Propagandists fabricated photos and announcements as part of disinformation campaign
Russian propaganda Telegram channels are circulating a photo of an announcement supposedly posted in the stairwell of a residential building in Ukraine. In the notice, a supposed “building manager” asks neighbors to stop playing “Victory Day” songs, “threatening” to call the police and the military enlistment office.
This is fake. The false announcement was created by Russians themselves as part of a disinformation effort in the lead-up to May 9. The text was clearly generated using machine translation, as it contains grammatical errors that are not typical of native Ukrainian speakers.
For instance, in the part where it “threatens” to call the police and enlistment office, the fake authors used the phrase “приховані чоловіки” (“hidden men”), instead of the correct Ukrainian phrase “чоловіки, що переховуються” (“men in hiding”).
The photos of the notice are also deliberately taken in a way that makes it impossible to determine the location.
Additionally, Russian Telegram channels are spreading an image of a food package allegedly distributed to veterans by members of Ukraine’s Servant of the People party. The package supposedly includes pasta, toilet paper, a banana, cookies, and two bottles — one of vodka and the other of sunflower oil.
This, too, is fake. The image is staged and was created by Russians as part of the ongoing disinformation campaign.
Notably, the bottles of “Oleina” sunflower oil and “Nemiroff” vodka in the fake image differ from real products. The vodka bottle in the image is rounded, whereas actual “Nemiroff” bottles are square. Moreover, the “Nezlamna Kalyna” line of vodka is only sold in 0.5-liter bottles, yet the image shows a 0.3-liter version.
The “Oleina” bottle in the photo is also more rectangular, while real ones have concave sides.
Even the paper bag in the image was manipulated. The red poppy — a symbol of remembrance for World War II — and the Servant of the People party logo were added using graphic editing software. This has been confirmed by analysis via the photo verification tool Forensically.
Russian propagandists are also spreading an image of “postcards” for May 8 that they claim are being sold in Ukraine. These brochures depict the famous photo of the Soviet flag being raised over the Reichstag — but without Soviet symbols like the hammer and sickle.
This, too, is fake. The image first appeared on the propaganda website “Zov Dnepropetrovsk.” The ZOV/Pravda network of websites are Russian-run platforms designed to spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda targeting both Ukrainian and Western audiences.
Through such tactics, propagandists are trying to push the narrative that most Ukrainians are still within Russia’s information sphere and allegedly want to celebrate Victory Day on May 9, like in Russia. According to the disinformers, Ukrainians are being “prevented” from doing so by their government, which supposedly “forces” them to observe the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism on May 8. This is false.
Russian propaganda has previously circulated fake leaflets allegedly issued by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
Andriy Olenin
Source: Staged photos and fake gifts for veterans: Russia pushes Victory Day disinformation in Ukraine
