At the beginning of summer, the government raised electricity tariffs for Ukrainians. Against this background, the thesis is spreading on social networks that life in Ukraine is “unbearable” as prices for utilities, including electricity, are “sky-high” and even incomparable with European prices.

Although experts from the analytical center Dixi Group analyzed the thesis and found out that the authors of such disinformation materials take information about prices from different sources without understanding how comparable such information is. One source may indicate prices based on taxes, another - without. One source contains information about wholesale prices for electricity (i.e. without taking into account tariffs for transportation and taxes), and another - about retail (where all these components are already included).

In fact, the explainer differentiated all the indicators that accompany the time when electricity “reaches” the buildings of Europeans - the price of goods, transportation tariffs, supplier markup, taxes - and it was possible to find out that Ukraine has the lowest price for electricity among the European countries considered. This is largely due to government regulation.

Other countries - Italy, the UK, France and Germany - have higher prices, partly due to significant investment needs in clean energy and new electricity grids.

By spreading such a message, propagandists want to feed the narrative that Ukraine is allegedly uninhabitable due to the lack of electricity or high prices for utilities. In this way, the authors want to sow panic among Ukrainians in order to destabilize the mood and create a feeling that “nothing will change”. Also, by calling the so-called collapse revenge for the Crimean Bridge, Russians once again seek to shift responsibility for what is happening to Ukraine. They say that Russia is destroying infrastructure solely because of Ukraine’s aggression. However, it is Russia that is the aggressor, and it is this country that started the war.

Read on Censor.NET: Ukraine will become “unfit for living”

Russian media have spread information that in Ukraine children's blood was allegedly forcibly taken for the needs of the army. At the same time, such propaganda materials note that this is done by the military themselves, or that this blood is collected for “foreign mercenaries”. The publications are accompanied by a photo of a guy who donated blood in an educational institution - school desks are visible in the background of the photo.

“There have already been cases in history when children's blood was used to support the health of Wehrmacht soldiers. And this practice was assessed during the Nuremberg Trials”, the propagandists write.

VoxCheck fact-checkers analyzed the case and determined that this photo was actually taken on Donor Day, which was held on August 22 in the Vinnytsia region. At that time, a blood collection point was indeed set up in a local lyceum, and the blood collection itself was carried out by a mobile team from the Vinnytsia regional blood service center with the help of local health workers.

A total of 80 people donated blood, local groups write that there were many more who wanted to, but not everyone was able to take part in this procedure due to health reasons. Many photographs from the West were published, among them readers can see the one used by agitprop, but not a single photo shows children, only adults are in line and donating blood.

Propagandists have been systematically spreading fakes and manipulations on the topic of an alleged blood shortage in Ukraine. In this way, the authors of the messages are trying to convince that everything is bad in Ukraine and that there are many wounded who are not receiving adequate care because “there is not enough blood”. We managed to refute several fakes on this topic. For example, one of the fakes said that Ukraine is banning all foreign citizens from becoming blood donors. We also checked the authenticity of a message on social networks about a Ukrainian woman abandoning her husband because he was “transfused with Russian blood”.

On September 3, 2024, Russian troops launched a missile attack on the Institute of Communications in Poltava. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry points out that the time interval between the alarm and the arrival was short and caught people during their evacuation to a bomb shelter.

As of September 5, 55 people were killed and 297 were injured.

Russian telegram channels are spreading information that as a result of Russia's missile strike on the Military Institute of Telecommunications and Informatization in Poltava, the number of victims is allegedly actually 600-700 soldiers killed. This is allegedly confirmed by unnamed Ukrainian sources. The strike allegedly occurred during the formation of personnel.

But fact-checkers VoxCheck noted that the number of 600 was voiced by former Ukrainian MP Ihor Mosiichuk. Although he mentions 600 injured and dozens of dead, this does not coincide with the official data.

At the same time, Ihor Mosiichuk is not a reliable source. He has already been noticed in the dissemination of fakes and narratives of Russian propaganda. In particular, Mosiichuk promoted theses about the illegitimacy of Zelenskyi, accused the Ukrainian authorities of the Russian invasion, and claimed that the war could have been avoided through diplomacy.

