UPDATED. Provocation and Disinformation Overview. Part 2

• Germany allegedly deliberately keeps only refugee women in the country so that they can give birth to a new generation of Germans, while men are allegedly mostly deported.
• Russian Telegram channels spread information about a charity dinner in Paris in support of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. In particular, during the speech, the King of Britain Charles III allegedly said that those who support Russians and African Americans should not be among those present.
• The information is spreading on the network that the cover of The Economist in 2013 allegedly shows that Hamas will invade Israel on paragliders and that the latter’s prime minister will be Benjamin Netanyahu. The illustration shows, among other things, a confrontation between a representative of the terrorist group Hamas and Prime Minister of Israel Netanyahu, men fly on hang gliders to meet each other, a layer of smoke with the inscription “anger” is formed between them.

Now the TRUTH:

• This statement is unfounded, because there are no facts that would indicate such a change in Germany’s demographic policy. Such messages are aimed, on the one hand, at women, in order to increase their fear of staying abroad or to influence the decision to emigrate. On the other hand, such reports are aimed at showing that Ukraine is allegedly losing support in the West and the partners only want to use Ukrainians as genetic material.
• On September 20, 2023, a dinner was indeed held in Paris with the participation of the British royal family, the President of France and famous people. Its main theme is strengthening Franco-British cooperation to overcome modern challenges. Ukraine and the counteroffensive were not the focus of attention that evening. In his speech, Charles III never mentioned the Russians or their support, African Americans, or Ukrainian offensives. In general, the 3-day visit of the royal family to France is seen primarily as an effort to restore good relations between Paris and London after Brexit.
• This is a conspiracy theory. Benjamin Netanyahu headed the government at the time of another escalation of relations between Israel and Hamas in 2012. The sides exchanged massive rocket attacks, without the use of infantry, which is exactly what was depicted on the cover.

• Ukrainian diplomacy has failed because it allegedly spoiled relations with Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia, and Belarus — that is, with almost all the countries surrounding it.
• Ex-TV presenter Tucker Carlson said that Ukraine and NATO would not be able to defeat Russia despite any financial assistance from the USA.
• Ukraine allegedly transferred weapons to Hamas using the grain deal.

Now the TRUTH:

• In fact, Ukraine did not spoil diplomatic relations with Russia and Belarus — these countries did it themselves when they attacked Ukraine. The Hungarian and newly elected Slovak governments have pro-Russian views, which is why they pose threats to Ukraine’s support from the EU. The conflict with Poland is connected with the export of Ukrainian grain, however, the support of Ukraine from Poland continues. After all, if Ukraine does not resist the Russian invasion, Poland will be the next to be attacked by the Russian Federation.
• Tucker Carlson systematically disseminates narratives consonant with Russian ones. Russia uses his quotes as proof that there is mass support for the Russian Federation in the West, although this is not the case. In this thesis, Carlson repeated the narrative of an alleged proxy war, that is, a situation where the parties to the conflict are represented by other participants. But NATO is not fighting in Ukraine against Russia. NATO countries, in particular the United States, do provide unprecedented support to Ukraine, but this is a war of Russia against Ukraine, not Russia and NATO.
• The Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine has already explained that the Russian special services sent Western weapons captured during the war in Ukraine to the Hamas terrorists. Thus, Russia is once again trying to discredit Ukraine in the international arena. At the same time, the leading partner of Ukraine — the USA — has repeatedly said that there is no evidence of resale of Western weapons by Ukraine.

• The US is ready to provide Israel with intercontinental ballistic missiles — CNN.
• In a few days of active fighting from Israel, there are more videos than in 2 years of a full-scale Russian invasion — Donald Trump Jr.
• The Taliban have asked neighboring countries for permission to cross their territory to join Hamas’ actions against Israel.

Now the TRUTH:

• The news is made up. There are no reports on the CNN page about the transfer of such missiles to Israel. In addition, these missiles are not designed to attack neighboring territories, and their transfer is prohibited by international agreements. Intercontinental ballistic missiles have a minimum range of more than 5,500 km. The distance from Tel Aviv to the Gaza Strip is about 80 km, and to the Iranian capital — more than 1.5 thousand km.
• In fact, a full-scale Russian invasion has been covered since February 24, 2022. Video of the fighting is published by both Western journalists and OSINT analysts (Bellingcat or Geoconfirmed) and Ukrainian (DeepState or InformNapalm).
• The source of such news could be an account that was pretending to be the official page of the Taliban’s public relations department on Twitter. The name of the fake page was later changed. This information also appeared in The Jerusalem Post but was later deleted. There were no reports in the reliable media about the readiness of the Taliban to fight Israel.

• Hamas leader Yahya Sinwara has been eliminated — The Times Of Israel
• Joe Biden signed an executive order to allocate $8 billion in military aid to Israel
• Hamas openly thanked Ukraine for the sale of Western weapons

Now the TRUTH:

• In fact, the Israeli publication quoted the threatening words of the chief spokesman of the Israeli army, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. He meant that the military and political leadership of Hamas would be destroyed and that Yahya Sinwar could already be considered “dead.”
• There are no reports on the White House website about allocating $8 billion in military aid to Israel. The text on the image, which is distributed on the network, has been forged. Instead, the original memorandum with an identical title refers to the allocation of $400 million to the US Ministry of Defense, which should be directed to military aid to Ukraine in the future.
• The video shows conventional weapons — grenade launchers, assault rifles,and machine guns, which are in service in many countries. In addition, the person’s face is not visible on the recording, and the sound, most likely, could be superimposed on the finished video. In addition, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine reported that the Russian special services had sent Western weapons captured during the war in Ukraine to Hamas terrorists. In this way, Russian propagandists are once again trying to discredit Ukraine on the international stage. However, the USA has repeatedly said that there is no evidence of resale of Western weapons by Ukraine.

• During his speech in Valdai, Putin repeated numerous fakes of Russian propaganda. In particular, in one of the theses, Putin claimed that the so-called “special military operation” is aimed at ending the war that the West has been waging for 10 years.
• In another thesis, Putin lied, as if the West had never counted the number of children who died in Donbas.
• A video of a guy who was allegedly forcibly mobilized at the age of 18 is being shared on TikTok. Pro-Russian Telegram channels claim that the 18-year-old boy could not serve in the army before mobilization, and therefore this is proof that Zelensky is allegedly forming an army of children and teenagers, like the Hitler Youth of Nazi Germany.

Now the TRUTH:

• Speaking about the war that supposedly lasts for 10 years, Putin most likely had in mind the war in Eastern Ukraine, which began in 2014. However, there is no basis to believe that the West initiated, let alone waged, this war. It is Russia itself that has been fueling hostility in Eastern Ukraine for years and promoting anti-Western sentiments there. It was Russia that deployed its troops to Eastern Ukraine in 2014, and for many years, despite numerous evidence including the identification of Russian military personnel, equipment, and weaponry, denied this.
• This is false. The Special Monitoring Mission of the OSCE, which, by the way, included representatives from the Russian Federation, confirmed information about 91 civilian casualties in just 2021, including 16 deaths and 75 injuries (60 men, 18 women, 8 boys, and 5 girls).
• There is no reason to believe that the young man was conscripted forcibly or that this is being done to form a youth army. In reality, in Ukraine, joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine is allowed from the age of 18, so the young man could have volunteered for service. Prior military experience is not mandatory for this. Russia continues to widely spread manipulations about supposed mass mobilization, including using the image of children and youth to create an even greater atmosphere of fear.

• On October 6, in Kharkiv, Russia allegedly struck a hotel where foreign mercenaries were staying.
• The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said that the alleged supply of long-range missiles to Ukraine will force Russia to “put a red button on the table” and lead to a nuclear escalation.
• In one of the Ukrainian Telegram chats, where social payments from the state and benefits are discussed, a video appeared showing that summonses have already begun to be given even to women.

Now the TRUTH:

• Every time Russia launches a targeted attack on civilian infrastructure, propagandists claim that it was either a military target, or it was a strike on foreign mercenaries, or it was allegedly a mistake by Ukrainian air defense. In fact, as a result of a Russian missile attack in the morning of October 6, two people, including a child, were killed in Kharkiv. 30 people were injured. 2 apartment buildings were damaged and a three-story residential building was destroyed, the Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko said.
• Lukashenko is spreading Russian narratives about nuclear escalation, which is part of the intimidation of not only Ukraine, but the entire world. The purpose of such statements is to cut off military aid to Ukraine. However, as the dynamics of aid to Ukraine show, this tactic does not achieve the desired result.
• From the discussions in the same Telegram chat, it can be seen that the chat was probably either hacked, or Russian users joined it, or bots. This message was deliberately thrown into a group where there are many women to sow fear and panic among them. In Ukraine, summonses are not issued to women, and women can register for the military voluntarily.

