Spilnota Detector Media

Fake Ukrainian refugees blocked the road and started a fight in Italy

Russian media spread information that Ukrainian refugees allegedly staged a protest and blocked the road in Italy, which caused dissatisfaction among local motorists, which is why the fight began. In the video published by Russian propagandists, drivers push protesters in yellow vests off the road, take away posters and throw them behind roadblocks.

In fact, Ukrainians had nothing to do with this action, and local eco-activists organized it from Extinction Rebellion. According to StopFake, this video was published by Italian and British media a month before Russian media distributed it. "Activists of the socio-political movement Extinction Rebellion fight non-violently against climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Climate activists usually block bridges or highways during protests, as they did in Italy on June 14. This time Extinction Rebellion activists blocked the Great Ring Road of Rome (Grande Raccordo Annulare di Roma). It became the cause of fighting. The outraged drivers began to beat the protesters in response," the fact-checkers said and added that the Italian mass media and law enforcement officers did not find any facts proving Extinction Rebellion's connection with Ukraine.    

Fake FThe Mariupol Drama Theater was blown up from the inside; only 14 people died there

The Russian media disseminate this information concerning the so-called "head of the investigative department of the Prosecutor General's Office" of the so-called DPR Oleksiy Kutsurubenko. Apparently, the Drama Theater was blown up not because of an airstrike but due to detonation inside a "caseless explosive device." It is not true.

On March 16, 2022, the Russian army carried out an airstrike on the building of the Donetsk Drama Theater in Mariupol, which was used as a bomb shelter during the city's blockade. Human Rights Watch reported that from 500 to 1,200 civilians were hiding there. At the entrances to the building, the signs "Children" were placed, which were visible from the sky, to indicate that civilians were hiding there.

Due to the constant shelling of the city, rescuers could not free people from the rubble in time. On Friday, March 25, the Mariupol City Council reported that about 300 people died under the ruins of the drama theater. Amnesty International recognized the air strike on the drama theater as a Russian war crime. The organization also noted in its report that it is impossible to establish the exact number of victims since it is unknown how many were under the rubble. The report also notes that the Russians prevented residents and independent journalists from accessing the debris. The Russians cleared the territory with a bulldozer and removed the bodies of the dead without registration. The authorities of Mariupol reported the same, assuming that the Russians act this way to hide the number of victims of the crime. Video of the destroyed drama theater.

The version about the "explosion from the middle" was previously spread concerning the alleged German journalist Thomas Reper, who turned out to be a pro-Russian blogger from Saint Petersburg. Russian propagandists systematically use fakes to hide the war crimes of the Russian army.

Fake Near Pokrovsk, the Russians destroyed the launcher and transport charger of the American HIMARS missile complex

Russian propagandists report this "success" concerning the Ministry of Defense of Russia. It is a fake.

HIMARS is an autonomous complex, and there is no transport and charging machine for it. "At first, the propagandists reported about the "destroyed HIMARS," and later explained that it was a Ukrainian military bath and laundry complex based on the ZIL-131," reports the Center for Combating Disinformation. According to the department, HIMARS became a significant demoralizing factor for the Russian military, showing high effectiveness on the battlefield. Therefore, propagandists try to discredit this type of weapon in every possible way.

Previously, the Russian media spread fakes that the Russian army allegedly destroyed two American HIMARS salvo fire systems. The propagandists are also convinced that the Ukrainian military allegedly refuses to use Western weapons because they are "ineffective."

Fake A rocket attack on Vinnytsia destroyed the participants of the meeting on the supply of arms to Ukraine

The Russian propaganda media report this concerning the Ministry of Defense of Russia. They said that at the time of the attack, a meeting of the command of the Ukrainian Air Force with representatives of foreign arms suppliers was held in the Officers' House on the issue of the transfer of the next batch of aircraft and weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the organization of repairs to the Ukrainian aviation park. Allegedly, the meeting participants were destroyed due to a rocket attack. It is not true.

