It is the opinion spread by Russian propagandists in the media and Telegram channels.

The main characteristic of Ukrainians should supposedly be the Ukrainian language, but no one communicates in it, except on television. It can be seen in the video during the Russian attack on Kyiv by kamikaze drones when people reacted by speaking Russian and using Russian profanity.

The thesis that Ukrainians are "sick" and "possessed" Russians has been spreading since at least the beginning of April 2022. As "Detector Media" already recorded, Tymofiy Sergeitsev, propagandist and author of the plan for "denazification" of Ukraine for 25 years, believes that Ukrainians don't exist, but only "malorosy" or simply sick Russians. Moreover, separatist Pavlo Gubarev called for the killing of several million Ukrainians "until they understand that they are sick and need to be treated."

Thus, propagandists justify Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine and motivate Russians to go with weapons to "treat" Ukrainians. More details.

In this way, pro-Russian bloggers on social networks intimidate Ukrainians. Soon, the regrouping of the Russian army will allegedly take place in all directions, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine will launch a counteroffensive. As a result, Ukraine is allegedly facing defeat, which will be called "the turning point in the war of 2022".

Such messages are spread by pro-Russian bloggers in Telegram channels drawing their conclusions from the news that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China calls on its citizens in Ukraine to evacuate immediately because Ukraine "has a serious security situation.

China is an ally of Russia, and therefore, allegedly, "Moscow could have warned Beijing about its future actions."

Every time the Russian army suffers heavy losses and withdraws from the occupied territories of Ukraine, propagandists change the subject and resort to intimidation, spreading messages about regrouping, an upcoming offensive, and another attack.

The Russian army allegedly previously fought at half strength, and soon new forces will be brought up, and they will not allow any more retreats.

Since the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated the city of Lyman in the Donetsk region, anonymous telegram channels controlled by the FSB have been spreading such information. During the counteroffensive, the Ukrainian military allegedly received an order to destroy all the people who lived under the occupation. They mainly actively spread the message that it is as if the military is under orders to throw grenades into basements and shelters where people are hiding.

The Russian media write about this concerning the press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmytro Peskov. The aid allegedly won't change the goals of the so-called "special operation" and its final result but will only prolong the "conflict" and make it more painful for Ukrainians.

Propagandists have been spreading this message periodically since the beginning of the great war after reports of new weapons supplies to Ukraine. In this way, they are trying to discredit the supply of air defense systems for the protection of the civilian population of Ukraine, which the Western partners reported after the massive missile attacks on October 10-11. As the Center for Combating Disinformation writes, the supply of air defense systems will nullify one of Russia's biggest trump cards — missile attacks.

Previously propagandists wrote that the Ukrainian military refuses to use "Bayraktary" to discredit Western weapons. Supposedly, Ukraine will no longer receive American HIMARS MLRS and their missiles. France is complicit in "crimes" against the civilian population, as Ukraine fires at Donbas from French self-propelled guns, "Caesar," etc.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels spread this information. Volodymyr Zelenskyy allegedly signed an application for accelerated accession to NATO, "calls" for a nuclear attack on Russia and thereby "gives Russia an excuse" for aggression. Instead, it is alleged that NATO again "makes it clear" to Ukrainians that Ukraine isn't a member of NATO and, therefore, won't support Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities supposedly understand that they are "playing with fire," but they allegedly "don't care" about the results of such "games."

In fact, pro-Russian propagandists began pushing this message again after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution calling Russia a terrorist regime. The amendment was also included in the resolution calling for air defense systems to be provided to Ukraine.

After Russia's massive missile attacks on Ukraine on October 10-11, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that strengthening Ukraine's air defense would be NATO's top priority. Other Western partners also reported new arms deliveries to Ukraine.

By spreading such messages, Russian propagandists are trying to justify the war crimes of the Russian army and promote the narrative that Russia is alleged "only defending itself" or that "the West is provoking Russia to war in Ukraine."