• The attack on the village of Groza in the Kupiansk district of the Kharkiv region could be staged by Ukraine allegedly to stimulate funding for Ukraine and to justify increased mobilization.
• Five Ukrainians got into a fight on a bus that led to a car accident in Mestre (Italy).
• Russian Telegram channels are spreading information that Sweden has officially confirmed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost all 10 Leopard 2A5 tanks of Stridsvagn 122 modification, which were previously transferred to Ukraine. Armored vehicles supposedly belonged to 21 separate mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which lost the Swedish tanks.

Now the TRUTH:

• There is no reason to believe that Ukraine struck the village of Groza. A Russian missile hit a local cafe where a military memorial service was held. 52 people died, which is almost every sixth resident of the village. Two children were among the dead. The attack on the village of Groza in the Kharkiv region became the largest missile attack of the Russian Federation in 2023. The locals are inclined to the version that the attack could have been directed by one of the villagers, but there are no specific suspicions of the locals or the law enforcement officers so far.
• Near Venice, Italy, a passenger bus fell from a overpass near the railway. At least 21 people were killed. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko reported that four Ukrainians died and another four were injured. However, in reports about the accident there are no mention of a fight on the bus allegedly caused by Ukrainians. Only Russian media and Telegram channels have written about this, without providing any evidence. 
• On September 23, 2023, Forbes published an article stating that Russian UAVs damaged two Swedish Stridsvagn 122 tanks, which indeed belonged to the 21st Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Citing Russian video footage, the article’s author suggests that the tank initially hit a mine, and a few hours later, it was hit by Russian UAVs. OSINT analysts from the Oryx platform also report that two Stridsvagn 122 tanks were damaged and abandoned. However, we have not found any official statements on the pages of the Swedish Ministry of Defense regarding the alleged destruction of Stridsvagn 122 tanks. Furthermore, the press officer of the Swedish Minister of Defense, Pal Johnson, stated to Reuters fact-checkers that he had made no statements about the loss of these tanks on the battlefield. In contrast, Swedish volunteer Jonas von Matern personally spoke with the commander who led the company of Stridsvagn 122 tanks. The commander stated that the Russians did indeed damage two tanks, but they are still operational.

• Russian Telegram channels are spreading information that a French travel agency allegedly said that the losses of Ukrainians in the war amounted to 500,000 killed soldiers. Also, the travel agency allegedly came up with a contest, the main condition of which was to upload a photo of a fallen soldier and take a picture in front of any landmark.
• There is information spread online claiming that McDonald’s in Ukraine offers a cherry pie that may contain “Russian baby bones”.
• The National Bank of Ukraine canceled the fixed exchange rate, and therefore the hryvnia will go into “free flight”, and prices will rise excessively.

Now the TRUTH:

• We did not find a single report in the foreign media about the contest of the French travel agency or the statement about 500,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers. Most likely, the propagandists took this photo from the Internet and added the logo of the French publication in order to convince readers of the “truthfulness” of the news. On August 18, 2023, The New York Times, citing anonymous US officials, reported that the number of people killed and wounded as a result of the war reached 500,000. We are talking about losses from both sides, not only from the Ukrainian side. Anonymous American officials note that about 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers died in the war and another 100,000-120,000 were wounded. While on the Russian side, the number of dead is approximately 120,000.
• At first, Ukrainian users and satirical groups began to spread the image as a joke (meme). Later, Russian sources presented it as a real packaging change at McDonald’s. However, the company did not announce such a campaign on its official website or pages in social networks. Checking the photo with the FotoForensics tool showed that the image has signs of editing (changed areas are brighter than other elements). Even without the use of image verification tools, it is noticeable that the note about “Russian babies” is written on the original photo: the packaging has a rounded shape, accordingly, the text written on it is also rounded. Instead, the expression “Russian babies” is direct, without rounding. If it were printed on the packaging, it would follow its shape.
• The NBU has introduced a managed flexibility regime. This is a regime where the official exchange rate depends on operations on the interbank market. Before that, from February 24, 2022, Ukraine had a fixed exchange rate, when the National Bank set the official rate. The main goal of the National Bank is to return to a floating exchange rate, but given the war risks, this may take a long time. So this is an intermediate period that will allow the economy to adapt to internal and external conditions. Nothing fundamentally changes for the cash market. After all, the cash rate is different from the official one anyway. Back in May 2022, the NBU lifted the restriction that the cash rate should not deviate from the official rate by more than 10%. The changes concern only currency trading between banks. Probably, due to the abolition of the fixed exchange rate, the dollar may go up. However, nobody can accurately predict how much the rate will change or how long it will stay at the new level. At the same time, the NBU retains the possibility to intervene promptly and prevent sharp spikes if the need arises.

• Russian Telegram channels are spreading information that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has allegedly introduced draft law No. 10084, which allows men over 60 to be mobilized. Now they want to raise the military age for ordinary soldiers to 65, and for senior officers to 70.
• Information is spreading online claiming that leaflets with the slogan “Education won’t save the country! Join the Armed Forces of Ukraine!” are being distributed in Ukrainian higher education institutions. Additionally, the leaflet prominently features the logos of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Student Union of Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute, as well as contact information for the local recruitment center under the heading “Update your information at the Territorial Recruitment Center.”
• Russian Telegram channels and media are distributing video of American neo-Nazi Kent “Boneface” McLellan and claiming that he was allegedly a volunteer in the “Azov” unit and participated in the force actions of the Right Sector Volunteer Ukrainian Corps, as well as recruited US volunteers for them.

Now the TRUTH:

• First of all, in part 2 of Article 22 of the Law “On Military Duty and Military Service” even before draft law No. 10084, it was stated that servicemen may be left in military service over the age limit for a period of 5 years at their request. For this, a person must have high professional training, experience of practical work in the position held by him and be recognized by the military medical commission as fit for health. Secondly, the draft law proposes to allow military personnel to remain in military service at their request during martial law without restrictions on age and term of military service. The conditions for this are the same as before: high professional training, work experience and fitness from the military medical commission in terms of health.
• The press officer of the Kharkiv Regional Territorial Recruitment Center, Olena Rodina, denied the preparation of leaflets with such appeals. “What the Russians spread is always fake. The narrative “Education will not save the country” does not exist for us at all! Children of Ukraine studied, studied and will continue to study!”. The real slogan of the campaign is the expression: “Acknowledging fear is brave. We need the brave!“. The student union of the Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute also denied its connection with the leaflets. In August 2023, the Ministry of Defense presented the information campaign “Update data in the Territorial Recruitment Center,”. The purpose of the campaign is to motivate Ukrainians to update their personal data at territorial recruitment and social support centers. It is implemented by placing informational materials (videos and images) in the telethon “Yedyni Novyny(United News)” and on other TV channels, on the radio, in cinemas (Multiplex, Planeta Kino, Oscar and others), on digital outdoor advertising platforms, in Ukrzaliznytsia trains, in the form of banners on partner sites on the Internet, on social media pages of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. No mention of physical postcards. Moreover, the images created as part of the campaign are significantly different from those in the video.
• In 2014-2015 and 2022, Kent McLellan could not be part of the Ukrainian units, as he was not physically in Ukraine. This is confirmed by documents about his arrests, court decisions, contradictions in the words of the American compared with the words of Russian propagandists.

• On September 30, in Russia, the so-called day of Donbas and Tavria’s return “home” was held — this is what propagandists called the day when pseudo-referendums on joining Russia were held in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. 
• The list of reforms that the authorities received from the US should kill Zelenskyi’s rating. Therefore, the Ukrainian authorities are allegedly already considering the option of holding elections before they have to report to the United States on the implementation of these reforms.
• According to another version, the Ukrainian authorities will sooner go to peace talks with the Russian Federation than implement this list of reforms.