Russian propagandists use threats of nuclear weapons in response to any strikes on Russian territory to intimidate the West and deter military support for Ukraine. They call for changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine to legitimize the use of nuclear weapons even against non-nuclear attacks, increasing the rhetoric of escalation and attempting to deflect responsibility for the continuation of the war.

However, the main goal of such statements is to force the West and its allies to limit support for Ukraine and complicate the transfer of weapons, including long-range missiles. Russia is trying to create the impression that any strikes on its territory could lead to a global catastrophe due to the use of nuclear weapons, which in turn should demoralize not only Ukraine, but also the international community.

However, Russia's use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear strikes is contrary to international norms. Such statements also indicate that Moscow seeks to avoid discussing its responsibility for the aggression against Ukraine and the course of the war, trying to justify aggressive actions and threats to global security.

Propagandists are spreading information on anonymous Telegram channels that allegedly Ukrainian Armed Forces units, which include Polish, French and American “mercenaries”, are displaying “extreme cruelty” towards the civilian population in the Kursk region. The source of such statements is said to be unknown “security agencies” of Russia.

However, in reality, in the territory of the Kursk region, which is not controlled by Russia, there are no “security structures” to which one could refer. These accusations pursue only one goal - to dehumanize Ukrainians in the eyes of the Russian audience. This is reported by the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

Many foreign journalists from independent and influential media have already visited the territories controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and in their reports they have not confirmed any atrocities against either captured Russians or the civilian population. In addition, as reported by the speaker of the Operational-tactical grouping Siversk Vadym Mysnyk, it was Russia that refused to provide a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians from the territories of the Kursk region controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which also refutes the statements of Russian propaganda.

This message was disseminated on a Polish pro-Russian Telegram channel with reference to the propaganda resource RT (formerly Russia Today), which in turn received the relevant information from the Russian diplomatic mission in Paris.

The propagandists add that Paris officially denies the participation of French mercenaries in the Russian-Ukrainian war, and local media do not hesitate to call them volunteers in their reports. In addition, mercenaries are also recruited through French-language groups on social networks. In the end, the propagandists provide a link to the website of the Ukrainian Embassy in France, which “confirms” the veracity of their words.

In fact, propagandists deliberately use the term “mercenaries” instead of the correct term “combatants” to refer to foreign fighters fighting in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the Geneva Conventions, mercenaries participate in armed conflict illegally. They are not citizens or servicemen of the belligerent state, and this is their main difference from combatants. After all, foreigners who decide to fight on the side of Ukraine become part of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As for the publication on the website of the Ukrainian Embassy in France, it provides basic information for citizens of other countries who are thinking about joining the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces or have already made the decision to do so. And, of course, there is nothing illegal written there.

With this message, Russia is feeding its narrative about the presence of “foreign mercenaries” in Ukraine. In this way, Kremlin propaganda seeks to assert that it is not really fighting Ukraine, but the so-called “collective West”.

Previously, we recorded a fake from the Russians that in Kryvyi Rih, Russians got into the Aurora Hotel because “foreign mercenaries” were stationed there.

Propagandists spread information in their media that the Ukrainian authorities, if they do not like something in the work of journalists, can allegedly simply liquidate them, and Western human rights activists, they say, will remain silent. This is confirmed by the cases of “victims” of the Ukrainian authorities. However, specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security analyzed in more detail the situation with several “martyrs” that are actively mentioned by propaganda:

• Andrii Stenin was a Russian “journalist” who worked as a photographer for RIA Novosti in July 2014, filming the torture of captured Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region. These materials were used by Russian propaganda to demoralize the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

• Ihor Korneliuk and Anton Voloshyn were VGTRK correspondents who covered the occupation of eastern Ukraine in 2014, trying to support Russia’s hybrid aggression.

• Daria Duhina was a propagandist who, among other things, called the massacre in Bucha in 2022 “staged” and was distinguished by her anti-Ukrainian rhetoric.

• Vladlen Tatarskyi (Maksym Fomin) was a collaborator and propagandist who fought as part of the LPR and DPR gangs, and was a citizen of Russia.

• Gonzalo Lira was a propagandist who supported Kremlin colleagues such as Alina Lipp, Graham Phillips and Patrick Lancaster, actively spreading their fakes.

