On May 4, the pro-Kremlin media reported that "black clouds of smoke" could be seen over Stariy Saltov in Kharkiv Oblast, which appeared after "Ukrainian units staged a showy assault on an unoccupied peaceful settlement. According to the Russian media, the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly "staged" an attack on Stary Saltov and "a battalion of amnestied criminals, Kraken, entered the village and carried out terror in the village," StopFake wrote. The Russian military occupied the village of Stariy Salty immediately after the invasion on February 24, 2022.

Reports that Ukrainian troops were conducting an offensive operation near Stariy Saltov near Kharkiv appeared in early May. On May 4, the head of the Kharkiv regional state administration, Oleg Sinegubov, reported that fighting continued around the settlements in the direction of Stariy Saltiv. Two ambulance workers came under fire. "To dismiss the settlement is 30%. 70% - our guys are trying to hold it and consolidate their positions there. We can't say right now whether it's our settlement or not," Sinegubov said.

In the evening summary for May 5, the General Staff of the AFU reported that Russian troops in the Slobozhansky direction "tried to regain lost positions near the city of Kharkiv, conducted an unsuccessful offensive attempt near the settlement of Stary Saltov." After losing Stariy Saltiv, the Russians began to actively terrorize the civilian population of the settlement and nearby settlements. Due to the huge losses of manpower, Russia has massively used indiscriminate shelling of liberated Kharkov villages from multiple rocket launchers and artillery. The information was confirmed by fighters of the Kraken special unit, a separate reconnaissance and sabotage unit within one of the military units of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. Kraken had nothing in common with the "criminals": one of the main requirements for recruiting to the unit is the absence of a criminal record of the candidate. The Russian media assert that the assault by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Stariy Saltiv was a "demonstration," since the village was supposedly "a peaceful settlement that no one had occupied. It is noteworthy that as early as May 3, the Russian media themselves actively distributed a video with the hashtag "we do not abandon our own," which showed the distribution of humanitarian aid in the temporarily occupied Stary Salty.

The Russian thesis that Stariy Saltiv is "occupied by no one" is also refuted by the daily updated online maps of the war zones. Moreover, both Ukrainian and Russian propaganda maps. If we compare data from the Ukrainian Liveuamap resource, which allows real-time monitoring of the war in Ukraine, the map perfectly shows that Stariy Saltiv was still under Russian occupation on May 1 (red color). This can also be seen on the Russian map of the invasion of Ukraine from the Readovka resource.

However, as early as May 5, according to the Ukrainian online map Liveuamap, the Ukrainian Armed Forces drove the Russian invaders from the territory of Staryi Saltiv - the settlement was sacked. A "fighting" sign appeared on the Russian map on the same day in the area of Stariy Saltivka.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Security Service of Ukraine was preparing provocations using chemical weapons. Another Russian fake is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council in Telegram.

"The Russian Defense Ministry said that "according to available information, the SBU is planning chemical weapons provocations in a number of settlements in the Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk regions for further accusations from Russia. We warn you: this is a fake!", the report reads.

The Center specifies that the Russian Defense Ministry's statement that "on the instructions of the US and UK handlers, units of the AFU and the National Security Forces are setting up fortifications at the Luhansk chemical enterprises is yet another fake. At the same time, neo-Nazis were replacing chemical tanks to destroy them when leaving their positions.

This is not the first Russian lie about the use of chemical weapons by the Ukrainian security service. In April, the Russian Ministry of Defense already reported that "the SBU is planning chemical agent provocations near the Yuzhny port in Odessa to accuse Russia of allegedly targeting civilian infrastructure.

In March, Russia spread a fake that the SBU was allegedly "preparing, with the support of Western countries, a provocation using toxic substances against civilians."

Officially noted: The SBU cannot even in theory prepare any provocations with poisonous substances. Because we do not act by the methods of kafirs! Our task is to protect Ukraine. And we carry it out successfully together with all the people. And the invaders and kafirs will surely answer for their atrocities!", - stated in the SBU.

The Ukrainian service pointed out that theses about "SBU provocation" appeared in March after the Russians shelled a peaceful convoy near Mariupol and dropped a bomb on the building of the city drama theater, where hundreds of women and children were hiding. The SBU notes that such statements are only an attempt to distract attention from yet another war crime committed by the Russians.

