On the Internet, propagandists began to spread information that Romania is in no hurry to help evacuate its “stranded” citizens in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Hamas attack on Israel. Bucharest is supposedly engaged in saving Ukrainians, that is, it puts them as a priority. This is manipulation.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project looked into this case and found out that there is no information that Romania is prioritizing the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens. Evacuation from the Gaza Strip is not yet possible, so propagandists manipulate information when they write that the Romanian authorities are saving Ukrainians, but not Romanians. On October 8, 2023, Romania made its first flight, evacuating 346 Romanian citizens from Ben Gurion Airport (Tel Aviv, Israel), as reported by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Almost a week later, the first evacuation plane to Romania with Ukrainians on board took off from the same Israel on October 14 - there were 207 Ukrainian citizens on board, mostly women, children and the elderly. Due to the fact that Ukrainian airspace is closed to aircraft due to Russia’s armed aggression, Ukrainian citizens are forced to fly first to Romania, a neighboring country, and only then travel overland to Ukraine.

Russia is trying to “create a quarrel” between Ukraine and its neighboring states, one of which is Romania, in order to reduce their support for the Ukrainian people from Russian aggression. Previously, pro-Kremlin media also spread disinformation about the rescue of Ukrainians from Israel in order to once again discredit the Ukrainian government for its inaction.