Now the TRUTH:

• There is no “returning home” day — the pseudo-referendums that the Russians staged had nothing to do with free democratic choice. The so-called international observers at the pseudo-referendums were exclusively from countries friendly to the Russian Federation. It is not known what the turnout was and how people actually voted, because the secrecy of voting at polling stations was not respected. Fighting continues in the regions, which are not safe conditions for the organization of any election process. It is not known whether those who voted were really Ukrainians from the South and East of Ukraine, whether they were not threatened by the Russians, or whether they were actually actors brought by Russia.
• The USA formed a preliminary list of reforms that the Ukrainian authorities must implement within a year and a half. Similar requirements already exist in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU). This list is the “basis for consultations” with the government and key partners, explained the US Embassy in Ukraine. The requirements outlined in it are not new: Ukraine has long been committed to carrying out anti-corruption and judicial reforms — this, among other things, has always been a condition for lending from the IMF and the EU, and now it is a condition for receiving financing from Western partners. At the same time, there is no reason to believe that Zelenskyi would hold elections in order not to implement these reforms. The current authorities have repeatedly emphasized that holding elections in war conditions is impossible, because it is impossible to ensure security at polling stations, voter turnout, it is impossible to organize polling stations at temporarily occupied territories, and additionally it is necessary to plan voting for Ukrainians abroad. Therefore, there is no reason to claim that the authorities are preparing for the elections, and not for the implementation of reforms.
• Fulfillment or non-fulfilment of these requirements will in no way affect Ukraine’s receipt of military aid from the United States. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that Ukraine will soon agree to peace negotiations. Support for Ukraine will continue, and therefore, there will be an opportunity to continue to resist the enemy and return Ukrainian lands under control.

• The proposal of Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security Council, that all Ukrainians should have weapons at home, is related to the preparation of a civil war within Ukraine after the end of the so-called “special military operation”.
• In Crimea, the Russian passport of Olena Zelenska was found in allegedly Zelenskyi’s apartment nationalized by Russia.
• In the interim budget, the US removed financial aid to Ukraine for 45 days to finance the government. Therefore, the Ukrainian authorities can arrange domestic provocations, such as an international emergency, to bring attention back to Ukraine.

Now the TRUTH:

• In an interview with Nataliia Moseichuk, Oleksii Danilov spoke about weapons in the context of defense against Russia and meant the readiness of every Ukrainian to defend his country. There is no reason to claim that the authorities are preparing a civil war in Ukraine. However, it was Russia that spread the narrative about the civil war for years, in order to prove that there are allegedly no Russian troops in the East of Ukraine.
• The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security has already refuted this fake. Authors of the fake took the photo for the “document” from the first lady’s Instagram. Thus, the “passport” was allegedly issued in 2014, but the photo in it is from 2023. There is also a discrepancy between the date of issue and the passport number. The “document” states that it was issued in 2020, not in 2014, as the propagandists say. In addition, at the bottom of the first page (where the MRZ code is located), Zelenska’s paternal name is written with an error in transliteration — Vlodymyrovna.
• For the Ukrainian state, the approval of the project of temporary financing of the government for a period of 45 days, which does not include financing of aid to Ukraine, in the US means the continuation of work with partners. Currently, there is no threat to the previously approved supplies of weapons and equipment. Currently, the temporary budget resolution has been adopted only for 45 days. The Congress and the Administration made sure that the funds of the previous budget for aid programs to Ukraine were transitory — the Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA, Oksana Markarova, wrote about this on Facebook. At the same time, there is no reason to believe that the Ukrainian authorities would arrange provocations to draw attention to Ukraine. Every day, it is Russia that commits crimes against Ukraine and Ukrainians: shelling civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, torturing civilians and prisoners of war, damaging the environment, cultural monuments, deporting Ukrainians, including children. Therefore, it is Russia that is doing everything possible so that the world’s attention is focused on Ukraine, however, it is through the narrative of the so-called “provocations” that Russia tries to justify its own brutality. Probably, this is how Russia prepares the groundwork for another crime, in order to later try to justify it in this way.

• The information is spread on the network claiming that allegedly the Russians destroyed on the front  the Leopard tank transferred to Ukraine with a crew consisting of a Bundeswehr servicemen. “When we stopped their next “meat storm” and tapped Leopard, we came to the burned equipment in the hope of capturing the tank crew. And we found that the tank driver was seriously injured and the rest was killed. The mechanic, when he came to his senses and saw us, began to shout “Nikht Schisen” (do not shoot),” — said the commander of the group with the call sign “Legend”. “The mechanic-driver of the knocked-out tank said several times that he was not a mercenary, but a soldier of the Bundeswehr, and the entire crew was from the same company,” the soldier added.
• Information is spreading online that Pope Francis was allegedly included in the “Myrotvorets” base for “supporting Russian Catholics and complicity in Russian crimes.”
• Russian propaganda channels spread the news that a mural was allegedly painted on the wall of a house in Berlin depicting Volodymyr Zelenskyi as a cannibal eating the torn off arm of a Ukrainian soldier.

Now the TRUTH:

• There is no evidence, apart from the words of the Russian military. The German Ministry of Defense denies the presence of German tank crews in Ukraine. In particular, the Ministry of Defense of Germany denied information about the participation of Bundeswehr tankers in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine. “There are no German tank crews in Ukraine,” emphasized one of the official representatives of the German Ministry of Defense, giving a comment to the German publication Deutsche Welle. This fake was also refuted by independent German fact-checkers from Correctiv. They explain that in order for the Bundeswehr military to take part in armed operations abroad, the approval of the Bundestag, the federal parliament of Germany, is required. Currently, the Bundeswehr participates only in the European training mission (EUMAM UA) to support the country attacked by Russia.
• It is about the 266th Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio. This name is allegedly listed in the database. However, if you try to find a suitable person on the “Myrotvorets” website, the search will not yield results. There is no such person in the base.
• In the post, the propagandists refer to the relevant news that allegedly appeared on Deutsche Welle’s Instagram page. However, there is no such news in Instagram media. Also, there is no post about the mural on the Deutsche Welle website, Facebook and Twitter. In addition to Deutsche Welle, the propagandists refer to the website of the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which allegedly also published news about the mural. However, there is no such news on the website of the mass media. There is also no such post on the newspaper’s Facebook and Twitter. On the fake screenshot, the name of the President of Ukraine is written incorrectly, transliterated from Russian, or even with a mistake — “Vladimir Zelenski” and “Zelinsky”, although the correct German would be Wolodymyr Selenskyj. On the day and time shown in the fake screenshot from the newspaper’s website, another article was published, dedicated to Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia.

• Information is spread online that the American businessman Elon Musk has been added to the “Myrotvorets” database.
• Russian Telegram channels are spreading a segment of one of the stories, in which it is said that three burglars robbed the house of the family of a fallen soldier allegedly during his funeral in the Lviv region in 2023.
• A luxury bomb shelter was allegedly built in Lviv. The shelter allegedly has a barista, a DJ, and a bartender, and an all-inclusive subscription costs UAH 30,000 per month.

Now the TRUTH:

• On the site “Myrotvorets” at the request of Elon Musk, there is no corresponding data, a search in previous versions of the site viewed in the web archive also did not yield results. The information that Elon Musk was allegedly added to this database began to be spread in 2021. This publication appeared on the website “Panorama“, which publishes satirical news. On October 3, 2022, this site again published a similar “news”. In just a few days, Russian news resources began to reproduce the information en masse. At that time, Elon Musk even reacted to the publication and asked to provide a link to the questionnaire in “Myrotvorets”, but this was never done since such a page never existed. Neither in 2021, nor in 2022, nor in 2023 was Musk’s name in the database.
• Using keywords, we found an original story about a theft in a military man’s house, which was published on the Internet on July 25, 2016. The event took place on July 22 of the same year in the city of Zolochiv, Lviv Region. Thieves entered the house during the funeral of serviceman Andrii Shvets, who served as a volunteer in the ATO (anti-terrorist operation) in the East. Later, the police detained the suspects, three teenagers, who stole money and property worth about 40,000 hryvnias. At most, according to the police, the teenagers knew the deceased soldier because he helped one of the boys with legal advice before the service. Propagandists once again used the old story to ridicule and discredit Ukrainians. Earlier, we already refuted a similar fake that allegedly British Prince Andrew was accused of sexual violence against Ukrainian children after a visit to Ukraine. In this case, the propagandists also used the old story of the Prince Andrew scandal, which actually has nothing to do with Ukraine.
• The video was originally published on the local Lviv Telegram channel as a joke. There is no luxury bomb shelter in Lviv — a video circulating on the network was created by artificial intelligence at the request of what a premium shelter would look like.

