Millions of Ukrainians are encountering russian propaganda every day. It spreads through TV, radio, media, social networks and by word of mouth. To defeat the enemy, we must fight it on all fronts. To this end, we have prepared a daily compilation of russian fakes.
Today, the russian information space is focused on the explosions on an oil depo and a military base near Bryansk. This is the latest “accident” in the recent succession of fires and explosions on strategic installations across russia. Contrary to logic, russian government is not blaming Ukraine for these “accidents”, since that would disprove the long-held notion that Ukraine is powerless and cannot do any significant damage to russia. And that would be an admission that russia cannot protect its citizens on their soil.
Some attention is given to the results of the French elections, with most media outlets glossing over it, and others claiming that the defeat of the pro-russian Marine Le Pen was rigged.
There was another “fireside chat” with putin, where he, once again, assured the nation that the russian economy is holding strong, and is actually in a better shape than before the sanctions. The fact that putin feels the need to talk about the economy on such a regular basis shows how bad things actually are.
In a fine case of ironic hypocrisy, russian propagandists condemned the closure of russian state channels in EU countries, while in russia any media that is not controlled by the state is basically outlawed.
Main fake narratives:
- NATO equipment is useless
- Ukrainian soldiers are surrendering all together
- Ukraine is being controlled by the west
- Russians don’t commit war crimes, Ukrainians do
- Ukrainian refugees are causing crime and spreading disease
- Sanctions against Russia are destroying Europe
- The world is dominated by russophobia
FAKE: The Guardian article confirms that civilians in Bucha were killed by Ukrainian army
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Disproof:
This fake is pretty typical for russian propaganda. They love misinterpreting articles of reputable foreign press to service their narratives. This time it’s the Guardian article about the forensic discoveries in Bucha. It describes the findings of pathologists and coroners who are carrying out postmortems on bodies found in mass graves in the Bucha region. Some bodies had small metal darts, called fléchettes, embedded in them. Independent weapon experts determined that the fléchettes came from a 122 mm 3Sh1 artillery round, in use by russian artillery.
Since Ukraine also uses 122 mm artillery, russian propaganda called this discovery “a definite proof” that all civilians in the Bucha region were killed by Ukraine. But that is not what the article says. There was no mention of Ukraine using fléchettes. More over, the article states that forensic specialists found a lot of mutilated and disfigured bodies, a lot of them with hands tied behind their backs and shots in the back of their heads. There is also evidence of russians using cluster munitions against civilians, with several cases of cluster bombs’ elements embedded in the bodies of the victims.
If anything, the Guardian article provides even more proof of russian war crimes in Ukraine.
FAKE: Children in Ukraine were taught to hate russia
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In their attempt to justify the invasion of Ukraine, russian propaganda strays further and further into outright fantasy. As russian war crimes escalate, russian lies escalate with them, becoming outrageous.
This time, russian propaganda accuses Ukraine of teaching Ukrainian children to hate russians. As proof, they show a comic “NATO – more than security”. It’s an educational comic that tells about what NATO is and what it does, and why it is important for Ukraine to join the alliance. There is nothing there about “hating russians”.
Kremlin propaganda is trying to depict Ukraine as an evil Nazi state to justify their crimes, but these attempts become more and more ridiculous as the war goes on.
FAKE: Ukraine tried to kill russian propagandist Solovyov
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Disproof:
Simple question: which country is famous for killing political opponents and opposition journalists? It’s russia. And even in this fake, it is clear that russians are judging everyone else according to their own twisted standards.
This fake is as laughable as it is obvious. An undercover group of Ukrainian operatives, deep behind enemy lines in the middle of the war, tasked to kill a journalist? And Solovyov is not even a real journalist, he is a talk show host. Nobody outside russia even knows about him, he works strictly for a domestic audience.
And, let’s be honest – there is no need to kill russian propagandists, since they are doing more harm to russia than good. Thanks to their pathetic attempts to cover up russian war crimes and discredit their opposition, the world now knows what russia truly is, and what atrocities it is capable of.
Be advised: russia is waging a full-scale information war against Ukraine. There are multitudes of new fakes swarming through the mass-media every day. To protect you and your family, be sure to obtain and share your information only from official sources.
Official information channels:
· Office of the President of Ukraine
· General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces
· Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
· Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
· Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
· Ministry of Internal Affairs
· State Emergency Service of Ukraine
· State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
· Centre for Strategic Communication
· Centre for Desinformation Resistance
· State Special Communications Service of Ukraine
Information about transportation and infrastructure:
· State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine
· Boryspil International Airport”
· Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority
· Danylo Halytskyi International Airport Lviv
· State Service of Ukraine for Transport Safety
Keep calm and trust only official sources. Ukraine will prevail!
The material was prepared by ZMiST. Please follow ZMiST on Twitter and Facebook.
