On December 19, after another nighttime mass drone attack on Ukrainian territory, Russian propagandists began to praise the effectiveness of drones. They say that the Ukrainian authorities hide the real scale of damage to the energy system of Ukraine and are silent about the hit, forbidding Ukrainians to publish photos / videos from the places of “arrivals”. It seems that this is due to the fact that there is no panic and the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi could address people with a victorious accent on New Year's Eve.

Russian propagandists distribute such messages after virtually every attack on Ukraine in order to provoke them to take pictures and immediately publish the consequences of hitting energy systems and other strategic facilities. Such evidence would become for the Russians a "report" of their aggression and an opportunity to correct subsequent hits. This time, the propagandists emphasized that the consequences of the hits are hushed up because of the need to record Zelenskyi's “heroic” speech on New Year's Eve.

Such a message is spread by Kremlin propagandists in a month. The other day, a letter appeared on social networks allegedly from the head of the board of Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyi to the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine about the “resumption of exports” of electricity.

The national energy company Ukrenergo drew attention to the mistake of the authors of the fake.

They are “in such a hurry that they apply from the “board of directors” of Ukrenergo, while the Ukrainian system operator has only a supervisory board and a board. The Russian grid operator has a “Board of Directors”, from which Ukraine has permanently disconnected after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion”, Ukrenergo noted.

The fake email is yet another failed attempt to convince citizens that the power outages are the fault of the power industry, and not, as of December 19, ten massive waves of Russian attacks.

This opinion is spread by Russian propagandists in the media and social networks. Allegedly, the Ukrainian authorities promised to restore houses destroyed during the war, but they did nothing and people near Kyiv live without windows and in the cold. But in Mariupol, which the Russians occupied, they say they are restoring the infrastructure, helping in every possible way and importing books from all over Russia. Allegedly, the Ukrainian media do not talk about this, because they are jealous of how quickly Russia is restoring the occupied city.

Earlier, propagandists promoted the message that very soon there will be houses in Mariupol in which people are settled, but in Ukraine they cannot build anything.

A network of telegram channels, led by Russian intelligence, is spreading the following message: it seems that the United States has volunteered to provide Ukraine with air defense, including Patriot systems, in order to prolong the war in Ukraine. It seems that this is being done so that the United States continues to earn on the supply of weapons and to continue the effect of sanctions in order to weaken the European economy.

This is another invention of Russian propaganda. Ukraine has repeatedly turned to European partners, the United States and Israel, to get modern air defense systems, especially after Russia launched massive rocket attacks on energy infrastructure. Israel refused Ukraine. Germany, after two rockets fell on the territory of Poland and two people died, offered its own “Patriots” to Poland, but Poland made a different proposal: to send the complexes to Ukraine. Finally, Germany refused after a lot of consultation and evasion. But now these complexes have been agreed to be supplied to Ukraine by the United States. America is doing this precisely on the persistent appeals of Ukraine, which wants to get the Patriot complex in order to better protect both the population and the military.

The thesis about the “prolongation” of the war is also one of the common messages of Russian propaganda, which first threatened to “seize” Ukraine in two weeks, and then came up with “the prolongation of the war by the United States” to explain its own defeats at the front.

The war has led to many consequences, including an energy crisis, and is not beneficial to Ukraine, the US, the EU, or Russia itself, which can stop it at any moment. And it is Russia that is responsible for protracting this war.

The US provides Patriot complexes to prolong the war in Ukraine.

A network of telegram channels, led by Russian intelligence, is spreading the following message: it seems that the United States has volunteered to provide Ukraine with air defense, including Patriot systems, in order to prolong the war in Ukraine. It seems that this is being done so that the United States continues to earn on the supply of weapons and to continue the effect of sanctions in order to weaken the European economy.

This is another invention of Russian propaganda. Ukraine has repeatedly turned to European partners, the United States and Israel, to get modern air defense systems, especially after Russia launched massive rocket attacks on energy infrastructure. Israel refused Ukraine. Germany, after two rockets fell on the territory of Poland and two people died, offered its own “Patriots” to Poland, but Poland made a different proposal: to send the complexes to Ukraine. Finally, Germany refused after a lot of consultation and evasion. But now these complexes have been agreed to be supplied to Ukraine by the United States. America is doing this precisely on the persistent appeals of Ukraine, which wants to get the Patriot complex in order to better protect both the population and the military.

