Information is being spread on Russian social networks that a private clinic has posted ads looking for a doctor and a driver-courier to work in frontline cities. Anonymous users report that these vacancies are likely related to the removal of organs from the front or semi-legal cooperation between Ukrainian military personnel and private clinics.

But this is a fake. The ads contain numerous inaccuracies, the phone number belongs to another person. Using keywords, our fact-checking colleagues found the vacancies shown in the screenshots, all of them were published by a user named Viktor Glushko. The ad from the first screenshot was removed from the SellBuyAll.com.ua website, but Glushko published a vacancy for an anesthesiologist-resuscitator on the same website. It is noteworthy that an ad with identical content on the same website was published by an account with the nickname _anо.ni.m. The vacancies were posted on other local websites with ads.

There are inaccuracies in the text of the advertisements themselves. In particular, it is stated that the applicant for the vacancy of a surgeon must have mastered “transplantation methods”. However, fact-checkers were unable to find a definition of “transplantation methods”.

The list of duties of a “driver-courier” includes the item “delivery of biomaterials in Ukraine and abroad by automobile and motorcycle transport”. However, firstly, travel outside of Ukraine is prohibited for most military-liable men, although, of course, there are exceptions.

“Black transplantology” in Ukraine is a conspiracy theory that Russians have been developing for a decade. The constant return to the topic testifies to its importance for Russia. These messages are promoted to both domestic and international audiences. However, their refutation in foreign and Ukrainian media prevents the campaign from having the desired effect. Among the goals pursued by Russian propaganda within the framework of this topic are discrediting the military-political leadership of Ukraine and reducing trust in it, creating a negative image of the state in the eyes of the international community, and justifying a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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

Russian Telegram channels are distributing photos and videos that allegedly show buildings in Kyiv using laser projections to greet the Russian dictator on his birthday.

But this is a fake, because the photo and video content are fabricated and do not correspond to reality. In fact, there were no greetings on the buildings, and the Russians made grammatical errors when generating the video content.

The video of the Arena City building indicates the date - October 7, 2024 and the time - 00:01. At the same time, voices of people and the movement of cars are heard behind the scenes, which raises doubts about the veracity of this video. Since the introduction of martial law in Ukraine, a curfew has been in effect, prohibiting people from being on the streets, in particular, in Kyiv from 00:00 to 05:00. So the presence of an active city life at the present time does not correspond to Ukrainian realities and may indicate that the video is falsified.

Moreover, on another recording, one can see an identical greeting at the Ukraine Hotel. However, when asked by our fact-checking colleagues, the hotel responded that they did not make such a greeting. And there are also no mentions of the Russian dictator's birthday on the hotel's social media pages or on its website.

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.

A story allegedly from the national daily newspaper USA Today is being spread on Russian social networks, which states that an American food blogger was blocked on a streaming platform “for preparing Russian dishes”.

“A girl with 1.2 million subscribers was left without a channel and income because she dedicated an episode to making dumplings, borshch, and told how she had a great trip to Russia and got acquainted with Russian cuisine”, the propagandists say.

But there was no such story on the pages of USA Today. Moreover, using a reverse Google search and the query “YouTube blocked a blogger for a video about cooking a Russian dish”, the search engine only shows publications from pro-Kremlin media that translate their materials into English. That is, it is most likely that such news is simply made up.

And in fact, a conditional video or channel could be blocked if it violated YouTube community rules. Definitely, a channel could not be deleted because of a “video about a Russian dish”.

Thus, propagandists promote a narrative about the existence of so-called Russophobia, which Moscow fights against and protects its citizens. The Kremlin media puts the meaning of another term into the word Russophobia, namely xenophobia — a sharp rejection of another culture, language, and way of life that can manifest itself in the political life of a state through discrimination based on national and cultural grounds. The meaning of this word, in a much narrower sense, is hidden behind the term Russophobia, according to Russian propaganda. Russia also justifies its attack on Ukraine with so-called Russophobia.

Russia presents Russophobia as a separate type of Nazism that originated in Ukraine and is spreading en masse around the world. Anyone who criticizes Russia is a Russophobe, and therefore a Nazi. At first, the disinformation message about Russophobia was aimed mainly at the Ukrainian audience, but after the world community supported Ukraine in the war, it spread to European countries. It even went as far as accusing Israel of Nazism.

