Russian propagandists disseminate the thesis that a fake history has been created for Ukrainian children. They draw such conclusions from the statements of Russian specialists who allegedly conducted a study and found that more than 300 Ukrainian textbooks contain false, fake historical facts. As ZMIST fact-checkers, who pointed out these reports, write, Russian propagandists complain that the modern Ukrainian educational system has been stripped of the remnants of Soviet propaganda and presents students with real historical facts.

For example, the Russian education minister said in a statement that Ukrainian schoolchildren are even "deprived of the opportunity to know that they can be proud of the shared history of Ukraine and Russia and figures like Yuri Gagarin" or proud of the feat of "common victory." "The argument about the 'inability to know about Yuri Gagarin' makes no sense at all, because the two most important people in the Soviet space program, the people who enabled Gagarin's flight - the Korolyov and Glushko - were Ukrainians, and whole sections of Ukrainian history textbooks are devoted to them," write ZMIST fact checkers. Ukrainian textbooks also have sections devoted to World War II. However, there are also sections about the crimes of the Soviet government against Ukraine and the Ukrainians. For example, we are talking about the subject of the Holodomor.

Russian media and telegram channels have spread information that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is calling on the world to ban the Latin letter Z because it symbolizes Russian war crimes. However, this is not true. Dmytro Kuleba did speak out about the letter Z, but in his tweet he suggested criminalizing the use of the letter Z as a symbol of support for the Russian invasion: "Z symbolizes Russian war crimes, bombed cities, thousands of murdered Ukrainians. Public support for this barbarism should be banned," the minister wrote. As the ZMIST fact checker wrote, no one suggests banning the letter itself, it is a blatant manipulation of Russia, which has the discredit of Ukraine's official representatives.

This information is spread by Russian propagandists, who claim that the well-known pacifist slogan "No War" is, in fact, "Nazi". In particular, such a statement was made by "expert on strategic communications" Trofim Tatarenkov.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, he claimed that this slogan "echoes" the slogan on Nazi leaflets thrown in besieged Leningrad, and the Ossetian slogan always sounded like "We are for peace" and "No war" is that propagated by the Nazis. However, this is not true. According to the Center, the content of Soviet-era anti-war propaganda posters was based mainly on the slogan "No War." However, they were against the "wars of aggression of the US imperialists."

Telegram channels spread information that the government had approved a certain amount of payments to each Ukrainian during the war. According to the fact-checking project "Liar", in particular, the reports were published by the channels "All about the war" and "News of Ukraine 24/7".

However, this is a manipulation, as the authors of the reports note that it seems that the Ukrainian government has approved a certain monthly amount of cash benefits that all citizens will receive without exception. Some publications have stated that the number of payments will depend on the age group of people. There are several of them. Volodymyr Zelensky announced a large-scale program of assistance to Ukrainians, covering three main areas: money, housing, and work. However, according to the official statement of the authorities, it will apply to those citizens who were forced to leave their homes due to the fighting, and not all, without exception, Ukrainians.

This information is being disseminated by Kremlin propagandist media. In particular, they publish articles with the headlines “Rally Held in New-York in Support of Russia”. “The protesters were carrying posters “Russia is not enemy for us! NATO and Ukrainian nazi are!”, the articles say.

However, this is manipulation. According to the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the material doesn’t point out any references to the source of the information; it goes that “the rally has been reported by the local mass media”. They only share a piece of text and a photo with 5 people in an unidentified place (3 persons are holding the poster and 1 person is holding the symbol of the Temporary Occupied Territories of Donetsk and Luhansk). The monitoring has shown that on February 27 propagandist media already shared similar news about the rally in New York with no photo from the scene.

Such information is spread in the Volyn region segment of Facebook. According to the fact-checking project "Brekhunets" (‘Liar’), there are indeed categories of men who can go abroad, but men who do not meet these criteria cannot cross the border.

According to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the exceptions are men of the age of recruitment from 18 to 60, who: have a certificate of deferment of conscription and notification of enrollment in special military registration; who have conclusion on the unfit for military service by the military medical commission; persons who have three or more dependant children under the age of 18; those who raise a child (children) under the age of 18 on their own; who have dependent child with a disability; who are adoptive parents, guardians; whose close relatives died or went missing during the anti-terrorist operation.