• The Russian military treats captured Ukrainian soldiers better than the Armed Forces of Ukraine: provide medical care, give them the opportunity to meet their families, feed them, etc.
• Ukrainians started to hate Russia and all Russians under the influence of Western propaganda. The so-called Anglo-Saxons have turned the Ukrainian people against their alleged Russian brothers for years.

Now the TRUTH:

• In reality, the Russian military is torturing and killing Ukrainian prisoners of war. For example, this is precisely what the Russians did in the Olenivka colony: first, they brutally tortured the prisoners of war there, and later they destroyed the colony in order to hide the traces of torture, killing the prisoners and falsely shifting the blame for it to Ukraine. Theses about how good it is in Russian captivity, Russia uses in order, on the one hand, to lie about the fact that the Ukrainians allegedly treat prisoners cruelly, and on the other hand, to encourage our military to lay down their arms and surrender instead of continuing to resist.
• This absolutely propagandistic thesis has nothing to do with reality. Among all the world countries, Ukrainians have the worst attitude towards Russia and Russians because Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014, occupied part of Eastern Ukraine, and illegally annexed Crimea. And in 2022, it began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, trying to occupy the entire country. Russia itself is doing everything possible to be hated not only by Ukrainians but also by the whole world.

• On September 25, the 67th session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will begin, which will, in particular, consider the safety of ZNPP. Russian “diplomats” published comments on the draft resolution proposed by supporters of Ukraine. And, of course, they repeated the typical myths about Ukraine and the ZNPP. In particular, Russia’s comment states that allegedly in 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the ZNPP, its infrastructure, and the satellite city of Enerhodar for many months.
• Also, in the commentary to the resolution, the Russian Federation says that Russia allegedly did not and does not use any violent actions against peaceful nuclear facilities. This is confirmed in the relevant reports of the Director General of the IAEA.
• The call for the “urgent withdrawal of all unauthorized military and other unauthorized personnel from the Ukrainian NPP” in Russia was deemed practically incorrect. Allegedly, there are no third-party individuals or military personnel at the station. The Russian forces at the Ukrainian NPP consist solely of the National Guard (not armed forces) and the Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops.

Now the TRUTH:

• It is false. In 2022, it was Russia that fired at the ZNPP, its infrastructure, and Enerhodar. For example, on March 4, 2022, as a result of Russian troops shelling the Zaporizhzhia NPP, a fire broke out in the training building, and the first power unit was hit. Already on March 14 of the same year, the Russian military detonated part of the ammunition on the site of the station. On July 12 last year, the mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, announced the artillery shelling of the city by Russian troops. According to the head of Enerhodar, the main goal was to sow panic among the population and use the crowd of people leaving the city as a “human shield”. On August 6, 2022, the ZNPP was attacked by multiple rocket launchers (MSRS). They hit the site of the ZNPP directly next to the station’s dry storage of spent nuclear fuel. Already on August 8, the Russian media reported on the place from where the Ukrainian side was allegedly shelling the station with rocket launchers. Later, Energoatom proved that the shelling was carried out by the Russian military.
• It is false. After the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia repeatedly threatened the security of nuclear plants in Ukraine. In September 2022, Russian troops also shelled the industrial zone of the South Ukrainian NPP. Referring to Enerhoatom’s data, the IAEA noted that as a result of the attack on the facility, three power lines and windows were damaged, but the three reactors continued to work in their usual mode, and the workers were not injured. The press release also indicated that this situation clearly demonstrates potential threats to other nuclear facilities in the country. In August 2022, Grossi stated that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia NPP was “completely out of control”, as the occupation of the facility disrupted the supply chains of parts necessary for the smooth operation of the ZNPP, and the staff was under pressure from the Russian military. The report, which the IAEA released on September 5, 2022, referred to the placement of “military personnel, vehicles, and equipment” in the engine room of power units #1 and #2. In November 2022, the IAEA Board of Governors passed a resolution calling on Russia to withdraw its troops and personnel from the station. The IAEA’s 2023 reports indicate that the seven nuclear safety principles have not been met. In May, the IAEA recorded an increase in the number of military presence at the facility and continued shelling.
• This is manipulation. Russian military and outsiders are constantly on the territory of the ZNPP. Moreover, the IAEA notes that maintaining the plant’s operational efficiency and safety is the result of the efforts of the Ukrainian operational staff. On the other hand, the presence of military personnel and equipment, as well as representatives of Rosatom, complicates their work. Therefore, the organization recommended to continue to operate the system according to the project and to remove military equipment in areas where it can interfere with the operation of the equipment. Russia also lied about the military: military personnel are citizens serving not only in the armed forces but also in other military formations. According to Russian law, the Roshvardiya is a military organization. Moreover, the mentioned forces of radiation, chemical and biological protection are directly part of Russia’s armed forces. Russia contradicts itself: first, it says that there are no military personnel at the ZNPP, and then it names the two military structures that are there.

• Freedom of speech ceased to exist under Zelenskyi. This is allegedly evidenced by the arrest of Nestor Shufrych.
• The authorities of Ukraine allegedly lied about the prospects of joining the EU and NATO in order to force Ukrainians to go to the front.
• The narrative that the sanctions against the Russian Federation have failed and caused more damage to Europeans than to Russia is once again spreading on the Internet.

Now the TRUTH:

• Nestor Shufrych was suspected of treason. According to the SSU, as evidenced by the investigation materials, Shufrych closely cooperated and carried out the tasks of the former secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Volodymyr Sivkovych, an FSB agent whose task is to coordinate the Russian agency in Ukraine. One of Shufrych’s main tasks was subversive activity in the information sphere. He systematically spread the Kremlin’s narratives that the Ukrainian state is a supposedly artificial entity, that Ukraine and Russia have a single history, and that Ukrainians and Russians are supposedly “one nation.” In this way, Shufrych tried to develop pro-Russian sentiments in Ukrainian society.
• Since 2015, Ukraine has been carrying out the reforms necessary for joining the EU, and continues to do so even under martial law. Similarly, in order to join NATO, Ukraine must not only reform the army, but also carry out economic and anti-corruption reforms. It is impossible to carry out reforms in all branches of public administration in a short time, and some reforms have many transitional stages. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that the process of Ukraine’s accession to the EU and NATO has stopped. And besides, it is manipulative to say that Ukrainians were forced to go to the front in order to join the EU and NATO. Since February 24, thousands of Ukrainians have voluntarily decided to defend the country.
• Back in August of this year, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, called it a lie that EU sanctions against Russia are not working. Over the course of a year, the sanctions have significantly limited Moscow’s capabilities, causing financial distress, cutting off the country from key markets and significantly impairing its industrial and technological potential. According to Borrell, the economy of the Russian Federation shrank by 2.1% in 2022. All components of Russian private demand, including private investment and consumption, remain subdued. Only government expenditures related to military operations, i.e., defense expenditures, are increasing. Borrell wrote that compared to 2021, in 2022 58% of the EU’s total imports from Russia had already been cut, calling it an “unprecedented disconnection (of ties)”, while non-energy imports from Russia, he indicated, had fallen by almost 60%. The head of European diplomacy also indicated that the G7+ energy sanctions on oil “proved their effectiveness”, because the price of Russian oil has fallen since the EU embargo and G7+ restrictions on oil prices began.

• The so-called ex-CIA analyst Scott Ritter claims that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have allegedly proven that they can gather tens of thousands of people, give them thousands of pieces of equipment, and as a result achieve practically nothing, not counting the many thousands of personnel losses.
• There is a video circulating online about a rebuilt school in Mariupol. Allegedly, this serves as evidence that Russia is actually reconstructing the city.
• The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, handed over the book “Ukrainian Crimes Against Humanity (2022-2023)” to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The book allegedly presents evidence of crimes collected by the so-called International Public Tribunal on the crimes of the so-called Ukrainian neo-Nazis and their aides. Allegedly, people who directly suffered from the actions of Ukrainian troops are talking about them.

Now the TRUTH:

• Russia uses Scott Ritter to prove that supposedly respected experts in the West also favor Russia — but this is false. In fact, Scott Ritter systematically repeats narratives consonant with the Russian ones and is not an expert, because his biography is quite dubious. Yes, even this time Ritter manipulates, omitting the entire progress of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the deoccupation of Kyiv region, Kherson region and Kharkiv region, and evaluates the capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine only based on selective facts.
• With such videos, Russia is trying to convince Ukrainians that life under Russian occupation is better than in free and independent Ukraine. However, in such videos, Russia omits the fact that Mariupol was almost completely destroyed by Russia itself. Rebuilding a few houses or schools for stories on state-run Russian TV channels does not solve the problem that the rest of the city is destroyed by the Russian army.
• The Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security Council analyzed that the book contains clear narratives of Russian propaganda, which the Kremlin is trying to impose on society as facts verified by the so-called International Public Tribunal. For greater plausibility of their lies, the “authors” found “witnesses of the crimes of the Kyiv regime”. However, the credibility of the collected evidence remains highly questionable, as the author of the book and the international members of the tribunal have long been involved in spreading Kremlin propaganda in the mass media.