A video of Ukrainian servicemen packing up their belongings is being circulated in the Russian segment of social networks. Propagandists claim that the video is allegedly evidence of “looting” by Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region.

“The villagers are robbing the Kursk region. The Nazis cannot do otherwise”, users comment.

But using image search tools, StopFake fact-checkers discovered that the video of soldiers packing their belongings was published on September 15 on the channel of a Ukrainian serviceman from the 58th separate motorized infantry brigade.

Also in the description of the video the location is indicated - Donbas. From the following videos on this channel one can see that the military is moving to another place.

Russian propaganda accuses Ukrainian troops of looting for many reasons - both to discredit the image of the Ukrainian armed forces and to distract attention from the problems with looting among Russian soldiers, which have repeatedly proven themselves guilty.

There are reports online that in Ukraine, students “who have not donated money to purchase generators for the school” are allegedly not allowed to attend classes. To confirm this, users share a photo of what appears to be a school board, where a list of students who have not donated money is compiled and who are now prohibited from entering the computer science classroom.

“These students no longer enter the computer science classroom - this is how Ukrainian classes deal with those who failed to donate money for the generator. Now even education is paid in this country”, some Internet users comment.

But in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, namely Article 58 of the Law of Ukraine On Complete General Secondary Education, funding of state and municipal educational institutions is carried out at the expense of state and local budgets, as well as other sources not prohibited by law. In fact, the so-called requirements of the administration to the parents of students to collect funds for school repairs, classroom needs, the purchase of textbooks, detergents, etc. are illegal.

And local governments are responsible for purchasing generators for schools. According to the latest data, more than 80% of Ukrainian schools are equipped with generators. For example, this was stated in the response of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to a request from Hromadske in early August 2024.

And with the help of a special tool InVID&WeVerify, it was possible to detect anomalies in the processes of image creation and compression, which indicates external interference. The analysis showed that objects were added or moved in the image. And also in the image itself, incorrect spelling of a number of surnames, phonetically close to their Russian pronunciation, was recorded. For example, “Lisenko” instead of “Lysenko”, “Petrichenko” instead of “Petrychenko”.

Anonymous Telegram channels are discussing the reaction of the Ukrainian leadership to a previously published article by The Wall Street Journal, which states that the number of killed Ukrainian soldiers allegedly reaches 80 thousand, and the wounded - 400 thousand. At a meeting with journalists on September 20, 2024, Volodymyr Zelenskyi denied such information.

“80 thousand? That's a lie. The real figure is significantly lower than what was published. Significantly”, Zelenskyi said.

WSJ journalists also reported that it is difficult to determine the exact number of dead and wounded in the Russian-Ukrainian war, since Russia and Ukraine refuse to publish official estimates or publish ones that “many do not trust”. And they formed their figures based on unnamed sources familiar with the situation in Ukraine.

Russian propagandists used this information drive and spread reports that Polish journalists also decided to conduct their own assessment of the dead and came up with a figure of up to 500 thousand killed Ukrainian soldiers.

“The more Ukrainian soldiers, and especially those from the western regions of Ukraine, die, the easier it will be for Poland to take back what already belongs only to it,” the propagandists who allegedly commented on the “results” of the study on Polish radio reported.

But this is just a Russian fake. No major Polish media outlets have come out with such news - and even with the help of a reverse Google search - using the key phrase “500,000 wojskowych zabitych na Ukrainie” (500 thousand soldiers died in Ukraine) there are no similar publications.

As for the phrase on Polish radio, it was also made up, because there were no “results”  of the study. Moreover, the quote that the propagandists cite was only published in the segment of Russian and anonymous telegram channels. That is, official sources did not confirm this: and the quote itself is a set of Russian rhetoric about “Poland taking the western part of Ukraine”.

Information about the dead is sensitive information that the Kremlin's minions are trying to speculate on, playing on the mood of Ukrainians. Due to the extremely inflated figures from the propagandists, it may seem that the war has no end and soon no one will be fighting. In general, such figures cannot be genuine; even the Ukrainian authorities can adjust some constant figures, for example, only deny the WSJ material, since it is currently impossible to establish the real number of dead during the active phase of the war.

Let us recall that in February of this year, the Ukrainian president reported the number of 31 thousand fallen Ukrainian soldiers over two years of the great war.

Russians are distributing a video on behalf of the Ministry of Energy, which allegedly urged Ukrainians to use manure briquettes for heating. After all, they supposedly burn longer and do not harm the environment. In the video, the Ministry of Energy also explains how they can be made.