Telegram channels controlled by the Russian secret services spread mesages that after the attack on the Yavoriv military base, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to permanently change the location of the military and ordered the military and territorial defense to be stationed in schools, kindergartens and hospitals. Some pro-Kremlin telegram channels also report that Azov fighters are already allegedly deploying their forces in civilian infrastructure. These statements are then used by the Russian authorities as an excuse for their air strikes on schools and hospitals. For example, as it was in the case with the maternity hospital or the Drama theater in Mariupol.

Russian propagandists actively spread such a message. This information was announced during a regular briefing by the adviser to the head of the President's Office, Oleksiy Arestovych.

""The new topic is the alleged speculation that Ukraine renounces its demands or loses the negotiations. I want to remind you that the principled position of the President of Ukraine is that Ukraine must first be recognized at the international borders as of 1991. Secondly, everything we agree on must be better than before the war. Because then what is the meaning of the victims of the Ukrainian people" — the adviser of President's Office

Russian propaganda spreads these narratives in different languages, trying to sow panic among Ukrainians and convince them that the world can change its mind about Russia because of its dependence on Russian oil and gas. The Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine refuted these reports and reminded that the world already has experience overcoming the oil crisis. In 1973, Europe and the United States successfully abandoned Arab energy. The Center also noted that Germany, Poland, the Norwegian company Equinor, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the German company Uniper have decided to stop financing the construction of Russia's Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.

The Mariupol City Council pointed this out. "There is various information about the number of people killed in Mariupol by the hostile actions of the Russian occupiers - from several hundred to tens of thousands of people. But the official and confirmed information as of the end of March 14, 2022, is about 2357 dead Mariupol. All other data related to this are not true. Therefore, we ask you to trust only official information from verified sources," the statement reads.

Such information in the media is disseminated by Kremlin propaganda. For example, such reports say that leaflets calling for the "expulsion of Ukrainian Nazis" are distributed in Poland. According to StopFake, pro-Kremlin propaganda has been using the same illustration with the same appeal since 2016, which only confirms the systematic and purposeful approach to inciting hostility towards Ukrainian citizens.

"Agitprop assures that anti-Ukrainian leaflets are being pasted in Poland. However, the same illustration propagandists try to pass off as such "leaflets" is repeated in all reports. The message is mostly spread in anonymous groups Telegram, the Russian social network "VKontakte". The fact that these actions are planned is evidenced by the fact that dozens of profiles of seemingly ordinary users and groups publish messages of the same content. At the same time, some of the users who spread it, according to their information about themselves, are related to the Russian armed forces," the fact-checkers note.

Read more

Pro-Russian Telegram channels share a common message that the world and international organizations are not calling the Russian invasion of Ukraine a war because "Zelensky is ashamed to declare it." All the while, the President of Ukraine has repeatedly called the Russian invasion of Ukraine a war, while the Russian Federation denies this fact and uses a number of terms among which are "Special Operation" and "Rescue Operation." Within this "operation" Russian occupants strike objects of civilian infrastructure and kill civilians.

The statements that other countries do not call the events occuring in Ukraine "a war" are incorrect. The posts in question give the example of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine which called the war "Putin's conflict in Ukraine." The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has repeatedly called the Russian invasion a war and has called for its cessation in his addresses.

Pro-Russian telegram channels are spreading this thesis, criticizing the new law on ensuring civilians' participation in Ukraine's defence. Such reports argue that civilians can allegedly kill anyone if they believe that "the victim committed aggression against Ukraine." The same law stipulates that civilians may use weapons in the same way as the military ("the use of firearms by civilians is similar to the use of weapons by servicemen in carrying out their tasks to repel armed aggression against Ukraine").

In addition, the alleged "abolition" of the Criminal Code is a blatant lie. After all, other laws - №7116 and №7124 - increased criminal liability in Ukraine, namely for looting and treason or sabotage.

