Russian media, citing a statement by the so-called “representative of the military administration of the Kharkiv region”, are disseminating information that the Ukrainian authorities are allegedly cutting off water and electricity to those residents of the Kharkiv region who refuse “forced evacuation”.

“The Ukrainian authorities have resumed the forced evacuation of the population in the Kupiansk district of the Kharkiv region; local residents who do not want to go are being disconnected from water, electricity and gas”, the propagandists write.

However, the Ukrainian authorities allegedly intend to cut off electricity, gas and water to those who refuse to evacuate, as stated by the representative of the Russian occupation administration in the Kharkiv region, Yevhenii Lisniak, who is accused of collaboration. In the Russian media, he is called “deputy head of the military-civil administration of the Kharkiv region for defense and security”.

It is known that Yevgenii Lisniak lived in Kharkiv until 2014 and worked in the police with the rank of junior lieutenant. From 2015 to 2022, he lived in occupied Luhansk, where he worked in the so-called “Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR”. In April 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine reported in absentia that Lisniak was suspected of voluntarily taking a position in an illegal law enforcement agency created in the temporarily occupied territory.

On May 10, 2024, the Russian army launched an offensive in the north of the Kharkiv region. Due to the threat to the lives and health of local residents, the evacuation of the population from the city was accelerated on the same day.

Kremlin media is spreading information that more than 50% of workers in brothels in Germany are Ukrainians. This is reported by the German publication Die Welt, which allegedly interviewed a sex worker.

“There are about 400,000 registered sex workers in Germany, so there are 200,000 Ukrainian women officially working for the European economy? And how many more are unofficial? This is the result of the war and Zelenskyi's policies”, the propagandists add.

However, the Die Welt article does not cover all of Germany, but only the capital, Berlin. The text cites the words of a social worker who hides her name.

She notes that in Berlin brothels, about half of the workers, according to her own feelings, are Ukrainian. That is, the information provided is not even official data, but is based only on the words of an unnamed social worker.

The title of the article from Die Welt is called “There are about 50% Ukrainian women in brothels now”, but it is based on anonymous comments and no official statistics are provided. That is, such a title can be considered manipulative and created to attract the attention of readers. After all, even the article itself is about Berlin, and not the entire Federal Republic geographically.

The interview also raised the issue that some of the Ukrainian women who were invited to live for free in German apartments at the beginning of the full-scale invasion were later forced to “pay for housing with sexual services” and even engage in prostitution. At the same time, those who lured them with false offers of housing blackmailed women from Ukraine and exploited their vulnerable social status in an unfamiliar country. That is, the material also points out the problems due to which many Ukrainian women were forced to engage in prostitution in Berlin, often against their will.

Thus, propaganda tries to diminish the role of Ukrainian women in society as a whole; to hint that they can only work as sex workers. And this is caused by the fact that, supposedly, a Ukrainian refugee is lazy and worthless. She can only dress “daringly” and “wander” around Europe.

Pro-Kremlin media have begun spreading disinformation claims that Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal promised to make peace with Russia in exchange for EU membership. According to the propagandists, this statement was made during the Ukraine 2024. Independence forum.

But StopFake fact-checkers explained that Denys Shmyhal noted during the forum that Ukraine has good results in the area of European integration and is striving to become technically ready to join the European Union as soon as possible. According to the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Ukrainian legislation is already being screened for compliance with European legislation.

The Prime Minister said that Ukraine has ambitious plans to open all areas of negotiations on joining the European Union in the first half of 2025 – during Poland’s presidency of the EU Council. Shmyhal stressed that Ukraine’s European integration should become a prerequisite for a fair peace.

That is, there was no talk of any agreements with Russia.

Propagandists on anonymous Telegram channels claim that Ukrainian volunteer and activist Serhii Sternenko allegedly tweeted that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States was “karma” and “punishment from God” for slow arms deliveries to Ukraine. They say that fewer people died during the terrorist attack than Ukrainians are currently dying due to delays in arms deliveries from the United States. However, this is fake.

There are no confirmed sources or evidence that Sternenko, other Ukrainian volunteers or officials made such statements. The quote is completely fictitious and does not reflect the real views of Ukrainian society or the state. The fake exploits the tragic events of September 11, which are very sensitive for many people, especially in the United States. Its goal is to incite hatred and create the impression that Ukrainians allegedly support or justify terrorist attacks.