Thus, the Kremlin is trying to present the death of its own propagandists in various circumstances as a victim of repression by Kyiv, which is part of its disinformation campaign. The goal of such manipulations is to create the impression that Ukraine is fighting not only against Russian aggressors, but also against the international press, which calls into question its status as a democratic state.

Propagandists on anonymous Telegram channels are spreading information that the West is actively discussing a possible replacement for Zelenskyi. They say he has lost the trust of his partners. This was stated, in particular, by Russian propaganda favorite Scott Ritter.

However, these claims have no basis and are absolutely groundless. This is what experts from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security point out. They note that Scott Ritter is a well-known propagandist who is actively used by Russian propaganda. He is a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, convicted in 2011 for pedophilia and other crimes. He was released on parole after 2.5 years in prison.

The message that the West is allegedly “looking for a replacement for Zelenskyi” is part of Russian propaganda aimed at convincing Ukrainians of Ukraine’s lack of sovereignty and excessive dependence on the West. These messages also aim to discredit the Ukrainian leadership by creating an image of the president as a loser who is about to be eliminated at the behest of his “overseas masters”.

A pro-Russian Moldovan Telegram channel writes that Ukraine is “a testing ground not only for conventional, intelligent and unmanned weapons”. Wounded Ukrainian soldiers are also allegedly transported to Europe as biomaterial for studying the effects of modern weapons on humans and for testing new types of viruses and bacteria that are more resistant to antibiotics. In reporting this, the propagandists partly refer to the material of the British publication The Times.

In fact, the propagandists manipulated an article in The Times titled: “Ukraine war highlights mutated superbugs that can resist antibiotics”. The text tells of the case of a Ukrainian soldier whose leg was amputated at St George’s Hospital in London because antibiotics could not cure his infection, as the bacteria were resistant to all classes of antibiotics. However, the propagandists’ claims that Ukrainian servicemen are being transported to Europe to test new types of viruses and bacteria are unfounded.

At the same time, The Times writes that this is not just a crisis of war zones and distant lands. In 2022, more than 58,000 people in England were infected with an antibiotic-resistant infection, up 4% from the previous year. Moreover, almost 8,000 people die from such infections in the UK every year.

With this message, propagandists feed the narrative about Western biological laboratories in Ukraine. As part of this disinformation campaign, we recorded a number of such leaks. For example, we wrote about the spread of a fake about the invasion of poisonous spiders from American biological laboratories in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian pro-Russian Telegram channel writes that earlier, when replenishing the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the bet was made mainly on residents of the eastern, southern and parts of the central regions of Ukraine, but now it is the turn of the west of the country. Until recently, the region significantly lagged behind in carrying out mobilization “with the tacit consent of the central government”.

Allegedly, the serious depletion of mobilization reserves in South-Eastern and Central Ukraine forced Kyiv to forget about the “privileged” position of the western regions and resort to a forced expansion of the zone of forced mobilization.

However, back in 2022, the then head of the personnel department of the headquarters of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Roman Horbach, claimed that there were more mobilization plans in the western regions, since more citizens lived there.

The propaganda message also says that the western regions are the leaders in the number of evaders. And the innovations have already caused a storm of discontent among the local population, “accustomed to showing patriotism only in words, but not in deeds”.

In fact, no precise data on the distribution of mobilized people by region is published in open sources. There is no corresponding data on those who evade. Such statements are nothing more than a fabrication of propagandists, which aims to divide the Ukrainian people and set people from different regions against each other.

Let us recall that earlier propagandists had already spread disinformation that supposedly in Ukraine men from pro-Russian regions were being massively mobilized, while pro-Western ones were allegedly not being touched.

Anonymous Telegram channels are throwing around theories that Volodymyr Zelenskyi “started” the Kursk operation in order to once again attract the attention of the world community to Ukraine. They say that Volodymyr Zelenskyi is gradually losing the support of his strategic partners. At the same time, they allegedly referred to an article from the Financial Times, which talks about the “losing situation” around the Kursk region on the part of the Ukrainian army.

“The Kursk operation changes the “balance of attrition” not in Ukraine's favor, since it will already lose”, say the propagandists.

