Russia to reduce its responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.

Read also: The executive director of the the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union allegedly said that children rescued from abduction by Russia want to return there

Russian telegram channels are disseminating information that 41 schools will be closed in the Sumy region in 2025, allegedly due to lack of funding. Propagandists also claim that in the region, by order of the head of the Sumy Regional State Administration, the administration staff was increased by seven people to carry out mobilization.

This is actually fake. In the case of schools, it is not about closing, but about reorganizing educational institutions with fewer than 45 students. This will happen in accordance with the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers, which was approved in March 2024 - from September 1, 2025, the state educational subvention will not be allocated to schools with fewer than 45 students.

In the Sumy region today, 41 institutions have less than 45 students, and many of these institutions have 37, 36 and 30 students, that is, there are 1-3 children in a class. This was announced by the director of the Department of Education and Science of the Sumy Regional State Administration Victoria Hrobova.

The staff of the Regional State Administration was increased in order to improve its structure. This has nothing to do with the organization of mobilization. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

Read also: Ukraine is allegedly preparing to mobilize school teachers

Propagandists claim that the Ukrainian Defense Forces, according to them, are preventing the evacuation of civilians from the city of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region. Russian media, citing Russian Ihor Kimakovskyi, claim that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are allegedly using people as human shields to stop the Russian offensive. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region was no exception to Russian propaganda. The invaders systematically destroy the city, shelling every meter of the populated area. Voluntary evacuation of the civilian population there began in 2022; in August 2022, the evacuation of Donbas residents became mandatory, and by March 2023, the Ukrainian military evacuated all children from the city.

As of April 2024, about 700 people remained in Chasiv Yar; by the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 16 thousand people lived in the city. Therefore, speaking in such conditions about the Ukrainian military’s obstruction of the process of saving people is a cynical fake of Russian propaganda. According to Serhii Chaus, head of the mountain military administration of Chasiv Yar, explanatory work is carried out with these people every day, but the main argument for evacuation is the destruction of housing.

“We've actually seen a slight increase in evacuations in recent weeks. Every day the number did not change: one or two, maximum three people, but in fact every day people left... the moment may come when we simply physically cannot do this. We say this openly, we warn people”, Chaus emphasized in an interview with Radio Svoboda (Liberty) on April 15, 2024.

Any evacuation is carried out in close cooperation between the Ukrainian military, volunteers, human rights activists and international organizations, for example, people from the Donetsk region were evacuated under the auspices of USAID. The entire evacuation process takes place openly and under the supervision of Ukrainian and foreign observers. People are transported in organized columns, evacuated families are provided with free housing in safer regions of Ukraine, social guarantees, humanitarian assistance and psychological support are provided.

It is worth noting that Kimakovskyi, used by propaganda to create anti-Ukrainian fakes, cannot be a reliable source of information - a Russian citizen occupies a fictitious “position” in a non-existent “government body” of the temporarily occupied parts of the Donetsk region of Ukraine. In 2015, the Security Service of Ukraine accused a citizen of the aggressor country of spying for Russia. According to Ukrainian intelligence services, Kimakovskyi is an agent of the Russian FSB who collected information about the redeployment of Ukrainian military personnel in the Donetsk region. The Russian was also accused of interfering in the territorial integrity of Ukraine. In 2019, an FSB agent was exchanged for Ukrainian political prisoners, among whom were Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Stanislav Klykh, Roman Sushchenko, Volodymyr Balukh, as well as a number of other illegally detained Ukrainian citizens, including sailors abducted by Russia in the Kerch Strait in November 2018.

Propagandists are spreading another fake about the Ukrainian military in order to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Russian propaganda systematically spreads disinformation about the evacuation of civilians from advanced Ukrainian settlements, traditionally keeping silent about the root cause of the complicated situation - Russian aggression against Ukraine, daily shelling, killings of civilians, destruction of critical infrastructure of settlements.

Pro-Russian sources are spreading information about the death of a military man from Konotop, Dmytro Oleksandrovych Boiko. Propagandists claim that the guy was supposedly only 16 years old - to confirm this, they provide a screenshot from an unknown database of personal data of Ukrainian citizens. The publications accuse the Ukrainian military of concealing the real age of the young man, since the obituaries indicate a completely different date of birth – July 28,2005. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that the deceased warrior was actually 18 years old, as local media reported. This was confirmed by Konotop Lyceum No. 9, which the deceased fighter graduated from. According to the lyceum management, the guy’s date of birth is indeed July 28, 2005, and he graduated from school (full 11 grades) two years ago. However, another Dmytro Oleksandrovych Boiko, born on February 16, 2008, lives in Konotop. The guy plays football in the youth sports school in the city of Konotop. In one of the recordings of a football match between the teams of Konotop and Shostka, he scores the third goal, and one can see that the young man looks completely different from the deceased soldier. Consequently, another message about minors serving in the Ukrainian army turned out to be fake.