In Zaporizhzhia region, the Russians are spreading information as if the commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been forbidden to take the bodies of the killed Ukrainian soldiers from the battlefield. This is allegedly done in order to conceal losses.

This lie was debunked by representatives of the Zaporizhzhya regional military administration (OVA) in the official Telegram channel. "The occupiers are trying to spread information that allegedly Ukrainian commanders were forbidden to take the bodies of their dead fighters from the battlefield. They say that in this way Ukraine is trying to hide its military losses. In fact, everything is the opposite," the OVA stated.

The administration stressed that sometimes it really is not possible to take the wounded and killed Ukrainian soldiers from the battlefield. However, it is the Russians who do not allow this to be done. By their actions they violate all international norms of humanitarian law.

Representatives of the OVA described the shelling by the Russians. In the Zaporozhye direction, the Russian enemy is trying to destroy the artillery units of the AFU and restrain the actions of the Ukrainian defenders with constant fire.

Bombardment hit the town of Orekhov, where four warehouses of Optimusagro Trade LLC, the roof of a multi-storey building and a utility building were on fire due to the strikes. All fires were extinguished.

On May 5, Russian propaganda media, including RIA Novosti, RT, Vesti.ru, gazeta.ru, iz.ru, Sputnik Latvia, and others, as well as telegram channels, spread a new fake about Azov fighters: propagandists write that allegedly Ukrainian fighters demand to exchange Azovstal civilians hiding in the Maripuol for humanitarian aid - 15 people for one ton. No proof of this assertion was provided.

At the same time, Azov leaders repeatedly appealed to the international community and politicians to help evacuate civilians from Azovstal. Today, May 6, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak said that during about another stage of the evacuation with the participation of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, 500 Mariupol residents were able to be removed from the territory of the plant.

Propagandists conduct a systematic disinformation campaign against Mariupol defenders and regularly spread false reports about Azov.

This thesis was spread by the Georgian politician Demur Giorkhelidze. In his report, he claims that the total number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine after February 24 and by the end of April is 1,899. According to him, this is a reliable figure, because this is the data allegedly provided by the BBC. The report also mentions that a group of BBC volunteers have been counting the number of dead Russian servicemen since the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while Georgian television has been spreading incorrect statistics. In fact, as fact checkers at Mythdetector found out, the post distributed on social media is untrue. "The data published by the BBC does not reflect the total number of Russian servicemen killed in Ukraine, but the number of servicemen that the Russian Air Force team was able to identify from open sources," the fact checkers wrote.

As a reminder, the pro-Kremlin media outlet Readovka earlier published a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry on combat losses: 13,414 killed and 7,000 Russian soldiers "missing." Of the Moskva cruiser, 116 were killed and 100 were missing sailors. Moscow published this statement and removed it. The total number of lost Russian fighters is close to 20,000, and this is exactly the data that the Ukrainian command claims. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that from February 24 to April 23, the enemy's total combat losses were estimated at 21,600 soldiers.

This is the information spread by users of social networks. Posts that Olpeksandra Zelenska allegedly considers her father a Nazi and murderer of the people were published in two languages - Russian and Georgian. The posts say that President Zelensky's daughter fled to Poland because she considers her father a Nazi and a murderer of Ukrainians. The posts are accompanied by a photo of a young woman who is sitting in a car crying. However, as Mythdetector's fact checker found out, the person in the photo is not Oleksandra Zelenska, but a frame cut from a video published in 2017, in which a Russian-speaking woman is crying because her husband did not buy her a new iPhone. The Russian website 9111.ru is probably the original source of the information that Oleksandra Zelenska thinks her father is a Nazi. As the fact checker writes, the fact that the photo is not Zelensky's daughter is clearly visible if you compare the photo with that of the real Olexandra.

Read more.

This information is spread by the Russian propaganda media. The reports assure that the fighters of the International Legion of Volunteers are mercenaries, and their goal is to get "easy money" from the war in Ukraine. However, this is not true. Foreigners fighting for Ukraine are not mercenaries. As StopFake writes, unlike mercenaries, legionnaires enlist in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and are subordinate to its command. "Foreigners who perform military service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine receive the same salary as Ukrainian citizens. Foreign citizens who did not wish to sign a contract with the AFU join volunteer battalions. They do not get material benefit - the majority of them have personal, ideological reasons to defend justice and rights of Ukrainians," the fact checkers write.

