This information was announced by representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense during one of the briefings. "The Security Service of Ukraine has mined a city hospital in Dnipropetrovsk and plans to blow up a building while a Russian plane is flying over the city," the Russians said.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, the Russians began to actively use information tactics of preliminary media coverage of the targets planned for the attack. This is especially true of shelling of civilian and critical infrastructure, which is classified as a war crime and provokes a wave of public condemnation within the international community. In fact, the information about minings is not true. The Center also appeals to the residents of Dnipro and asks them to be especially careful and cautious.

Russian bots are spreading a fake that Mariupol residents do not need to leave the city and go to Zaporizhzhia. The Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said that such reports disrupted the evacuation from the city. Russian propagandists also write that Zaporizhstal (metallurgical plant of Ukraine) and Zaporizhkoks (one of the largest Ukrainian coke and chemical producers) are allegedly "mined" and that "armed Banderites are hiding in the workshops." "This is another cynical lie of the occupiers! The Russian aggressor is trying to disrupt the evacuation of Mariupol residents to safe places and destroy as many true patriots of the city as possible by ruthless shelling of residential neighborhoods," the Center said.

Anonymous telegram channels controlled by Russia's intelligence services report that President Volodymyr Zelensky remains in Ukraine because he has nowhere to escape to. This is a lie, because even at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States and other western countries offered Zelensky to evacuate to a safe place to ensure the continuity of his leadership. However, the Ukrainian president refused.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels also accuse Zelensky of allegedly starting the war because he "supported Poroshenko's course to NATO" and "refused the Minsk agreements." In fact, it was Putin who "tore the Minsk agreements into pieces," as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, when Putin recognised terrorist groups “Luhansk and Donetsk Peoples Republics”

Russian propagandists are spreading information that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are allegedly throwing untrained soldiers into the combat.

The Ministry of Defense denies such information and says that the main proof of this is the great losses in the ranks of the Russian armed forces. “The command of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine conducts mobilization measures in a balanced and competent manner. Thousands of Ukrainians with combat experience want to join the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, territorial defense and other military formations as volunteers. Tens of thousands of willing men and women do not have this opportunity and are waiting for their turn precisely because the territorial recruitment centers (former military enlistment offices) hire people with the relevant military experience as units and all types of their support are deployed,” says the message from the Ministry.

Russian propaganda media widely disseminate such reports. However, all this is not true.

According to StopFake fact-checkers, most refugees from Mariupol fleeing barbaric shelling by Russian troops travel to Ukrainian cities controlled by the Ukrainian government.

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The Russian newspaper ‘Pravda’ spread a fake that three employees of the Tennessee National Guard were killed in the occupied part of the Donetsk region. The National Guard Buro has denied this information, saying that the names and photos of the U.S. military were taken from an article posted on the Pentagon's DVIDS website in 2018.

The National Bank of Ukraine has reported a fraudulent scheme in which emails are sent to Ukrainians on behalf of the NBU asking them to transfer funds to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. These letters are sent from helpukraine@bank.gov.ua helpukrainearmy@bank.gov.ua. They contain a link to the crypto wallet to transfer funds. The National Bank of Ukraine stressed that it does not send emails to citizens, especially with a call to help the Armed Forces. The National Bank also added that they do not raise funds in cryptocurrency because they did not open any at all.

The Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine denied this information and reminded of the importance of air raid alarms, as well as the fact that test sirens are prohibited under wartime conditions. The Center also denied similar fakes related to air raid alarms: "There are objects that are detected by air defense, but the air raid sirens are not being activated because of them—it's a fake. After all objects being detected, even if they are small, the siren rings out. People did not have time to hide because the duty officer did not turn on the air raid siren—it's a fake. The siren is activated by the duty officer of the control center, who is present on the spot around the clock."

Pro-Russian telegram channels broadcast a video showing a truck filled with people's bodies in black bags: a man who was supposed to portray a "corpse" smokes, and two more men correct the "corpses" to make them look better in the frame. Russian propaganda claims that the video is a "staging of the Ukrainian government" that allegedly wants to accuse the Russian military of shooting civilians. Russian propagandists claim that this video was recorded in Chernihiv.