The thesis about the “prolongation” of the war is also one of the common messages of Russian propaganda, which first threatened to “seize” Ukraine in two weeks, and then came up with “the prolongation of the war by the United States” to explain its own defeats at the front.

The war has led to many consequences, including an energy crisis, and is not beneficial to Ukraine, the US, the EU, or Russia itself, which can stop it at any moment. And it is Russia that is responsible for protracting this war.

Telegram channels run by Russian intelligence have recently focused on Ukraine's internal political strife. They promoted the message that allegedly in Ukraine before the parliamentary elections, the opposition to the current government, which will be made up of mayors of cities and the military elite, as well as a new pro-Russian force, which will be formed by Serhii Liovochkin, will become more active. This is evidenced by the monitoring data of pro-Kremlin telegram channels, which was made by the Center for Strategic Communications.

The channels wrote about the formation of a “regional movement of mayors and military men” by the mayor of Kyiv Klychko and ex-minister of internal affairs Avakov, and the formation of a new political force by Liovochkin. They also spread the thesis about a split in the Servant of the People party about the deprivation of mandates of people's deputies from the Opposition Platform for Life. Like, it is beneficial for Yermak to keep them in the Verkhovna Rada to push through the necessary decisions. They also wrote that the Office of the President is planning repression by the SSU (Security service of Ukraine) against the mayors of cities who are forming a coalition against the central government due to the adoption of law 5655 on urban development reform. Another widely spread thesis is allegedly “non-supply of equipment and parts by the central government” to cities headed by mayors “opposing the government”. Among other things, the mayor of Dnipro Filatov was named, under whose leadership the city ‘suffers from power outages more than Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and Kharkiv’.

These messages are yet another attempt by Russian propaganda to influence support for the government and its decisions, as well as create tension in society. Previously, propagandists called for “going to rallies due to unfair blackouts” and promoted messages that “the authorities export electricity for their own enrichment, despite the fact that Ukrainians are without electricity”.

This message is spread by the Russian media. They say that in Poland the western part of Ukraine is considered its territory. The propagandists also cite an article in The Conversation and “own sources” in Russian intelligence who have repeatedly warned of Poland’s “occupational intentions” in Ukraine. This is not true.

In the Conversation article, there is no mention of the fact that Poland allegedly calls the Western part of Ukraine a colony of Warsaw. As StopFake writes, such messages are an invention of propagandists. The authors of the article discuss the historical context of Polish-Ukrainian relations, in particular, that when part of the Ukrainian lands were part of Poland, however, they were not ethnically considered Polish.

This is the message Russian propaganda spreads to foreign audiences. Like, the European Parliament has always been a collection of extremists. Allegedly, the application of legislation that has been enacted over the years is a threat to peace. They say, fortunately, the real policy is determined by the European Commission, and the European Parliament is “only a virtual game within the framework of the created utopia”. Allegedly under the influence of American propaganda and the absence of real threats, the Europeans came up with an enemy in the person of Russia.

The fact-checkers of EU vs Disinfo drew attention to the spread of the message. The European Parliament is one of the two legislative bodies and adopts EU laws together with the Council of the EU on the basis of proposals from the European Commission. The European Parliament has a number of other important powers, in particular, budgetary, controlling, human rights, etc.

The European Parliament supported the resolution recognizing Russia as a state - sponsor of terrorism on November 23, 2022.

Russian media write about this with reference to the words of Dmytro Medvediev. Like, Zelenskyi is less sorry for the Europeans, so he is ready to use them at infrastructure facilities as "cannon fodder" instead of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Center for Countering Disinformation drew attention to the spread of the message. Such a reaction was caused by Volodymyr Zelenskyi's appeal to the European Union with a proposal to send special missions of international control to Ukrainian critical energy infrastructure facilities. Such statements, according to the Center, indicate that international control will make impossible the Russian tactics of massive shelling of Ukraine's critical infrastructure.

Russian propaganda uses the tactics of information support of massive missile strikes to further pressure and intimidate Ukrainians. They say that massive rocket attacks are revenge for the explosions in the Russian rear, for Kherson, for the drone attack in the Sevastopol Bay, etc. Also, the Russians shift the responsibility for their crimes to the Ukrainian authorities, saying that the Office of the President exaggerates the effectiveness of air defense and “invents” missile attacks.