It is the second attempt by the Ministry of Defense of Russia to justify a missile attack on the center of Vinnytsia, which killed 23 people, including 3 children. There was no official information about the "destruction" of representatives of the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as reports about injured foreign citizens. The Russians also did not provide any information about who exactly they "destroyed."

As StopFake writes, such a meeting could likely have been held in Vinnytsia - there is indeed a complex of buildings of the Main Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city, located more than one and a half kilometers from the site of the impact. The Officers' House is intended for holding official meetings and cultural events; moreover, it continued to work as a concert venue. On the day of the attack, preparations for a charity concert were also taking place there. The day before, propagandists reported that they launched a rocket attack on the Officers' House because it was a "Nazi" base. As in the case of shelling the "Amstor" shopping center in Kremenchuk and other civilian objects, Russian propaganda comes up with several versions to justify its terrorist actions and war crimes.

Fake The USA stopped the work of the consulate in Odesa

The Russian media reported this information. They said that not only the consulate in Odesa was closed, but also the US embassy in Kyiv stopped working, and employees were evacuated due to a "bacteriological" attack on Kyiv, which the American army would prepare. It is not true.

During the period of Ukraine's independence, that is, since 1991, there has never been a US consulate in Odesa. There is no information about the consulate in Odesa on the website of the US Embassy in Ukraine. It is confirmed by checking the information on the website EmbassyPages.com. As StopFake writes, the last US representative office in Odesa was closed in 1918, and its work has not been resumed since then. The US Embassy in Kyiv is also open, although the agency's website has asked Americans to leave Ukraine. Propagandists' assumption that the American military is preparing a "bacteriological" attack on Kyiv is also part of the fakes about American biolaboratories in Ukraine. Detektor Media has already reported on the "suspension" of the US Embassy in Kyiv and the existence of "biolaboratories."

Fake The Nazi military base is located in the Zaporizhzhia Palace of Culture

Such information is disseminated in Russian propaganda media. Nazis allegedly gather in this building, and weapons and ammunition are stored. It is not true.

Melitopol mayor Ivan Fedorov denied the information. He said that on the premises of the Zaporizhzhia Palace of Culture, there is an open space for helping displaced persons from Melitopol and other cities. "This center provides humanitarian aid," Fedorov said. That is why hundreds of immigrants from Melitopol and other cities gather daily near the Palace of Culture building.

It is not the first time that Russia spread information about placing "military bases" where civilian or humanitarian infrastructure facilities are located. Subsequently, these stories are used to justify launching rocket attacks on civilians.

Fake US scientists support Putin's ideas

US scientists support Putin's ideas. It is reported by the Russian media and anonymous Telegram channels regarding the words of the US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul. It is not true.

In fact, propagandists have distorted McFaul's words. In an interview for the project "UKRAINE NOW. The vision of the future" McFaul talked about the fact that the clichés of Russian propaganda about the "historical unity of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples" are widespread among US citizens. According to McFaul, these theses are also supported by some scientists and professors. However, the opinion of individual scientists cannot be interpreted as universal beliefs. As StopFake writes, Michael McFaul talked about the fact that Russia uses significant resources to spread disinformation in the West. The civilized world often cannot find an adequate answer to this. However, the fight against Russian propaganda continues.

It is not the first time Russian mass media have spread McFaul's quotes out of context. In particular, his words regarding lobbying for the interests of Ukraine in the USA and the fact that Volodymyr Zelenskyi's entourage allegedly participates in "schemes" for purchasing weapons were distorted earlier.

Fake The Vinnytsia Officers' House was a Nazi base

Russian media and telegram channels report this to justify the missile attack on the center of Vinnytsia. It is not true.