Ukrainian troops broke through the Russian border in the Sumy region on Tuesday, August 6. On August 12, President Zelenskyi wrote for the first time that Ukraine was conducting an operation in Russia's Kursk Oblast. On August 12, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi reported that Ukraine controls almost 1,000 km of the Kursk region. As of August 21, 93 settlements in Russia are under Ukraine's control.

The thesis about “returning attention” is another attempt by propagandists to justify the Ukrainian operation in the Kursk region of Russia. After all, in this way the fake news makers are looking for a justification for Ukraine's actions and at the same time maintaining the internal mood of the population.

Moreover, the Financial Times article does not say at all that the Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region had any “catastrophic” impact on Ukraine’s defense capability. The article emphasizes that due to the Kursk operation, Ukrainian servicemen in Donbas have to ration the amount of ammunition, and soldiers “may face an even longer stay at the front without rotation”. Moreover, this is the conclusion of the authors of the publication themselves, that is, an assumption.

Read on Censor.NET: The US is allegedly involved in the operation in the Kursk region.

On August 26, 2024, Russian troops launched a missile attack on the Aurora Hotel in Kryvyi Rih, killing four people and wounding five more. After that, anonymous Telegram channels began to claim that this was not a civilian facility, but a deployment site for soldiers from the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. As proof, the propagandists added a screenshot of a Facebook message from Polish volunteer Aneta Rabushko-Borkowska, who allegedly spoke about the “destruction of Polish soldiers”.

However, there is no such publication on the Polish volunteer's Facebook page. Propagandists compiled this screenshot and invented the content of the publication. In a comment to Ukrinform, Anet denied writing a post about the “destruction of Polish soldiers” in the Kryvyi Rih hotel. All the information was simply made up.

Russia is trying to hide its criminal actions against peaceful Ukrainians and finds an excuse that shelling military facilities is the norm for war. However, Ukrainian cities are suffering from Russian missiles and drones. That is, the authors are trying to deny their own shelling and hits on civilian infrastructure. They distort reality and convince in their “truth”. And they claim: wherever they hit, there were definitely soldiers there. However, the authors do not provide any facts.

At the same time, Russian propaganda substitutes the concept and calls the foreign legion mercenaries. The foreign legion is legally part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the exact number of its participants is not reported, as are all other fighters. Accordingly, Russian propaganda wants to downplay the importance of the Ukrainian army, contrasting it with the so-called “mercenaries”, of whom there are supposedly more on the battlefield. At the same time, Moscow equates “mercenaries” with criminals in the context of Ukraine. However, mercenaries are indeed fighting on the Russian side, for example, the Wagner group representatives.

Propagandists claimed that soldiers from EU countries fought on the territory of Ukraine even before the full-scale invasion or that the number of foreigners in the Ukrainian army will soon exceed 50%. Thus, Russian propaganda wants to create the appearance that in reality it is not fighting with Ukraine, but with the so-called “collective West”.

A “news story” has been spreading on social media, purporting to show British MP Andrew Bridgen claiming that NATO is planning to carry out a false flag attack on a European city using a nuclear “dirty bomb” and blame it on Russia.

But fact-checkers at VoxCheck reported that Andrew Bridgen provides no evidence for his thesis. Moreover, he has repeatedly spread conspiracy theories.

A reverse search was used to find an interview, an excerpt from which was distributed by propagandists. It was published on June 20, 2024, on the YouTube channel Resistance GB. The Guardian journalists found out that this channel spreads conspiracy theories, in particular, anti-vaccination narratives.

Mr. Bridgen did not provide any evidence, names of experts, details, etc., by which this information could be verified. The statement about a “NATO plan to detonate a bomb” has already been invented in Russian channels. In his messages in X, Bridgen also promotes pro-Russian narratives, in particular calling the transfer of military aid to Ukraine an “escalation”.

Russia is speculating on the use of a “dirty bomb” to sow distrust in Ukraine and force the world to spend resources on refuting the accusations of propagandists. An IAEA commission came to Ukraine to check whether a “dirty bomb” was really being developed at the sites that Russia claimed to be developing – the Eastern Mining and Processing Plant in Zhovti Vody and the Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The result of the inspection was that the Agency did not find any signs of such a weapon at Ukrainian nuclear sites.