The United States is one of Ukraine's main international allies, providing significant financial, military and diplomatic assistance. Despite the complex logistical processes, the support of the United States and Western countries has been and remains important for Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression. All such fakes are aimed at sowing mistrust and increasing cooperation between Ukraine and its Western partners.

Ukrainian society condemns any terrorist actions, and such statements are unacceptable for Ukrainians who themselves suffer from violence and terror from Russian aggression. This fake is specifically created to divide Ukraine and its international allies.

This fake is part of a wider Russian information campaign aimed at discrediting Ukrainian military and volunteers and attempting to present them in a negative light.

Pro-Kremlin resources are spreading information that unnamed representatives of Ukraine met with members of the jihadist group Ghayat Tahrir al-Sham in the Syrian city of Idlib in mid-June 2024. The Ukrainian authorities allegedly wanted to exchange “Chechens, Turkmens and Georgians” who participated in the war in Syria, who are being held by Ghayat Tahrir al-Sham, for 75 UAVs. It seems unlikely that this will happen, given that these drones are being used against Russians in Syria. Among those who was allegedly supposed to be exchanged was, in particular, the so-called “Minister of Defense” of ISIS, Abu Umar al-Shishani.

However, this information is not true, Ukrinform reports. Ukraine does not negotiate with terrorist organizations. In addition, it is impossible to exchange Abu Umar al-Shishani for drones or anything else, because he died in 2016 in Iraq during the fighting around the city of Mosul.

Russian sources also refer to the Turkish-language publication Aydınlık, which is pro-Russian and has repeatedly published fakes about Ukraine. The publication belongs to the Vatan political party, which promotes an anti-Western and pro-Russian agenda. It is the only political force in Turkey calling for recognition of the Russian occupation of Crimea and Abkhazia.

It is worth noting that Ukraine does not have any diplomatic missions in Syria, since it severed all relations with this country on June 30, 2022.

With this fake, the Kremlin once again seeks to baselessly accuse Ukraine of “supporting international terrorism”. Propagandists also use this fake as evidence of the so-called “Ukrainian trace” in terrorist attacks taking place in Russia itself.

Russian resources are spreading information that the Volyn tragedy will not be taught in Polish schools in classes where Polish children study together with Ukrainian schoolchildren. The reason for the decision was the reluctance to create tension and interethnic conflicts among students. The corresponding “news” is being spread by propagandists, citing the English-language media about Ukraine United24.

However, this is a fake, StopFake journalists claim. There is no such story on the website, as well as on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of the United24 resource. The “news” was also not published in Polish media or on the website of the Ministry of National Education of Poland. That is, no one actually made such a decision.

The Volyn tragedy (in Polish historiography - the Volyn massacre) occurred in the summer of 1943 and is still a subject of debate among historians. At the same time, after the full-scale invasion, Ukraine and Poland leaned towards a policy of reconciliation and memory. “We are pursuing a calm policy. Not a policy of running around with pitchforks, but a policy of calmly seeking agreement on historically complex issues, decades-old, very complex, extremely painful for a significant group of our compatriots”, said Polish President Andrzej Duda in June 2023. In July of the same year, on the 80th anniversary of the tragedy, he arrived in Lutsk together with Volodymyr Zelenskyi to honor the memory of the victims of the tragedy.

Russia regularly speculates on the Volyn tragedy. For example, a little earlier we recorded a Russian fake about Babel publishing a quote from a Ukrainian director with the idea for the film “Volyn Chainsaw Massacre”.

Russian propaganda resources, citing Mira Terada, an “international human rights activist” and head of the Foundation for Combating Repression, are spreading information about the alleged supply of Ukrainian children to British pedophiles through the Olena Zelenska Foundation. Terada also claims that Ukrainian women are forced to give birth to children.

In fact, this is another fake, the Center for Countering Disinformation reports. Mera Terada did not provide any evidence for her words. In addition, the so-called “international human rights activist” is Russian, and her real name is Oksana Vovk. She is known for having spent almost four years in prison in the United States for money laundering and violating anti-drug laws.

After serving her sentence, Terada returned to Russia, where she headed the Anti-Repression Foundation, founded by war criminal and former head of the Wagner group Pryhozhyn.

The so-called foundation regularly spreads fakes about Ukraine and its allies. And the “international human rights activist” herself personally and through her “foundation” spreads fakes throughout Ukraine.