Users of telegram channels and social networks write about this, commenting on fake information about the fire allegedly in one of the “Points of invincibility” in Kyiv on December 12.

The Kyiv police denied the information about the fire at the "Points of invincibility". The video circulating on social media was actually filmed in Russia. The police say that the purpose of distributing such content is probably to whip up worrying moods among Ukrainians.

Anonymous telegram channels write that all the finds of the Security service in Ukraine (SSU) allegedly have unambiguous signs of "staging". Like, it remains only to "find the cartridges". It seems that in fact all this is not a “cleansing” of pro-Russian elements and ideology, but a “struggle for influence on the minds of people”. Also, the alleged goal of the Ukrainian authorities is the redistribution of church property and an attempt to “lock up” all donations to the OCU (Orthodox Church in Ukraine).

Thus, propagandists are trying to shift the emphasis on protecting national sovereignty to the corruption of the Ukrainian authorities. In fact, using the phrase about “the struggle for influence on people’s minds”, the propaganda indirectly confirms that the Moscow Patriarchate Church influenced the parishioners. Russians use aggressive rhetoric to defend the Moscow Patriarchate church after searches.

Pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels write about this. Allegedly, Zelenskyi said that he would remain the president of Ukraine until victory in the war, and he was not yet ready to talk about future plans. Like, this indicates that Zelenskyi wants to use the war to stay in power as long as possible.

In fact, propagandists are manipulating a quote from an interview with Volodymyr Zelenskyi on the Netflix project. They used a quote taken out of context to promote the narrative that the Ukrainian authorities benefit from the war in Ukraine.

In fact, according to Ukrainian law, elections are not held during martial law. That is, according to the law, Zelenskyi will remain the president of Ukraine until the end of the war. In turn, Russian propaganda adds its own unsubstantiated interpretation of the "motives" of Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Thus, propaganda also “heats up” internal emotional discussions among Ukrainians regarding the assessment of the actions of Volodymyr Zelenskyi as president, further destabilizes the situation and shifts responsibility for the war from the Russian president to the Ukrainian one.

Anonymous telegram channels distribute supposedly photo messages with a request not to “chop wood in apartments and stairwells” and “not to destroy living quarters”. Like, Ukrainians are asked to observe the rules of propriety. The text of the "message" is written in Russian in the style of Soviet propaganda posters.

In fact, this picture has nothing to do with Ukraine. This is the content of Russian entertainment and humorous sites, distributed since 2016. Propagandists are dragging Russian content into the Ukrainian space that ridicules Russian problems, and using it to subconsciously reinforce the thesis in the readers of telegram channels that the situation in Ukraine is as difficult as possible.

This message is spread by Russian propagandists in telegram channels. Allegedly, the Poles need Kyiv, Lviv, Uzhhorod, the Carpathians, but they can’t stand the Ukrainians. Like, they have a much better attitude towards the Russians.

Since the beginning of the war, Russia has been spreading all sorts of disinformation to quarrel Poland and Ukraine and create the image of tension between the countries supporting each other. Propagandists constantly repeat the narrative that Poland seeks to annex part of Ukraine and has already begun to prepare for this. In particular, they wrote that Poland began the "economic seizure" of Ukraine and the western regions of Ukraine.

Russian resources have spread information that allegedly in Ukraine they predict the end of the rule of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. As proof, they cite the words of the former People's Deputy of the “Opposition platform - for life”, pro-Russian politician, collaborator, separatist Illia Kyva.

Allegedly, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be subordinate to NATO, and it is the United States on the territory of Ukraine that will plan attacks on Russia.

This is not the first time Russian propagandists have been spreading lies that Russia is not fighting against Ukraine, but with NATO, and that Zelenskyi does not make any decision, he is led by “third forces”. Disinformation has been regularly spreading on social networks lately that Ukrainians are massively protesting against Zelenskyi and against the fact that he refuses to negotiate with Russia on its terms. Like, if Zelenskyi remains in power and continues the war that the United States is fighting, this will lead to a direct provocation of the use of weapons of mass destruction. In fact, no one provokes Russia, and Putin demands to make concessions to him, blackmailing the world with nuclear weapons.

This assertion is spread by the Russian propaganda media. The reports say that the aggressor, NATO under the Anglo-American leadership, is to blame for the war in Ukraine, while Russia is allegedly only a victim in these conditions.