The state agency "RIA Novosti" published a column by propagandist Petro Akopov entitled "A new stage of the dismantling of Ukraine has begun." Its author, a full-time propagandist of several Russian mass media, called on the Russian authorities not to dwell on the destruction already caused. He suggested launching missile strikes until the destruction of the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine "with a full understanding of the damage it will cause to the civilian population."

Interestingly, Akopov explains the calls for the physical destruction of Ukrainians by the fact that, by destroying the infrastructure and economy of Ukraine, Russia is returning it "to its natural state as part of the Russian world." So the "natural state of the Russian world" is the absence of roads, bridges, heating, and light - all that other Russian propagandists call the "Middle Ages." Moreover, Akopov, like other propagandists, promotes the thesis of the absence of Ukrainians as a nation and calls for the destruction of Ukraine and Ukrainians both physically and through the belief that they are Russians. He calls the war in Ukraine a "civil war" or "a war waged by two states of the same nation." Nevertheless, he insists that Russia can't allow "generations of South Russian people to be brought up in rejection of their Russianness."

These statements correspond to several points of the definition of genocide in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. According to this convention, persons who publicly call for genocide are criminally liable.

Akopov's column is part of a general narrative that denies Ukrainians as a nation and is a modification of the historical fake about "one people," which is also spread by President Putin.

We will remind you that "RIA Novosti" is not the first time to publish calls for the destruction of Ukrainian statehood and the genocide of Ukrainians. In early April, another propagandist, Tymofiy Sergeitsev, published a column in which he drew up a plan for the "denazification" of Ukraine for 25 years, which provided for the complete russification of Ukraine, the "repentance" of Ukrainians for "russophobia," as well as the re-education of Ukrainian children according to the rules of Russian propaganda, where Ukrainians don't exist. Still, there are only "malorosy" or simply sick Russians. Sergeitsev called the suffering of Ukrainians from the war a necessary stage of "denazification." President Volodymyr Zelenskyi called Sergeitsev's article evidence at the upcoming tribunal.

In this way, the USA and Great Britain "revenge" Russia for the events in Ukraine. Foreign pro-Russian media write that allegedly after the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipelines and the "terrorist attack" on the Crimean Bridge, it "became clear" that Washington was "planning large-scale terrorist acts" that would give Moscow a "pretext" for a nuclear strike. The publications write that "Anglo-Saxons" are behind both events. The spread of this misinformation a few hours after the explosion on the Crimean bridge, when no details of this event hadn't yet known, was noticed by fact-checkers of the EUvsDisinfo project.

With such a message, pro-Russian Telegram channels are distributing videos of people, allegedly, trying to get into a shelter during an alarm, but they are not allowed to go. The video is accompanied by comments that "repositories for the chosen ones" have appeared, and Ukrainians, instead of helping in times of need, are "pushing each other under bullets." The posts also say that "there is a mess in the country," and officials only "record videos as if everything is fine."

In fact, the video shows how a group of people forcefully breaks into the premises shouting, "we are in the shelter." However, it becomes clear from the words of the institution's employees that it is a school shelter, and there are children. The girl who posted the video claims that she "knows the law"; therefore, she and other people are "obliged" to be allowed to shelter during the air raid alert.

Following regulatory requirements and recommendations, outsiders may not use the school shelter. The school shelter must be organized so that children can stay safely and comfortably during an air raid, even for a long time. The area of ​​the school shelter, water and food supplies, medicines, ventilation system, and other vital things are regulated by regulations. Therefore, there is no allowance for outsiders to go into the school shelter, so the institution's employees acted by the requirements and took care of the children's safety first of all.

The message was widely distributed by pro-Russian Telegram channels as a reaction to the announcement of the joint meeting of Serhii Prytula and Serhii Sternenko, which was joined by other volunteer initiatives.