The fake news about Ukraine creating a “dirty bomb” is a mirror response from Russia, the purpose of which is to try to convince the world that it is Ukraine that is acting as a terrorist group. This, by the way, is one of the most common messages of Russian propaganda, constantly trying to accuse Ukraine of terrorism, saying that it itself is shelling Ukrainian civilians and launching missile strikes on its own critical infrastructure.

Read more on “Dirty Bomb”: What is it and why did Russia come up with this fake?

Anonymous Telegram channels are spreading a video that appears to show a soldier forcibly evacuating residents of Vovchansk in order to “then freely rob their homes”.

VoxCheck analysts explained that the Kharkiv region authorities announced the evacuation of Vovchansk precisely because of constant Russian shelling and the threat of occupation. In addition, the person in the video is not a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but an employee of the National Police.

The excerpt distributed by the Kremlin's henchmen is part of a video about the evacuation of Vovchansk, which was published on May 23, 2024, on the YouTube channel by the host of Channel 24. It shows, in particular, the evacuation of a family with a child who did not want to leave. In the end, they agreed to temporarily leave the city.

Parents cannot refuse to evacuate their children. Otherwise, they may be subject to administrative or criminal liability for failure to fulfill their child-rearing responsibilities. However, in this case, the priority is the safety of the children, not the punishment of the parents. Therefore, law enforcement officers and local authorities are trying to convince parents or other guardians to leave with their children. In fact, this is also shown in the video – a law enforcement officer explains to the parents why they need to leave.

On May 10, 2024, the Russian army launched an offensive in the north of the Kharkiv region. Due to the threat to the lives and health of local residents, the evacuation of the population from the city was accelerated on the same day.

Against the backdrop of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' operation in the Kursk region, pro-Russian and anonymous Telegram channels began a series of discrediting messages about the military. In particular, one of these is the assertion that the “Kursk adventure” has escalated into “the murder of Ukraine”: as the messages claim, Volodymyr Zelenskyi ordered all forces to be sent to the Kursk region in order to achieve military success there. At the same time, other directions were left “without any military”, which allowed the Russians to advance further.

“Now the Russian army will soon control the entire territory of Donbas, which will simplify the enemy's offensive along this entire front”, the propagandists explain.

In fact, such a thesis is not true, no directions could be left “to the mercy of fate”. In this way, the fake news is trying to convince of the failure of the Kursk operation for the Ukrainian side. It would seem that these are just wasted resources. At the same time, they feed the mood of the domestic audience: if we are talking about an attack on Russian territory, the Kremlin's henchmen find justification for such an attack. They say that the Ukrainian army is already losing, it will soon retreat from the territory of Kursk region; and during this time, Russia will attack other territories.

Although, for example, in Lithuania, they recorded a reduction in Russian ground forces due to the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region of Russia. This was stated by the commander of the Lithuanian army. That is, one way or another, the Kursk operation affected the actions of the Russian troops and there, at least, rotations to other directions are taking place.

Let us recall that Ukrainian troops broke through the Russian border in the Sumy region on Tuesday, August 6. On August 12, President Zelenskyi wrote directly for the first time that Ukraine was conducting an operation in the Kursk region of Russia. On August 12, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi reported that Ukraine controls almost 1,000 km of Kursk region. As of August 21, 93 settlements in Russia are under Ukraine's control.

Kremlin telegram channels are spreading information that the number of measles cases in Switzerland has increased due to Ukrainian refugees. The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) assumes that the pathogen was brought to Switzerland from abroad. And propagandists have concluded that it was Ukrainians who brought this virus, since measles is allegedly actively spreading in Ukraine.

VoxCheck specialists explained that the Federal Office of Public Health of Switzerland responded to a request that the increase in measles cases was not related to Ukrainian refugees. In fact, it is unknown whether there were Ukrainians among the sick. This was not reported on the Federal Office of Public Health's social media pages or website.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, 152 cases of measles were recorded in Ukraine in the first 7 months of 2024. While in 2023, there were only 30 patients during the same period. That is, the number of patients has indeed increased, but we are not talking about a large-scale outbreak measured in thousands. The last time there was a measles outbreak in Ukraine was in 2017-2019, when more than 110 thousand people fell ill with measles.