• The authorities are allegedly not holding elections because sociology shows a drop in Zelenskyi’s rating.
• An article allegedly appeared on Diia’s website justifying Ukrainians who fought on the side of the Nazis.
• The news is spreading online that the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, has been added to the “Myrotvorets” base for participating in acts of humanitarian aggression against Ukraine, aiding the Russian occupiers and spreading propaganda.

Now the TRUTH:

• In such messages, pro-Russian Telegram channels refer to closed sociology conducted by the Office of the President. Such data is not publicly available, so it is easy to manipulate it, and besides, it is not known whether the authors of anonymous Telegram channels really have access to such information. After all, elections in Ukraine are not held not because of the president’s ratings, but because elections cannot be held under martial law. In particular, due to limited access to frontline regions and regions where active hostilities continue, it is also impossible to hold elections in temporarily occupied territories, it is impossible to ensure the safety of voters and observers at polling stations, and in addition, millions of Ukrainians are abroad.
• There is no such article on Diia’s website. Also, a keyword search does not yield results for such an article on any other resource. Therefore, the screenshot was probably faked in order to once again reinforce the narrative about the alleged presence of Nazis in Ukraine.
• This is a fake. Currently, Andrzej Duda is not in the “Myrotvorets” base. A search in the web archive, which allows viewing previous versions of the site, does not yield results. However, if the president of Poland was really included in the list, reliable Ukrainian and world media would have reported about it, but none of them published such news. The Center for Combating Disinformation also denied the information that Andrzej Duda was added to the “Myrotvorets” website.

• Information is spreading on the Internet that allegedly in an interview with The War Zone portal, the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, admitted that Abrams tanks will not last long on the front line. He also said that long-range ATACMS missiles, which the USA can provide to Ukraine, will not change the situation at the front.
• The news is spreading online that Volodymyr Zelenskyi has offered the artist Marina Abramovich to become an ambassador of Ukraine and “take care of Ukrainian schools”.
• Russian propagandists share video in which NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg allegedly confirms that NATO expansion caused Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Now the TRUTH:

• This is manipulation. In an interview, Kyrylo Budanov stated that both sides do not use heavy weapons on the front lines for a number of reasons, and combat operations are conducted with the help of infantry and artillery. He said that one hundred ATACMS missiles will not fundamentally change the situation at the front, at least hundreds are needed.
• This is a fake. There is no confirmation that the President of Ukraine invited Marina Abramovich to become the ambassador of Ukraine and cooperate with Ukrainian schools. There is no mention in Ukrainian and English-speaking reliable mass media that Volodymyr Zelenskyi invited Abramov9ch to become an ambassador. Also, there are no similar publications on the website of the Office of the President of Ukraine, on the official Telegram channel of the president and on his public Facebook page. Marina Abramovich also did not mention the offer to become the ambassador of Ukraine in her social networks, public pages, as well as on the website of her project.
• This is manipulation. Stoltenberg’s quote was taken out of context. In fact, the NATO Secretary General said that Putin’s policy aimed at preventing the expansion of the Alliance had failed. Instead, Russia’s neighbor Finland became a member of NATO.

• The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said that Belarus is not at war and does not want to fight.
• The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov, said that the USA is allegedly leading Ukraine’s war against Russia, because it supplies Ukraine with weapons and ammunition.
• A video of Anthony Blinken, who says that Ukraine has liberated more than 50% of the territories captured by the Russian Federation, is being distributed on the Internet. The posts add that this information is allegedly taken from a “parallel reality” and in this way hint that it is not true.

Now the TRUTH:

• This statement is devoid of logic, because Belarus is already participating in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Belarus allowed Russia to attack Ukraine from its territory in a full-scale invasion that began on February 24. Enemy shelling of Ukraine was conducted from the territory of Belarus. Even now, Russian equipment and troops are still stationed in Belarus, which pose a threat to Ukraine.
• The USA is indeed one of the allies of Ukraine that has provided the most weapons and financial aid. However, the USA does not determine how Ukraine’s opposition to Russia will proceed. Even if the United States provides intelligence, the decision on what actions are necessary to repel enemy attacks and expel them from Ukraine is made by the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine independently.
• Such messages are manipulative. OSINT analysts and Western officials confirm the information that Ukraine has liberated 50% of its territories. In the original video, part of which is being shared online, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says that Ukraine has returned more than 50% of the territories that Russia seized since February 24, 2022. However, Blinken did not mean a part of the territory that Russia captured back in 2014. In June 2022, the President of Ukraine noted that Russia controls about 125,000 sq. km of Ukraine. Whereas, according to the Washington Post’s latest calculations of September 8, 2023, Russia controls only about 66,000 sq. km. On the general map of Ukraine from the analysts of the Deep State platform, it can be seen that in general the Russian Federation occupied 17.9% of the territories of Ukraine, including Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. At the same time, the Ukrainian military continues the deoccupation. In November 2022, the Swedish OSINT analyst Def Mon also provided a map with liberated Ukrainian territories. According to the analyst, as of November 6, 2022, Ukraine deoccupied more than 75 thousand sq. km of territories. In total, since the beginning of the large-scale invasion, Russia has occupied more than 105 thousand sq. km.

• The demolition and alteration of World War II monuments are aimed at forcing Ukrainians to forget history and to forget about the victory in this war.
• The authorities of the Kharkiv region deliberately manipulate the data on the number of people remaining in Kupiansk in order to use them as human shields. Thus, Russian Telegram channels claim that the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, Oleh Synehubov, and the mayor of Kupiansk, Andrii Besiedin, initially stated that there were 12,000 people in the Kupiansk district. But Besiedin recently stated that approximately 5,000 people remained in the city, and 3,777 civilians were evacuated. That is, 8,223 people should stay, but not 5,000.
• There’s a video circulating online in which a man complains that he is being forcibly deported from Europe to Ukraine for an illegal border crossing. However, according to the video’s author, he left Ukraine legally.

Now the TRUTH:

• Decommunization does not deny the victory over the Nazi regime in World War II, nor does it diminish the role of any of the Allies who contributed to that victory. Decommunization, in particular with regard to monuments of the Second World War, is taking place so that Ukraine and Ukrainians have as few reminders as possible of the times of the USSR, which deprived Ukraine of its independence and slowed down its development. Russian propaganda still uses nostalgia for the times of the USSR to convince that life in Russia, which calls itself the rightful successor of the Union, is supposedly better. And therefore, the life of Ukrainians under occupation or as part of the Russian Federation would also supposedly be better than in an independent, pro-European Ukraine. 
• First of all, propagandists mix the news. In August, the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration assumed that up to 12,000 people could be evacuated from the Kupiansk district. Already on September 10, the head of the city’s military administration, Andrii Besiedin, announced that since the beginning of the full-scale war, the population of Kupiansk has decreased fivefold: from 27,000, there are now about 5,000 people. Later, on September 13, the head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Synehubov reported that 2,339 people have already been evacuated from 56 settlements in the Kupiansk district, which are constantly under fire, and another 1,438 people have left on their own. That is, the propagandists mixed up the news about the number of people in the city of Kupiansk and the number of potential and actual evacuees from the Kupiansk district of Kharkiv Oblast. So, there is no reason to believe that citizens are being made into human shields, because propagandists manipulate data.
• As the author stated, the video about his extradition to Ukraine is a prank. The man in the video is Bohdan Pruskyi, who calls himself a blogger and rapper from Ukraine. He supports Russia and systematically spreads Russian propaganda.

• Russia allegedly strikes the Odesa region to identify and destroy the hangars in which Ukraine stores aircraft.
• On the Russian website Avito, trophy fragments from a destroyed Challenger 2 tank in Ukraine have been put up for sale.
• Information is spread online claiming that on September 6, the Russian military allegedly targeted the location of Ukrainian forces in the city of Kostiantynivka. The authors of the post state that there are photos and videos showing wounded Ukrainian soldiers at the site of the hit.