Russian Telegram channels are distributing a video story, allegedly created by Euronews, about a Ukrainian artist. The story claims that the Ukrainian amputated his own tailbone to express his support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces and to raise about 1 million euros for the army. However, he apparently managed to raise no more than 3,000 euros.

In fact, this video is fake as it is not on the official resources of the Euronews TV channel. This is written by the Center for Countering Disinformation. The propagandists used the name of a well-known European resource to increase trust in the fake. In addition, the story does not show the face of the “main character”, and the search engine does not identify such a Ukrainian artist.

With this leak, the Russians are trying to discredit the Ukrainian authorities, who, according to them, are corrupt and therefore unable to cover the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This is why the population is allegedly forced to resort to such extremes, just to raise money for the army.

This is not the first time that Russian propagandists have spread fake videos on behalf of Euronews. We have previously documented similar leaks:

- the Territorial center of recruitment and social support workers allegedly beat up an ethnic Hungarian in western Ukraine, Euronews story

- Euronews allegedly reported on a Ukrainian fraudster in Poland who opened a beauty salon with fat-sucking mosquitoes

- The French President is allegedly being forced to escalate the Russian-Ukrainian war by blackmail (Euronews story)

- Euronews allegedly showed a story about how the statement of the Ukrainian Embassy in France angered French farmers

Propagandists are spreading information on anonymous Telegram channels that Ukrainian soldiers have stopped being fed, which is why store administrators in Pokrovsk are calling on the military not to rob their establishments, since “people also want to eat”. However, this is fake.

This is what experts from the Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council write. They remind us that such fakes are aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the eyes of Ukrainian society. Their dissemination is aimed at creating an image of irresponsible military personnel who allegedly violate civil rights. This is an information attack aimed at reducing morale and trust in the defenders of Ukraine, especially in conditions of heavy fighting and temporary occupation of certain territories.

The aim of such fakes is also to cause tension between the military and the civilian population, to portray Ukrainian soldiers as a threat to their own people, undermining the unity of the country in its fight against Russian aggression. In addition, such fakes can influence international perceptions by presenting the Ukrainian Armed Forces in a negative light, which is in line with the Kremlin’s strategy to undermine Western support for Ukraine.

Ukrainian and Russian media have spread information about a forest fire in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. Propagandists picked up on this news and used it to frighten Western audiences, saying that Ukraine is threatening the world with nuclear contamination, since radioactive particles from Ukraine are already moving to Poland. However, this is a fake, journalists from the StopFake project write.

Indeed, on September 3, 2024, the forest litter caught fire in the exclusion zone. As of September 9, the fire is still being extinguished. “Currently, 399 rescuers, 103 units of equipment from the State Emergency Service, brought in from different parts of Ukraine, as well as 17 units of equipment from the forestry service are working at the site”, the State Emergency Service said on a Telegram today.

However, the radiation background in the exclusion zone is normal: control over radiation indicators has been strengthened in the country, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine notes. The automated radiation control system carries out continuous monitoring at 39 points, transmitting data to the control center every hour, and in emergency situations - every minute. The radiation background is also monitored by the operational radiation reconnaissance group of the Ecocenter State Enterprise. All characteristics of the radiation background are normal.

The Kyiv City State Administration also does not record any deviations from the norm. As of today, September 9, the level of air pollution in the capital is low, and the radiation background throughout the city is normal.

The Ukrainian data is confirmed by the independent Czech weather monitoring resource Windy. According to the interactive map, which operates in real time, the main parameters of air pollution in Ukraine, as well as the background level, are within acceptable limits. There are no ‘radioactive clouds’ over Ukraine.

With this fake, the Russians are trying to discredit Ukraine, claiming that it poses a threat of nuclear pollution to the world. The goal of such statements is to force partner countries to abandon Ukraine and leave it without any help in the war against Russia.

We have recently recorded a similar Russian fake. Then the propagandists wrote that there was a release of radioactive elements at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the cloud was moving towards Kyiv.

The pro-Kremlin media spread the ‘news’ that the attack on the Poltava Institute of Communications was successful thanks to information passed to Russian intelligence by the Ukrainian military themselves. The propagandists claim that Forbes wrote about this: “The publication notes that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces pays well for such services. Thus, a fee of up to 500 thousand dollars was allegedly paid for information about Poltava”.