Officers' houses are not military facilities in Ukraine. These are establishments created for recreation - there are concerts, plays, children's clubs, etc. They are not used as military barracks. Before the rocket attack, the Officers' House in Vinnytsia was preparing for a charity concert by the singer Roksolana. One of her team members was killed. In total, at least 23 people were killed, three children and more than 100 people were injured due to the Russian missile attack on the center of Vinnytsia. The rockets destroyed a business center, a medical center, and a parking lot and damaged residential buildings and other objects of civil infrastructure. As EUvsDisinfo fact-checkers write, the representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, and the commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, condemned the Russian attack on civilian objects, calling the events in Vinnytsia "the latest atrocity in a long series of brutal attacks on civilians and civilians infrastructure."

Russian propaganda spreads lies about hitting military infrastructure and destroying "Nazis" every time after missile strikes on civilian targets. At first, they reported that they had hit a military unit in the town of Haysyn near Vinnytsia. The alleged "military object" destruction was also said after shelling the shopping center in Kremenchuk.

Fake A "secret biolaboratory" was found in Rubizhne, where "experiments were conducted on humans"

The news of the Russian state television channel "Russia 1" showed a story about a "secret biolaboratory" in Rubizhne, which, on the order of Western countries, conducted experiments on residents "for pennies". Russian propagandists visited the "MICROCHEM" enterprise, known to all of Europe. They stated that it produced all kinds of drugs for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including drugs to dull pain and fear, and tested "biological developments" on residents and their employees. However, it is not true! The head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, Serhiy Haidai, noted: "Of course, not without documents labeled "secret" and drug testing on "young residents.'' Russian propagandists fit so many fictions into one video that they can be congratulated for the record in absurdity."

"How can a sober person believe in this? Sober - no. But it is the Russians. "Because the limited liability company "Scientific and Production Firm "MICROCHEM" has become one of the leaders of the domestic pharmaceutical industry, producing more than 70 names of ready-made medicines and seven names of pharmaceutical substances for the production of ready-made medicines," Haidai shared.

Since Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine began, the Russians have repeatedly claimed laboratories for developing biological weapons. The last of the fakes was spread by the Russians at the beginning of July, alleging that the Americans were breeding ticks in Ukraine to increase the incidence of borreliosis in the border areas of Russia.

You can read more about the so-called biolaboratories at the link.

Fake Sachsenhausen is ready to accommodate Ukrainian refugees on the former concentration camp site

Social networks and Russian websites spread information that the administration of the Memorial of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany has offered Ukrainian refugees to live on its territory. They claim that the Sachsenhausen concentration camp museum provided on its Facebook and Instagram pages to house Ukrainian refugees in a "specially built temporary hotel."

The administration of the Sachsenhausen Memorial denied such information and stated that it never proposed to place Ukrainian refugees on the territory of the former concentration camp. Photos of barracks with the words "Welcome Home" against the background of the Ukrainian flag are a deliberately altered version of a picture previously published on a German tourist site. The Brandenburg Memorial Foundation's press service said everything points to the scheme of the Russian digital propaganda war. The management of Sachsenhausen Memorial has already reported this incident to the police. More details.

Fake An improvised explosive device was discovered at a bus stop in Energodar, Zaporizhzhia region

In the temporarily occupied Energodar, the Russians published a fake through their Telegram channels about an alleged "warning of a terrorist attack" at a public transport stop, where an improvised explosive device was found.

The mayor of Energodar, Dmytro Orlov, denied information about a possible "terrorist attack." He urged the city's residents not to believe the occupiers and to trust only verified sources of information. The mayor of Energodar reported the purpose of the Russians staging such provocations.

"Why is this for r(f)ashists? Firstly, you must report "to the top" about your stormy activity. Their commanders are as stupid as they are, raised on Nightingale/Skabeeva television, so they believe the delusion they are sent in reports. Secondly, in this way, they want to justify all the terror they are doing in the city. Allegedly, all their kidnappings and torture of residents are a struggle against the underground.

Moreover, they are wrong in assessing the local population's critical thinking- the residents laugh at the invaders, realizing their worthlessness. Thirdly, it is beneficial for the orcs to create the image of "guerrillas" on whom they can write off their sloppy miscalculations. Please, use verified sources of information, enable critical thinking, and do not trust invaders and occupiers," Dmytro Orlov wrote.

