Spilnota Detector Media

Fake Hostages in Dresden were taken by a Ukrainian who demanded that Ukraine join NATO

A fake was spread to a foreign audience, which said that in December hostages in the center of the German city of Dresden were taken by a refugee from Ukraine, who demanded Ukraine's entry into NATO. In particular, WhatsApp distributed a voice message saying: “[The attacker] who took the hostages in Dresden, German Davyd V., is actually called Davyd Voshchenko, […] he is a refugee from Ukraine, and his demands were that [ . ..] that Ukraine shall join NATO”.

In fact, this incident had nothing to do with Ukraine. According to Correctiv's fact-checkers, they were told at the Dresden Police Department that there were no links to the situation in Ukraine in this case, and that the man was a German citizen. Law enforcement officers also denied that his name was Davyd Voshchenko. In addition, a video with a similar statement about an alleged perpetrator named Davyd Voshchenko was posted on Tiktok. It was made public on the account with the description “Entertainment/satire”, and at the bottom of the video and hashtags it was indicated that it was fake. Despite this, as fact-checkers note, some users took the content of the video seriously and demanded “immediately stop any assistance to Ukraine”.

The spread of this fake to a foreign audience indicates attempts to influence the attitude of foreigners towards Ukrainian migrants and undermine support for Ukraine among the international community. Detector Media has previously written what messages and manipulations about Ukrainian refugees are most often spread by Russian disinformation.

Fake The Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) does not have permission to hold a divine service on January 7 in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC - MP) spread a fake that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine allegedly did not receive permission from the administration of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra reserve to hold a service on January 7. The UOC-MP calls Epifanii's intention to hold a service in Lavra an “attempt to seize by force”.

The UOC-MP also said that Oleksandr Rudnyk, the reserve's acting general director, told them on January 5 that he had not received any requests from the OCU regarding the use of the Uspenskyi (Assumption) Cathedral and the Refectory Church for worship.

In fact, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine granted OCU permission, and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra national reserve concluded a corresponding agreement. This, in particular, is confirmed by the acting general director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra reserve Oleksandr Rudnyk, who said that he gave permission to the OCU and concluded an agreement to hold a service on January 7 from 8:00 am to 12 pm.

He explained that the conversation with the UOC-MP took place in the morning of January 5, and in the evening of the same day he received an appeal from the OCU and a corresponding permit from the Ministry of Culture. The representative of the press service of the OCU provided Ukrainska Pravda with a document confirming that the ministry had agreed to hold the OCU service in the Uspenskyi (Assumption) Cathedral.

Fake European Union lost its independence

Such messages are distributed through social networks and hostile telegram channels. It says that the EU has rapidly lost its independence due to assistance to Ukraine, and therefore is unlikely to be able to further claim the role of a state institution. Like, Russia destroyed the remnants of the collective West in each country, so they are deprived of sovereignty. It's a lie.

The experts of the EU vs Disinfo project say that the European Union is a sovereign entity created on the voluntary initiative of European nations, and it has its own independent foreign policy.

EU Member States are sovereign countries and make sovereign decisions on their own domestic, economic, foreign and security policies. The European Union is clear on national sovereignty: “Member states remain sovereign and independent states, they have decided to pool some of their “sovereignty” in areas where it makes sense to work together”. That is, there is no question of any loss of sovereignty and independence.

Fake The war in Ukraine is part of the West's secret plan to destroy China

Such messages are distributed through social networks and hostile telegram channels. It says that for 10 years the West has been preparing Ukraine for a confrontation with Russia, and thus has set its sights on China. Like, the Russian attack was part of a plan to start a war, because the West will provide weapons to destroy first Russia and then China. However, this is not true.

Experts from the EU vs Disinfo project say that the United States, the EU and some NATO member countries are providing Ukraine with military assistance to repel unprovoked Russian aggression. Ukraine receives weapons for the sole purpose of restoring its territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders. That is, we are not talking about the destruction of a particular country. However, the entire international community is helping Ukraine to expel the invaders from its territory.

