Spilnota Detector Media

Fake Most IT professionals have left Ukraine.

This thesis is spread by the Russian propaganda media, allegedly referring to the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. In such statements, the propagandists claim that three-quarters of all IT specialists in Ukraine - 200,000 - have left Ukraine since hostilities.

As StopFake writes, this is not the case. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the IT Ukraine Association, more than 70% of IT professionals work in safe regions of Ukraine, and another 16%, mostly women, work abroad. These data are generally confirmed by a survey conducted by the profile portal DOU: 61% of surveyed IT professionals moved to a safer place - 46% within Ukraine, and another 14% went abroad.

Fake The Ukrainian military uses the synagogue in Uman as a shelter.

Russia's Defense Ministry has spread a fake that the Ukrainian military allegedly uses as a shelter for a synagogue in Uman. Russian propagandists also spread a photo where the military allegedly took weapons and ammunition from the synagogue.

The United Jewish Community of Ukraine has refuted this fake, saying that all synagogues and Jewish sites in Ukraine are used exclusively for their intended purpose, to carry out religious activities, or to help members of Jewish communities and the local population. "Even based on a photo published for provocative purposes, it is evident that the synagogue gates are closed, and no one is in it. The Rabbi Nachman Foundation in Uman confirms that the second-largest synagogue in Ukraine was closed from Rosh Hashanah (celebrated in September 2021) and has not been used since," the statement said.

Fake Russian troops took “Azov” soldiers prisoner.

Andriy Biletskyi, “National Corps” leader, debunked the fake of Russian propaganda that Kostyantyn Nemichev and Serhiy Velychko, battalion commanders of Kharkiv division of territorial defense of “Azov”, were taken prisoners. They recorded a video-answer for the occupants from Kharkiv where they called on Russians to surrender.

Fake Kadyrov is in Mariupol.

Chechnya Leader Ramzan Kadyrov told that he is in Mariupol. However, on March 28, pro-russian groups shared a photo where Kadyrov, surrounded by numerous guards, is praying at Pulsar gas station that belongs to Rosnafta. There are no such gas stations in Ukraine.

Fake Freezing assets of Russia’s central bank by the U.S. threatens the dollar status being a reserve currency. Other countries are switching to yuan.

In fact, the dollar share in the international reserves on average has been decreasing by 0.5 % during decades. Central banks indeed diversify the reserves but only a quarter of this money goes to China. The economists prognose speeding up reserve diversification, however, inflow in yuan is not expected.

Fake Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine lied about falsity of videos where Ukrainian side tortures russian prisoners of war.

Pro-russian telegram channels started to spread the information about the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine being caught in a lie. It goes about the statement in which the Commander-in-Chief debunked the information about torturing russian prisoners of war and called the videos fake.

Also, the messages in telegram channels say that the statement is false because Oleksiy Arestovych, advisor to the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, confirmed that those videos are not fake but true. In fact, according to the fact checkers from ZMIST, Arestovych did not confirm the videos being real but commented that there will be an investigation and if the incident on video turns out to be verified, the guilty will be punished. Also, both officials ensured that the Armed Forces of Ukraine adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law.

Fake Thanks to the invasion of Ukraine, the Russians saved tens of thousands of Donbas residents.

Russian propagandists promote the thesis that the so-called "special operation" "saved" tens of thousands of Donbas residents. According to StopFake, the Kremlin claims that the "special military operation" of the Russian army allegedly disrupted the offensive of Ukrainian troops on the so-called "DPR" and "LPR," which, in turn, saved tens, if not hundreds of thousands of civilians Donbas, who the Kyiv regime has methodically shot for the last eight years.

Ukraine did not plan any "large-scale offensive" in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. "Russia's full-scale offensive in Ukraine has already killed thousands of civilians, including 143 confirmed children. Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts are at the epicenter of hostilities, which have already led to hundreds of deaths, and the bombed-out city of Mariupol has become an illustration of how Russia "saves" and "liberates" Donbas, "the fact-checkers write.

Fake Yesterday the Ukrainian side disrupted the evacuation of civilians in the Summy and Zaporizhzhya regions.

Those statements are spread by russian propagandists in mass media and social networks stating that on March 28 the Ukrainian side started fire from small arms and mortars in the Summy and Zaporizhzhya directions, disrupting the evacuation of civilians.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, this is not true as there were no humanitarian corridors on that day. “Iryna Vereshchuk, the minister for Reintegration of the Temporary Occupied Territories claimed that due to the security reasons on March 28, 2022 the humanitarian corridors will not be open”, the center reports.

Fake In the Netherlands, Ukrainians beat a russian-speaking kid.

The social media and Russian mass media are spreading the information that in the Netherlands, in Rijswijk, Ukrainians beat a russian-speaking kid. In particular, they share a video which says that a woman reported to the police about beating up her 6 year old kid and this happened while chanting “For Ukraine!”

According to StopFake, the Dutch police denied this incident in their comments for StopFake. Also, there is no information about such a case in the local mass media.