Propagandists claim that the volunteers are allegedly using the attack on Ukraine to get more money for themselves or for what the West is already giving Ukraine for free.

In fact, as reported by Serhii Prytula, Ukrainian volunteers prematurely announced the fundraising for RAM II kamikaze drones scheduled for October 12. In the post, Prytula also argued for the need to purchase such weapons for the Ukrainian army.

Ukrainians once again demonstrated their resistance to Russian propaganda and disinformation. When Russia was massively shelling almost all of Ukraine with missiles, despite the lack of electricity and interruptions to the Internet, Ukrainians actively sent donations for weapons for the Ukrainian army. As of the morning of October 11, the number of fees exceeded 276 million hryvnias, the final amount hasn`t been announced yet.

Russian propaganda systematically tries to discredit the work of volunteers who significantly help the army. Previously, propaganda massively spread fakes about the purchase by the Serhii Prytula Foundation of "People's Satellite" for 600 million hryvnias.

Such information is spread by pro-Russian Telegram channels, speculating on Russian shelling and the operation of air defense systems.

The day before, anti-aircraft defenses were allegedly taken away from the Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions, leaving these regions without adequate protection. Now, these systems are "urgently" returned. Instead, according to reports, Kyiv and Dnipro are "excessively" protected because they are "more strategically important" to the authorities. The same speculations were previously observed in local telegram channels of Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kharkiv regions, etc. Propagandists deliberately spread messages as "insides" or "rumors" after shelling, manipulating the victims' emotions and taking advantage of the fact that the location and number of anti-aircraft warning systems are not disclosed. In this way, the propagandists also advance the narrative about the division of Ukrainians by place of residence.

Russian propagandists spread this thesis after the massive missile strikes that Russia carried out on the territory of Ukraine today, October 10.

In particular, information about this appeared in Telegram channels controlled by Russian special services. In their reports, they claim that the Office of the President and the heads of regions urge Ukrainians not to publish photos of the destruction caused by missile strikes, and the SSU allegedly writes to the administrators of public social networks and demands that they stop publishing such photos.

Propagandists claim that such a demand by the authorities is aimed at stopping the spread of panic, because "if there are no photos and videos, then there are no hits and losses."

So, according to propagandists, the Ukrainian authorities lie to Ukrainians and try to hide the true picture of events from them. "And the rockets continue to fly," the propagandists write. In fact, photos and videos of missile strikes are recommended not to be shared immediately after shelling, so as not to help the enemy target, and not to hide the picture of destruction.

Information about missile strikes, as well as photos and videos of events, are gradually appearing on the Internet and the official pages of government representatives, particularly on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Propagandists need such messages to assure Ukrainians that their government deceives them.

Moreover, instead of solving the problem, the authorities allegedly simply ignore it, pretending that nothing is happening, hiding photos and videos of the destruction.

Such messages discredit the leadership of Ukraine. However, it is not the authorities of Ukraine that are to blame for what is happening, but Russia, which has not stopped shelling Ukraine for seven months.

After the fire on the Crimean bridge yesterday, October 8, several messages related to this event appeared in anonymous propaganda channels. In particular, propagandists spread the thesis that after the fire and partial collapse of the bridge, Russia will have a large window of opportunity to start a major war against Ukraine. It will be a good reason for a full-scale war, as at one time the USA allegedly started a war in Afghanistan in response to a terrorist act in September 2001.

So, in this way, propagandists claim that Ukraine is a terrorist state that carries out terror against Russia and Russian infrastructure objects. However, there is no official confirmation that Ukraine is involved in the situation with the bridge. Such messages have another function - intimidation. Because of such acts of alleged terrorism, Russia will now strike Ukraine's military and infrastructure facilities more and more often and will have an excuse for a full-scale war. Nevertheless, Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine already began on February 24 of this year: Russian troops illegally occupied four Ukrainian regions, destroyed dozens of not only infrastructural but also civilian objects, purposefully targeted convoys of civilians, destroyed residential buildings, hospitals, schools, etc. Although with the help of such messages, the propagandists allegedly show that Russia is not yet fighting at full strength, and Ukraine is provoking aggression.