Propagandists spread this message to show Ukraine as a puppet of the West, undermining the statehood and sovereignty of Ukraine. At the same time, this statement was intended to justify the war of conquest by Russia, because it seems that all this is a conspiracy to organize the destruction of countries.

Fake Bonduelle donated food parcels to the Russian military

A photo is being circulated on social networks, in which, next to cans of canned vegetables and a postcard in Russian, it says: “Dear soldier, happy New Year! We wish you all the best and a speedy victory!”. In a post posted on a Facebook news group in the city of Yartsevo (Smolensk region of Russia), it was also reported that Russian soldiers were greeted by the head of the Russian Bonduelle in Russia, Kateryna Yelisieieva. The leaflet also contains information that 10,000 Russian soldiers will receive gifts in the form of four cans of canned vegetables. Now the original post, where they posted a photo of the “gifts”, is not available. According to StopFake, this is a fake.

At the very least, the head office of the French company Bonduelle officially denied involvement in the “New Year's gift sets” allegedly sent on its behalf to the Russian army. On December 31, Bonduelle released a statement saying that “Russian social media has spread false information about our activities in Russia”. The company continues to operate in Russia, unlike thousands of other Western companies, but denies any involvement in congratulating Russian infidels. “This information, as well as statements attributed to Bonduelle and its management, are fake”, the statement said. The press service added that Bonduelle continues to work in Russia “with the sole purpose of ensuring the population's access to basic food products in Russia and neighboring countries”. Later in a comment to AFP, the company said: “We do not send packages to Russian soldiers”.

At the same time, the head of the Russian office, Kateryna Yelisieieva, did not comment on the appearance of the fake. But it is known from open sources that she is a graduate of the FSB Academy.

Fake In Ukrainian hospitals, they are to be lacking blood

Social networks are spreading messages about a critical shortage of blood and its components in Ukrainian hospitals. Sometimes they spread information about the requirement to donate blood. It's fake.

The Ministry of Health denied this information. According to the Ministry of Health, a systemic planned donation has been built in Ukraine, which ensures constant supplies of blood and its components. The delivery of blood supplies and its components from other regions is coordinated by the specialized state institution “Ukrainian Center for Transplant Coordination”.

In the conditions of a full-scale war, Ukrainians quite actively respond to all calls to donate blood. As a rule, voluntary donation makes it possible to meet the needs for blood and its components for civil and military medical institutions.

Fake The use of "Points of invincibility" will be chargeable

Such messages are distributed on the network. The messages include photos of supposedly announcements of the introduction of paid services and their cost. It seems that adults will have to pay 50 hryvnias for themselves and 30 hryvnias for children when using the “Points of invincibility”. It's fake.

The spread of the fake was recorded by the Center for Counteracting Disinformation. The Center notes that the primary source of fake content is the “Ukropskyi Fresh” (Ukrainian fresh) telegram channel, which distributed a photo from an unknown Instagram account. There are numerous errors in the text of the message, indicating automatic translation of the text from the Russian language.

Fake Cossack Mykhailo Havryliuk died near Bakhmut

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

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

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

Myroslav added that Mykhailo is now in Kolomyia.

Fake The Russian army hit a hotel in Kyiv with foreign advisers and mercenaries

Such information is disseminated by Russian resources. Allegedly, one of the rockets hit a Kyiv hotel where foreign advisers and mercenaries lived.

Like, the Russian soldiers knew that “someone important” had settled in the hotel, so they chose it as a target. The propagandists also spread information that in the Alfavito Hotel and the Ukraine Palace, located 100 meters away, both buildings received significant damage from a rocket strike, “interesting people were sitting there - Western and Ukrainian, with and without shoulder straps”.

After the mayor of Kyiv, Vitalii Klychko, announced that a journalist from Japan had been wounded during an attack on Kyiv, Russian propagandists said that he was not a journalist at all: “Yeah, and at the front are all the drivers”.

To justify the terror and their aggression against the civilian population, the propagandists noted that this was revenge for the allegedly destroyed hotel in the occupied Kherson, where the traitor of Ukraine, collaborator and ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksii Zhuravko died, as well as for the explosion in the hotel in the temporary occupation where the former head of Roskosmos, the head of a group of military advisers to Russia, Dmytro Rohozin, and the head of the so-called “government” of the Donetsk occupied territory, Vitalii Khotsenko, were injured.