However, this information is not true. This is reported in the StopFake project. In the Ukrainian and English versions of Forbes, apart from the news about the Russian attack on the Institute of Communications in Poltava, no other materials on this topic were published. Also, in the Russian version of the magazine there is no corresponding ‘news’.

The propaganda resources that spread this disinformation did not provide any links to supporting materials. No other authoritative media published this ‘news’, although such information would have been immediately picked up by many sources, because any information about spotters, collaborators immediately appears in the Ukrainian news. For example, about the spotter of the Kharkiv military administration, who was sentenced to life imprisonment.

That is, this is another invention of the Russians, in which they used the brand of a famous magazine to make the fake more credible.

On September 3, 2024, Russia launched a missile attack on the Poltava Military Communications Institute and a hospital located nearby. According to official data, 55 people were killed and more than 320 were injured as a result of the ballistic missile strikes.

Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels are distributing a video that allegedly shows the Ukrainian military abusing captured Russian soldiers in the Kursk region. The footage shows several tied-up men in Russian military uniforms. The video also shows a Ukrainian soldier torturing one of the men, who is tied to a metal chair, with electric shocks.

The Center for Countering Disinformation conducted a study on the distribution of this video and found out that a number of Russian “war correspondents” received an offer to publish it from anonymous users in private messages. However, due to the obviously staged nature of the video, even the most dedicated propagandists refused to post this fake on their resources and ridiculed it, the Center adds. As a result, only low-rated resources published the video of the “torture of Russian prisoners”.

With this fake video material, the Russians are trying to accuse the Ukrainian Armed Forces of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law during the Kursk operation. Russian propaganda also creates similar staged videos to intimidate their own military so that they do not surrender.

We have already documented Russian video fakes involving Ukrainian soldiers on numerous occasions. We previously analyzed a similar video fake in which Ukrainian soldiers allegedly shot Russians who wanted to surrender.

Following the recently adopted bill No. 8371 on the ban on the activities of religious organizations with a governing center in Russia, propagandists have spread information that a church in Lutsk was seized from the UOC and has already been turned into a laundry. As evidence, the authors of the fake add a corresponding photograph.

In fact, this information is not true. Using Google's reverse image search function, it was possible to find out that the photo of the church distributed by propagandists appeared online back in November 2023. And it was taken not in Lutsk, but in the Ternopil region. At that time, the first social laundry was opened in Terebovlia with the support of the Caritas-Ternopil charity foundation. The local city council reported that they opened it in the premises of the parish, which became the winner of a mini-grant within the framework of the project “Development of social service to unite communities to support IDPs and vulnerable groups at the parish level”, operating with the support of CNEWA Canada and Renovabis.

“Today, social laundry is a very relevant service. Because people from dangerous regions of the country come to our community with almost nothing, only some personal belongings. And often such people do not have the opportunity to buy a washing machine for themselves”, said Oleh Prodan, the mayor of Terebovlia.

With this fake, propagandists are trying to discredit the law banning the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and show that Ukrainians are sinners and atheists. Russians call their church “true” and threaten that “sinners” will be held accountable for their actions in another world.

Read on Censor.NET: How conspiracy theorists explain events in Ukraine and the world: The theory of “church persecution in Ukraine”

Russian sources are distributing a video allegedly from the BBC, which states that Ukrainian servicemen used Nazi symbols (including slogans and gestures) more than 1,000 times during the Kursk operation. This study was conducted by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The organization's Director of Advocacy and Strategic Litigation, Antoine Bernard, allegedly called on the international community to pay attention to the glorification of Nazism in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “A country that demands protection in the UN has no right to treacherously violate the organization's resolutions, much less display symbols of cannibalistic regimes”, Bernard said, according to the propagandists.

In fact, neither the BBC nor Reporters Without Borders reported the results of the corresponding study. This is what journalists from the StopFake project write. The video is not available on the website or social networks of the British media.

The latest Ukraine-related posts on the Reporters Without Borders website condemn the Russian strike on Kramatorsk that killed two Reuters journalists and expose the Kremlin propaganda network founded by Yevhenii Pryhozhyn.

Ukraine also recently joined the International Partnership for Information and Democracy, launched by the organization. Antoine Bernard, whose fake quote the propagandists used in their video, praised the decision and said that Ukraine “demonstrates a global commitment to reliable and quality information, which is essential for the proper functioning of democracy”, despite the trials of war.