However, NATO is not an aggressor in Ukraine. On the contrary, the countries of the West did everything possible to prevent the war, and only reacted to the full Russian invasion. Some NATO members provide Ukraine with military assistance to help defend against a Russian attack, but they do not engage in direct hostilities. Ukraine receives weapons for the sole purpose of restoring its territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders.

Western instructors teach Ukrainian soldiers how to use modern weapons, and NATO officials have frequent political contacts with their Ukrainian counterparts, but NATO troops do not fight at the front. This case was noticed by EU vs Disinfo analysts. This is not the first time Russia has blamed NATO, the US and other countries for the war in Ukraine. Like, they are the aggressors, and Russia was forced to enter the war.

However, in fact, it was Russia that started the war back in 2014, seized parts of two regions and occupied the Crimean peninsula, and in February 2022 launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. It is Russia that is the aggressor, destroying daily Ukrainian cities and villages, killing thousands of Ukrainian women and men, both military and civilian.

  Russian propaganda spreads the message to a non-native audience that the EU is seeking to give a new character to its confrontation with the Kremlin. To do this, indirectly related norms are introduced - the recognition of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and the confiscation of frozen Russian assets and property. The first is supposed to provide an "ideological cover" for the final discrediting of Russia, and the second is to legalize the expropriation of its assets. The fact-checkers of EU vs Disinfo drew attention to the spread of the message. The resolution of the European Parliament says that Russia poses a threat to the security of the entire European continent. That is why the European deputies recognized Russia as a state-sponsor of terrorism and a state "using terrorism". Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to devalue the opposition to Russian aggression at the global level. Similar tactics were used to devalue European sanctions, saying that they do not work and strengthen Russia. Earlier propagandists claimed that the international tribunal for Russian war crimes in Ukraine would be illegitimate. 

Russian media write about it. Like, the Kremlin will condemn any attempts to create a tribunal. Also, Russia does not recognize any of its war crimes, blaming Ukraine for them.

The EU vs Disinfo fact-checkers drew attention to the spread of this message. Russian war crimes, including torture and civilian killings, are well documented and must be punished. This was discussed at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Polish city of Lodz on December 01, 2022.

Anonymous pro-Russian telegram channels write that soon Ukraine will start “playing the card of the Russian trace” in cases of sending letters with explosives, packages with animal eyes, etc. to Ukrainian embassies and consulates. Like, Ukraine will tell that in this way they also tried to intimidate the Europeans so that they would not help Ukraine.

In early December, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported on a targeted campaign of terror and intimidation of Ukrainian diplomatic institutions abroad. In 12 countries of the world, Ukrainian embassies and consulates received threats of various types, a total of 18 cases were recorded. Now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is cooperating with foreign law enforcement officers to identify the perpetrators.

Pro-Russian telegram channels write about this. Like, the government prefers stabilization measures, rather than the restoration of populated areas. In particular, allegedly recently liberated Kherson is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Allegedly, there is no water and energy supply in the city, there is not enough medicine, fuel, etc. Like, the situation is the same in the de-occupied Kharkiv region. Allegedly, this is how the Ukrainian authorities “thank” the Ukrainians who were waiting for the de-occupation.

Russian propaganda continues to manipulate information about the de-occupied territories of Ukraine. Kherson was on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe during the Russian occupation. After the de-occupation, life support systems are being restored in the city, despite daily shelling from the Russian army. As of December 4, Kherson resumed power supply by 85%. Also, “Points of invincibility” were opened in the city and additional centers for issuing humanitarian aid were deployed. Gradually in Kherson, the work of a supermarket chain is resumed.

Pro-Russian telegram channels write about this in the context of checks and searches taking place in the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate. Like, the authorities are proposing a special law to ban the Moscow Patriarchate church, but for the sake of “decency” this is not indicated in the title. Allegedly, they found a way to “squeeze out” the Kyiv-Pechersk, Pochayiv and Sviatohorsk Lavra. They will also detain clergy and parishioners to replenish the exchange fund.

In fact, the reason for searches was a video filmed in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, where during the divine service on November 12 they glorified Russia. The Security service of Ukraine (SBU) opened criminal proceedings on the fact of "acquittal, recognition of lawfulness, denial of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its participants". During the searches, law enforcement officers found pro-Russian literature, leaflets and other evidence. The investigation continues.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi indeed announced the preparation of a bill on the impossibility of operating religious organizations affiliated with Russia in Ukraine. However, this name indicates that Ukraine is protecting itself from the pro-Russian influence of any religious organization, and is not biased towards the Moscow Patriarchate Church.