This video is from the Russian rapper Husky's "Never" clip shooting, published in March 2021. Earlier, this video was also used to fake "news stories about the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spread a fake message that Ukraine had allegedly failed to implement the Minsk agreements, so it was preparing to seize its temporarily uncontrolled territories, which was to be accompanied by "terrible bloodshed." Putin "tore the Minsk agreements to pieces," as US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield said when she acknowledged the "L / DNR" terrorist group. The very fake thesis about the "capture" of the occupied territories has been spread before. In particular, as proof of "Ukraine's preparations for the offensive in the Donbas in March 2022" , a document was distributed on the Lviv region's training camp. Or that Joe Biden allegedly ordered an attack on Donbas and so on.

The Facebook page of the head of the State Border Guard Service, Serhiy Deineko, reported that Ukrainian border guards had died near Kharkiv and that the Russian military was threatening to retaliate. Deineko later deleted the post and reported that his page had been hacked. "The war, particularly in the information field, continues. And the aggressor uses all possible ways. Russian propagandists were the first to spread their fake. Despite this, we will continue our struggle, and victory will be ours. Glory to Ukraine!" he said.

Fake messages about an alleged accident at the Aul chlorine overflow station in the Dnipropetrovsk region are spread on social networks, so it is necessary to stock up on water. However, Mykola Lukashuk, the chairman of the Dnipropetrovsk regional council, refuted this message, noting that the Aul Waterworks Municipal Enterprise and the Aul Chlorine Transfusion Station LLC were operating normally.

Such information is spread on social networks, but the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council denied it.

"Mariupol is a topic №1 for the President of Ukraine and diplomacy," Oleksiy Arestovych said at the briefing. The Center adds that the Ukrainian troops are trapped by the occupiers' attacks north of Volnovakha and in the environmental protection zone. It is tough and far to go from Zaporizhia — almost 300 km of bare steppe under attacks by Russian aircraft. That is why it isn't easy to unblock Mariupol at once. "Among those who remained in the city, the occupier immediately intensified propaganda, spreading various fakes designed to split thoughts and quarrel people. Do not spread Russian propaganda, and remember that the fate of Mariupol significantly depends on the mood and fighting spirit of the locals!" — added in the Center.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels spread information that the social network Twitter marked "some Ukrainian media" as state-run because of a large amount of biased information. These posts are illustrated, in particular, by a screenshot from the UNIAN page. The agency is not state-owned; UNIAN belongs to the holding "1 + 1 Media" associated with oligarch Igor Kolomoisky. At the same time, the propagandists do not mention that Twitter has been marking the Russian state media for more than a year, and recently the Belarusian state media. Facebook and Instagram also denote Russian state media.

Twitter marked only one, not "some," Ukrainian publication, the Voice of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada newspaper, which covers, among other things, Russia's war against Ukraine through statements by Ukrainian and foreign politicians and officials, and regarding other official sources. Russian propaganda also invented motivation. They did not explain on Twitter why they decided to mark the Voice of Ukraine right now but said: "We believe that people have the right to know about cases when the profile of the media is related to the state entity. In times of conflict, it is critical to provide access to reliable, evidence-based information and show which profiles are controlled by States parties."

The Russian newspaper RIA-Novosti published fake news: "The People's Police of the DPR" allegedly received a laptop from the Ukrainian military with information about the targets of the Point-U strikes, including the government building, radio and television centre, military enlistment office in Donetsk. However, the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine denied this and pointed out that the fake was poorly done — in the photo, allegedly from the computer of the Ukrainian military, the word "objects" (об'єкти) is written with the Russian "э". In addition, the photo was taken on an old laptop, which does not exactly draw on the secret archive of documents of Ukrainian defenders.

Such information is disseminated online, but all this is not true. According to the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, the head of the Khmelnytsky military administration, S. Gamaliy, assured that all humanitarian goods arriving at the military administration are accounted for by acceptance certificates and then transported to other regions.

The Center for Countering Disinformation reports that this is a fake. "In reality, this action did not take place. The person depicted in the collage is unknown to either the channel or the audience. The photo collage has all the signs of a false image that can be seen with the naked eye," the Center told the TV channel.

The fake came after the editor of Russia's First Channel, Marina Ovsyannikova, broke into a live broadcast with a poster with anti-war slogans.

Russia's Defense Ministry has issued a fake statement that the Russian military allegedly did not fire on civilians in Chernihiv. Instead, "Ukrainian nationalists" are again accused of shelling. Another version of this is a "staging of the SBU."