StopFake journalists add that most reports about the use of Nazi symbols by Ukrainian military personnel are Russian provocations.

Read also: New fakes about the operation in Kursk

Pro-Russian sources, citing Fox News, CNN and the New York Post, are spreading the “news” that in the American city of Arlington, where the Pentagon is located, graffiti has appeared depicting an F-16 aircraft lost in Ukraine and the caption: “Is this what we pay for?” The work is attributed to street artists OSGEMEOS. The propagandists add that the artists wanted to draw attention to the irrational spending of American taxes to provide weapons to Ukraine.

In fact, this “news” is not true, writes the StopFake project. Screenshots from the media that allegedly spread information about the graffiti are fake. A search on the websites of Fox News, CNN and the New York Post for the headlines given in the publication yielded no results. Also, no other authoritative media published the corresponding news.

There is no photo of this graffiti on the website or Instagram page of Brazilian street artists OSGEMEOS. It is also worth noting that the works of brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, who are behind the OSGEMEOS project, have a different visual style, completely different from the graffiti from F-16. Their graffiti usually depict surreal scenes, rather than commenting on current political events.

Recall that one of the F-16 fighters crashed on August 26, 2024. The pilot of the plane, Oleksii “Moonfish” Mes, died in the crash. During his last combat sortie, the military man managed to destroy three cruise missiles and one attack drone. The investigation is clarifying the causes of the incident and is considering a number of versions. The previously put forward assumption that the F-16 could have been shot down by friendly fire from a Patriot complex is considered unlikely by US military officials interviewed by The New York Times.

With such fakes, Russia is trying to spoil relations between Ukraine and its Western partners in order to cast doubt on the need to provide military assistance. Earlier, Detector Media refuted information that Ukrainian refugees in Wroclaw created graffiti saying “Our Father Bandera - children, do not learn it in Polish, but learn it in Ukrainian”.

Propagandists are distributing a photo of an allegedly official document on anonymous Telegram channels, which talks about punishing relatives of those evading mobilization in Ukraine. It is noted that the document was signed by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal.

The Center for Countering Disinformation writes about this. After checking at the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, it was established that this document is a forgery. Its format does not meet editorial standards, since the Prime Minister does not write such letters, but issues instructions that have a different structure.

The document also contains grammatical errors, and the number indicated in it does not comply with the standards of the Cabinet of Ministers. It was also established that a document with such an original number does not exist at all in 2024.

This fake is aimed at creating panic among the population and discrediting Ukrainian state institutions. Propagandists use such fakes to undermine trust in the government, sow distrust among citizens and increase tension in society. By creating the illusion of helplessness of state structures and unfair persecution, the enemy is trying to break the morale of Ukrainians and weaken their resistance. This is also part of a wider information warfare campaign aimed at undermining unity and harmony in Ukrainian society.

Russian forces have announced a strike on a temporary deployment point of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the University of Sumy. One of the propaganda Telegram channels claims that a temporary deployment point for Ukrainian troops located in the building of the local university, where reserves were allegedly located for dispatch to the Kursk region, was allegedly destroyed in Sumy. However, this is a fake.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security writes about this. The information in them does not correspond to reality. No Ukrainian military personnel were stationed in universities or dormitories near the front. The representative of the Operational-tactical grouping Kharkiv Colonel Vitalii Sarantsev emphasized that such reports are part of Russian propaganda aimed at justifying possible terrorist attacks on civilian objects and spreading fear among the population.

Also, the Prosecutor General's Office reported that a 64-year-old security guard was injured as a result of a bomb attack on one of the university buildings in Sumy. The Sumy Regional Prosecutor's Office has launched a pre-trial investigation into the violation of the laws and customs of war (Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

This is a typical Russian propaganda technique. Russia deliberately attacks civilian objects in Ukraine, committing acts of terror. Every time a Russian missile hits a hospital, school, shopping center or post office, propagandists claim that it was a “military object” or “Azov base”. In this way, the occupiers try to shift responsibility to Ukraine, claiming that “the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly use civilian objects and the population as a “human shield””.

A video is being distributed on the TikTok social network, which talks about the alleged adoption of a new law No. 4995 on the status of a “child of war”. According to this law, from September 1, 2024, children will allegedly receive 15 thousand hryvnias per month for three years. As evidence, the author of the video shows screenshots from the Diia portal about the status of a “child of war”. Service ID - 01199.

