Spilnota Detector Media

Fake "Azov" seized foreign ships in Mariupol. Such information is spread in Russian propaganda and social networks.

In such messages, propagandists claim that "Ukrainian nationalists" and, in particular, the Azov regiment defending Mariupol allegedly seized two foreign vessels in the Sea of Azov - the "Tsarevna" and the "Lady Augusta" and respectively - are holding their crews hostage. According to StopFake, propagandists also claim that the Azov regiment is allegedly firing mortars at civilian ships, preventing the evacuation of their crews. In fact, this is not true. According to StopFake, the information that Azov allegedly seized the Tzarevna was denied by two Bulgarian ministries at once - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense. StopFake was also unable to find any facts confirming the seizure of the ship Lady Augusta. "In addition, human rights activists have repeatedly recorded the fact that civilian ships were fired upon by Russian troops," the fact checkers wrote.

Fake The Ukrainian Armed Forces blew up a nitric acid tanker in Rubizhne.

This is the second time the Russian media spread a fake that the Ukrainian armed forces blew up a nitric acid tanker at the Zarya plant in Rubizhne, Luhansk region. The first fake was on April 5, when a nitric acid tanker at the Zarya plant was damaged by Russian artillery fire. The second was on April 9, when Russian troops blew up cisterns at the same plant. The main argument of Russian propaganda is that the Ukrainian military was allegedly retreating from the city and had an explosion as a last resort. Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk OVA, said that for a month and a half now the Russian army has not been able to break through towards Luhansk, so there is no question of capitulation, surrender of the city and withdrawal of Ukrainian troops. StopFake writes that the nitrogen explosion in Rubizhne on April 9, according to preliminary estimates, has a kill zone of no more than 550 meters, which gives no tactical advantage to the Ukrainian military, but creates problems for the maintenance of the city.

Fake The Ukrainian Armed Forces blew up a nitric acid tanker in Rubizhne.

This is the second time the Russian media spread a fake that the Ukrainian armed forces blew up a nitric acid tanker at the Zarya plant in Rubizhne, Luhansk region. The first fake was on April 5, when a nitric acid tanker at the Zarya plant was damaged by Russian artillery fire. The second was on April 9, when Russian troops blew up cisterns at the same plant. The main argument of Russian propaganda is that the Ukrainian military was allegedly retreating from the city and had an explosion as a last resort. Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk OVA, said that for a month and a half now the Russian army has not been able to break through towards Luhansk, so there is no question of capitulation, surrender of the city and withdrawal of Ukrainian troops. StopFake writes that the nitrogen explosion in Rubizhne on April 9, according to preliminary estimates, has a kill zone of no more than 550 meters, which gives no tactical advantage to the Ukrainian military, but creates problems for the maintenance of the city.

Fake Borrel advocated a "military solution" to the war in Ukraine.

Russian media are spreading reports that EU chief diplomat Josep Borrel allegedly "wished for a military solution to the conflict. StopFake writes that Russian propagandists spread part of his tweet about the results of his trip to Ukraine: "This war must be won on the battlefield. In fact, the full version of the quote is: "This war will be won on the battlefield. We will allocate an additional 500 million euros. Weapons supplies will be tailored to Ukraine's needs." In the following tweet, Borrell explains that the reason for the increased support for Ukraine is Russia's war crimes, in particular the shelling of Kramatorsk by Russian troops. Borrel sees sanctions as the main means of "pressure on Russia." "We need to continue to increase the pressure on Russia. We have already imposed large-scale sanctions, but we need to do more in the energy sector, particularly oil."

Fake Satellite images show 30 thousand bags with dead Azov fighters.

A satellite image is spreading in the network, which allegedly shows 30 thousand bags with the corpses of Azov fighters in Mariupol. VoxCheck denied the fake, noting that the images, taken on March 29, 2022 by the Maxar Technologies Worldview-3 satellite, show about a hundred people in line in front of one of the surviving grocery stores in Mariupol. "Civilians were waiting in line to get food and other necessary items. Now there is a humanitarian disaster in Mariupol - no food, medicine, electricity and heating. Russian troops are not allowing humanitarian aid into the city," the factcheckers told.

Fake Zelensky ordered that the fighting be moved to Russia.