Fake A Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile hit a residential building in Dnipropetrovsk

Russian propagandist Volodymyr Solovyov wrote on his Telegram channel about the alleged "success" of Ukraine's.

Ukrainian military air defense. On July 16, the Ukrainian military hit a residential building in Dnipropetrovsk with an anti-aircraft missile. The post contains photos of the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in the Dnipropetrovsk region. These photos were not taken in Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk is the city's old name) but in Nikopol. On the morning of July 16, the Russians fired 53 rockets at the residential quarters of Nikopol. The enemy was fighting from "Hrady." 12 five-story buildings, 13 private houses, a school, a vocational school building, medical facilities, and industrial enterprise, and a water supply were damaged. Rescuers retrieved two dead people from under the rubble of the building. Another injured woman is in the hospital.

Russian propagandists regularly "wash their hands" of war crimes and blame the Ukrainian side for what was committed. It was not the first time they practiced such lies. On February 26, a Russian rocket destroyed an apartment building on Lobanovskyi Avenue in Kyiv, injuring six people. Then they also spread the fake that the missile allegedly belonged to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Fake Dnipro is infected with a poisonous toxin - a component of rocket fuel

Such a fake was spread by Russian propaganda. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security notes that reports of the release of heptyl began to apply after the enemy attack on "Pivdenmash" in the Dnipro. But all of them are fakes.

On July 15, in Dnipro, the Russians hit the Southern Machine-Building Plant and the street nearby with six rockets.

The Center for Strategic Communications said that the Russians could have caused the leak of heptyl and carried out a terrorist attack comparable in scale to a nuclear disaster.

However, even at the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, heptyl and its derivatives were urgently disposed of in Pivdenmash, the local ground defense headquarters reported.

"There was no leak. And rumors are spread by enemies to spread panic. Heptyl is a hazardous component of rocket fuel for humans," the Center said in a statement.

Fake The American Embassy in Kyiv has stopped its work

Russian mass media concerning the Telegram channel "Sputnik Belarus" spread the "news" that eyewitnesses reported the suspension of the US embassy, ​​the embassy building was closed, and the employees were not visible. And that this happened after the USA appealed to its citizens to leave Ukraine.

The US Embassy in Ukraine called on Americans on their official website to leave Ukraine immediately and not enter its territory.

The embassy asks Americans to avoid mass gatherings and organized events, as they can become a target for the Russian military anywhere in Ukraine, including the western regions.

However, the US Embassy in Ukraine did not announce the suspension of work.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian army on the territory of Ukraine, the US embassy in Kyiv, like dozens of embassies of other countries, has suspended its work for security reasons. Most employees of diplomatic missions left for the west of the country or beyond its borders.

In mid-May, the American embassy resumed its work in Kyiv. On July 15, Mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA to Ukraine Bridget Brink. "The return of the US Embassy to Kyiv and the appointment of Bridget Brink as Ambassador is an important political signal of further support for Ukraine. And we appreciate it very much," Klitschko shared in a Telegram.

Fake A series of missile strikes were carried out on military facilities in Odesa

On the morning of July 16, after the missile attack in Odesa, Russian propaganda on Telegram channels spread information about the destruction of "military targets," "objects of the Armed Forces," and "strike on defense objects." It is not true.

The mayor of Odesa, Henadiy Trukhanov, showed a video from the site of the attack and said that the Russians launched a missile attack using Tu-95 strategic aircraft from the direction of Stavropol. The rocket hit the warehouse of the production and trading company, and a fire broke out with an approximate area of ​​1000 m2. "Smoke can be seen far beyond Odesa. As of this minute, there are no data on victims and victims," ​​Trukhanov commented.

As StopFake writes, the nature of the fire and the absence of accompanying explosions indicate that there was no ammunition in the warehouse. The fire has been extinguished. In the case of hitting a warehouse with ammunition, objects located near the warehouse would be damaged due to the explosion. Official photos from the scene of the incident were published by "Suspilne Odesa" 3 hours after the missile strike; it can be said that the object was not military.