Thus, Russian propaganda tries to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU - in order to reduce support for Ukraine. We mentioned this in our own research. Since the beginning of the great war in Ukraine, Russian propaganda has been trying to discredit refugees who were forced to leave Ukraine to save their lives.

Propagandists regularly spread fakes about them; they call refugees dependents; they claim that they went abroad not for safety, but for profit; they spread various diseases, etc. Propagandists need this to stake out the opinion that Ukrainians are pagans who do not appreciate the help that residents of other countries give them; they take advantage of the kindness of residents of other countries.

Propagandists are spreading messages on the social network X (former Twitter) that Russia “fired 200 missiles and drones at Ukraine, but only 5 civilians were killed”. They say this is further proof that Russia allegedly does not try to destroy Ukraine or kill its civilians, but demonstrates noble behavior. Its “religious, moral and social principles do not allow it to wipe Ukraine off the face of the earth”.

The Center for Countering Disinformation drew attention to these statements. Thus, propagandists want to justify Russian aggression by deliberately distorting reality and hushing up evidence of numerous Russian attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine, which have led to thousands of civilian casualties. The massive airstrikes on August 26-27, directed against critical civilian infrastructure, are another example of Russia's terrorist actions against civilians, which are undoubtedly war crimes.

Such messages serve several purposes. First, they are aimed at creating the illusion of the “humanity” of the Russian army’s actions, reducing their impact on public opinion outside of Ukraine. Second, they seek to sow doubts among those who support Ukraine, reducing their belief in the need for assistance. Third, such statements help spread propaganda narratives that attempt to divert attention from the real goals of Russian aggression and justify war crimes committed against Ukraine.

Propagandists claim in their media that Ukrainians are allegedly destroying their own culture, committing “cultural self-genocide”, in addition to attempts to destroy Russian culture. They say that Russian culture in Ukraine is the culture of Ukrainians.

This was noted by specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. Such statements are part of the information war waged by Russia, trying to confuse and distort reality. Russian propagandists deliberately use such statements for several purposes.

In this way, the Kremlin tries to justify its actions aimed at destroying Ukrainian culture and identity by distorting the facts and shifting the responsibility to Ukrainians themselves. In this way, they try to portray Ukraine as a self-destructive state. The use of the term “cultural self-genocide” aims to blur the concept of genocide and distract attention from the real crimes of Russia against Ukrainians. Russia seeks to downplay the significance of genocide in order to avoid international responsibility for its actions. Kremlin propagandists also try to create the impression that Ukrainians are solely to blame for their misfortunes in order to undermine the morale of Ukrainians, sow doubts about their own values, and create a sense of hopelessness. In addition, Russia tries to present Ukrainian identity as an artificial product of the Soviet era, allegedly created at the expense of “historical Russia”. This is an attempt to justify the colonial ambitions of modern Russia, which is trying to re-subjugate Ukraine and bring it back under its control.

Therefore, this message is not only far from the truth, but serves as a tool for continuing Russia’s information war against Ukraine and Ukrainians.

On the night of August 24, 2024, Russian troops launched a missile attack on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk. At the time, it was housing foreign and Ukrainian journalists. As a result of the enemy attack, four journalists were injured, one British media worker was killed. Later, a Reuters report revealed that the deceased was their security adviser, 38-year-old Briton Ryan Evans. Evans is a former British military man who began working with Reuters in 2022. Immediately after the information about the shelling was made public, Russian propaganda began to spread manipulations around the death of the British news agency employee, trying to justify this crime. This was warned by the Center for Countering Disinformation.

In their messages on Telegram channels, the Russians lie that Evans was allegedly an agent of the British intelligence service MI6, appealing to his military past. They also spread disinformation that all “military instructors from NATO member countries” arrive in Ukraine as journalists, and the attacked hotel was a “location of foreign mercenaries”. In fact, the deceased arrived in Ukraine as part of a team of foreign journalists as a civilian security adviser for reporters working in the combat zone. He has already advised Reuters journalists on security in Ukraine, Israel, and at the Paris Olympics.