The Facebook page, which was created only in January 2022, circulated a video showing a squad of fighters, one of whom had a chevron with the Tornado battalion emblem on it. It is noteworthy that only one fighter has the Tornado chevron - no other insignia is visible in the video. The angle for the video was chosen so that the chevron was in the frame. All the soldiers were wearing balaclavas for the formation in the room, hiding their faces. We can assume that they knew that the video would be recorded. In the video, the fighters are allegedly read out the decree of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the transfer of hostilities to the territory of Russia. In this video, Zelenskyy is referred to as the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In fact, the commander-in-chief of the AFU is Valerii Zaluzhnyi, and Zelenskyy is the supreme commander of the AFU. The order read out stated that it was necessary to prepare a number of units of the Ukrainian army "to carry out combat operations in the directions: the city of Belgorod and the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation". It was impossible to establish when this video was recorded, because the metadata was erased. Earlier, the Center for Counteracting Information under the CNSD warned that Russia was preparing new provocations in Belgorod to accuse Ukraine. The AFU General Staff also repeatedly reported that Ukrainian troops were conducting defensive operations.

Fake Ukraine is preparing an action of mass extermination of civilians in order to blame it on Russia.

Russian propaganda media are spreading reports that the Ukrainian authorities, with the support of Western countries, are allegedly "preparing an action with mass extermination of civilians" in the occupied areas of Luhansk Region, "preparing a shooting provocation with shooting of ambulances" in Severodonetsk District, "blowing up the reserve area. This is all allegedly to accuse the Russian military and Russian-controlled militants. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security noted that Russia is again trying to shift responsibility for the crimes committed to Ukraine. "Given that during the 8 years of war in eastern Ukraine not a single Ukrainian government has considered the military option of returning the temporarily occupied territories, accusations of provocations by the Russian Federation are meaningless. Russia will have to take responsibility for the extermination of the civilian population of Ukraine, as the International Courts are already working on the investigation of the crimes committed by the occupiers on the territory of our state," the Center added.

Fake Yuri Gudymenko died.

Unidentified people wrote to Russian "Wikipedia" that activist and leader of "Democratic Axe" Yuri Gudymenko died on March 30. Gudymenko pointed this out to him. On 11 March this information was removed from Wikipedia, noting: "Yury Gudymenko is alive. This is confirmed by his Instagram posts from March 30." Russian propaganda uses Wikipedia as a tool for spreading its manipulations and narratives - this is evidenced, in particular, by the large number of disagreements in the Ukrainian and Russian versions of Wikipedia regarding the same cases or personalities; there have been repeated cases of editing facts and attempts to remove materials from the encyclopedia. We urge not to trust unverified information and to use only official sources. Keep in mind that Wikipedia is created by volunteers and volunteers, and is often edited by amateurs. Read how Wikipedia counteracts fakes here.

Fake The serial number proves that the missile fired at the train station in Kramatorsk belongs to the AFU.

Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels spread reports that the serial number of the 9M79-1 missile fired at the train station in Kramatorsk on April 8 "clearly indicates that the projectile belongs to Ukraine. The propagandists use footage from an Italian TV channel TG La7 story about the Russian attack on Kramatorsk. StopFake writes that the marking on the 9M79-1 missile means that the missile belongs to the Tochka-U class, and the number Sh91579 can in no way identify the missile as belonging to a Ukrainian military unit. This is a factory marking that was put on all missiles at the Votkinsk Machine-Building Plant, where these missiles were manufactured during the Soviet era. The Tochka-U is currently in service with eight countries. Russian media also say that the Sh915 missiles were already allegedly used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the shelling of Alchevsk on February 2, 2015. However, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission at the time did not confirm the use of Tochka-U by the Ukrainian military against Alchevsk. The Russian-controlled militants in Alchevsk were unable to provide the OSCE experts with the missile itself or its wreckage.

Fake The invaders destroyed the S-300 defense system handed over to Ukraine by Slovakia.

On April 10, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russian troops destroyed launchers of Ukrainian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems, among them one handed over by Slovakia. Russian propaganda was countered by Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Geger in a tweet. He wrote that Ukraine has officially confirmed that the destruction thesis is false. .

Fake Ukrainian humanitarian aid for Melitopol was stolen by Azov people".

Russian propagandists called fake the statements of the Ukrainian side about the blocking and seizure of humanitarian aid for Melitopol by the invaders, attaching photos of white trucks with a red cross allegedly located at Azovstal in Mariupol. StopFake writes that the photos are fake, because according to Mayor Ivan Fedorov, the humanitarian aid was sent by other vehicles.

Fake Zaporizhzhya residents ask to include their territory in the DNR".

A delegation of the group visited the occupied village of Rozovka in Zaporizhia region, not Zaporizhia, StopFake writes. Not a single comment from locals in the filmed footage asked them to join the group.