Fake On the fake Facebook page "Ukraine 24," using a video with Volodymyr Zelensky, they are trying to trick Ukrainians with personal data

The Center reported it for Combating Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council in a telegram.

"On the fake Facebook page "Ukraine 24", which has visual features of the official Facebook page of the "Ukraine 24" TV channel, an edited video of one of Zelenskyi's speeches was posted with a call to transfer the person's data; transfer of the bank card number," the message reads.

As noted in the fake video, "all this is necessary for a guaranteed payment of UAH 8,000 to every citizen who has registered."

Such messages and video materials are elements of fraudulent schemes aimed at acquiring personal data and funds of trusting citizens.

Fake Klitschko suggested burying "neo-Nazis" in Babyn Yar.

The Russian mass media and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, are spreading the information that the mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko, has proposed to bury "neo-Nazis and fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Babi Yar." It is not true.

On July 14, the Kyiv City Council approved the decision to create a military cemetery and places of honor for the defenders of Ukraine next to Babyn Yar, and not in Babyn Yar itself - the area of the largest mass burial of victims of Nazism in Ukraine, shot in 1941-1943.

According to Klitschko, permission for the development of the land management project was granted along Olena Teliga Street in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv - we are talking about a place next to the Babyn Yar tract.

Klitschko said that Kyiv is ready to take on all the costs associated with arranging the military cemetery. However, the project needs support at the national level.

Fake Germany participated in the development of biological weapons in Ukraine

Such information is disseminated in social networks and on Russian Internet resources. However, many projects to test biological weapons in Ukraine were implemented in the interests of the Central Medical and Sanitary Service of the German Armed Forces. The information is disseminated concerning the chief of radiation, chemical, and biological defense forces of the Russian army Igor Kirilov. He says that allegedly German specialists in Ukraine paid attention to the causative agent of Congo-Crimean fever and conducted screening for the sensitivity of residents to this infection. It is not valid.

The press service of the Bundeswehr denied the information in response to the request of the StopFake fact-checkers. The agency reported that it is probably the Ukrainian-German Biosafety Initiative aimed at controlling the risks of zoonotic diseases near the EU's external border. However, this project did not conduct any research related to biological weapons. In addition, similar projects have been implemented in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, and five other African countries. Moreover, representatives of the German agency said that a German-Ukrainian cooperation project has been implemented in Kharkiv since 2016 due to the danger of the emergence and spread of infectious diseases in the temporarily occupied territories of eastern Ukraine. This project has nothing to do with the development of biological weapons.

Russian propaganda systematically spreads fake messages about the work of biolaboratories and the development of biological weapons on the territory of Ukraine, allegedly to harm Russia. Such statements do not correspond to reality and are used by propagandists to justify a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. More details.

Fake Ukraine is preparing to strike at Belarus

Such messages are distributed in the Russian and Belarusian mass media. It is not true.

The information was denied by the Public Relations Service of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. "Such publications are completely untrue, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to protect our state from the invaders, strictly observing the norms of international law," the press service reports. The department notes that Russia spreads such messages intending to drag Belarus into a war on the territory of Ukraine and conceal war crimes committed and still being committed by the Russian occupiers on the territory of Ukraine.

Fake Ukraine has begun the process of handing over part of Poland's territory

It is what ex-Nardeput Ilya Kiva, hiding in Russia, tells us. Russian editions RIA Novosti, RadioSputnik, Liz.ru, and Life.ru spread the stories of Kiva about introducing Polish troops into Ukraine at the end of July. It is not true.