They are sent from the "Minister" mailbox (mariya@posish.club) with the subject "letter of approval of cash security". In addition, the email contains a "support.xlsx" attachment that downloads malicious FormBook software when opened. Suppose you have opened a file as an attachment. In that case, the government's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) advises you to immediately change passwords to accounts stored and used on your computer, email clients, browser passwords, and more.

The pro-Russian anonymous telegram channel "Legitimate" wrote that the governor of the Mykolaiv area Vitaly Kim called on inhabitants of Mykolaiv "to prepare Molotov cocktails" but didn't warn that all who "will take in hands an incendiary mix" can shoot. Kim asked to collect tires and then pay them and stop the Russian tanks with smoke. In addition, the pro-Russian telegram channel lied, noting that no Ukrainian politician, whose cities are controlled by the Russian military, was killed. In fact, on March 6, the Russian occupiers shot dead Gostomel Mayor Yuri Prilipko as he was distributing food and medicine to residents. And the mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk, was injured.

Such messages are broadcast by telegram channels administered by Russia's intelligence services. In particular, the Cartel telegram channel writes that the authorities "envied Shariy's initiative, the help to the people that he organized as soon as the government did not do so”.

Actually, YouTube video hosting blocked the channel of propagandist Anatoliy Shariy in Ukraine. The hosting said that the content on the Shariy channel is not available due to complaints of illegality. Earlier, Meta Corporation blocked a Facebook propagandist on the territory of Ukraine. Read more about who Anatoliy Shariy is at the link.

The telegram channels administered by the Russian services are widely spreading the message that Western countries will gradually abandon the sanctions imposed on Russia due to the attack on Ukraine. In particular, the Gossip Girl writes channel that while NATO "refuses to provide weapons and close the skies over Ukraine, the West does not even want to give EU candidate status. That's all you need to know about Europe's support!" There is a similar message about Great Britain.

There are no official grounds to say that Western countries refuse to help Ukraine and lift sanctions en masse. On the contrary, such a message is beneficial to propagandists to give the impression that "everything is gone" Ukraine was left without support in the fight against Russia.

Manipulators involve the fact that Ukrainians are not evacuated from cities that are regularly under attack. Detector Media recorded such rhetoric on the fourth day of the war, but it is very dangerous to evacuate civilians in large numbers, both then and now, without green corridors.

The propagandists explain that Zelensky is deliberately making sacrifices among the civilians in order to maintain the image for the media and foreign partners. As if, that's how Ukraine is asking for weapons.

Propagandists claim that the tactic of hiding the real number of deaths in Ukraine has already been adopted. Supposedly, it has been worked out since the beginning of the war in Donbass. They claim that no one inform relatives about deaths, but instead it is reported that soldiers went missing. However, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and volunteer organizations have been running the database of dead and missing Ukrainian soldiers and civilians since 2014.

They are sent from the box muthuprakash.b@tvsrubber.com with the subject "Attention". The letters allegedly write about an attempt to log in from an IP address in Donetsk and call for an immediate change of the password at the link. Under no circumstances should you follow the link and enter the password, because then the attackers will have access to the e-mail.

More details

Government officials and citizens of Ukraine recieve emails with malicious software attached. They are sent from the mailbox jowhar@xintongwood.club with "Letter" in the subject line. Under no circumstances should you open and download attached files.

More details

Attackers can send files of any format (from links to videos) to any of your accounts (from mail to Viber). It's important not to open links and files you don't expect, even if they were sent by contacts you know.

Russian media outlets are spreading the information that the entire volume of gas, pumped to underground storage back in the summer, was taken away. This information is published with a reference to Gazprom and allegedly data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

However, StopFake denies this information. "Europe's underground storage is indeed lower than usual. But the information that all the gas was taken is not true. The latest data on storage shows that in various European countries as of February 25, the volume of gas fluctuates within 20%," the statement says.

So they write that the situation with power outages and accidents at substations in Kharkiv is not so clear. Allegedly, the mayor blames the Russians for this, but anonymous telegram channels claim - "it is not clear."

At once, they warn civilians to be careful, they say, "be careful and do not let the children go, or they will explode, and they will then say that this is a sabotage group."