Fake Foreign journalists confirmed that there were no casualties in Borodyanka and that the Russians did not torture civilians.

The propaganda channel RT released a recording of a conversation in which foreign journalists allegedly said that a forensic medical expert confirmed that there were no casualties, and local residents spoke positively about the invader. RT did not name the sources of the recording or the media outlet that allegedly received this information, while reports from foreign media outlets that are not anonymous suggest otherwise, writes Stop Fake.

Fake More than half of the Ukrainian military use drugs.

Russian propaganda constantly promotes the message that the Ukrainian military seems to be using drugs. In the last 24 hours alone, Russian resources and telegram channels spread this fake story twice. For example, RIA FAN, owned by "Putin's cook" Prigozhin, posted a video of an unknown person, whom they call a former member of the "25th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade" who surrendered, named Dmitry. He says that he was offered to use "amphetamine," and saw that his commander was using it. At the same time, the RIA FAN story claims that 60% of "AFU fighters fight on drugs" and that they are allegedly delivered to military units by "Novaya Posta". There is no evidence of this - even the man in the video does not say this. Also, everything that the unknown man says in the video is a betrayal of an Apostrof article made public in 2018 - it also featured a "fighter of the Airborne Assault Brigade," but it was anonymous."

Fake Ukrainian military posing as a mannequin for the corpses of dead Ukrainians.

Another bottom of propaganda: the channel "Russia 1" decided to "debunk Ukrainian fakes" regarding the deaths of Ukrainians. The channel aired two people wrapping duct tape around a mannequin and stated that this was a fragment of "another production," in which the Ukrainian military seemed to be trying to pass off the "mannequin as a corpse. Russian actress Nadezhda Kolobaeva took it upon herself to refute this propaganda nonsense: she wrote that the video shown by Russia 1 was preparation for the shooting of a Russian film. She also posted a video from the set, where this mannequin is thrown from a crane for an episode about a man who falls out of a window onto a car.

Fake In Dnipro, SBU officers beat up people who supported Russia.

This information is spread in social networks and Russian propaganda media. The reports are accompanied by a video, in which the servicemen brutally detain people. The description says that the video shows the arrest of civilians in the Dnipro region who support Russia. However, this is a fake. As fact checkers from StopFake report, the detention in the video took place in Pavlograd, not in Dnipro. "The SBU special forces detained local thugs who had previously beaten up a territorial defense fighter, as reported by the mayor of Dnipro. The Russian agitprop repeatedly attempts to divert attention from the war crimes of its army, distributing various videos that allegedly bring the brutal treatment of Ukrainian soldiers to the civilian. civilians from Dnipro, allegedly supporting Russia, is not involved," the fact checkers write. Read more.

Fake Ukrainian stars are paid a million dollars each to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Such information is spreading on the network. In particular, about the TV presenter Masha Efrosinina. They say that she records videos, in which she accuses Russia of all the crimes that Russian soldiers commit. Efrosinina herself on her page said that all this is a fake, which is spread by people from the entourage of the Russian singer Nikolai Baskov, who previously supported Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

According to Masha Efrosinina, information about paid videos from Ukrainian stars began to appear after Maria published an appeal to Baskov about Bucha and Irpen.

Fake The Security Service of Ukraine booby-trapped a chlorine storage facility in Pervomaisky.

This is the thesis spread by Russian propaganda media. The reports claim that SBU officers were replacing the chlorine storage in the Kharkiv region, namely at the Khimprom enterprise in the town of Pervomaisky. However, this is a fake. As StopFake fact checkers write, there are no chlorine storages at the Khimprom plant in Pervomaisky because it ceased to exist many years ago.

Fake Ukraine is blocking the exit from Kharkiv, and law enforcement officers are making mass arrests of the population.

This information is disseminated in Russian propaganda media and telegram channels. In such reports, propagandists refer to the words of Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center. They say that mass arrests of citizens are allegedly taking place in Kharkiv, and men are being forcibly taken into the terror defense battalions. Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Defense had already spread fake information about the situation in Kharkiv, more precisely about the so-called "flying death squads. However, this is not true. According to StopFake, nothing of the kind is happening in Kharkiv, which is regularly shelled by Russian troops. Statements by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense about life in Kharkiv under martial law are untrue. Neither the reports of local human rights defenders nor the messages on social networks contain information about the "mass terror" that the Ukrainian authorities allegedly organized in the city.

Fake The Ukrainian authorities are not interested in saving the lives of the Mariupol defenders.