This news fits into the Kremlin’s narrative about children and teenagers in the Ukrainian Armed Forces in order to disrupt the mobilization process in Ukraine. Detector Media has already refuted other Russian fabrications on this topic.

Propagandists began disseminating information on social networks and the media that Ukraine intends to mobilize Russians and Belarusians who are in the country with the status of political refugees. In such “news” they attach a fake “document” in which, as they claim, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi addresses the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umierov with a corresponding initiative. “It says that the Ukrainian command initiated the conscription of citizens of the Russian Federation and Belarus with the status of political refugees to serve in a special unit formed from foreigners”, propagandists write. This “document” was allegedly signed personally by Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrskyi. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found that, despite the fact that neither Russian media nor social media users provide any additional information about who published the “document”, Russian propaganda began discussing it with various “experts” in propaganda programs.

StopFake submitted an information request to the Public Relations Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They asked whether such an initiative and such a document really existed. They were told that this information was not true.

In addition, the fact of forgery of the “document” is confirmed by the presence of a number of gross errors, which were probably made by a person who does not speak Ukrainian. For example, propaganda uses the word “we care” in a sentence where we should have written “we urge.” It is likely that the propagandists mistranslated the Russian word “boy” (to try to help someone), which would have been more appropriate in a Russian document. Another example is with the phrase “the issue of conscripting foreigners”. The word “call” (call, invite) is incorrectly used in the context of the appeal “about mobilization”. Propaganda should have written “the issue of conscription (mobilization) of foreigners”.

They are spreading such manipulations to disrupt the mobilization process in Ukraine.  Detector Media also refuted other fabrications of Russian propaganda on this issue.

Propagandists spread information on social networks and Russian public pages that Ukrainians are ready to live even in the Chornobyl zone just to save their lives. “Enterprising Ukrainians began to make minimal repairs and sell “safe houses near Prypiat”. Among the main advantages is the absence of a shopping center. The price of pleasure is $6,500”, social network users report, distributing in their publications a video announcing the “sale of a house near Prypiat”. A male voice in the video talks about the plot and the house for sale, and on the video itself there are the inscriptions “Safe house near Prypiat”, “No shopping center”, “Renovated, clean, comfortable, stove heating”. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that in fact this announcement concerns the sale of a house in the village of Krasnianka, Vinnytsia region and has nothing to do with either the Chornobyl exclusion zone or attempts by potential buyers to avoid mobilization in Ukraine.

They found the real video, distributed on social networks and Russian media, on the Ukrainian YouTube channel “It’s easy to move to a village”. The channel was created in December 2022 and is dedicated to reviews of private houses for sale located in rural areas. The mentioned video is located in the YouTube Shorts section of the channel and has received more than 19 thousand views to date.

It is interesting that both the voice-over of the presenter, the background music, the detailed information about the property, and the photographs of the house and yard completely coincide with the fake advertisement about “selling a house near Chornobyl”. This makes it obvious that we are talking about the same ad. However, at the beginning of the original video, the presenter states that the house is located in the village of Krasnianka, Tyvrovskyi district, Vinnytsia region. In the fake publications, this information was cut out using video editing programs and, for greater reliability, text was added to the video itself, confirming that the house is located near Prypiat. There is no text in the actual ad in the video. In addition, the price of the house was changed in the fake ad. According to the authors of the fake, a plot of land near Prypiat costs $6,500, but in the original video the price is listed as $2,500. This was done, obviously, in order to show: Ukrainians are ready to give up considerable sums of money just to get away from Territorial centers of recruitment and social support.

The Chornobyl exclusion zone is located in the north of the Kyiv region. It was formed as a result of radioactive contamination of the territory after the accident at the 4th power unit of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986. Its area is 36545 hectares. Consequently, the sale of houses near Prypiat is prohibited in Ukraine, and information about this is another fake of Russian propaganda with the aim of discrediting the mobilization campaign in Ukraine. The original video was deliberately altered to create a false narrative that Ukrainians are willing to live even in the exclusion zone just to avoid Territorial centers of recruitment and social support.

Enemy resources are spreading a narrative that a nuclear disaster awaits Europeans at their own nuclear power plants. Propagandists appeal to the fact that the EU may face unpredictable consequences, comparing the experience of Ukraine, which abandoned Russian nuclear fuel in favor of American one. However, this is fake.