The Chernihiv Oblast Prosecutor's Office said that the Russian military fired firearms at people standing in line for bread, killing 10 people. It happened in one of the sleeping districts of Chernihiv. Law enforcement officers have already launched a pre-trial investigation into the violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder (Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Russia's Defense Ministry is spreading a fake message that the Security Service of Ukraine is allegedly "preparing a provocation with the use of toxic substances against civilians with the support of Western countries."

The SBU denied the report and noted that the fake spread after the occupiers fired on a peace column near Mariupol and dropped a bomb on the city's drama theatre building. « "Such statements by the invaders are just an attempt to divert attention from another war crime. But no fakes will cover the genocide of civilians and the humanitarian catastrophe in Mariupol, which is being destroyed by Russian missiles and bombs,"the SBU said.

Russia's Defense Ministry and Russian media are spreading fake reports that Azov fighters "could have held civilians hostage" at the Mariupol Drama Theater, but that Russian aircraft allegedly did not bomb the building and "did not see it as a target for destruction." Russian propagandists accuse Azov of this, which allegedly mined and blew up the theatre.

Russian aircraft launched an airstrike on the Mariupol Drama Theater, the city's largest shelter for civilians. Mariupol City Council said that a Russian plane deliberately dropped a bomb on the building, resulting in the entrance to the bomb shelter being destroyed. Information about the victims is being clarified.

Russian propaganda media disseminate such information regarding the Russian Ministry of Defense. Such reports say that most Ukrainians have always advocated for good relations with Russia, and about 15 million "still have strong ties with the Russian Federation." The text also lists the areas in which friendship and assistance from Russia are allegedly most sought after.

However, this is fake. According to StopFake, the Russian Defense Ministry does not say based on which information these conclusions were made. Instead, according to Ukrainian national polls, most respondents believe that Russia's goal of invading Ukraine is destroying the Ukrainian people.

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Russian propagandists are spreading a fake that Time journalist Brent Reno, who was killed in Irpen, worked for US intelligence and has experience participating in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Brent Reno worked on the TIME Studios project on the global refugee crisis. He came to Irpen to film reports on the city's evacuation and to photograph the aftermath of the Russian shelling.

Despite the confirmed circumstances of the shelling of journalists, Russia is lying that the American journalist was allegedly killed by "Ukrainian Nazis". Serhiy Leshchenko, an adviser to the head of the President's Office, said, that Russian propaganda was questioning Renault's status as an American journalist to reduce the tragedy and lie to Ukraine. The Center for Combating Disinformation added, that this case demonstrates that Russia is doing everything possible to prevent journalists from recording war crimes against the Ukrainian population.

On March 16, hackers broke the news feed on Ukraine 24 TV channel and published a fake report allegedly from President Volodymyr Zelensky about the "surrender". Instead, the president recorded a video address, calling the fake a "childish provocation" and urging Russians to lay down their arms.

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Russian propaganda media disseminate such information. The reports claim that the Territorial Defence Forces units in the town of Volnovakha planned an attack on the territories not under Ukraine's control. It is also stated that "all children and patients were allegedly evicted" from schools and hospitals to accommodate the units' personnel.

However, this is a fake, which was refuted by the fact-checkers from StopFake and found out that the published documents do not confirm this and refute the thesis about the "Ukrainian attack on Donbas". Read more

Russian media are spreading a fake statement by Communist Party Chairman Gennady Zyuganov that the Ukrainian military is allegedly "selling the organs of Ukrainian soldiers killed or seriously wounded" during Russia's war in Ukraine (which he still calls a "special operation"). This fake was spread back in 2015, but it was about Ukrainian soldiers and civilians who died in the anti-terrorist operation zone. At the time, Russian propagandists even edited a video in which a former SBU officer allegedly told about "the organization of a special medical brigade that received orders from Western countries to sell the organs of servicemen and civilians killed in the anti-terrorist operation zone." The Security Service of Ukraine denied such "information", noting that some footage from the video had already been found online.

In addition, Ukrainian defenders killed in the war with Russia are buried in churches where possible. Instead, Russia does not even take the bodies of its soldiers, so Ukraine has to turn to the Red Cross to help remove the Russian military's corpses.