By spreading such fakes, hostile propaganda is trying to hide its crimes against civilians and present the hotel primarily as a “military target”. With the goal of a targeted strike on “Sapfir” (Sapphire), the enemy is trying to intimidate foreign journalists who have come to Ukraine and are covering the truth about Russia's armed aggression against our country.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mariia Zakharova said that thousands of citizens from NATO countries are allegedly storming Russian diplomatic missions, trying to save their families and children from Western governments. She explains this as a consequence of the “liberal idea”, which allegedly erases the boundaries between good and evil, leading to the rejection of “traditional values” and causing a deep crisis in Western society. However, this statement is just another manifestation of Russian propaganda, which seeks to create the illusion that Russia is a defender of “true” values in the fight against the supposedly degraded West.

This was noted by specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. They note that this rhetoric is one of the key elements of the ideology of Russia-ism, which is trying to present Russia as the last fortress of morality and justice in the world.

The facts show otherwise. There are very few cases of Western citizens moving to Russia, and most of them have a criminal or other questionable background. For example, Russian media actively spread the story of an “American from Boston” named Wilmer Puello-Mota, who allegedly moved to Russia and even participated in a so-called “special military operation”. Although Puello-Mota does exist, the propaganda conceals the fact that he fled to Russia due to criminal prosecution in the United States. He is suspected of possessing child pornography and other crimes, so his case is not an example of “fleeing liberalism”, but just another manipulation by Russian media.

The purpose of spreading such stories is to discredit the West and to support the idea that only in Russia can one find a real refuge from the “decay” and “immorality” that propaganda attributes to other countries. This is part of a broader strategy to increase anti-Western sentiment both in Russia and among its international allies.

On social networks in the Russian segment, they add that the American authorities “expect” the Ukrainian Armed Forces to use ATACMS long-range missiles “against Russian cities”. Thus, propagandists concluded that the United States was “forcing” Ukraine to attack Russia. The messages also refer to CNN material.

StopFake fact-checkers explained that even in the article they write how the United States “does not want to give permission” to Ukraine to use American long-range weapons against enemy targets on Russian territory.

Regarding the Kursk region, the United States officially denied involvement in organizing the operation in the Kursk region. For example, as Reuters writes, the United States still considers Ukraine’s invasion of the Kursk region of Russia unexpected.

The Biden administration is now working to determine Ukraine's goals in its offensive, which U.S. officials say has taken Washington by surprise.

Moreover, the American government has not lifted absolutely all restrictions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the use of weapons on Russian territory: neither in range nor in use. Actually, the country's leadership is still determining the feasibility of using weapons in the Kursk region. That is about the fact that the United States was not informed about this offensive.

Russian propagandists manipulated correspondence from the Forward Observation Group on Instagram, where photos of military personnel in the Kursk region were published. They claim that this is supposedly evidence of the participation of “militants of an American private military company” in the operation.

But Forward Observation Group is not actually a private military contractor. As the Center for Countering Disinformation explained, FOG is a security and tactical training consulting company that sells tactical gear. Representatives of the company shoot videos from different places where fighting continues in order to promote their own brand.

This is not the first time that Russian propaganda has tried to portray the Forward Observation Group as “a private military company whose mercenaries fight in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”. Thus, former US military man Derrick Bales and the owner of this consulting company already came under the close attention of Russian propaganda after his trip to the front lines of the Ukrainian military to film a documentary about the war in Ukraine. Russian media wasted no time in using his presence as evidence that “American mercenaries are training Ukrainian soldiers”. At the same time, stories are also being circulated by alleged residents of the Kursk region, who claim that they allegedly saw foreign mercenaries among the Ukrainian military.

Derrick Bales himself was also accused of participating in hostilities as a “foreign mercenary”. In response, the American veteran told VICE News that he was not using his military skills to make money in Ukraine.

Russia continues to try to convince the world that it is allegedly at war not only with Ukraine, but also with “the entire NATO bloc”. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit the Ukrainian army. Moreover, it also shows Russia’s desire to justify its own failures on the battlefield and spread the narrative of “external control” in Ukraine.

On August 19, Detector Media already wrote about Russia’s message that the United States was allegedly involved in the operation in the Kursk region.