У такий спосіб агітпроп використовує тактику підміни понять — приховує антиукраїнську риторику церкви Московського патріархату за звинуваченнями української влади у дискримінації за релігійною ознакою.

Immediately after the appearance of invincibility points, which were introduced for Ukrainians suffering from the lack of light and heat due to Russian shelling, Russia launched a disinformation campaign against them. At first, Russian propagandists and anonymous telegram channels wrote that the points were not effective at all, and even “provoked” the enemy to strike, because they were unprotected and they had a lot of people. Then - that three people have already died at the invincibility point in Kharkov - although this is a refuted fake. Now, telegram channels supervised by Russian military intelligence are spreading unconfirmed information that men are issued a draft notice at points of invincibility.

To downplay the successes of the Ukrainian air defense forces, anonymous telegram channels run by Russian intelligence spread the following message: "The President's office exaggerates the number of missiles launched by Russia". And therefore, "air defense successes" are also exaggerated. They also spread the fiction that the Office of the President itself gives orders to turn on air raid alerts in regions “which Russia did not intend to shell,” and then allegedly the authorities inform citizens that they shot down “non-existent” missiles.

This is an obvious lie since even the Russian military admits the massiveness of their own rocket attacks, and each time they rejoice at every report about the blackout of electricity, water and heat as a result of these missile strikes. Independent experts also regularly report on the number of missiles that Russia has fired at Ukraine, and also calculate how many missiles the aggressor state has left after each such shelling. In the days leading up to the strike, both foreign and Ukrainian experts also warned that Russia was stockpiling a large number of missiles and that at least 50 missiles were needed to basically break through the Ukrainian air defense system. By the beginning of November, according to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the effectiveness of Ukrainian air defense was from 60 to 80%. This time, about 60 out of 70 missiles were shot down during the shelling, the air defense reported. This fully confirms the message of the Ukrainian military about the ratio of downed missiles and those that hit the target.

As soon as an air raid began almost all over Ukraine, Russian telegram channels, guided by the Russian GRU, began to spread the thesis that the shelling was a consequence of “Ukraine’s sabotage in Russia”, including explosions at military airfields in the Saratov region and near Riazan.

Today, the Russian media reported about the explosions at both military facilities. At the Engels-1 air base in the Saratov region, a drone fell on the runway, which caused damage to two Tu-95 bombers, and two soldiers were hospitalized with injuries. A fuel truck exploded at the Diahilevo airfield near Riazan. At least three Russian soldiers were killed. Ukraine has not officially confirmed its involvement in the explosions: Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the President's Office, said that since the earth is round, and Russia launches a lot into the air every day, sometimes these objects return home. Ukraine officially does not have drones that could cover the distance to Engels (700 km) and Diahilevo (500 km).

In fact, Russia does not “retaliate” with missile strikes. Insider Project investigators have found that each massive missile strike requires a week to ten days of preparation, so there cannot be a "response" to any Ukrainian military action that occurred less than a week ago.

Such a message is promoted by pro-Russian telegram channels. Allegedly, the division of Ukrainians will take place thanks to the draft law “On national minorities (community) of Ukraine” and that people’s deputies consider this to be more important than solving the issue of supplying water and electricity to homes.

The requirement to reform legislation on national minorities is one of the conditions that the European Union puts before Ukraine on the way to full membership. The bill was finalized on the basis of the opinion of the Council of Europe and in close cooperation with its experts.

People's deputies pass laws, but do not supply water and electricity to homes. Problems with this arose due to Russian rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities. Blackout is another Russian war crime for which it should be held accountable.

This is the message Russian propaganda is spreading to the audience of the European Union. Allegedly, the Ukrainian army is preparing to attack Crimea in order to return the peninsula, whose inhabitants in 2014 voted for reunification with Russia.

The EU vs Disinfo fact-checkers drew attention to the spread of the message. Allegedly, Crimea voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to reunite with Russia in 2014 after violent riots in Kyiv that led to the ouster of democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych.

Earlier, Russian propagandists spread the manipulation that Ukraine had changed its mind about returning Crimea. And to the fact that the German Parliament allegedly recognized that Crimea cannot be returned to Ukraine.