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This is not the first time that the Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels have spread a fake story about Poland's alleged plans to "seize the western regions of Ukraine". This time, Russian propagandists along with this thesis disseminated a document with the alleged order of the commander general of the Polish Armed Forces, General Jarosław Mika, which allegedly implied that "information about the readiness to take control of strategic facilities in two regions - Lviv and Volyn - should be communicated to the personnel of certain units".

Project BezBrekhni writes that the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine immediately stated that this was a fabrication. Factcheckers note that the document refers to the existing 6th airborne brigade named after Brigadier General Stanislaw Frantisek Sosabowski. "The falsified document lists all three combat units of the brigade - 6, 16, 18 battalion. That is, the document wants to assure us that the entire brigade will be involved in the deal. But there's a but here! The brigade has two more units - the 6th Management Battalion, and the 6th Support Battalion. We understand that the Moscal army fights as a horde without supplies and feeds on what they steal from the occupied territory. Yes, and management is a superfluous element for them. However, in modern Western armies and in modern warfare, supply and control are among the key elements of successful combat operations. "In the falsified order the control and support units were 'forgotten,'" reported BezBrekhni.

The narrative about the division between Poland and Russia of Ukraine has been actively promoted by Russian propaganda since at least 2014. In particular, in 2022, Russian propagandists replicated the statement of Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russian foreign intelligence, that "Poland is preparing to introduce peacekeepers into Ukraine to seize part of Ukrainian territories," and that "the western regions of Ukraine may fall back to Poland, Romania, Slovakia or Hungary."

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Russian media spread a fake that soldiers of the 93rd "Kholodny Yar" Brigade refused to continue serving and fighting the Russian military. Russian media spread a fake that soldiers of the 93rd "Kholodny Yar" Brigade refused to continue to fight the Russian military." The news was spread with reference to a telegram channel called Nolodniy Yar, which masquerades as the 93rd Brigade's alleged communications channel. In reality, the 93rd Brigade "Kholodny Yar" does not have a telegram channel - it was not created due to the Russian origin of the social network. At the same time, it is possible to follow the brigade's news on their Facebook page. Representatives of the 93rd Brigade noted, that the telegram channel "Kholodny Yar" was created by Russians in order to try to demoralize Brigade servicemen and their families and to conduct information and psychological operations against the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In particular, this channel often publishes documents found on the battlefield, gaps to the territory of the unit or patches with the names of our fighters, and pass them off as dead.

"This is done in order to sow panic among relatives and friends. Also, the enemy lays out lists of soldiers, as if they were in captivity. They post written complaints of soldiers who refuse to go to the front lines. Of course, in conditions of intense fighting in the many thousands of troops are the following. However, the Russians are trying to pass off individual isolated cases as a mass phenomenon, which is certainly false," said the 93rd Brigade.

According to the Slavyansk City Military and Civil Administration, residents of the community receive a notice that Privatbank, Monobank, and Oschadbank will allegedly charge each user 3,000 UAH in connection with Russia's military aggression. However, this is a fake. The civil-military administration urges people not to click on the links that come in such messages, so as not to get hooked by fraudsters.

This information is spread by Russian propaganda media. In particular, the resource RIA-news. The reports say that the Ukrainian military are planning to blow up the dam in the city of Marganets in Dnipropetrovsk region and have already replaced it accordingly. In its statements, the publication refers to the notification of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The head of the Nikopol regional state administration Yevhen Yevtushenko reacted to the information about the mining of the dam in Marganets.

In his Facebook, the official called it Russian disinformation and noted that in addition to military action, Russia is waging an information war. "The news of the aggressor country is sharpened for disinformation, creating panic moods and increasing social tension on the territory of Ukraine. Use verified sources. If in doubt, seek clarification from local authorities and the district military administration," he said.

This is the information spread by users in social networks. As Mythdetector fact checker writes, the fake started spreading in late April by Russian-speaking users of social networks. The messages said that Kadyrov had allegedly arrested Azov battalion co-founder Andriy Biletsky. Facebook users claimed that Biletsky tried to escape in a helicopter, but was caught, and Kadyrov's men filmed his final video. The publications mention that in a 2-minute video Biletsky apologizes and blames Zelenskyy for everything and adds a screenshot allegedly from that video. However, the claim that Andriy Biletsky was captured by the Kadyrovites is a fake. In fact, the widespread video is an excerpt from an interview with the Ukrainian media.