After the explosion in a Donetsk hotel, propagandists intimidated Ukraine that Russia would begin to strike at the places where Ukrainian top officials of law enforcement agencies are located. If their goal was precisely the power structures, they would not have destroyed the hotel, in which journalists have been holding various conferences and training sessions for many years in a row. In particular, Belarusian journalists and bloggers stayed there, for whom the Detector Media NGO conducted training sessions in 2019 as part of the School of Quality Media project. Also, they would not destroy the Ukraine Palace, where New Year's performances for children are usually held these days. Fortunately, only one person was injured in the Ukraine Palace, receiving minor leg injuries.

Fake Zelenskyi sat on Santa's lap and asked for another $50 billion

The holiday is coming and the fakes invented by Russian propaganda are becoming more and more like fairy tales. The fact-checkers of the Myth Detector edition recorded the distribution of a photo collage in Russian telegram channels, where Volodymyr Zelenskyi is supposedly sitting on Santa Claus’s lap and “asking him for another 50 billion dollars”. It's fake.

It was created by the American fictional satirical news outlet Babylon Bee. Today, on the front page of this publication is the news that Max will remain in the position of CEO of Twitter, if they count the votes received by mail. Also, that Cain killed Abel in the field, and not at home, so that the elf on the mantelpiece would not see this. Obviously, the news about Zelenskyi was about US President Joseph Biden signing a budget for next year, in which $ 45 billion is allocated to help Ukraine and its allies. This year, financial assistance to Ukraine amounted to $ 28 billion - and this does not include the cost of weapons transferred by partners of the Ukrainian army.

Fake Zelenskyi promised to give Crimea and Donbas “as a sacrifice to russophobic foreigners”

Kremlin resources are spreading the thesis that after the de-occupation Crimea and Donbas will be given “as a sacrifice to russophobic foreigners”. Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly said this while speaking in the Verkhovna Rada. This is a fabrication.

In fact, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, during his annual address to the Verkhovna Rada, spoke about the restoration, development of the country and the temporarily occupied territories after the war, and that Ukraine should provide priority conditions for those foreign companies that were in Ukraine or came to Ukraine during war, or left the Russian market during the war.

Fake The Verkhovna Rada publishes video from computer games passing it off as real footage of the war

Such messages are distributed through social networks and hostile telegram channels. It says that the Parliament resorts to tricks: publishes a variety of videos from computer games, passing it off as real footage. They say that Ukraine is suffering huge defeats and is trying to somehow stabilize the mood of the population. Propagandists add to their message a likely screenshot, which allegedly depicts a publication from the telegram channel of the Verkhovna Rada. However, this is a fabrication.

According to VoxCheck fact checkers, there is no evidence that the telegram channel of the Verkhovna Rada published or reposted such a message. Experts in the course of the investigation did not find such a publication.

Moreover, the official telegram channel of the Parliament has been verified and has a corresponding “✓” flag, which indicates the authenticity of the channel. There is no flag on the propaganda screenshot. In addition, on the screenshot of the telegram channel, one can see that the number of subscribers reaches about 350 thousand. However, about 223 thousand people have subscribed to the official telegram channel of the Verkhovna Rada.

Propagandists are spreading this fake to nourish the narrative that Ukraine is losing in this war.

Fake Switzerland banned money transfers to Ukraine, including donations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Such messages are distributed through social networks and hostile telegram channels. It says that it is forbidden to transfer funds to help Ukraine in Switzerland. Like, all charitable platforms are inactive in the country. As evidence, the propagandists attach a video from a TikTok user in which she allegedly complains that she cannot transfer money to Ukraine. However, this is not true.

According to StopFake experts, in Switzerland there is no ban on transferring money to any account in Ukraine. Fact-checkers say that Switzerland is among the top ten countries whose residents most often donate money to help Ukraine through the United24 platform, including for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Propagandists are spreading this fake to once again discredit Ukraine and show that it is not supported by the West, which prohibits the transfer of funds from its banks. Thus, they are trying to hint that no one wants to help Ukraine and Ukrainians. However, the absolute assistance of our partners demonstrates the true attitude of the world to the war in Ukraine.