The propagandists also claim that the "undermining of the Crimean bridge" is the same terrorist act of Ukraine as the alleged murder of Daria Dugina in Moscow. However, the fact that Ukraine was involved in the murder of Dugina has not been proven, and Russia has no serious evidence, except for propagandists' fiction. However, by portraying Ukraine as a terrorist country, propagandists shift the responsibility for their crimes and the outbreak of the war. Another message related to the fact that the "Western curators" finally gave the command to Ukraine to blow up the bridge. It is allegedly not Ukraine involved in this, but some other third and more developed countries, which were hoping for radicalization in the war on the part of Russia, but there is none yet. Read more about what was written in Telegram channels after the situation on the Crimean Bridge in the "Detector Media" review.

Such a message intensified this week in Russian media and anonymous Telegram channels controlled by the Kremlin.

The process of negotiations with Great Britain allegedly regarding the transfer of nuclear weapons to Ukraine to deter Russia has failed. Because of this, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered to gather of all nuclear scientists in Ukraine as soon as possible to create a "dirty" nuclear bomb. Messages that Ukraine was "preparing" the so-called "dirty atomic bomb" were actively spreading on the eve of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.

This was also indicated among the reasons for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Later, Russian propaganda spread the thesis that Kyiv was trying to turn the plant into a "dirty" nuclear bomb by shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP, and that the US was allegedly interested in having a "dirty" bomb in Ukraine.

There was also an option that Ukrainian scientists were already working on the components of a "dirty" bomb directly near the Russian border. A "dirty bomb" is a type of "radiological dispersal device in which a conventional explosive, such as dynamite, is combined with radioactive material. Such bombs don`t release enough radiation to kill people or cause serious illness.

However, the explosion of such a bomb can cause fear and panic, pollute the space, and require expensive cleanup. Such bombs are considered to be weapons of terrorist groups rather than armies. "Ukraine doesn`t have nuclear weapons and doesn`t conduct any work on their creation/acquisition. We are a responsible member of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on his Twitter account. The Center for Combating Disinformation drew attention to the fact that Ukraine has nowhere to get uranium, and plutonium was produced by the reactors of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and such work has not been carried out for a quarter of a century, therefore statements about the creation of a "dirty nuclear bomb" have no basis.

At the same time, members of the National Commission for Radiation Protection of the Population of Ukraine, Anatoliy Nosovskyy and Viktor Dolin, reported in an interview with Science magazine that during the occupation of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant by Russian troops, a barbaric raid was carried out on the Ekocentr radiation monitoring laboratory, and it was looted. According to scientists, in the laboratory, the Russians could extract radioactive isotopes that were used to calibrate devices and the remains of radioactive waste. "These materials can be mixed with conventional explosives to form a 'dirty bomb' that spreads pollution over a large area," Nosovskyy said.

Such a message came from the Russian Foreign Ministry. The report said that allegedly the West was deliberately supplying weapons to Ukraine in order to keep the country in its sphere of influence. They say that's why the West can resort to using nuclear weapons.

In fact, Russia is engaged in nuclear blackmail, it wanted to intimidate the West so that it would not supply weapons to Ukraine. In fact, after Ukraine’s successful counter-offensive, the propagandists intensified their disinformation campaign about the nuclear threat. Also, after an unsuccessful attempt, the occupiers resorted to a different rhetoric, namely the one that the West allegedly “wants to flood the whole world”, therefore it is trying to supply weapons and bring death everywhere. However, the Western community is helping Ukraine with weapons and is supporting the country in every possible way in protecting its territories from Russia that has unleashed a war in Ukraine.

Back in April, Ukraine recognized Russia as a terrorist state, and since then pro-Russian and Russian mass media, Telegram channels, and bloggers have been trying to spread the mirror message that Ukraine is a terrorist state.