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Anonymous telegram channels spread information that in the temporarily occupied territories the Russian authorities allegedly write off debts for public utilities. The authors of such reports also claim that with the spread of rumors that the western regions of Ukraine may be ceded to Poland, Romania, Slovakia or Hungary, people living in these regions are also allegedly not allowed to pay utility bills, because then the debts will be written off, as Russia does.

First of all, there is no question of the annexation of the western regions to any other country. It is only Russia that has attacked Ukraine with a war and seeks to seize our territory. Second, Russia may be writing off debts in the temporarily occupied territories, but in cities where Russian troops were already present, there are significant problems with communications, because Russia is purposefully destroying Ukrainian infrastructure. In particular, it blows up water and sewage pipelines, etc., and electricity and gas disappear in cities due to rocket and other shelling. In addition, such a message is dangerous because it seems to tell Ukrainians that it is advantageous to surrender to Russia because they will not have to pay for utilities and will be able to save money.

On April 30, pro-Kremlin media circulated materials stating that Crimean Tatars declared "full support for Russia's foreign policy course" and "unanimously" supported Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. How Crimean Tatars are "ready to participate in the special operation in Ukraine."

According to Stopfake, the Kremlin-controlled occupation "authorities" of seized Crimea held an ostensible "congress" on the peninsula on April 30, at which Crimean Tatars allegedly "supported" Russian aggression against Ukraine.

According to the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, to create a "beautiful picture" and mythical "mass" Russia forcibly summoned students of the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University, as well as employees of budgetary organizations, including teachers, to the meeting. Chubarov notes that this measure has no political weight and does not reflect the real pro-Ukrainian position of the indigenous people of Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars.

"The only purpose for which the FSB of the Russian Federation organizes such a "congress" is to imitate the support of the Crimean Tatars for "Putin's policy and a special military operation" against Ukraine. In fact, by holding a "congress" today, the Russian special services will once again, but completely unsuccessfully, try to deceive the world that, they say, the Crimean Tatars demonstrate loyalty to the policy of the occupying country and its president Putin," Chubarov said on his Facebook page.

The Crimean Tatars are an indigenous people of Ukraine who support the territorial integrity of the country and strongly oppose the war that Russia started. Read more.

Social media and the Russian media are spreading a map which was shown on Chinese television and demonstrates to which states today's territories of Russia will belong after its collapse.

According to the forecasts, Rostov and Voronezh regions will be part of Ukraine, Krasnodar will be part of Georgia, Moscow will become part of Belarus, St. Petersburg and Arkhangelsk will be part of Finland, the Urals and Western Siberia will be part of Kazakhstan, etc.

Actually this map in different colors was painted a long time ago and published at least in 2020. It showed what is geographically closer to the country.

Such information is spread by Russian propaganda media. In particular, Dmitry Steshin, a military correspondent for the propaganda newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, reported that he found "red containers with a sign of biological contamination" in the "undergrounds of Mariupol."

"Made in the United States. The yellow containers collect syringes, needles, scalpels, you can find them in tattoo parlors, for example. But these are red! So, for extremely dangerous biomaterials - liquids, blood, tissue. Why are they here in the war? No one knows and no one can answer," Steshin writes. In fact, as StopFake writes, the container discovered by the Russian military officer is actually used to store sharp objects, to dispose of medical waste, the container can be easily purchased online.

Information about this spread on social networks. Such reports claim that CNN filmed a fire in the city of Edmonton in Canada and stated that the video depicts the aftermath of the Russian airstrike in Lviv. According to the logic of the authors of the report, the proof of the fabricated report allegedly is that the video shows a man dressed in a jacket with the inscription "Edmonton." However, this is not true, and the video was not made in Canada. "The video does indeed depict a fire at an oil depot and defense plant in Lviv, and the protective suit labeled "Edmonton" is donated firefighting equipment from a Canadian charity," VoxCheck writes.

This is the thesis spread by Russian propagandists, claiming that Russia "adhered" to the rights of Ukrainians during the war, which Russia itself unleashed in Ukraine. According to StopFake, Russian "experts" complain that Russia "constantly" organizes humanitarian corridors for evacuations, but "Ukrainians intimidated by the West are afraid to use them. Russia also "categorically denies" that the Russian military was involved in the mass abuse of Ukrainians and the forced deportation of civilians to Russia. "In fact, a number of major media outlets, human rights organizations and global institutions are already collecting and processing data on countless war crimes committed by Russia on Ukrainian territory. A number of facts of illegal hijacking of Ukrainian civilians by Russian security forces, as well as facts of forced deportation of Ukrainian citizens to Russia have already been established," the fact checkers write. More details.