Fake In Poland, they issued a stamp with Zelenskyi in the image of Hitler

A new stamp, which was released in Poland, is being distributed on social networks. It depicts Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi with a mustache similar to that of Adolf Hitler. Social media users ask in the comments if one can send letters with such stamps to Israel. However, this is fake.

In Poland they really issued a stamp with the image of Volodymyr Zelenskyi. However, this is not an official stamp issued by the Polish Post. According to VoxCheck, the issue of such a stamp is an initiative of the deputy of the Krakow City Council Lukasz Wantuch, and not the Polish Post. The funds received from the sale of the stamp are planned to be transferred to humanitarian aid to Ukraine. But a modified image of this stamp is distributed on the web.

Russian propaganda has repeatedly spread fakes associating Volodymyr Zelenskyi with Adolf Hitler. And in such a way the disinformation narrative “Ukrainians are Nazis” is being promoted.

Fake Washington called Ukraine a “new Afghanistan”

Russian media write about it. Like, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken admitted that the US was preparing for war with Russia at the beginning of Biden's presidency, “leaving the Afghans to their own devices”. It is not true.

Anthony Blinken didn't say that at the press conference. These words were made up by propagandists. Blinken noted that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan should be considered in the future. In particular, the completion of the Afghan mission now allows the United States and partners to provide significant support to Ukraine in the fight against Russian aggression.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads disinformation messages that in Ukraine they are at war with the “collective West”, NATO or the United States, and not with Ukraine. 

Fake Caricature graffiti with Zelenskyi to have been made in Madrid

A photo of graffiti allegedly from Madrid is circulating on the network, in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is depicted as a locust devouring the European Union. The reports say that the graffiti was allegedly painted by artists from the Madrid group Typicaloptical. It's fake.

MythDetector project fact-checkers checked the information about the graffiti and found that this photo was modified using software. In fact, there is no such graffiti in the photo from Plaza de las Cortes in Madrid on December 27th. The source of the fake photos is an Instagram account that continued to distribute fabricated photos of Zelenskyi's caricatured graffiti.

Russian agitprop is conducting a systemic campaign to discredit President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi with the help of cartoon graffiti and fake covers of satirical magazines.

Fake The Pentagon “lost” 90% of the weapons provided to Ukraine

Russian media and pro-Russian resources write about this. Like, in the Pentagon, a weapons check was carried out, provided to Ukraine as military assistance. Allegedly, only 10% were able to confirm the presence in Ukraine, the location of the remaining 90% is unknown. It is not true.

Russian propaganda is based on the words of Brian Dean Wright, who worked at the Pentagon until 2015 and now opposes the provision of assistance to Ukraine. Officially, the US Department of Defense has not made any statements about the weapons provided to Ukraine. According to official information, the Pentagon is checking the stocks of delivered military equipment in Ukraine and there is no evidence of the “redirection” of American aid.

Russian propaganda is systematically spreading messages that military aid provided to Ukraine is being stolen or resold on the black market. Thus, they are trying to discredit Ukraine and level out international support. 

Fake In Ukraine, those who celebrate the New Year at Moscow time will be “punished”

Russian propagandists spread information that Ukraine allegedly intends to “seek and punish” people who will celebrate the New Year according to Moscow time, that is, an hour earlier. Local chats warn Ukrainians about this.

They say that Ukrainians are called upon to “keep an eye on their neighbors and call the SSU by phone” if someone “dares” to celebrate a holiday, Moscow time, even in their homes “at midnight Moscow time”. Allegedly, such citizens will be accused under the article “Treason of the Motherland” of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It's fake.

Throughout Ukraine on New Year's Eve there will be a curfew from 23:00 to 5:00 and a ban on the use of pyrotechnics. It is forbidden to be outside during curfew. Therefore, it is not clear how they will “detect” people who are supposedly going to celebrate the New Year according to Moscow time. The statement that such people will be punished for “state treason” is also not true.