StopFake specialists drew attention to it. They emphasize that in Ukraine and a number of countries, nuclear power plants were indeed built under the dominance of Soviet power and were designed exclusively for Russian fuel. However, over time, Ukraine began to diversify its supplies, switching to American fuel and launching its own production of nuclear fuel from Ukrainian uranium. Thus, Energoatom and Westinghouse signed a contract in 2020, which stated a long-term partnership. Namely, about the supply of nuclear fuel for VVER-440 reactors at the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant. As a result, starting from 2020, Ukraine has not made a single purchase of Russian fuel. In September 2023, fuel produced by Westinghouse with the participation of our specialists was successfully loaded into the Ukrainian reactor. Even before the full-scale invasion began, the Russian budget had already lost profits from the supply of fuel, since we were already using American fuel at our nuclear power plants.

This step gave Ukraine the opportunity to free itself from dependence on Russian fuel and become a potential supplier to other European countries, namely the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, and Bulgaria, also interested in diversifying their energy sources.

Despite this, Russian media continue to spread fake news about the nuclear safety of Ukraine and other countries. Since the state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom was included in the sanctions list, Russia began to lose its competitive position in the energy market. Therefore, propagandists try to influence Western audiences by weakening their trust in Western technologies.

Propagandists are distributing a video on social networks with the symbols of the European news channel Euronews, which states that a refugee from Ukraine allegedly created a beauty salon in Poland with mosquitoes, the bite of which was supposed to relieve clients of cellulite. The video reports that after one of the patients was admitted to a Gdansk hospital with allergies, Polish police allegedly detained Kateryna Ivanchenko, the woman who, according to propagandists, organized this business, for fraud. “The Ukrainian woman earned 1 million zlotys from ordinary mosquitoes, which were believed to suck out fat”, the publications note. In fact, this information is not true.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to this. They found that the video distributed online imitates the design of Euronews videos - in particular, the company logo can be seen in the upper right corner of the video. However, there is no such story either on the official website or on the media company’s social networks. The fact that this story is completely fictitious is indicated by the fact that none of the Polish media also reported such cases of fraud on the part of the Ukrainian woman.

To create a fake video, attackers used video clips from free stock videos. To illustrate the fictitious arrest of the owner of a beauty salon, a video clip of the arrest of a suspect in the arson of a shopping center in Gdansk was taken. This incident occurred in July 2020 and has nothing to do with the incident described in the fake video.

The purpose of this fake is to discredit refugees from Ukraine in the eyes of the Poles. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted other Russian fakes regarding Ukrainian refugees.

“Ukrainian women are actively preparing to evade mobilization”, with this title, propagandists are massively distributing a video on social networks in which a woman puts on an artificial belly to simulate pregnancy. “These life hacks are already very popular. Everything was done properly - men in wigs, and women with artificial bellies”, write users distributing this video. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the StopFake project drew attention to it. They found out that, despite the inscriptions in Ukrainian “pov: heard about the mobilization of women” and “Register, girls!”, this video is distributed exclusively by pro-Russian groups and Z-channels on Telegram. There is no evidence that this video is popular among Ukrainian women.

StopFake journalists were able to investigate that this video first appeared online even before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in June 2021 on the YouTube channel “Nadiia Korobeinykova”. There are obviously no inscriptions “pov: I heard about the mobilization of women!” and “Register, girls!”. The description of the original video notes that this video is a brief instruction on how to “make your own” artificial belly to simulate pregnancy. Using the phone number indicated in the description, StopFake journalists were able to find more detailed information about this profile on YouTube.

This phone number is also listed in the contacts of the Facebook page used for promotional orders of artificial bellies to simulate pregnancy. Having looked through their publications, journalists were unable to find a single one advertising artificial bellies as a means of evading mobilization. The website indicated in the page description states that artificial bellies for simulating pregnancy are suitable for clothing stores, themed photo and video shoots, for couples who seek help from surrogacy or decide to adopt a child.

Reports that Ukrainian women are learning to make artificial bellies to “evade mobilization” are not realistic. The fact is that in Ukraine women can only mobilize voluntarily. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said at the final press conference in December 2023 that there would be no mobilization of women in the country during martial law. Now military registration applies only to those women who have received education in medical and pharmaceutical specialties, but they can serve only of their own free will.

Propagandists spread such fake news to discredit the mobilization in Ukraine and cause panic among the local population. Detector Media has repeatedly refuted other Russian fabrications about mobilization in Ukraine.

Propaganda telegram channels write that Russian troops attacked the location of Ukrainian artillerymen and, probably, the French were there, bringing CAESAR installations for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

However, this information is fake. Such statements by Russian propagandists are an attempt to justify the terrorist attack on Sloviansk on April 15, 2024. Then the Russians fired at the city with a Grom-E1 rocket-bomb, damaging two apartment buildings, an educational institution and a bank building.

In a similar way, Kremlin propaganda justified the January 16, 2024 strike on Kharkiv. Then, investigators of the All Eyes on Wagner project noted that the news story was spreading against the backdrop of news about the provision of French missiles to the Ukrainians. “France does not have mercenaries either in Ukraine or anywhere”, was the response of the French Foreign Ministry to reproaches from Russia, writes Reuters. We also denied this information.