However, this is a fake, the VoxCheck project writes. In fact, the Ministry of Energy has not published such a video either on its website or on its social media pages. Moreover, the department does not create vertical videos, as the Russians did, does not add its logo to the recordings and does not use the appropriate font. The forgery is also indicated by the mistakes made by the Russians. In Ukrainian, the correct spelling is “сушитися”, not “сушится” (to dry out). They also wrote the word “замішайте” incorrectly instead of “змішайте” (to mix).

With such fakes, Russians are trying to ridicule the Ukrainian authorities, who allegedly do nothing to solve energy problems, and to remove responsibility from Russia. However, in reality, it is precisely because of the massive shelling of the Russian army since March 2024 that Ukraine has lost more than 9 GW of generation, and Russia has occupied another 18 GW since the start of the invasion. All this leads to a shortage of generation and power outages.

Read on Censor.NET: Propagandists on behalf of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine distribute photos of landmarks with recommendations for saving electricity

Russian sources are distributing a photo of what appears to be a billboard in New York City, which advertises recruitment for contract service in the Russian army. The text on the banner says: “Join the army of victory! Salary for the first year is 4,500,000 rubles. Sign a contract in Tatarstan!”

However, in reality, this is a fake photo, as reported by the VoxCheck project. Using Google's reverse image search function, the project's analysts were unable to find the photo that the propagandists could have used to create the fake, but they did find it in the Russian search engine Yandex.Image, which is blocked in Ukraine.

Accordingly, a reverse search showed that the photo that is being circulated these days is a still from a video filmed back in 2022. The original still frame does not contain a banner about recruitment for service in the Russian army, but an announcement from the special economic zone (SEZ) Alabuga, located in Tatarstan (Russia). The real billboard says in Russian “Time to go home”. The details of the photos are completely identical: the angle of the frame, the sky with clouds of the same shape, other advertising billboards. So, the propagandists took a screenshot from the old video and edited it.

Commenting on the original banner, Alabuga SEZ representative Daniia Utalieva told the propaganda publication Kommersant-Kazan that it is aimed at bringing back specialists in the fields of aviation, microelectronics and IT to Russia.

We have previously recorded a similar fake, which consisted of the fact that billboards in honor of Victory Day allegedly appeared in New York.

Russian propaganda telegram channels have been spreading a message that on September 26, 2024, a Russian missile strike on the airfield in Starokonstiantyniv allegedly killed a career US Air Force soldier. As ‘proof’, the propagandists are publishing a corresponding message from a certain Melanie Malwin-Parker, allegedly the soldier’s wife.

However, this is a fake, as reported by VoxCheck. Fact-checkers were unable to find a single account named Melanie Malwin-Parker not only on Facebook, but also on the Internet as a whole.

Also, the photo itself, supposedly of the dead soldier, shows some editing – part of his left ear is missing.

Screenshot of the fake message

In addition, the fake publication, apparently by the wife of a military man, indicates the geolocation as “Altus Air Force Base”. This is a U.S. Air Force base located in Altus, Oklahoma. The official website of the base indicates that the 97th Airlift Wing is located there. It consists of the 58th Transport Squadron, the 54th and 56th Air Refueling Squadrons. The units carry out their tasks on the military transport C-17 Globemaster III and on the KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-46 Pegasus tanker aircraft. The list of equipment does not include the F-16 fighter, so there was no need for a specialist for this base in Ukraine.

Russian propaganda is spreading this fake to fuel the narrative about the alleged presence of “foreign mercenaries” in Ukraine. We previously analyzed disinformation that partners allegedly provided Ukraine with faulty F-16 fighters.

Propagandists are spreading information on anonymous Telegram channels that American actress Milla Jovovich allegedly fired her Ukrainian housekeeper because of her ‘Russophobia’. They claim that the Ukrainian refused to speak Russian with the actress’s 16-year-old daughter, Ever Anderson, thereby allegedly violating her duties. It is reported that the housekeeper’s name is allegedly Svitlana Chornykh, and she is a refugee from Ukraine. However, this is fake.

It was noticed by experts from the StopFake project. When checking this story, they found several suspicious moments. Firstly, not a single authoritative foreign publication reported on this incident. English-language mentions appear only from anonymous users of the X (former Twitter) and Odysee platforms. Secondly, all publications, both in Russian and English-language media, have the same text.