Now the TRUTH:

• There are no open data or reliable statements that would give grounds to claim that there are planes in the grain hangars in Odesa. Russia systematically justifies its shelling of civilian infrastructure with alleged attacks on exclusively military facilities. However, in reality, Russia began attacks on the port infrastructure of Ukraine on the eve of the termination of the grain agreement. With such attacks, Russia terrorizes not only Ukraine but also countries that depend on Ukraine’s grain, provoking the risk of famine in them.
• The same photo of an allegedly destroyed Challenger 2 tank has been circulating online since at least 2019. It is claimed that this is a tank shot down in Iraq. So, the photos that appeared on the Russian resource have nothing to do with the Russian-Ukrainian war and do not prove that the Russians have a trophy shot down Challenger 2.
• It is false. Russian troops shelled the market in Kostyantynivka. According to locals, there were no military facilities nearby. In the photo from the events scene, there are no wounded soldiers, only civilians. In fact, on September 6, around 2 p.m., the Russian military shelled a crowded market in the center of Kostiantynivka. As a result, according to the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office, 15 people died; the oldest victim was 83 years old, the youngest was 18 years old, and 36 people were injured. According to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ihor Klymenko, most victims are local residents. The fire caused by the shelling covered 300 m² and damaged about 30 trade pavilions and two residential buildings. The type of weapon used in the attack has not been determined at the time of writing. The Prosecutor’s Office has started an investigation under Part 2 of Art. 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, violation of the laws and customs of war.

• Jens Stoltenberg allegedly lied when he said that peace would come when Putin and Russia lay down their arms. Because according to this claim, it is Zelensky and Ukraine who are supposed to lay down their arms.
• Former UN weapons inspector in Iraq Scott Ritter said that Russia’s goal in the war is supposedly only to preserve the culture and historical ties of the South and East of Ukraine with Russia. 
• A video from a protest in Odesa, where people can be heard shouting “Shame!”, is being shared online. In the posts, users point out that the protest is allegedly against the President of Ukraine and call for similar events in other cities.

Now the TRUTH:

• Russian propagandists have already lied so much that they seem to have forgotten that it was Russia that attacked Ukraine, not the other way around. Accordingly, Russia is the aggressor, and it is quite natural to demand that Russia stop attacking Ukraine. Russia does not have such powerful allies as Ukraine, so it is trying to discredit NATO, the USA, European countries, and other partners of Ukraine.
• Scott Ritter is not a true independent expert but merely repeating the Kremlin’s narratives to a Western audience. Therefore, this time he only repeated the theses that benefit Russia and justify Russia’s war against Ukraine. Russia does not try to preserve culture or history — Russia forcibly imposes the Russian system on the inhabitants of the temporarily occupied territories and rewrites history, forcing people to forget their origins and, more importantly, all the atrocities of Russia against Ukraine for many centuries.
• Using some of the inscriptions on the posters of the rally participants, we found a similar video that is being shared by users. On September 2, 2023, Odesa citizens held a protest near the city hall on City Day. In particular, people demanded that the local authorities cancel the tenders to reconstruct the building of the Kyiv District Court in Odesa. Earlier, at one of the meetings, city council member Petro Obukhov announced that they plan to spend 106 million UAH on the reconstruction of the court building. Such a decision outraged people, so they came out with posters “First the Armed Forces, then everything else”, “deputies, my taxes for the Armed Forces” and chanted “Shame!”. However, the protest had nothing to do with Volodymyr Zelenskyi; its participants did not demand that the president resign. With such fake posts, propagandists are trying to discredit the President of Ukraine and sow hostile attitudes in society toward the top leadership of the state.

• The so-called Ukrainian Nazis allegedly planned a terrorist attack against Jewish pilgrims who arrived in Uman for Rosh HaShanah. This is allegedly indicated by messages in radical anti-Semitic chats.
• In Kyiv region, a factory was sold for nothing — only for 6,500 UAH. The new owner also received 105 hectares of land as a gift along with the building.
• There is information circulating online claiming that the Verkhovna Rada has allegedly passed a law establishing the status of “mother of war.” The authors indicate that the document stipulates that every woman up to the age of 60 or a woman who gave birth after February 24, 2022, is entitled to receive payments from the state. Additionally, children who did not reach adulthood at the time of the full-scale invasion of Russia can receive the status of “child of war” and are allegedly assigned payments ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 UAH.

Now the TRUTH:

• There is no basis to believe that Ukraine was planning a terrorist attack against Jewish pilgrims in Uman. Russia likely employed a tactic of mirroring, preemptively accusing Ukraine of crimes against civilians that Russia itself commits. Russian propagandists have spread similar statements after mass attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets, claiming either that Ukraine intentionally shells to frame Russia, that Ukrainian air defense mistakenly hit a residential building, or that all casualties are actors staged for photo and video reports.
• This is a manipulation. It is about the Tryliskiy distillery, and this was the third attempt to sell it through the Prozorro.Sales system. According to the law, they used a hybrid Dutch auction, which involves gradually lowering the lot price step by step until one of the participants stops the process. Since there was only one participant in this case, he won with a bid of 6,500 UAH, at which point he stopped the price reduction during the auction — 1% of the starting price. According to the law, land plots are not privatized, so these 105 hectares are not transferred to the new owner. What the new buyer will definitely receive is the enterprise’s debt of 11.5 million UAH, an obligation to retain the staff for six months, and to resolve issues with the courts, arrests, and pledges, many of which have accumulated at the Tryliskiy distillery. Currently, the winner must sign the auction protocol, pay the lot’s cost, sign the contract, and, most importantly, settle all the enterprise’s debts. Only after this will the privatization of the plant be considered completed. If this is not done, the winner will lose the 131,000 UAH deposit. Then the plant will remain state-owned and will be put up for auction again.
• It is false. The Verkhovna Rada did not pass the law introducing the status of “mother of war”. The resolution on the status of a child injured due to hostilities and armed conflicts has been in place since 2017 but was amended in 2023. No law in Ukraine provides for payments to children born after February 24.

• Russian telegram channels spread information about the death of a cadet of the Flight Academy of NAU. Allegedly, after the last stage of training, he was sent to the front as a machine gunner, where he died.
• Russian Telegram channels are distributing an excerpt of an interview with the chief of staff of the “AZOV” brigade, Bohdan “Tavr” Krotevych, where he says that the counteroffensive was greatly hyped, and now everyone is supposedly wondering why we haven’t won yet. Also, in the video, he allegedly says that Ukraine is fighting against a state that has never lost.
• The Russian Telegram channel shared a video in which a barista from Ukraine draws a swastika on coffee.

Now the TRUTH:

• The official Facebook page of the Flight Academy of the National Aviation University contains information about the death of Sikorsky cadet Danylo Oleksiiovych. On August 29, they bid farewell to the fallen serviceman in Kherson. Illia shared his memories of Danylo. They studied together with the deceased at the Flight Academy. He reported that Danylo independently went to the military commissariat, joined the ranks of the 3rd separate assault brigade and fought in the Bakhmut direction. The military leadership did not send Sikorsky as a cadet to the war zone.
• The video excerpt is taken out of context. Krotevych mentioned the strong PR of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the context of predicting when the war will end. In the same interview, he pointed out that Russia is not “invincible” and has not been “destroyed” yet. He also stated that there is no such scenario where Ukraine will lose.
• It is not true. The video is an advertisement for online courses of late art in Bolivia, and there is no mention of Ukrainians in it. The original video was published on the Instagram page of the late art courses. There is no mention in the video that the drawing with the swastika was made by a barista from Ukraine. In the upper left corner of the video there is a subtitle in Spanish. Translation into Ukrainian: “Here I offer you a simple and quick way to make a beautiful drawing on coffee. If you like it, please subscribe and leave comments.” This video was probably posted to attract attention, because with almost 4,800 followers of the page, the video has more than 10.5 million views.

• On September 10, Russia held elections of various levels with by-elections of State Duma deputies, heads of a number of regions, and deputies of state authorities in some subjects. Such pseudo-elections were held in the occupied territories of Ukraine: parts of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Russian sources said that international observers were allegedly satisfied with the elections.
• A video, allegedly from the BBC news service, is circulating on the Internet, in which it is indicated that Yevgeny Prigozhin did not actually die in a plane crash. The video says that a “BBC source” reported that Prigozhin’s death had been staged. The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and the leader of the PMC “Wagner” allegedly agreed on this at a closed meeting in the Kremlin on June 29. The latter was supposed to disappear from the media space of the Russian Federation before the presidential elections in Russia in 2024.
• A video in which a man talks about the alleged mass arrests of Ukrainians of military age in Germany is being circulated online. After that, they are sent to Ukraine to the front.