Fake Ukrposhta (Ukrainian National Post Service) Became Part of “Post of Russia” Joint Stock Company.

Ukrposhta website informs that their partners and clients received letters about the service becoming a part of “Post of Russia”. However, this is not true. Ukrposhta claims that this is Russia’s informational war and not a single word is true in the letters.

“We understand that after Ukrposhta stopped all collaboration with the “Post of Russia” and also urged member countries of Universal Postal Union to properly respond to Russia’s actions, the Russian postal service got offended.We officially inform, Ukrposhta continues to work. We reopen our departments, deliver parcels, pay pensions, and sell products. We do everything we did last month and 30 years before that. Also, Ukrposhta does not deliver from and to the aggressor countries - Russia and Belorussia.

Fake Explosives are thrown on the streets of Lviv.

This information appeared on social networks. Such posts publish photos of the explosives, but the photo does not show where it is. Also, photos are signed with words that the explosive can "tear off a hand on an elbow".

However, this is a fake. The Lviv Region Police said that the information about the explosives thrown in Lviv was untrue. Svitlana Dobrovolska, a spokeswoman for the Lviv Region police, told the local newspaper 032.ua about this.

Fake Odesa Opera Theater is mined.

Social media circulates the information about mined Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. Vladyslav Nazarov, “South” operational command officer, drew the attention to this information.

However, this is not true. “For many years Russia has been disseminating fakes and propaganda about Ukraine. After their full scale invasion, the number of fakes has skyrocketed. With this another informational attack about Odesa National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet being mined, the russian nazis aim to disorient Ukrainians, bring panic and dispair, and to cover up their agressive intentions towards the objects of cultural heritage of Ukraine,” Nazarov writes.

Fake Russian special forces killed Canadian sniper in Mariupol

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Social media actively circulate information that Wali, the Canadian sniper, was killed by Russian special forces 20 minutes after the active combat operations in Mariupol.

However, this is not true. According to VoxCheck, the sniper debunked the information about his own death on March 14 and 22, 2022. “The Canadian sniper who goes by the name Wali is a former member of the Armed Forces of Canada and he is currently fighting on the Ukrainian side. In the beginning of March 2022, he joined the “international” legion of territorial defense of Ukraine. On March 14, 2022 he debunked the information about his death on his Facebook. He informed that for some time he was in Kyiv oblast and later retreated to a safe place because he was sick,” fact checkers say.

Fake Fire broke out near Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

This information has been shared in social media and some mass media saying about massive fires in the exclusion zone.

However, this is not the case.The State Emergency Service of Ukraine informs that as of March 28, 7:57 according to the satellite images there’s no evidence of thermal emissions, fires or ignition in the exclusion zone.

Fake Biden criticized the actions of the Ukrainian government.

Russian propagandists are spreading this message en masse online. They quote US President Joe Biden in publications that allegedly say that Ukraine has done too little to defend itself. "We talked for three months about the Russian attack; the Ukrainian authorities ignored us. 28 (remember this number), that's how many reports we passed to the Ukrainian side, and we were called panickers," — network users quoted the US president.

Biden did not say this phrase during his speech in Warsaw or in other public speeches. The StopFake team analyzed public speeches and transcripts of meetings with the US President's press from February 24 to March 26, 2022, and found no such statements.

Fake Russia has captured or blocked major Ukrainian cities.

Russian media, citing the General Staff of the Russian Federation, spread the fake that the Russian army allegedly completely blocked Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mykolayiv. Similar messages are sent to Ukrainian users, but with an expanded list of allegedly captured cities — "Sumy, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Melitopol, Bila Tserkva, Zaporizhzhia", as well as "Kirovograd" and "Kropyvnytskyi" (in fact, these are two names of the same city) and others. Russia has not captured, blocked or controlled any major and strategic city in Ukraine. The Ukrainian military counterattack repulses the occupiers at all points near Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Sumy. Western special services are also recording the Armed Forces' success in the south of the country.

Also, in the messages sent to users, they write about "the destruction of 13 bio laboratories on the territory of Ukraine", "about the bio laboratory at Zmiiny", and so on. Fake about bio labs MediaSapiens has denied before.

Fake Rustem Umerov was poisoned.

Member of Parliament of Ukraine and one of the participants in the talks between Ukraine and Russia, Rustem Umerov, denied reports of his alleged poisoning. "I am just fine. Please do not trust unverified sources of information. The information war in our country is actively continuing," he said on Facebook.

Fake Ukrainian military mocks Russian POWs.

The Russian occupiers shoot staging videos of such scenes. The Center reported this for Strategic Communications and Information Security. However, this is a fake. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valery Zaluzhny, said that the enemy was doing this to discredit the defence forces of Ukraine. He added that the military of the Armed Forces and other legitimate military formations strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law.

Fake Ukrainian media spread fake photos of a wounded girl from Mariupol.

That's what Russian propagandists say. This is a picture from the children's hospital in Zaporizhzhia, which shows a 13-year-old girl Milena, who was evacuated from Mariupol. After receiving a bullet wound to the jaw, she was placed in a medical coma.