As GWARAMEDIA writes, the reason for the fabrication was that on July 11, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a draft law on the special status of Poles in Ukraine. It refers to allowing Polish citizens to legally stay in Ukraine for 18 months from the date of adoption of the law. Poles will also have the same rights as Ukrainians for employment, conducting economic activities, studying in educational institutions, medical care on the territory of Ukraine, and separate social benefits by Ukrainian legislation. The Office of the President clarified that this project is a manifestation of gratitude to the Polish people for their solidarity and support of Ukraine. The rights granted to Polish citizens on the territory of Ukraine are similar to those that Poland introduced for Ukrainian refugees after February 24 by the Polish law "On assistance to citizens of Ukraine in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of this country."

Ilya Kiva, referred to by the Russian mass media, repeatedly spread propaganda messages and fake news. Russian propaganda is actively spreading fakes that Poland wants to seize the western regions of Ukraine and is sending its troops into Ukraine. It spoils the relations between Poland and Ukraine, devalues the partnership with Poland, and sows panic.

Fake "Azovets" Kostyantyn "Fox" Nikitenko shot civilians from an armored personnel carrier.

Russian media and telegram channels report it. According to reports, Kostyantyn Nikitenko allegedly drove around Mariupol and "shot at people for a laugh." According to the Russian propagandist Dmytro Steshin, it seems that the Ukrainian military himself posted a video of this on the Internet.

As StopFake writes, the video from the cockpit of the armored personnel carrier shows how a group of people fall into the field of view of the armored vehicle. At first, the crew was unsure whether it was the Ukrainian or Russian military. Convinced that they were Russians, they opened fire. There is no visible evidence of the presence of civilians in the video. Only people in military uniform can be seen in the spot shots. The dialogues inside the armored car do not mention civilians nor reflect that this is "entertainment." It can also be seen that a group of soldiers, having noticed an armored personnel carrier, is trying to hide. The video was first published on April 24 on his Telegram channel by People's Deputy Yury Mysyagin, deputy of the VRU Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, as an illustration of the fact that a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier destroyed a group of Russian soldiers. The video metadata on Miyagin's channel indicates only the file's date of creation - April 24, 2022. Since the first publication of the video, there has been no evidence or mention of shooting at civilians in Mariupol.

For the first time, information about this emerged on July 9, after it became known about the verdict of the so-called tribunal on the death penalty for two captured Azov fighters. Kostyantyn Nikitenko allegedly shot civilians of Mariupol during combat missions, and his colleague Mykola "Frost" Kush allegedly killed captured marines. The so-called Minister of Justice of the "DNR," Yuriy Syrovatko, also stated that the fighters were "convicted" for their alleged crimes. But after that, there was no additional information about the "court" or the fate of the Ukrainian military.

Due to the spread of fakes, the so-called DPR is trying to justify crimes against Ukrainian service members captured by illegal military formations.

Fake Placing American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems in Ukraine will renounce sovereignty

Such messages are distributed on social networks. They said that the deployment of American Patriot air defense systems to protect the airspace means that Ukraine is relinquishing part of its sovereignty due to the introduction of foreign troops. In addition, these systems are allegedly ineffective because they did not save Saudi Arabia from missiles and drones. But it is not valid.

There are two options for using Patriot systems in Ukraine: deploy US military units on the territory of Ukraine, train the Ukrainian military to use Patriot, and transfer these systems to the Armed Forces. In both cases, it does not contradict the principle of autonomy and independence of Ukraine in both domestic and foreign policy. Ukrainian legislation allows the placement of foreign military units on the territory of Ukraine in cases of repelling aggression or under the terms of a previous agreement on the temporary order of foreign military units on its territory. A violation of sovereignty would be the forced placement of a foreign army without prior agreement on this issue with Ukraine. However, itis not the case. As for Saudi Arabia's experience, it did have 108 Patriot installations as of 2019, when two oil facilities were hit by drones and cruise missiles launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels. However, firstly, it is no air defense system that provides 100% protection against air attacks. Secondly, it is unknown whether Patriot systems protected Saudi Arabia's oil facilities. VoxCheck writes that there are successful examples of Patriot use: air defense systems have shot down air targets in Iraq and Israel and recorded cases of interception of enemy targets in Saudi Arabia during the Yemen war since 2015.

By spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda tries to discredit the effectiveness of any Western weapons provided to Ukraine. We have refuted Russian fakes regarding the Turkish Bayraktar drones, the American HIMARS salvo fire systems, the French Caesar self-propelled guns, etc.

Fake The national collection of microorganisms was exported from Ukraine

Russian propaganda spread information that a national collection of microorganisms was taken out of Ukraine - and once again linked it to the work of the "military biological laboratories of the Pentagon," which supposedly exist in Ukraine. In fact, the collection has not been taken anywhere - it is stored in Kyiv. It has nothing to do with the laboratories that were actually reconstructed with the help of US funds as part of the biological threat reduction program.

StopFake received confirmation of the location of the collection in Ukraine by talking to the curator of the National Collection of Microorganisms of Ukraine, a senior researcher at the Institute of Microbiology and Virology named after D.K. Zabolotnyy NASU, candidate of biological sciences Taisiya Nohina.

"The collection is located in Ukraine. Moreover, she continues her work," Nohina said. Now the collection includes more than 5,600 cultures of microorganisms, represented by more than 1,000 species and 300 genera. It stores microbes found in the soil, water, certain plants, human intestines, and the organisms of various animals. The depository provides samples free of charge to educational institutions for training and, on a commercial basis, to pharmaceutical companies that use them for drug testing. The collection is neither secret nor dangerous - it is needed for scientific activity, and such collections exist in any developed country. It is also in Russia.

Fake The Pentagon will test biological weapons on the Ukrainian military

The Russian mass media spread the fake of the Ministry of Defense of Russia that allegedly, "in the laboratories of the Pentagon" in Ukraine, Ukrainian soldiers were subjected to "experiments on the assessment of the transfer of infectious diseases." The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that "every third of the recently captured Ukrainian servicemen has hepatitis A, and a fifth has West Nile fever." It indicates that "servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine volunteered for experiments" at the Pentagon.

This fake is another in a series of fictions of Russian propaganda about non-existent laboratories for developing biological weapons in Ukraine. Earlier, they stated about "insects and birds" that supposedly had to infect Russians (still impossible, since there is no difference between Russians and non-Russians for bacteria and viruses). Moreover, they wrote about medical experiments in the same defunct laboratories on people with mental illnesses. Now they spread a fake about experiments on the military.

In fact, there is no single refutation of these fictions - there are too many of them. For example, it is unknown why experiment with the hepatitis A virus since this disease is well studied. There is a vaccine against it; it is well treated and cannot be used for military purposes. It is transmitted only through contaminated water or, in some cases, sexual intercourse. Even if a soldier gets hepatitis A, he will not be able to infect the enemy with it. Moreover, West Nile fever is not transmitted from person to person at all - insects spread the pathogen, although a disease from which almost 5% of those who get sick die.

Finally, it follows from the reports of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation that the Russians test every Ukrainian prisoner of war for dozens of diseases, including those rarely recorded in Ukraine, such as West Nile fever. On the other hand, it is known that Ukrainian prisoners do not receive the necessary medical care, not to mention elaborate complex tests.

Fake The Ukrainian military uses garbage mines that cause gangrene

The Russian mass media is spreading the fake news that during the military operations in Donbas, the Ukrainian military uses homemade mines with construction debris, which cause gangrene when wounded. This fake was spread by RIA Novosti, MK, Gazeta.ru, Vzglyad, Lenta.ru, Tsargrad, and others, referring to a representative of the LPR terrorist group, who spoke about the "socks" in which construction waste was placed, including pieces of concrete and glass, as well as TNT shrapnel and a charge to "infect a person with gangrene."

In fact, many self-made devices can cause gangrene in a person whom doctors did not help after an injury because gangrene is the death of tissues due to either a bacterial infection or a violation of blood circulation in an organ. There is also no evidence that the Ukrainian military uses improvised explosive devices.