StopFake journalists checked the information in open sources and did not find any reports of “raids” on New Year's Eve. Earlier, propagandists wrote that in Ukraine they decorate Christmas trees with toys with Nazi symbols.

Fake Ukrainian TV channel showed a map of Ukraine without temporarily occupied territories

The network is spreading a screenshot allegedly from the air of the 1 + 1 TV channel, where during the weather forecast a map of Ukraine was shown without the territories temporarily occupied by Russia. This is not true.

In fact, they showed a whole map with the borders of Ukraine on the air. The photo circulated on the net shows the logos of two separate programs at once: “Breakfast with 1 + 1” and “TSN”. VoxCheck fact-checkers found that the still image distributed on the network was taken from the program “Breakfast with 1 + 1” on December 5. This indicates an identical background on the original and edited image. The program showed not only a full map of Ukraine, but they began to tell the weather forecast from the East of Ukraine.

Fake The Cabinet of Ministers sends almost two thousand doctors from the western regions to the war zone

In social networks, allegedly, a photo of the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated December 7 on the business trip of 1,796 doctors from state medical institutions of the “Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Uzhhorod” regions to medical institutions in Mykolaiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions is distributed. The reports claim that the decision was published on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers, and a few minutes later removed. It is not true.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine did not make such a decision, and a photo of the document was created in a graphic editor. Fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project note that there are many errors in the fake document. For example, the Transcarpathian region is indicated as Uzhhorod region, the norms of official record keeping are not observed. On the website of the Cabinet of Ministers under the number 1363, a decree of December 6 is indicated with a completely different content.

Fake Ukrainian refugees robbed the apartment of an elderly woman in Poland

A video is circulating online in which an elderly woman allegedly complains to the Polish authorities that she was “robbed” by Ukrainian refugees, whom she settled in her apartment. In different versions of the story, either the woman’s children or the city authorities persuaded the 73-year-old Polish woman to give shelter to a Ukrainian family. It seems that the Ukrainians robbed a woman, smashed the apartment, ran into debt for housing and disappeared. The victim allegedly vainly demands compensation from the authorities. It is not true.

The video has nothing to do with Ukraine. StopFake fact-checkers found out that this video first appeared online on April 24, 2018. An elderly woman in the video complains that she was not provided with the promised services - the replacement of all equipment with the Internet and television. The video was probably filmed at the customer service office of the company "Vectra", which provides telecommunications services in Poland.

Fake Charlie Hebdo magazine published a cover with Zelenskyi who steals gifts from Jesus’ cri

This cover is distributed in social networks and instant messengers. Like, this is a special edition released on the eve of the festive period. The image shows the cover of December 22, 2022, the issue number 1588. The picture also has a text: “Stop whining, we need it more”. It's fake.

Reuters fact-checkers drew attention to the spread of the fake. At the time of checking, on December 23, the latest issue of the magazine was December 21, number 1587, with a cartoon of the World Cup in Qatar. There is no issue for December 22 on the pages of the publication on social networks. The fake cover was published against the background of the visit of Volodymyr Zelenskyi to the United States. Because of the text in the picture, they hint at a propaganda message that Ukraine is “begging” for help from Western partners.

Fake Armed forces of Ukraine deliberately shelled the center of Kherson

Anonymous telegram channels write about this after the massive shelling of Kherson on the morning of December 24. According to one version of propagandists, the Ukrainian military fired at the center of Kherson from HIMARS, and according to another, they hit the city from “Grad” multiple rocket launchers. However, none of these versions is true.

The propagandists assure that impressive elements found in the form of shrapnel testify to the shelling from HIMARS and prove this with photographs. As the Stop Fake fact-checkers found out, along with a real photo with a car, propagandists published a photo with balloons taken in 2016 in Kuwait. It does show tungsten balls from the M30A1 multiple launch rocket system.

The version of the propagandists about the attack on the Grad multiple launch rocket systems was refuted by both the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko and foreign experts.

The propagandists spread an “analysis” of photographs of one of the Grad craters, which allegedly proves that the fire was fired from the north, from the territory controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Like, the funnel in the photo was cleaned up, but the furrows from the debris on the pavement were not removed. Behind them, you can easily establish where the shell came from, namely from the north, from where there are no Russian soldiers.