However, Russian propagandists claim that the photo does not show a wounded girl from Mariupol. "Ukrainian media are spreading this photo with a description that it is a hospital in Zaporizhia, where the wounded are brought from Mariupol. However, the affected civilians from Mariupol are constantly being taken to hospitals in Russia and the "DPR". Other refugees from this city are leaving for these territories, "the propagandists write. According to StopFake, this statement is not valid. The injured girl in the photo lying by the barricaded window was evacuated from Mariupol to the Zaporizhzhia Children's Hospital. This photo by William Keo appeared on March 20 on the French website Liberation in a report from the Zaporizhzhia hospital. The article is about children and teenagers who managed to be taken out of the besieged Mariupol.

Fake The UN has supported the genocide in Ukraine.

Russian propagandists spread this thesis. This is how they reacted to the UN's refusal to adopt a humanitarian resolution on Russia.

According to StopFake, the Russian media reacted immediately to the extraordinary special session of the United Nations dedicated to the invasion of Ukraine, which started on March 23. During the UN Security Council, the countries rejected Russia's "humanitarian" resolution, which the Kremlin allegedly promoted to "protect the civilian population" of Ukraine. Russia's envoy to the UN, Vasyl Nebenzya, said the Kremlin document "was directed against the terror of the Ukrainian government against its citizens." He also added that "the absence of a humanitarian resolution will allow the Ukrainian side to continue to ignore the requirements for a ceasefire to remove people through humanitarian corridors." Commenting on the UN's refusal to adopt a Russian resolution, Russian experts said that "the UN has blessed the genocide in Ukraine." In fact, according to fact-checkers, the UN refused to adopt the resolution because it was Russia that started the war in Ukraine and began bombing civilian targets, killing civilians and creating a humanitarian catastrophe on Ukrainian territory.

Fake The Hajibey Dam has been mined and is planned to be blown up.

Russian propagandists write that the head of the Odessa regional military administration, Maxym Marchenko (whom propagandists call the "Nazi governor"), allegedly ordered the mining of the Khadzhibey Dam. Fake reports about the mining of the Hadzhibey Dam say that "a closed meeting was allegedly held in Odesa, at which Maksym Marchenko ordered sappers to mine the Hadzhibey Dam. In case of an active attack of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from Mykolaiv or a city siege, the dam will be blown up. To the objection of the representative of the water utility and the Ministry of Emergencies that the water will very quickly reach a densely populated area located in the lowlands and it will be difficult to pump it out, the governor said that the blast would be attributed to Russian saboteurs".

According to StopFake, Sergiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the operational headquarters of the Odessa OVA, denied this statement and pointed out that the sources of this information belong to the Russian units of the IPSO.

Fake Ukraine does not pay salaries to the military.

Anonymous telegram channels claim that the Ukrainian military does not receive a salary. They explain that the salary can be obtained only on the card of PrivatBank because it seems that the Minister of Defense Reznikov has a "rollback". According to anonymous people, only "alcoholics and homeless people" are recruited to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, territorial defence, and other military formations, and they do not have a card and are paid accordingly.

However, this is not true. First, PrivatBank is a state-owned company, so PrivatBank and Oschadbank operate various types of government payments. Secondly, all those who join the Armed Forces of Ukraine, territorial defence and other military formations before the start of service undergo all the necessary paper procedures, including registration of a special card for this type of state payment. Thirdly, not everyone has received their salary yet, as a significant part of the military has served in the Armed Forces and the Troika for less than a month.

Fake Territorial defence ranks are replenished by "alcoholics and homeless people."

This fake is part of a narrative about discrediting the Armed Forces of Ukraine, territorial defence and other military formations. The Ministry of Defense states that territorial defence ranks are replenished with volunteers with relevant experience. Moreover, they claim that tens of thousands of willing men and women are precisely waiting for their turn because they are recruiting people with the relevant military speciality as units, and all kinds of support are deployed.

Fake Russia captured Mariupol and hoisted its flag on the city's main building.

According to the Patrol Police of Ukraine, such information is disseminated by Russian propaganda media. However, this is not true. "The occupiers do not control the city; they just arranged a photo session near the district prosecutor's office building in the Left Bank district. This area is separated from the central part of the city by a river and the industrial zone of the Azovstal plant. Policemen, fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard, the Territorial Defense give a worthy rebuff to the invaders and continue to defend the city heroically," the statement reads.

Fake The Russian occupiers captured Raisins.

Such information is spread by Russian propaganda. However, this is not true. According to the head of the youth and sports department of the Izium City Council, Maksym Strelnyk, the enemy is spreading this due to the lack of military success on the Izium front.

"It's a lie. Our army heroically defends Raisins and does not allow the enemy to enter the southern part of the city. The demarcation line now runs along the Seversky Donets River. Still, with the help of local collaborators, the Russian occupiers learned about the ford across the river and are now able to reach the southern shore. However, our defenders immediately meet them and send them all to hell," the statement reads. Information about the fake was also confirmed by the head of the Kharkiv OVA, Oleh Synegubov.