Another reason for this was an article in The New York Times, in which unnamed "representatives of US intelligence" and "American officials" believe that Ukraine is involved in the murder of Oleksandr Dugin's daughter Daria.

The article also states that American officials didn`t know about the special operation in advance, didn`t provide any information to the Ukrainian side, and were surprised that they weren`t consulted before the special operation.

The article doesn`t specify why any country in the world should consult with representatives of the US government when conducting its covert operations. Moreover, the article doesn`t specify who exactly in the Ukrainian government could authorize such a special operation and why.

Blogger Anatoliy Shariy even recorded an urgent video about this gender, where he read the material of The New York Times and tried to convince the audience that this publication is a warning to the Ukrainian government from American officials so that Kyiv doesn`t think about preparing "further terrorist attacks in the style of September 11." Moreover, Shariy noted that the Americans had already known the target, so they wanted to distance themselves from the consequences of this future terrorist attack.

All these fictions of Shariy are part of a more general message promoted by Russian propaganda about Ukraine as a "terrorist state". For the same purpose, Russian Telegram channels call Ukraine "ISIS", or "Ukrainian State" group, and react in this way to real evidence of terrorism by the Russian state - the bombing of civilian infrastructure, shelling of residential buildings, seizure of nuclear power plants and mass crimes against citizens of Ukraine in the occupied territories.

Ukraine has repeatedly stated that it had nothing to do with Dugina's murder. However, the Russian special services have repeatedly killed or tried to kill political opponents of the regime or inconvenient witnesses - mostly they poisoned them, but they also killed them with firearms and even blew them up in cars.

Russian mass media, as well as pro-Russian bloggers and Telegram channels, write dozens of messages refuting "fake Ukrainian propaganda" about torture centers where teeth were pulled. Russian propaganda accuses the Ukrainian police and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine of spreading this fake.

Indeed, in a tweet by the Ministry of Defense, the torture chamber in the village of Pisky-Radkivski with the items found there - a gas mask, a box with extracted teeth and dentures - was called a "mini Auschwitz". That is, the report gives the impression that the Russian military tortured Ukrainians, pulling out their teeth, as the Nazis used to do in concentration camps.

Taras Topolya, a singer and now a soldier, drew the same parallel by comparing two photos - a black and white one from a German concentration camp, on which the gold crowns of the murdered people are visible, and a color photo from the Pisky-Radkivski torture chamber. Some Ukrainian mass media, referring to Taras Topolya, published news in which they claimed that the Russians pulled out the teeth of those who were abused in the torture chamber, but the Ukrainian police didn`t make such a statement.

On the contrary, it clearly stated that the police had evidence of torture using gas masks, as well as burying people alive in the ground. "A dildo, a box with torn dentures were also found in the torture chamber. Investigators and prosecutors are working to establish all the facts that happened in this torture chamber," said Serhii Bolvinov, head of the National Police Investigation Department in the Kharkiv region. So the police didn`t claim that the dentures belonged to the victims of the Russian military.

The day after the gruesome discovery, German journalists from the Bild tabloid found a local dentist in the village, who told them that the prostheses belonged to him, as he kept the removed prostheses of his patients. He also said that the Russians robbed his house, and he thinks they may have taken the box of prosthetics because they thought they were gold or to intimidate the Ukrainians who were being held in the torture chamber. After Bild's material appeared, some Ukrainian publications deleted the news in which they claimed that the Russians tortured prisoners by pulling out their teeth. But mostly, the Ukrainian mass media immediately wrote that the investigation is trying to establish all the circumstances of the crime.