Propagandists are actively disseminating on anonymous telegram channels the statement of the self-proclaimed dictator of Belarus Oleksandr Lukashenko that the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ attack on the Kursk region is allegedly an attempt by Kyiv to provoke Russia into using nuclear weapons. According to Lukashenko, such actions could lead to Moscow losing its international allies, which allegedly puts Russia in a dangerous position.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security drew attention to this. They emphasize that Lukashenko has long been a staunch ally of Russian propaganda, and his statements regarding nuclear escalation are a reflection of Kremlin rhetoric. The Kremlin constantly stokes the fear of nuclear war in order to keep the world on edge and influence the decisions of the international community.

Russia, which seized the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and turned it into a military base, accuses Ukraine of “provocations” aimed at forcing Russia to use nuclear weapons. Such statements are intended to divert attention from the real threat posed by Russian aggression and its nuclear blackmail.

The Kremlin's tactics are aimed at sowing fear and confusion among the population of Ukraine and its international partners in order to weaken their resolve in resisting Russian aggression. Russia continues to use nuclear blackmail as a tool of political pressure in an attempt to force the world to capitulate to its demands.

Propagandists are disseminating on anonymous telegram channels a statement by former Pentagon adviser Colonel Douglas McGregor that after the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ invasion of the Kursk region, the chances of peace negotiations have significantly decreased. They say that Washington was afraid of Putin’s reaction to the attack and returned to the idea of creating a government of exile in Lviv. However, this is not true.

Specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security drew attention to this. They note that the official position of the United States and the EU on the operations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region remains unchanged: Ukraine has the right to defend itself at its own discretion. US State Department representative Matthew Miller emphasized that the decision to conduct military operations is made by Ukraine itself, and European Commission representative Peter Stano emphasized that the EU fully supports Ukraine’s legitimate right to defend and restore its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Such statements by McGregor are part of the Kremlin’s disinformation narratives aimed at legitimizing the crimes of Russians. This is an attempt to influence Ukrainian and Western audiences under the guise of “expert” opinions from the West. McGregor has long acted as a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda, justifying the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of Donbas in 2014, and after the full-scale invasion predicted the imminent defeat of Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops broke through the Russian border in the Sumy region on Tuesday, August 6. Already on August 12, President Zelenskyi for the first time directly wrote that Ukraine was conducting an operation in the Kursk region of Russia. Back on August 12, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that Ukraine controls almost 1,000 km of Kursk region. As of August 13, it became known that 74 settlements in Russia are under Ukrainian control.

Russian anonymous telegram channels began to spread messages that in fact everything was happening under the so-called “cover” of the United States and the American government.

“Without Washington’s participation, Kyiv would hardly have risked entering Russian territory. Because of American interests, the residents of Ukraine are suffering, which the United States has turned from a state into a military anti-Russian project”, the propagandists add.

However, the United States officially denied involvement in organizing the operation in the Kursk region. For example, as Reuters writes, the United States is still considering an unexpected invasion of Ukraine into the Kursk region of Russia.

The Biden administration is now working to determine Ukraine's goals in its offensive, which U.S. officials say has taken Washington by surprise.

Moreover, the American government has not lifted absolutely all restrictions for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the use of weapons on Russian territory: neither in range nor in use. Actually, the country's leadership is still determining the feasibility of using weapons in the Kursk region. That is, we are talking about the fact that the United States was not informed about this offensive.

And, as CNN writes, the United States does not allow Ukraine to use the American long-range weapons provided for attacks in the Kursk region of Russia, since it believes that it would be more expedient to use them for attacks on the temporarily occupied Crimea.

This is how Russia once again promotes the narrative of “external governance” in Ukraine: With this, propagandists want to show that all political decisions in Ukraine are made by Western officials. While Ukrainian politicians are subject to these decisions, without the right to appeal them. Any events occurring in Ukraine that are not in favor of Russia are allegedly caused by external control. Fake robes strive to create the image of a puppet country that cannot exist on its own. Let's say Ukraine constantly needs “protection”.

The authors convince us that most often, peaceful people who suffer from “external control” pay taxes “who knows where”, are zombied by “Western values” and have literally lost the right to be heard. That is, they show that such an “impact” is bad and leads to stagnation in all spheres of people’s lives.