Information about this spread in social networks, they say President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was planning a war with Russia, so Kiev had to prepare for it in advance. Such reports quote Zelensky's interview with the BBC, published on April 15. However, this is not true. As StopFake fact checkers write, Zelenskyy's words were taken out of context: he did not say that Ukraine had started a conflict with Russia. The interview said that Ukraine was preparing for a Russian invasion. More details.

Messages are circulating in social networks that it seems possible to take advantage of free tariffs from mobile operators Kyivstar, Vodafone, Lifecell and others. To find out the instructions, you have to follow the link offered by the telegram feeds. And if you follow it, you will have to subscribe to another channel. And after that, it will be possible to find out how not to pay for mobile communications and the Internet.

In fact, mobile operators do not provide the listed services for free. Operator Vodafone Ukraine used to provide free gigabytes and minutes to subscribers who could not recharge their accounts only at the beginning of the war (24.02-25.02.2022). Now Vodafone on the contrary asks to recharge in advance in order to maintain communication in the regions of military operations and join charity actions.

Kyivstar asks its customers to recharge, if possible, for three months in advance. It will help maintain the performance of the network, provide services to those who can't pay the bill, and conduct free Wi-Fi in bomb shelters. They also ask to join the charity fund by transferring at least 10 hryvnias.

Russian Telegram channels have massively spread a photo of what seems to be Lviv schoolchildren lined up in a swastika on Hitler's birthday on April 20. In fact, the photo is not just of Lviv schoolchildren, not Lviv, not Ukraine, not 2022, and not even a swastika. This photo was taken on April 12 in Penza during a flash mob where local schoolchildren and young people lined up in two numbers 5 to commemorate the 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight into space. You can see it better here:

Russian media reported, citing sources, that the Vatican Bank paid the equivalent of 10 million euros for Russian gas in rubles. However, the only source of this information is a tweet by user Mariia Ledovska.

The user later wrote that her tweet, which went viral, was a joke. There is no evidence of the Vatican payment or any intention of the state to pay for gas in rubles.

Such information is spreading in social networks. Rimasu Tuminasu is a Lithuanian director, but for many years he lived in Russia, received state awards there and staged performances in theaters. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy denies information about cooperation with him. "The person represented by the Assistant Minister in the above disinformation reports is neither an assistant, nor an advisor, nor an employee of the Ministry. We should also note that no such decisions were made or even discussed by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Moreover, the ICIP has consistently opposed any cooperation with "Soviet" artists who have worked most of their lives in Russia. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine has already informed the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania that this is a fake. Now we are finding out who ordered this disinformation campaign and do not exclude the Russian authorship of this fake", reads the report.

The information that Russian troops "liberated" Rubezhnoye in the Luhansk region are spread by propaganda media referring to the data of the Russian Ministry of Defense. "'The 56th day of the special operation of the Russian armed forces was marked by a dismissal in the LNR," propagandists report. However, this is not true. According to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the CNBO, according to the General Staff of Ukraine, on the 56th day the enemy tried to gain a foothold in the western and northwestern parts of Rubizhne, but was defeated. "This is the third such 'liberation' by the occupiers of Rubizhne, based on information from the Russian Ministry of Defense. This settlement first came under the control of the invaders on March 1. On March 18, Russian propaganda again reported the liberation of Rubezhnoye and even its "mopping up" from the AFU. On March 20, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, Serhii Haidai, denied information about the occupation of Rubizhne," the Center reported.

This information is disseminated in the Russian propaganda media. In particular, it was published in the news agency RIA Novosti and in pro-Russian telegram channels. The report said that the Ukrainian military planned to open fire on Orthodox churches on the night of Easter, April 23-24, in several regions of Ukraine - Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odessa, and Sumy. This fake was denied by Serhii Leshchenko, advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine. "I warn you, this is a typical pattern of behavior of Russian propaganda - to blame others for what they are going to do themselves. Ukraine does not intend to commit such actions in these or other areas, to kill civilians, especially on Easter night," he said.