However, this information is not true, the Center for Countering Disinformation reports. Law No. 4995, which is discussed in the video, was adopted back in 2017, and it concerns providing housing to the families of fallen ATO soldiers, and not assigning the status of “child of war”.

In addition, using the service identifier 01199 in the Diia portal, you can indeed obtain the status of “child of war”, but this only applies to individuals who are citizens of Ukraine and who were under 18 years old at the end of World War II (September 2, 1945).

With this fake, propagandists are trying to mislead Ukrainian society, so that later, when it comes to parents wanting to formalize the status of “child of war” for their child, they will be disappointed that in fact the corresponding law does not exist and direct their dissatisfaction towards the Ukrainian authorities.

Russian Telegram channels are distributing a video that allegedly talks about cases of abuse of mobilized soldiers in the 128th separate mountain assault Transcarpathian Brigade. According to the propagandists, this footage was filmed by one of the brigade's combat medics.

However, the Center for Countering Disinformation, having verified the information in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reported that the disseminated recordings about the alleged cruel treatment of mobilized personnel are another Russian propaganda leak. The Center added that an investigation was conducted, as a result of which no facts were found that confirm the statements of the author of the aforementioned videos.

This fake is aimed at undermining the mobilization process in Ukraine and discrediting the Ukrainian defense forces. Russia shows that the Ukrainian army allegedly treats newly mobilized people badly, thereby trying to reflect the desire of Ukrainians to join the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Earlier, we analyzed the disinformation that Olena Zelenska called on women to mobilize.

The video states that 74% of Ukrainians are against military action on Russian territory. The Ukrainian voiceover claims that a significant portion of Ukrainian citizens hoped for the end of the war and the signing of a peace agreement, but their hopes were dashed by the Kursk operation.

In fact, the analyzed video is fake. This is reported by journalists from the StopFake project. The video was spread by pro-Russian sources, the first to publish the news was a propaganda Telegram channel with an audience of over 200 thousand subscribers. In addition, the video has a logo that could not be identified. It was probably created by propagandists based on stock images.

Also, the Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region began quite recently and continues. Accordingly, there are no valid and reliable statistics yet. However, some street polls of Ukrainian citizens and interviews with the military show a completely opposite picture - Kyiv residents call the operation “fantastic”, and Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen say that the advance of troops into Russian territory has raised morale and brought relief in all directions of the front.

Earlier we analyzed Russian manipulation, saying that Foreign Affairs wrote that the Kursk operation changed the “balance of attrition” not in favor of Ukraine.

Russian Telegram channels are spreading information about the search for armed prisoners in the “Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad regions” who, after signing a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, voluntarily left the military unit. The propagandists add that these individuals, known as the “Dnipropetrovsk maniacs”, are guilty of numerous murders.

However, the information about the escape of these persons is not true. According to the records of the Information Subsystem of the National Police, they are not wanted - this was reported to the Center for Countering Disinformation by the Head of the Communications Department of the National Police of Ukraine Olena Berezhna. In addition, the “wanted announcement” mentions “Dnipro region”, but such a region does not exist in Ukraine, which further indicates that this news is fake.

Also, the persons in question could not sign a contract with the Armed Forces of Ukraine due to the current restrictions of the Ministry of Defense, the Center for Countering Disinformation adds (persons convicted of murdering two or more people cannot sign a contract and leave prison).

By spreading such disinformation, propagandists seek to discredit the bill No. 11079-1 adopted in May 2024 on the mobilization of certain categories of convicts. Thus, we have previously documented similar fakes. For example, on mobilized prisoners who allegedly sell drugs in the Sumy region.

Propagandists are spreading information that during Russia's missile strike on Kharkiv, facilities of the nationalist Azov battalion were hit, including a shopping center where the military allegedly set up their base. However, this is a fake.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security writes about this. They found out that this is a typical technique of Russian propaganda. Russia deliberately attacks civilian objects in Ukraine, committing acts of terror. Every time a Russian missile hits a hospital, school, shopping center or post office, propagandists claim that it was a “military object” or “Azov base”.

In this way, the occupiers are trying to shift responsibility to Ukraine, claiming that “the Ukrainian Armed Forces are using civilian objects and the population as a “human shield”.”