Russian propaganda uses this case to prove that the Russians don`t torture Ukrainians at all, and every terrible find in the de-occupied territories is a fake. For this, for example, they kept quiet that in the Bild article residents talk about screams from the torture chambers, as well as about a person who was subjected to torture. That is, journalists don`t doubt that the Russians are torturing prisoners, civilians, or the military.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels write about it. He said that the very fact of a nuclear attack on Ukraine would be important, and they would not be able to figure out who would carry it out. Because of this, allegedly, the Ukrainian authorities issued a manual on the rules of behavior during a nuclear threat. Some anonymous Telegram channels are spreading rumors that the Americans will strike at the spent nuclear fuel storage in the Chornobyl zone.

Since February 24, Russia has systematically threatened Ukraine and the world with the use of nuclear weapons. At the beginning of a full-scale invasion, the Russians put the nuclear forces on special combat duty. During a speech on September 21, Putin again threatened the possibility of using nuclear weapons in the event of a "direct threat to Russian territory," saying that this was "not a bluff."

Considering the seriousness of the danger, the Ukrainian authorities developed appropriate recommendations for citizens, which agitprop immediately called "preparation for a nuclear accident."

Russian propaganda conducts informational terrorism to induce Ukraine to negotiate on the Kremlin's terms.

This message is spread by pro-Russian media. Allegedly, Ukraine is shelling Donbas with French self-propelled guns "Caesar", therefore France is complicit in "crimes" against the civilian population.

The fact-checkers of the EUvsDisinfo project drew attention to the message. Russian propaganda has been spreading the narrative that "Ukraine is shelling Donbas" since 2014. Agitprop baselessly called these actions genocide.

The atrocities of the Russian army in Ukraine have signs of genocide. Western countries are helping Ukraine resist the Russian invasion and supplying the necessary weapons. In particular, France provided the Armed Forces with 18 Caesar howitzers as part of military aid. It is also planned to deliver several additional units of this weapon (from 6 to 12). These self-propelled guns belong to the category of precision weapons, which limits collateral damage.

Earlier, propagandists spread fakes that the Ukrainians sold self-propelled howitzers "Caesar" to the Russians, and it turned out that they were allegedly not very effective weapons.

The Russian media write about this regarding the words of Vasily Nebenzya, the permanent representative of Russia at the UN.

For example, Western delegations demonstrate double standards by denying residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine the right to self-determination. This situation allegedly has no difference from the exit of Kosovo from Serbia. Nebenzya referred to the decision of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations in 2008. He also said that annexing Ukrainian territories to Russia is more legal because of "referendums".

The referendum in Kosovo was held from September 26 to 30, 1991. It was boycotted by the Serbian minority living in the region. The turnout of Albanians was 87%, and 99% of them voted "for" independence. Kosovo Albanians were not in danger at that time. Yugoslavia no longer existed, and there was a foreign peacekeeping contingent in Serbia. Instead, in Ukraine, Russia held "referendums" in violation of international law and under the pressure of armed soldiers.

So there is no question of the legitimacy and voluntariness of the expression of will. Democratic countries unanimously declared their non-recognition of the results of the illegal "referendums" held by Russia in the temporarily occupied territories, even on the eve of their holding.

Since 2020, 97 states out of 193 (50%) UN member states have recognized the independence of Kosovo; 22 out of 27 (81%) member states of the European Union; 26 out of 30 (87%) NATO member states. Among those who didn`t recognize the independence of Kosovo were Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, and Ukraine.

The UN International Court of Justice has never recognized the independence of Kosovo. The court ruled that the declaration of independence adopted by the Assembly of Kosovo didn`t violate international law. At the same time, the court didn`t consider the legality of unilateral secession and the question of Kosovo's independence.

It is not the first time that Russia uses manipulative statements about the Western "policy of double standards", although it actively uses them itself. Earlier, propagandists wrote that accusations against Russia regarding the violation of the Budapest Memorandum are "impossible" because "Russia's opponents have repeatedly disrespected the fundamental norms of international law, the principles of the UN and the OSCE." The message was noticed by the fact-checkers of The Insider publication.