StopFake has established that the message about the departure of the Ukrainian Jovovich appeared on September 28 on the satirical Russian Telegram channel The Empire is Very Evil, which publishes fictitious news. In its description, the channel directly warns that the published materials may be fakes or satire. Like other publications on this channel, the “news” that Milla Jovovich fired the Ukrainian because she refused to speak Russian is fiction. In the comments under the corresponding message, users come up with further fictitious details and mock the Russian media, which took this satire for reality and spread it on their social networks.

The purpose of spreading this fake is to discredit Ukrainians and reinforce the narrative of alleged “Russophobia” among Ukrainians, which portrays them in a negative light. Such fictional stories are used to spread hostility between nations, manipulate public opinion and justify Russia’s aggressive policy towards Ukraine amid the war.

Information about a supposed "necrophilia show” in Kyiv, featuring dancing coffins and a funeral parade, is being spread on social networks. The propagandists who create these publications are trying to link this to Ukraine's “moral decline”, its rejection of Orthodoxy, and the country's European course of development. In the comments, these events are called an expression of “necrophilia” and “the corruption of Kyiv Rus”. However, the video being spread has nothing to do with necrophilia or the rejection of Orthodoxy.

This manipulation was noticed by experts from the StopFake project. They found out that this is indeed an excerpt from a funeral fashion show, which was part of the international funeral industry exhibition in Kyiv, which took place back in June 2021. Similar exhibitions are held in many countries around the world, including Russia. These events are platforms for meetings of representatives of funeral businesses and demonstrations of new technologies and products. However, propagandists distorted the context of the event, trying to present it as an example of the moral decline of Ukraine.

Such manipulations are aimed at discrediting Ukraine, its cultural and political values. Propaganda tries to show that Ukraine, having turned away from Russia, has allegedly lost its traditions and moral guidelines, having become a victim of the European path of development. This is also an attempt to undermine trust in Ukraine in the international arena, presenting it as a “spiritless” and “ruined” country, as well as to divert attention from its own internal problems in Russia, where similar exhibitions are held regularly, but do not cause such criticism.

Russian propaganda is spreading information in the Balkan segment of Facebook that the army of North Macedonia should prepare to participate in the war in Ukraine. They say that this will happen because of the future involvement of NATO. In spreading this information, they refer to the words of the President of Croatia, who allegedly criticized the NATO mission NSATU (Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine), claiming that this means the Alliance's intervention in the war in Ukraine. However, this is fake.

This was brought to the attention of fact-checkers from the Macedonian Truthmeter project. They claim that the NSATU mission is designed to train Ukrainian forces and coordinate aid, but does not involve NATO in combat. In fact, the Croatian president expressed concern about the potential risks of such a mission, but this is not a common opinion in his country. His comments were criticized by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

The purpose of this fake is to spread fear and disinformation in order to provoke anti-NATO sentiments among the population of North Macedonia and other countries supporting Ukraine. The propaganda attempts to discredit NATO and sow doubts about its mission, as well as to create the illusion of the inevitable involvement of the Alliance member states in the war. In addition, such a message seeks to provoke antagonism and push for protests against NATO and support for Ukraine. Such manipulations are aimed at distracting attention from the real problems and crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.

A pro-Russian resource has spread information that an advertisement for Ukrainians to join the Ukrainian Legion has been placed in a Polish aid distribution center in Lublin. It says that an Apple iPad tablet will allegedly be raffled off among those who join the Ukrainian Legion. As proof, the propagandists publish a corresponding image.

In fact, no reliable Polish or Ukrainian media outlet reported the existence of such an ad. A search for this photo using Google's reverse image function also yielded no results.

In the Polish city of Lublin, on Defenders' Day, October 1, 2024, a recruiting center of the Ukrainian Legion really opened. However, neither the Ukrainian Legion website nor the social networks of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine contain information about the Apple tablet raffle. Probably, propagandists simply made up this news, reacting to the opening of the first recruiting center of the Ukrainian Legion abroad.

Previously, we analyzed Russian manipulation, saying that Ukraine is recruiting mentally unstable foreigners.

Russian Telegram channels are distributing a photo of graffiti that allegedly appeared in London. According to the propagandists, it was created on a wall under a bridge near Paul McCartney's house. The graffiti allegedly depicts The Beatles with Volodymyr Zelenskyi “stealing a wallet” from George Harrison.