In fact, on September 1, Russian terrorists deliberately launched a missile attack on a shopping mall, the Sports Palace, and one of the Nova Poshta branches in Kharkiv. According to the city's mayor, Ihor Terekhov, 44 people were injured as a result of the shelling of these facilities, including seven children, the youngest child being only three months old.

Anonymous Telegram channels, in particular the propaganda channel Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny, are spreading so-called graffiti, which was allegedly drawn by Ukrainian refugees in one of the Polish cities. In the picture, you can see a red and black flag and the inscription “Our Father Bandera”. In another photo, there is the text: “... children, do not learn Polish, only Ukrainian”. The messages claim that the photos were taken in one place.

However, using reverse Google search, it was possible to establish that the graffiti photos were published only in pro-Russian segments of social networks. Moreover, the photos were first published 5 days ago as of September 2, 2024. Before that, no important Polish media, including local organizations, had published such news. So, it is most likely that the photos were faked with the help of special editors.

We have documented fakes many times, whether they involve fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or advertising videos. In this way, propagandists aim to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. This may make readers think that the public is really unhappy with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, implying that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda is a reason for Europe to laugh.

Thus, Russian propaganda tries to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU - in order to reduce support for Ukraine. We mentioned this in our own research. Since the beginning of the great war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda has been trying to discredit refugees who were forced to leave Ukraine to save their lives.

Propagandists regularly spread fakes about them; they call refugees dependents; they claim that they went abroad not for safety, but for profit; they spread various diseases, etc. Propagandists need this to stake out the opinion that Ukrainians are pagans who do not appreciate the help that residents of other countries give them; they take advantage of the kindness of residents of other countries.

For example, we recently reported that anonymous people were spreading a fake story from the supposedly French publication Le Figaro, which spoke of a “Ukrainian refugee killer”.

The anonymous telegrams refer to the words of the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Kateryna Pavlichenko, who said that children will be taken away from residents of the Sumy region for refusing to evacuate. At the same time, in the propaganda message itself, they add that in this way, the Ukrainian authorities, under the guise of evacuation, are taking children away to be sold into slavery or for organs.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the report does not provide any evidence that children are being sold. Accusations of selling children into slavery and for organs are baseless theses, with which Russia is only trying to intimidate residents of frontline territories.

Evacuation from the 5-kilometer zone along the border with the Russian Federation in the Sumy region was announced back in July 2023. In March 2024, forced evacuation of children from three settlements also began, and in April this order was extended to two communities in the Sumy region. During May-June, mandatory evacuation was announced in several more settlements.

Parents do not have the right to refuse the evacuation of their children. Parents who refuse evacuation may bear administrative or criminal liability for failure to fulfill their responsibilities to raise their children. In case of proof of violation of Article 166 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (malicious failure of parents to fulfill their statutory obligations to care for a child), by decision of the court or the guardianship authority, the child may be transferred to other relatives at their request, or, if there are none, to the guardianship and trusteeship authority. In exceptional cases, in the event of an immediate threat to the life or health of the child, the guardianship and trusteeship authority or law enforcement officers may decide to immediately remove the child without depriving them of parental rights or depriving them of parental rights.

However, in this case, the priority is the safety of the children, not the punishment of the parents. Therefore, law enforcement and local authorities try to persuade parents or other guardians to leave with the children.

“Black transplantology” in Ukraine is a conspiracy theory that Russians have been developing for a decade. The constant return to the topic indicates its importance for Russia. These messages are promoted to both domestic and international audiences.

Read also: How and why Russia uses the topic of “black transplantology” in Ukraine

A photo of what is supposedly the cover of the German magazine Handelsblatt is being circulated on social networks. The cover shows a road sign with the inscription “Kursk” and the headline “Ukrainian soldiers have occupied Russian territory”. The sign shows crosses buried in the ground and Ukrainian military helmets thrown over the crosses.

Fact-checkers of the Georgian project MythDetector have established that such a cover does not exist. The fake photo published has the publication date: “Saturday-Sunday, August 23/24/25”. In fact, the cover of the real issue, published on that day, shows Armin Pappergeri, director of the largest German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. In addition, the distributed photo incorrectly indicates the issue number; currently, only issue 163 has been published, not 164, as indicated in the fake cover.

We have documented fakes many times, whether they involve fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or advertising videos. In this way, propagandists aim to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. This may make readers think that the public is really unhappy with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, implying that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda is a reason for Europe to laugh.