The Russians spread such rumors and intimidate people who, for various reasons, remained in the temporarily occupied territories. All of them allegedly will eventually be punished for collaborationism.

Currently, there is no law on collaborationism in Ukraine. Since March 15, certain regulations regarding responsibility for cooperation with the occupiers have entered into force, and a single punishment in this regard has not been provided for yet. Depending on the circumstances, it can be different: from a ban on holding certain positions to life imprisonment. But it is precisely about cooperation, and not about staying in the temporarily occupied territories for various reasons.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy also responded to this message in his daily address. "If a person did not serve the occupiers and did not betray Ukraine, then there is no reason to consider such a person a collaborator," the president said.

The occupiers deliberately spread such rumors to intimidate the inhabitants of the temporarily occupied territories and induce them to cooperate. Earlier, they claimed that Ukrainians would be punished for receiving Russian humanitarian assistance in the temporarily occupied territories.

The message is spread by the Russian media concerning the deputy of the Russian Duma Serhii Mironov.

The Russian official called to "destroy" the entire infrastructure of Ukraine: traction substations, power plants, all bridges, and roads. He said it was necessary to "liberate" the territories and protect the lives of civilians. The message got into the Ukrainian information space through pro-Russian media.

According to the Center for Combating Disinformation, such statements are associated with defeats on the front line. The Russians, under the guise of rescuing civilians, openly call for the destruction of civilian objects. In this way, Russian propaganda exerts emotional pressure on Ukrainians — it tries to intimidate them, force them to surrender, and sow distrust in the actions of the authorities. Leaving people without light, heat, and means of livelihood is not "care" for the lives of civilians, but genocide, which Russia is trying to blackmail against the background of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

It is not the first time Russian agitprop has spread such messages. Similar calls were made during the liberation of the Kharkiv region. Moreover, on September 11, the Russians attacked the Kharkiv CHP plant and left several regions without electricity: Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, and partially Donetsk. At that time, the propagandists claimed that the Ukrainian energy system was under "self-fire."

Anonymous Telegram channels promote the thesis that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is the return of territories, not the liberation of people.

For example, the Ukrainian military scares residents with death who do not meet them with flags and pancakes. Moreover, they also do not let people go into the territory occupied by Russia, shooting cars on the road.

Propagandists began to actively reproduce these thoughts after the SSU discovered a convoy of cars shelled by the Russians in the so-called "gray zone" in the Kharkiv region, where 20 people died, including 10 children, as well as after a convoy of cars was shot by Russian missiles in Zaporizhzhia, where were mostly locals who transported humanitarian aid to their relatives in the occupied territory.

People with different views remained alive in the liberated Ukrainian military towns and villages: some were waiting for the Ukrainian army, and others wanted to return to the USSR and spoke favorably of the Russian occupiers. However, no one from the military or SSU persecuted them, moreover, no one threatened them with death for their views. For example, in liberated Izyum, some Ukrainians with pro-Russian views freely gave interviews to Ukrainian journalists, and no one threatened them with violence or harm.

Russian media and anonymous telegram channels actively reacted to the statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi about filing an application for accelerated entry into the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO).

Earlier during the week, Russian propagandists claimed that in the event of a nuclear strike, Ukraine would not retaliate and NATO would not help it in any way. They promoted the message that Ukraine may want to join NATO, but no one will take it there. On September 30, after Putin's speech about the annexation of four regions of Ukraine to Russia and Zelenskyi's statement about joining NATO, the propaganda rhetoric changed dramatically. They presented Ukraine's accession to NATO as a fait accompli.

We have identified several main theses of propagandists.

The application to join NATO is Zelenskyi's pathos.

This opinion is shared by pro-Russian bloggers in telegrams. Like, all this was done so that NATO would give more weapons, since Ukraine fixed the direction. And are the national leaders of NATO member states ready to send their citizens to their deaths?