In fact, this information is not true. This fake first began to spread in August 2024, and now it has been given a “second life”. This is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation. There is no real evidence of the existence of such graffiti. Also, not a single reliable British publication reported on such a drawing in London. The fact that the graffiti image is fake is also indicated by the fact that it is being distributed mainly in the Russian segment of social networks and among pro-Russian foreign audiences.

With this disinformation, Russian propagandists are trying to discredit the Ukrainian president, in particular, before a Western audience. We have already documented such fakes many times. For example, about graffiti with an F-16 aircraft lost in Ukraine, which allegedly appeared near the Pentagon.

Russian sources are spreading messages online that during military operations in the Pokrovsk direction, the 152nd separate ranger brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly disappeared along with its commander. The publications write that Ukrainian soldiers are disappearing en masse, and their relatives cannot obtain any information about the fate of their loved ones.

In fact, this is fake. The Center for Countering Disinformation verified this information with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and reported that the 152nd Brigade continues to carry out combat missions, and the statements about its “disappearance” are unfounded.

Such fakes by Russians are aimed at sowing panic among Ukrainian society, causing mistrust of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and demoralizing Ukrainian soldiers and their families. We previously refuted information that the 128th separate mountain assault brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly abuses mobilized soldiers.

Propagandists regularly create videos to discredit Ukrainian military and volunteers, as well as to demoralize society. This time, due to comments in various channels and groups, they are massively distributing another fake, which was noticed by specialists from the NotaYenota project. This is a short 46-second video, filmed in vertical format with the logo of the Yedyni Novyny (The Only News) telethon. It tells the story of a 70-year-old pensioner who was allegedly beaten for refusing to provide Ukrainian soldiers with potatoes. They say that because of her decision, the military will go hungry. The video states that she “rudely refused”, spoke Russian and complained about low pensions and high prices.

However, such a video was not available on any media outlet included in the United News telethon. The logo is used to give the video authority, to create the impression that this is reliable material. Propagandists often use logos of well-known media outlets to create the illusion of truthfulness. This video plays well on emotions, but it does not contain any specific information - neither the name of the pensioner or the volunteer who allegedly beat her, nor any mention of potatoes. The police did not report such incidents, and the video consists of blurry footage where it is impossible to identify a single person. Such fakes deliberately simplify the situation, causing an emotional response and forcing people to invent details. The video recalls that the State Bureau of Investigation allegedly opened a criminal case, although this is not true, since the State Bureau of Investigation only has jurisdiction over officials, law enforcement officers and war criminals.

Propaganda thus tries to create an image of cruel and heartless soldiers or volunteers, allegedly attacking civilians. This is aimed at undermining trust and support for the defenders of Ukraine, in particular among the population that provides them with assistance. The fake is also intended to exacerbate hostility between different groups of the population - volunteers, soldiers and civilians. This division contributes to the weakening of unity, which is a key component for defending the country in war. By spreading fake stories about conflicts within society, propagandists try to demoralize citizens and create a sense of hopelessness. Such videos are used to sow doubt and pessimism, creating the impression of disorder in society. The use of fake stories with emotional triggers, such as the beating of a pensioner, is aimed at causing indignation and negative emotions, which contributes to the faster spread of disinformation among people. The Kremlin is also trying to portray Ukraine as an unstable state where social conflicts are taking place, which can affect the international community and reduce the level of support from other countries.

Propagandists claim on anonymous Telegram channels that Ukraine allegedly created concentration camps in the Sumy region, and these camps contain not only Russian civilians captured in the Kursk region, but also local Ukrainians, allegedly “awaiting the arrival of the Russian army”. However, this is a fake.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about it. Its specialists found out that Russian sources came up with different versions to explain the purpose of these camps. Among them are the use of civilian prisoners as human shields, their forced participation in demining minefields or for creating staged videos. At the same time, Russian propaganda does not provide any evidence to support its claims.

The purpose of this disinformation is to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and distract attention from the war crimes that Russia itself is committing in the occupied territories, including forced measures to filter out civilians and kidnap children. Such fakes create a false impression of events in Ukraine and try to justify Russia's actions by manipulating fears and distracting from responsibility for its crimes.