The photographs used by the propagandists were indeed taken at the site of the tragedy, and the analysis of the shelling itself was falsified. This is stated in the investigation of OSINT analyst DefMon.

The analyst argues that the projectile was fired from the southeast and most likely by the Russian military. His conclusions are confirmed by Bild journalist Julian Repke, who previously investigated similar cases of shelling in Donbas in 2015. Repke also calculated the direction of the projectile launch, coinciding with the results of DefMon: presumably, the projectile was fired from the left bank of the Dnipro, now under the control of Russian troops.

As a result of Russian shelling of the center of Kherson, 13 people were killed, 64 were injured with varying severity.

This is not the first time that Kremlin propagandists have tried to cover up the shelling of the civilian population and civilian facilities in Ukraine, calling them “another Ukrainian provocation” carried out in order to discredit the Russian military.

It was these fakes that propagandists spread after the missile attack on the Kramatorsk railway station, Zaporizhzhia and other cities of Ukraine, where dozens of civilians were killed.

Fake Emergency power outages canceled in Ukraine

Such information is being disseminated in social networks with a link to a fake page of the Ukrenergo company. These messages were discovered and warned of a fake by specialists from the national energy company Ukrenergo.

“Emergency shutdowns are a forced step, applied only in the presence of a deficit in order to maintain a balance of production and consumption in the energy system. Power engineers will be able to refuse them only after the complete cessation of enemy attacks on our energy system”, the Ukrenergo telegram channel says.

The company stressed that Ukrenergo has only one official Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/npcukrenergo and only one official telegram channel https://t.me/Ukrenergo.

“Something else, created under our logo in social networks, is also a fake of the Russian IPSO”, Ukrenergo noted.

Fake power outages are another attempt by Russia to stir up Ukrainian society and encourage dissatisfaction with the authorities and protests against the war.

Fake Kyiv hospitals suspended planned hospitalizations due to the large number of the wounded from near Bakhmut

This was written by some Russian media and anonymous telegrams.

Allegedly, planned hospitalizations were suspended in Kyiv for an indefinite period, as hospitals are overflowing with wounded soldiers from the Bakhmut direction. This is allegedly evidenced by a report by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which says that “only one such hospital receives up to 100 seriously wounded soldiers per day”.

The suspension of planned hospitalizations in Kyiv is not at all connected with “overcrowding of hospitals”, but with continuous Russian shelling of the energy system and other critical infrastructure of Ukraine, which entails possible emergency shutdowns of electricity, heat and water supply.

In early December, Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Mariia Karchevych announced that in case of a prolonged shutdown of electricity, heat and water supply in Ukraine, the Ministry of Health would suspend planned hospitalizations and operations in hospitals.

The statement of propagandists that hospitals in Kyiv are overflowing with wounded Ukrainian soldiers brought to the capital from the direction of Bakhmut has no evidence. The authors of such publications refer to a report in the newspaper Corriere della Sera, which allegedly confirms this thesis. The journalists of the publication do write that the hospital they managed to visit is overflowing with wounded soldiers, but the medical institution referred to in the report is not located at all in Kyiv, but near Bakhmut.

‘Yesterday afternoon we reached the Lyman hospital, a town about fifty kilometers east of Bakhmut, where dozens of seriously wounded were stabilized by doctors before they were rushed to the major medical facilities in Dnipro and Kyiv. The center is deserted, the destruction is enormous: perhaps, out of more than 30,000 inhabitants at the beginning, a few thousand now remain”, the Corriere della Sera article says.

Currently, Bakhmut in the Donetsk region remains the hottest spot along the entire frontline with more than 1300 km of active hostilities. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that medical facilities in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine are overloaded and unable to cope with a large number of wounded Russian occupation troops.

Russian propaganda deliberately spreads disinformation about the losses of the Ukrainian army in order to emotionally put pressure on the Ukrainians and divert attention from the losses in their own army. Earlier, they said that the Ukrainian authorities are lying to the Ukrainians, that there are no losses in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the losses near Bakhmut are colossal.