Ukraine enshrined in the Constitution the course towards the European Union and NATO back in February 2019, when the Verkhovna Rada voted for the relevant bill.

Also during the war, the number of Ukrainians supporting accession to the EU and NATO increased. In a referendum, this initiative would be supported by 76%, against - 10%, 12% would not vote. In March 2022, 68% supported joining the Alliance. This is evidenced by the results of the thirteenth nationwide survey in the conditions of war, conducted by the Sociological Group "Rating" on June 18-19, 2022.

In addition, the United States is realistic about the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO. So Zelenskyi's statement is fully justified and aimed at the result, not provocation or pathos.

This is the counter-message to Russia that it officially takes over four regions.

Like, Bankova interrupted the Kremlin's information about Moscow's victorious reports. Zelenskyi in his statement showed a clear plan for Ukraine - we will recapture all our territories and are ready for negotiations with Russia, but with a different president of Russia.

The statement about joining NATO was made with an eye to at least something in time to grab from the collapse of Ukraine if Kyiv crumbles.

In announcing his application for accession, Zelenskyi urged Western partners to implement Ukraine-prepared proposals for security guarantees set out in the Kyiv Security Treaty. There are no alternatives to security, the President said. Ukraine can stop Russia's aggression only with the help of Europe and the United States.

Zelenskyi’s statement resembles the move with the “acceptance” of Ukraine to the European Union, how much joy there was and everything eventually calmed down, but they filled out a questionnaire for candidacy for the EU.

US President Joe Biden said the US would help Ukraine regain its territories. In response to annexation attempts, the United States along with allies and partners is announcing new sanctions today.

Accession to NATO, as well as to the EU, is not a quick process, but on this path Ukraine is supported and met.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine is eligible to apply for membership, but the priority now is aid.

Ukraine's accession to NATO is dragging the United States into a war with Russia.

Putin has repeatedly threatened a nuclear attack on Ukraine. The US and the West understand that this is possible and that Putin needs to be stopped, so they support Ukraine and participate in this war with their help, although officially without their military on the territory of Ukraine.

"Bloody butchers go to the NATO trash can".

This thesis is spread by the Russian propaganda media. Like, Volodymyr Zelenskyi is asking for a tribunal for Russia, but a real tribunal should be for the Ukrainian Nazis who neglecting all the legal norms of war and peace for eight years stormed the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and killed adults and children.

According to the EU vs Disinfo project analysts, this is a recurring disinformation thesis of the pro-Kremlin media that the Nazi junta ruling in Ukraine is persecuting ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians.

This statement was made to justify Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyi came up with the idea of ​​a special UN tribunal to punish Russia for war crimes in Ukraine. He stated this in a speech at the UN General Assembly.

“Punishment for torture and humiliation of women and men. Punishment for the catastrophic turbulence that Russia provoked with its illegal war, and not only for us Ukrainians, but for the whole world,” Zelenskyi said. “Why were you silent for eight years when you were killing children in Donbas?” - this phrase and its variations are today one of the most popular arguments of Russia's supporters. More details in the text of Yaroslav Zubchenko.

Russian propaganda media disseminate information that the West is responsible for everything that happens after the referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Like, because the EU can put pressure on Kyiv to negotiate with Russia, and if not, then Washington should do it. However, the West, according to propagandists, is doing the opposite, trying to frustrate any attempt at negotiations. And accordingly, he is responsible for what is happening in the occupied territories.

Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to this message. In fact, the spread of such messages is part of a wider disinformation campaign designed to justify Russia's illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory after the fake referendums. By blaming the West, propagandists are trying to divert responsibility from Russia for the consequences of its illegal actions. This is a kind of attempt to put pressure on Western countries to force Ukraine to accept the expected results of the so-called referendums.

In fact, it is Russia that is responsible for everything that happens in Ukraine because it was this country that started the bloody war, occupied Ukrainian territories and held illegal referendums there forcing people to vote for joining Russia at gunpoint.