Now the TRUTH:

• Even before the elections began, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appealed to the parliaments and governments of foreign countries, international organizations and their assemblies not to recognize these elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Back in June, the European Union condemned Russia’s intention to hold pseudo-elections in the occupied territories of Ukraine and called them a violation of international law. The occupiers started preparing for the elections to local administrations in May 2023. Among the candidates, there are more Russians, in particular, from Siberia and the Ural. However, former representatives of the Ukrainian authorities, who switched to the side of the Russian Federation at the beginning of the invasion, also submitted their applications. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that the vast majority of candidates do not even have a higher education and work as janitors, security guards, and cleaners. The occupiers simply use their personalities to hide the real “leaders” of the occupied territories. Later, information appeared about the sounds of explosions in some buildings of the “election commission”. The occupation authorities did not comment on anything and announced a high turnout for the elections. In Luhansk Oblast, the occupiers announced nine times that polling stations were mined. Also, in order to get the majority of votes, the occupation authorities allowed Ukrainians without Russian passports to vote.
• This is a fake. We could not find this video on the BBC website. Also, the video was not published in social networks: Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, Facebook or YouTube channel. In the materials about Prigozhin’s death, the BBC referred to information from Russian state agencies and only suggested that the Federal Security Service could have been behind the plane crash. At the request of Reuters journalists, the representative of the BBC stated that the lawyers of the publication already know about this fake video and are dealing with it. Propagandists deliberately refer to well-known media to make the reader believe the information.
• It is not true. According to Venislavskyi, the process of extradition of violators to Ukraine is currently impossible. Even if extradition is applied, it will be used only for evaders who entered another country illegally. Responsibility for illegal methods used to evade military service and cross the border do not include mobilization and sending to the front.

• A video is being shared on TikTok, allegedly after receiving a summons, a Ukrainian man tore it up right in the middle of the city, as a result of which the military officers grabbed the man and forcibly put him in a car.
• Russian Telegram channels claim that in Kyiv on the night of September 10, cars, houses and streets were allegedly damaged by Ukrainian air defense, and not by Shahed wreckage.
• Conspiracy stories were spread in Russian telegram channels, alleging that since the mid-2000s, NATO, through the SSU, has been spreading secret caches of weapons and ammunition in eastern Ukraine in order to later start a civil war. Allegedly, this is how Ukraine was supposed to be divided into Russia-controlled and NATO-controlled.

Now the TRUTH:

• The Center for Strategic Communications refuted the fake. The video of the “giving the summons” and “detention” was filmed and posted by a user of the platform for a humorous purpose, and the Russians took it at face value. This video is an obvious production, with editing and changing locations. At the same time, the video shows that one of the “military commissars” “detains” a Ukrainian in rubber slippers, and while “packing the boy” to the car, both “military” burst out laughing. The enemy is once again trying to discredit the Ukrainian army and mobilization, which is why it is important to be critical and scrupulous about information on social networks.
• There is no reason to believe that the damage was caused by air defenses and not drones. According to the city authorities, in Kyiv on the night of September 10, fragments of downed Russian drones fell in the Sviatoshynskyi, Shevchenkivskyi and Podilskyi districts of the capital. In particular, the mayor of Kyiv reported that debris was burning on the roadway in the Solomyanskyi district, and there was one victim in the Podilskyi district. Almost every day after the attacks, Russia claims that all the damage was caused by air defense, and even that Ukraine attacked itself in order to shift the blame to Russia. However, it is worth remembering that the work of air defense is primarily the protection of Ukrainian cities on foot from enemy air targets, with which Russia attacks anything, even civilian objects.
• This is a conspiracy theory not supported by any facts. However, here Russia is recalling the old disinformation narrative that a civil war allegedly began in Donbas in 2014. It is false. Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014, first occupying and annexing Crimea, and later Donbas, occupying part of the territory and continuing its war of aggression already in 2022.

• The Western allies allegedly talked about the poor training of our army. The same allies who trained our soldiers according to NATO standards. Allegedly, even after tens of thousands of people were killed, the Ukrainian counteroffensive yielded nothing.
• Vasily Nebenzya, the Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, said that the majority of Ukrainians are aware that their main enemy is allegedly not Russia, but the so-called criminal Ukrainian government.
• Under Zelenskyi’s rule, Ukraine is allegedly losing the signs of democracy. This, in particular, is evidenced by the fact that from September 9 to 16, the police will massively check residents of Kyiv and the Kyiv region, looking for deserters and unregistered weapons.

Now the TRUTH:

• This is a hostile psychological operation recorded by the Center for Strategic Communications. Enemy propaganda is actively spreading this fake via Facebook from the empty page of Oworor online shop, which was created on August 29. There are no official confirmations of theses from these posts. If you see in your feed posts from empty pages that have clear signs of fake, propaganda, psychological operations — do not give them any likes or comments, because any activity and interaction with such posts increases their popularity. It is only necessary to complain about the publication.
• There is no survey that would show that Ukrainians have a more hostile attitude towards their own government than towards Russia and Russians. Thus, according to the Razumkov Center survey, 93.8% of Ukrainians have a negative attitude towards Russia. According to surveys by the Rating group, 93% of Ukrainians have a negative attitude towards Russia (compared to 56% in 2021). So Nebenzya, even at a high diplomatic level, openly lies to the whole world.
• The original of this message appeared in Strana.ua with reference to an anonymous source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is noteworthy that neither the National Police of Ukraine nor the Ministry of Internal Affairs officially stated this, so this report cannot be considered reliable. At the same time, in Ukraine under the conditions of martial law, security control is really strengthened. In particular, citizens must always carry their passport with them. This is not a sign of the loss of democracy — these are security measures related to the war unleashed by Russia. It is also noteworthy that Russian sources talk about Ukraine’s loss of democracy — that is, the media of that country, which has no signs of democracy at all and gravitates toward a totalitarian regime.

• Allegedly, Zaporizhzhia Telegram channels write that bodies of those killed during the counteroffensive of Ukrainian defenders are burned at night in the Zaporizhzhia crematorium in order to hide the number of dead.
• Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago said that the Ukrainians proved incapable of waging a war, so reading stories and watching videos about victims in Ukraine is simply boring. Ukrainians are allegedly being led to the slaughter — and it was the West that pushed them to do so. Allegedly, there are various testimonies that the Ukrainians delayed the counteroffensive because they understood that nothing would work.
• In his speech on the anniversary of the liberation of Donbas from the German occupiers — on September 8 — Vladimir Putin reminded that now Russia supposedly faces the same task — to liberate Donbas from Ukrainian occupation.

Now the TRUTH:

• The Center for Strategic Communications refuted the fake. In fact, only the Telegram channels of the Russian special services, mimicking the Zaporizhzhia groups, write about it. The propagandists did not take into account that there is no crematorium in Zaporizhzhia. In 2021, its construction began, but it has not yet been completed. Later, authors of fakes began to pretend that there was a crematorium in the city after all, and indicated the address of the Ritual Service. But the service does not burn bodies, it transports them to the crematoriums of Kharkiv and Odesa.
• John Mearsheimer regularly spreads theses of Russian propaganda. All the rhetoric of this political scientist is imbued with the theme of the alleged “impossibility of Ukraine’s accession to NATO.” Its goal is to convince the world that the West is to blame for the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war and to encourage Ukraine’s allies to abandon the idea of Ukraine’s possible membership in NATO. The claim that Ukraine allegedly was and remains incapable of a counteroffensive is not supported by any facts, nor is there any reason to believe that the Ukrainian authorities made the decision to start the counteroffensive under pressure from the West.
• Even though 1.5 years have passed since the start of the full-scale invasion, Putin is still looking for justifications for why he is waging war. It makes no sense to draw analogies with the Second World War: in fact, Russia has all the signs of fascism, not Ukraine. It is also pointless to talk about the so-called occupation of Donbas by Ukraine, because Donbas has always been Ukrainian, and the Russian Federation has always imposed a pro-Russian position on the residents of the region.

• The authorities conduct inspections of military medical commissions and territorial recruiting centers to create opportunities to mobilize absolutely all men.
• Poland has started extraditing Ukrainians of conscription age who have illegally gone abroad, writes Rzeczpospolita with reference to the data of the Polish border service.
• In Ukraine, intensified mobilization is being carried out in order to frighten Ukrainians and force them in a state of shock to accept the freezing of the conflict, a kind of “Minsk-3” or “Istanbul Conditions 2.0.”