Propagandists are spreading information on social networks that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi allegedly bought Hitler's ceremonial car for $15 million. However, this is a fake.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council reports on this. Its experts found out that this fake comes from the Seattle Tribune website, created just five days ago, and the article with this information does not have an indicated author. The material presents a photo of a car allegedly parked near the President's Office, and claims that it was published by a well-known Ukrainian Telegram channel. However, there is no such photo on the aforementioned Telegram channel.

This fake is one of many aimed at personally discrediting the President of Ukraine and his family. Propagandists are trying to present Volodymyr Zelenskyi as a person making wasteful and provocative purchases during the war, undermining his reputation and reducing the level of trust in him. By spreading fake news about the leadership's misconduct, propagandists are trying to sow distrust among Ukrainian society and reduce support for government institutions. The choice of Hitler's car in the fake is intended to evoke associations with Nazism, which is part of Kremlin propaganda that constantly tries to create an image of the Ukrainian government as “neo-Nazi”.

Russian propaganda sources are spreading information that two employees of the General Staff of Ukraine lost their positions allegedly because they uploaded classified materials to ChatGPT. We are talking about more than 500 text documents and working maps. The artificial intelligence was allegedly tasked with writing how the military command could contain the Russian offensive in the Orikhovе and Zaporizhzhia directions.

Accordingly, due to the fact that ChatGPT should not be used to store and process confidential information, the advisers were first allegedly suspended from work, and then “fired”. The propagandists also note that this is not the first such case - previously, the military leadership of Ukraine allegedly used file sharing services and Telegram bots to distribute confidential documents.

In fact, this “news” is made up, the StopFake project reports. The propagandists cite the Ukrainian resource United24. However, neither they nor any other reliable media outlet have published such a video or news item. StopFake journalists add that if this story were real, it should have been disseminated by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), an agency that investigates criminal cases involving law enforcement officers, judges, and senior officials. However, again, there is no such information on the bureau's website or social networks. After all, the Orikhovе direction in the video is for some reason called Orikhovе, which is a tracing of the Russian language.

With such fakes, the Russians are trying to present the Ukrainian command as helpless and incapable of effectively defending Ukrainian territories. Earlier, we analyzed the Russian message that Syrskyi does not believe in Ukraine's victory and is ready to capitulate.

Russian propagandists are spreading information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly used Western chemical weapons in Sudzha (Kursk region) in August 2024 under the guise of smoke shells. In reporting this, the propagandists refer to the words of the head of the NBC protection troops Kyryllov.

However, this information is fake, as the Center for Countering Disinformation writes. The Russian side has not provided any real evidence to support its statements. In addition, Ukraine, as a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, strictly complies with its obligations. Also, it is the Russian military and war correspondents who periodically publish videos showing the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers, which is a war crime and a violation of international law.

In this case, Russia resorts to the tactics of “reflection” propaganda, accusing Ukraine of a crime that it has repeatedly committed itself. That is, propagandists make the same accusations against Ukraine/USA/EU/the collective West that they make against Russia.

We have previously recorded a number of similar fakes concerning chemical weapons. For example, disinformation that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are allegedly preparing a chemical weapons strike in the Donetsk and Kherson directions.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels are distributing a video claiming that a cemetery worker at the funeral of a Ukrainian soldier allegedly stole a PS5 gaming console from the coffin that the deceased soldier's relatives had placed there. The relatives of the Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier allegedly saw the gaming console on the OLX marketplace, recognizing it by the stickers on it. The seller allegedly turned out to be the cemetery worker who buried the soldier's coffin.

In fact, this video is another fake of Russian propaganda. The video itself is of low quality. For example, at first it says that the deceased soldier, whose PS5 was allegedly stolen, is Valerii Shpyrko, but later in the video he is mistakenly called Vitalii. In addition, there is no information in reliable and verified Ukrainian media that such an incident actually occurred. In the end, it is unclear how a cemetery worker could steal a game console measuring 39x26x10.4 cm (i.e. quite large) while burying a coffin so that it would remain unnoticed.

With this fake, the Russians are trying to sow distrust and discord among Ukrainian society. Moreover, by claiming that this serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly participated in the Kursk operation, “during which he stole the console and subsequently died”, Russian propagandists are fueling the narrative about the alleged looting of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region. Earlier, we analyzed a similar video fake, which consisted of the fact that the Territorial center of procurement and social support workers allegedly killed a student from Lviv, and then threw his body into the Tysa.

