On May 8th, Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed a decree on celebrating Europe Day in Ukraine on May 9th. The Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II is proposed to be celebrated on May 8th. Against the backdrop of these changes, many disinformation messages were circulated in pro-Russian anonymous telegram channels, with the help of which Russia imposes its own interpretation of events on the audience. Analysts of Detector Media have identified the most common of them.

1. Zelenskyi gave back Victory Day to Russia, although the Ukrainians are the victorious people. 

Indeed, the Ukrainians fought against Nazism as part of different armies of the world, because they were a stateless people. More than 7 million Ukrainians fought the Third Reich in the Red Army. In addition, they fought in the armies of the United States, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Canada and other countries. That is why the authorities proposed to celebrate the Day of Remembrance and victory over Nazism together with the rest of the world. However, this does not mean that Ukraine is abandoning the role of the winner altogether, as anonymous telegrams are trying to convince the audience, reinforcing the recurring propaganda narrative that “Ukrainians are Nazis”, because they are abandoning the so-called Victory Day over this phenomenon. This decision only means that now Ukraine will celebrate Remembrance Day on May 8th, like most countries of the world.

2. There is no point in celebrating Europe Day because the European countries surrendered to the Nazis or were their allies.

In fact, even in the countries occupied by Germany and the allied states, there was a powerful resistance movement against the Nazis. Moreover, such states as Czechoslovakia and Poland, although they were under occupation, had their own military formations as part of the armies of other countries. For example, people from Transcarpathia, who at that time were citizens of Czechoslovakia, in 1943 made up the majority in the First Separate Czechoslovak Brigade. This unit fought against the Nazis as part of the Red Army and distinguished itself in the battles for the liberation of Kharkiv and the Kyiv offensive. As for the struggle against Nazism in European countries, we should mention the Warsaw Uprising, the Slovak National Uprising, the Resistance Movement in France, etc. That is, Europe also fought against Nazism. By spreading such messages, anonymous telegram channels are trying to discredit European allies by outlining their historical past to the Ukrainian audience. Thus, propaganda theses are being promoted that only the “fraternal Russian people”, without the help of Europe, together with the Ukrainians defeated Nazism.

3. Ukraine refused May 9 to please Western partners.

With this message, anonymous users of social networks are promoting the thesis of Russian propaganda that Ukraine is a puppet of the West in order to deprive Ukraine of legitimacy and sovereignty in decision-making in the eyes of propaganda consumers. In fact, the celebration of Europe Day was synchronized with this holiday in the EU countries, and the celebration of the Day of Remembrance and Victory will also take place along with Europe.

4. The authorities will ban Ukrainians from bringing flowers to the monuments to those who died in World War II. For this one can get a prison sentence.

In fact, according to the law on decommunization, honoring the memory of those who died in World War II, laying flowers at monuments or taking to the streets of veterans with medals (which anonymous telegrams were also noted) is not considered a crime. Only the public display of Nazi and communist totalitarian symbols is punished. At the same time, these symbols are not considered prohibited if they are placed on state awards, commemorative medals and other awards that were awarded before 1991 and during 1991-2015 in connection with the anniversary of the events of World War II. Anonymous telegram channels spread such messages in order to intimidate the audience and discredit Ukraine, identifying it with totalitarian states.