The Russian Defense Ministry and Russian propagandists spread this message, announcing their plans to "clean up the city". In fact, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is ready to evacuate the wounded and dead from Mariupol, and Turkey can also provide ships for evacuation of the inhabitants of the city by sea. However, Russia has not yet given its consent. "It is impossible to reach Mariupol. And they [representatives of Turkey] can go from Berdyansk, and you understand that it is still necessary to get to Berdyansk. In other words, we have all the infrastructure ready to transport the wounded and killed, and we are waiting for Putin's agreement. I talked to Erdogan, and Erdogan talks to him and now it's up to him [Putin] to make this happen," Zelenskyy said. In addition, the Ukrainian Security Service reported that the Russian occupants are preparing a large-scale provocation in Mariupol, in order to blame Ukraine for the alleged murder of civilians. According to the SBU, the occupants are preparing a large-scale fabrication: they plan to collect in one place the bodies of the Mariupol residents killed by the Russians themselves, and present them as "mass victims of the Ukrainian troops".

Fake The Ukrainian military blew up a nitric acid tanker in Rubizhne.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are spreading a fake, the Ukrainian military allegedly blew up a tanker with nitric acid in Rubezhnoye, Luhansk region. The head of the Luhansk regional military administration Sergei Gaidai said that the nitric acid tank at the Zarya plant was damaged as a result of Russian artillery shelling. Along with this, propagandists once again try to tell about the preparation of "provocations with the use of poisoned substances" by Ukraine. The Media Detector has already repeatedly refuted these fakes; both Ukrainian and foreign authorities have previously warned about the possibility of Russian attacks using chemical substances.

Fake A former US ambassador to Russia has said that Zelenskyy's entourage are intermediaries in a "scheme" to buy weapons.

The Russian news website REN.TV wrote that some branches of the US military industry are allegedly interested in delaying military actions on the territory of Ukraine because they receive substantial profit from this. At the same time, REN.TV quoted former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul as saying to Politico that President Vladimir Zelensky's entourage is allegedly an intermediary in this "scheme. McFaul himself is referred to by Russian propagandists as "a freelance adviser to Zelensky." In fact, according to StopFake, REN.TV took McFaul's quote out of context, significantly distorting what he said. Michael McFaul spoke to Politico about lobbying Ukraine's interests in the United States; his quote about Zelensky's entourage refers to interaction with the American media and the US political elite. Michael McFaul also denied StopFake was a "freelance adviser to Zelensky." "The article's author's claim that the U.S. military industry is interested in delaying military action in Ukraine is also manipulation. The Kremlin claims that the so-called "special operation" can only be stopped when the "demilitarization" of Ukraine is completed and Kiev "stops fighting," refuses to join any bloc. "" and recognizes Crimea as Russian and the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics as independent," StopFake writes. - Ukraine insists that the end of the war is possible only after the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from the country and the provision of a number of security guarantees to Ukraine.

Fake Russian troops disarmed Ukrainian VRGs in the Kyiv region.

This information was disseminated by Russian propaganda media as early as April 4. In particular, the publication RIA Novosti. However, this is a fake. The Russian military could not have disarmed a single VDM on the territory of the Kyiv region on April 4, because as of April 2, according to the Ministry of Defense, the entire Kyiv region had already been liberated from the Russian occupants.

Fake Ukrainians have had their utility bills completely cancelled.

Information that during the war with Russia, Ukrainians have been completely cancelled from paying for utilities is spreading in social networks. In particular, in local Volyn communities on Facebook. However, this is a fake, attention has been drawn to it. In fact, according to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine resolution "Some issues of payment of housing and communal services during martial law" of March 5, 2022, until the termination or cancellation of martial law can not accrue and collect penalties. (fines, penalties), to terminate the provision of services in case of non-payment or payment not in full.

That is, the government has prohibited charging fines for late payment, as well as depriving consumers of services for arrears, but payment for utility services is not canceled. On the contrary, utility workers on the ground are asking people to pay on time so that businesses can function in war conditions.

Fake Tanks are approaching Mykolaiv, it is planned to be captured in three days.

According to the head of the Mykolaiv regional military administration (OVA) Vitalii Kim, such a claim has been spreading massively in social networks in recent days. However, Kim himself denies such information and says that the situation in Mykolaiv is under control. "We control the entry-exit, we know how many pieces of equipment there are. There are 15-20 of them there. There are battles, but we are not talking about hundreds of tanks. The command "to capture Mykolaiv in three days" - This is panic-mongering. And shelling is also for panic. This is what the enemy wants to achieve. Look at things realistically, analyze. Don't believe the fakes and take care of yourself," said Vitalii Kim.