Now the TRUTH:

• Inspections of the military medical commissions and territorial recruiting centers are connected with recorded facts of corruption. In particular, due to several recorded cases, when the military medical commissions issued fake health certificates to obtain a temporary deferment from military service or complete removal from military registration. In this regard, the authorities will introduce checks on the issued conclusions of the military medical commissions and change the conclusions of the military medical commissions for some types of health conditions, mainly regarding transferred infectious diseases. However, this is not a sign that all men are mobilized: there are still many reasons, in particular for health reasons, for a temporary postponement or complete removal from registration.
• According to the information that “Rzeczpospolita” received from the Border Service of Poland, men who smuggle illegals to Europe were deported from Poland. That is, NOT those Ukrainian men who illegally left Ukraine on forged disability certificates were extradited from Poland, but those involved in the illegal transportation of such men.
• The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly stated that the only acceptable end to the war for Ukraine is the liberation of all territories of Ukraine within the administrative borders of 1991, that is, taking into account the annexed Crimea and the occupied Donbas since 2014. Mobilization is not happening at a stronger or slower pace — in Ukraine, general mobilization has been announced since February 24, 2022. “Minsk-3” and “Istanbul conditions 2.0.” — terms invented by Russian propaganda, which are not used in any official communication of the Ukrainian authorities.

• Russia struck the Auchan hypermarket in Kyiv on the night of August 30, because ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine was stored there.
• In Dnipro, on September 1, schoolchildren accidentally made public the data on the number of dead of the 25th separate airborne brigade, hanging 503 paper airplanes on the installation in honor of the memory of the dead.
• 4,000 residents of Kupiansk refused to evacuate because they are waiting for the return of the Russian army.

Now the TRUTH:

• There is no objective reason to believe that the attack on Auchan was related to the fact that ammunition was stored there. In addition, fragments of a downed missile fell on Auchan, so the target of the strike was probably different. In addition, ammunition cannot be stored in a civilian facility, a hypermarket visited by hundreds of people every day, at least given Russia’s propensity to attack civilian facilities.
• On September 1, in the center of Dnipro, on Heroiv Maidan Square, a commemoration of the children who died since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine was held. In the city, an installation was created in memory of children who will never sit down at a desk again — according to the Office of the Prosecutor General, there were 503 of them as of September 1.
• More than 4,000 people wrote the refusal to mandatory evacuation from the Kupiansk district. Andrii Besiedin, the head of the Kupiansk city military administration, announced this on the air of the national telethon. Kupiansk itself and the Kupiansk district are under daily shelling. However, according to Besedin, people refuse to leave because they do not want to leave their homes and households. Today, more than 400 children remain in the community. The local authorities constantly work with the population and carry out explanatory work on the need to evacuate from dangerous areas.

• Russian media write that the President of Ukraine allegedly said in an interview with Nataliia Mosiichuk that he is ready to give up Crimea and will be ready for negotiations with Moscow after the withdrawal of the forces of the Kyiv regime to the border of the peninsula.
• The Deputy Head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, stated that the population of the territory controlled by Kyiv is 19.7 million people. There are already 17.9 million outside the country. In fact, half of the 37 million in 2022 and about 40% of the population at the beginning of the XXI century.
• Ukraine allegedly spent all the money received for the counteroffensive only on the return of one settlement of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Now the TRUTH:

• The Center for Strategic Communications debunked the fake. Authors of the fake extracted various excerpts from Zelenskyi’s interview, distorting their content. In fact, the president of Ukraine said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not need to transfer hostilities to the territory of the Russian Federation, because for us only the deoccupation of our lands is important. As for Crimea, the President of Ukraine noted that the liberation of the peninsula through political means will help preserve the lives of Ukrainians. He did not claim that Crimea is Russian, or that Ukraine is ready to abandon the deoccupation of these territories.
• According to the Institute of Demography and Social Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the population as of January 1, 2023 ranges from 28 million to 34 million people. More accurate data can be obtained by counting the specific number of people crossing the border in the West of Ukraine and with Moldova. It is also difficult to determine the exact number of those who left for Russia. According to UN estimates from August 15, 2023, there are 6.2 million Ukrainian refugees officially registered in the world. At the same time, the opendatabot website also reports that, according to data from the State Border Service, from January 2022 to June 2023, more than 26 million citizens left Ukraine, and more than 23 million citizens returned. Probably, the discrepancy in the number is due to the fact that the State Border Service counted Ukrainians who left in January 2022, as well as most likely those who crossed the border several times. Therefore, the population of Ukraine could not fall from 41 million people to 20 million, because citizens not only leave, but also return. According to the UN survey, about 62% of Ukrainian refugees plan to return to Ukraine in the future.
• In August, Ukraine was indeed able to regain control over the village of Robotyne, but this does not mean that all the funds allocated for the counteroffensive were spent only on this. The liberation of this settlement is important, because it opens the way to Tokmak and eventually to Melitopol and the administrative border with Crimea. In order to continue the liberation of territories, it is necessary to constantly replenish armored vehicles and long-range missiles capable of reaching logistics facilities and command posts of the occupiers. In general, during the summer it was possible to free about 250 square km of territories.

• The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine is considering a decision to cancel distance education in educational institutions.
• Pro-Russian Telegram channels write that 200,000 Ukrainians should be drafted into the ranks of the Armed Forces in the fall, and 300,000 more in the winter and spring.
• On August 30, the Armed Forces of Ukraine allegedly struck the center of children’s creativity in the temporarily occupied city of Kamianka-Dniprovska.

Now the TRUTH:

• The Center for Strategic Communications refuted the fake. There is such a myth that the Ministry of Education allegedly canceled distance learning — this is manipulation, the Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi emphasized on the air of the telethon: “Distance learning exists because safety is a key priority for us, the physical and mental safety of children. And in this situation, we definitely cannot insist on exclusively face-to-face education.” At the same time, the Minister of Education and Science added that there are good examples when separate remote classes are created in one school, so the possibility of distance learning remains.
• The Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine discovered this fake. There are no official statements, in particular from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which would confirm this information. Such messages are aimed at intimidating Ukrainians and are part of the narrative about the so-called forced mobilization. The purpose of such messages is to incite enmity towards employees of  territorial centers of recruitment and military personnel.
• Ukrainian UAVs targeted the so-called “polling station” in the temporarily occupied city of Kamianka-Dniprovska, at the moment when the so-called “chairs of precinct election commissions” of the entire district were gathered there. The meeting was allegedly attended by more than 30 traitors, who were guarded by the Russian military, in particular, from Kadyrov. During the meeting, they wanted to organize the distribution of ballots and voting booths. The SSU “adjusted” the plans of the occupiers with the help of attack drones.

• An anti-Ukrainian flash mob is taking place in Poland, where Wi-Fi networks are signed with words offensive to refugees from Ukraine. This information is spread by users of social networks and the Kremlin media with reference to a video made by the German media Deutsche Welle.
• The Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Shchevtsov stated that “the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus was a response to the aggressive behavior of the West within the borders of the Union state.”
• In Ukraine, children are given en masse to be raised by the Nazis from Azov, as if preparing their Ukrainian Hitler Youth.

Now the TRUTH:

• The Center for Strategic Communications refuted the fake. In fact, Russian fake authors used Deutsche Welle’s signature style to create this lie to create a fake confirmation of a non-existent anti-Ukrainian flash mob. The Polish editorial office of Deutsche Welle replied that they “are not the authors of this film.”
• The Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine discovered this disinformation. Statements about deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus are needed by Russia to intimidate Ukraine and its Western partners. Allegedly, if the support does not stop, a nuclear escalation of the conflict is possible. At the same time, the head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov explained that the results of the training showed that Belarus was completely unprepared for the use of such weapons.
• There really is an Azovets camp in Ukraine. However, the soldiers of the military regiment are not trained in the camp. No ideologies are promoted there. There they teach those skills that can be learned in the lessons of pre-service training and history in schools. Medicine and robotics are taught there, as in many after-school education centers. They use military terminology and a military-style strict schedule, as in many other military-patriotic children’s organizations. Staying and studying in the camp is completely voluntary, that is, it cannot be said that children are being mass-educated as soldiers and, accordingly, are allegedly mass-prepared to participate in the war.