Anonymous Telegram channels write that the Angel Cherkasy funeral agency in its advertisement with the slogan “Take care of your husband in advance” offers city residents discounts on burial services.

However, Ukrinform journalists established that such a booklet was forged, since there is no funeral agency called Angel in Cherkasy or the Cherkasy region.

“The template for the so-called announcement can be found on the website of a Russian school for studying the Serbian language. The only thing the propagandists changed was that they drew over one of the elements of the ornament using a graphic editor”, the fact-checkers add.

Read also: Lies on how Ukrainians destroyed the grave of a soldier killed in Mariupol.

Anonymous Telegram channels are spreading a Spanish-language story about how the body of fallen Colombian International Legion soldier Michael Ramirezi Fino was returned to his family “without internal organs”. In the video, the soldier’s mother allegedly claims that she asked the International Legion leadership for an explanation and was told that her son’s organs were transplanted to wounded comrades, but the woman doubts this.

But this story is made up, and the video was fabricated by propagandists. Firstly, it was not possible to find a Spanish-language media outlet called Ahora online - the propagandists probably drew the logo of the fictitious publication themselves. Secondly, no other authoritative source reported on this story. Mentions of this story are published only in social networks of the Russian segment.

Black transplantology in Ukraine is a conspiracy theory that Russians have been developing for a decade. The constant return to the topic testifies to its importance for Russia. These messages are promoted to both domestic and international audiences. However, their refutation in foreign and Ukrainian media prevents the campaign from having the desired effect. Among the goals pursued by Russian propaganda within the framework of this topic are discrediting the military-political leadership of Ukraine and reducing trust in it, creating a negative image of the state in the eyes of the international community, and justifying a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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

Collaborators, representatives of the occupation authorities, claim that the Ukrainian leadership is “preparing” to use chemical and bacteriological weapons to contaminate the water bodies of the Kherson region. And they are supposedly blaming the Russians for this.

But there is no evidence that Ukraine has used or is going to use chemical or biological weapons in the combat zone or in the temporarily occupied territories. Moreover, such reports are accompanied by a number of similar comments on social networks, which allegedly indicate that Ukrainian troops are poisoning the water in wells in various settlements. All this may indicate a coordinated disinformation operation.

Moreover, the Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has not yet found any evidence of Ukraine using chemical weapons during the war. In May 2024, the United States announced the use of chemical weapons by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, namely chloropicrin, a chemical substance included in Schedule 3 of the Convention, as well as riot control agents.

In this way, propagandists promote the classic narrative about the existence of the so-called dirty bomb - that is, that Ukraine is ready to contaminate not only its own territories, but also others with all sorts of chemicals, including radiation. In fact, Ukraine has never developed the so-called dirty bomb, and all the statements of propagandists on this topic are fake. The explanation of Russian propaganda as to why Ukraine would detonate a dirty bomb on its territory is unfounded. Russia claims that Ukraine allegedly wanted to increase the number of Ukrainian refugees abroad (for an unknown reason), and also to pass off the dirty bomb as the explosion of a tactical nuclear charge of Russia itself, in order to accuse the latter of using nuclear weapons. Then the international community should have condemned such actions of the Kremlin and introduced new sanctions, perhaps even expelled Russia from the UN Security Council, and also increased arms supplies to Ukraine.

By the way, the report of the American Institute for the Study of War says that the propaganda statements about the development of a dirty bomb are needed to slow down the process of arms supplies to Ukraine. At the same time, analysts believe that Russia is unlikely to detonate the so-called dirty bomb itself: this is just another attempt to “feel out” the international community to find out the possible reaction to Russia's use of nuclear weapons.

Photos of products allegedly from the Kursk region, which were “looted” by the 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade, have been distributed in Russian Telegram channels. Servicemen of this unit allegedly transfer products from Russian territory through volunteers to fighters of the same brigade located in the Kharkiv region.

However, this is not true, the VoxCheck project writes. On the contrary, in the corresponding message, the volunteers indicate that the products are sent to the military in the Kursk region, and not from it. In addition, the products have Ukrainian names, and some of them are fresh baked goods, which would hardly be made in a combat zone. Also visible in the photo are various canned goods - they were prepared by Ukrainian volunteers who are helping the 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade.

With this fake, the Russians are trying to discredit Ukrainian volunteers once again. Earlier, we refuted the information that Ukrainian volunteers allegedly handed over an exploded trench candle to the military.