The Russian propaganda rhetoric about “foreign mercenaries” in Ukraine is intended to demonize the West in the eyes of the Russian population, as well as to portray Russia as a victim of this war, in particular.

Russian resources are disseminating information that allegedly in the village of Kozacha Lopan, Kharkiv region, officers of the 121st battalion of the 113th separate territorial defense brigade beat an elderly man. This allegedly happened because he refused to leave his house. As a result of the beating, the man's leg was allegedly broken.

In fact, this information is not true, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. This is another fake by the Russians, based on a photograph from the official Facebook page of the 113th separate territorial defense brigade. In fact, the military of the 121st separate battalion of the Troops Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine evacuated an elderly man from his house destroyed by the Russians.

By spreading disinformation of this kind, propagandists are trying to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and sow distrust of them on the part of the people of Ukraine. In addition, in this way, propagandists also seek to incline to the idea that perhaps the elderly man did not want to leave because he was waiting for “liberation” by the Russians. Previously, we denied information that the Ukrainian military is planning to seize the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Pro-Kremlin propagandists are spreading information that the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, was captured by the Russian military. Before this, it was reported that after a large-scale missile strike on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, “one of the important Ukrainian figures” was allegedly eliminated.

In fact, this information is not true, write the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. To create the fake, propagandists used deepfake technology with Budanov’s face. 

By the way, at the 2024 Kyiv Stratcom Forum, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate said: the most absurd Russian fake was that he was killed last year. In addition, propagandists have already captured Budanov - they spread this fake back in October 2023.

Anonymous people are disseminating information, allegedly an expert on constitutional law at the Center for Political and Legal Reforms (CPLR), Andrii Mahera, told Deutsche Welle that due to the refusal to hold presidential elections in Ukraine, Western partners may accuse Zelenskyi of usurping power. It's a lie.

VoxCheck experts came to the conclusion that in comments to Deutsche Welle, Mr. Andrii Mahera does not mention Western partners and their opinions on the legality of Zelenskyi’s tenure at all.

In the material, the expert also explained that, according to Article 108 of the Constitution of Ukraine, the powers of the president do not terminate upon expiration of the term; he remains in office until the inauguration of the next head of state. It will be possible to choose a new president only after the end of the war.

Former Constitutional Court judge Mykola Melnyk pointed out that although the Constitution does not directly prohibit holding presidential elections during martial law, this norm is specified in the current law “On the Legal Regime of Martial Law”.

Mahera also confirmed this opinion, noting that under martial law, some constitutional rights and freedoms, such as the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, may be limited.

The Russian media write that in Ukraine they want to mobilize Ukrainian teachers. The fake robs substantiated this thesis with photographs of basic military training, which soldiers of the 107th Troops Brigade allegedly conducted specifically for teachers. It's a lie.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the photo distributed by propagandists depicted voluntary training in basic preparation of citizens for national resistance. According to the law, school teachers are not mobilized in Ukraine.

According to Article 23 of the Law “On Mobilization Preparation and Mobilization”, employees of general education institutions, among others, have the right to a deferment, provided that they work at least 0.75 times the salary. In the new mobilization law, this provision also remains unchanged.

Russian telegram channels and media are disseminating a post by entrepreneur David Sachs, who stated that the United States seems to no longer be able to supply air defense systems to Ukraine. He says the reason is that they simply ran out.

VoxCheck analysts have analyzed this case and explained that an American entrepreneur cannot be fully aware of the number of existing air defense systems in the US reserve. Moreover, the transfer of any weapons depends on Congress. That is, such information is not true; David Sachs himself did not provide any evidence regarding the small number of reserves.

And entrepreneur and investor David Sachs has repeatedly spread pro-Russian narratives. For example, he reposted a video allegedly indicating a connection between Ukraine and ISIS. In it, a Ukrainian military man allegedly wears a chevron of a terrorist organization, although in fact it is a trophy obtained by Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters in the assault on the positions of the Russian Wagner groups.

A screenshot is being circulated on social networks, allegedly from the website of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine, which indicates that due to the so-called mass protests in European countries, a decision was made to deport some Ukrainians.

“Yesterday the EU Council decided to extend restrictive measures against Ukrainians. 830 thousand Ukrainians will be deported from the EU until April 15, 2024”, the press release allegedly says.

The case was dealt with by the fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project, who investigated that the fake bots forged the screenshot and replaced the original text with information about “deportation”. Accordingly, the Council of Europe did not make such a decision.

Also included in the ad is a bot supposedly from the European External Affairs Service (EEAS), @EEAS_deportation_bot. However, there is no mention of this bot on the website of this European agency. And when one clicks on this “bot” in a search engine, it takes one to the TG channel, which is artificially trying to increase the number of audiences.