Fact checks

Russia used fake Polish-language website to promote its propaganda A story has been published on the Polish-language website Niezalezny Dziennik Polityczny, in which a journalist named Jacek Tochman allegedly claims that Ukraine's energy strategy with a bet on nuclear energy and the completion of a nuclear power plant in the Cherkasy region is nothing more than a "cover" for the creation of a nuclear "dirty bomb." Russian media outlets and Telegram channels began actively sharing this "sensational news story" online. This is a fake. We have not found confirmation that a "journalist" named Jacek Tochman does not exist at all.…

Propagandists once again created fake BBC video to sow discord between Ukrainians and Poles Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and accounts on X are sharing a video allegedly released by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It is stated in the video that Polish children do not want to study together with Ukrainian schoolchildren due to the alleged "low academic performance and bad behavior" of Ukrainians. Therefore, according to propagandists, Polish parents are even ready to pay bribes to the principals of local schools to keep their children from studying in mixed classes. This is a fake. The video has nothing to do…

Russian state news agencies and pro-war Telegram channels are spreading reports that allegedly unnamed Ukrainian "representatives" had a meeting with members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham military formation in the Syrian city of Idlib in mid-June. The Russian media reported that "representatives of the Ukrainian authorities" had supposedly wanted to exchange "Chechens, Turkmens and Georgians" who participated in the war in Syria and who are held by "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" for 75 UAVs, given that these drones can be used against the Russians who stay in this Islamic republic. In particular, the exchange list included the ISIS "defense minister," Abu…

Propagandists created fake BBC story to promote their narratives Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, media outlets and the YouTube video hosting service are sharing a video that was allegedly released by the British television and radio corporation BBC. It states that a preliminary investigation conducted by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) organization "revealed" more than 1,000 cases of the use of Nazi symbols, slogans and gestures by servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces during an operation in Russia's Kursk region. The video also quotes RSF's Director for Advocacy, Strategic Litigation and Assistance Antoine Bernard, who "urged" the international community to draw attention…

For their manipulation, propagandists faked screenshots of posts from social media accounts On September 3, the Russian army attacked an educational institution in Poltava with two ballistic missiles. According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, the strike left 55 people dead and 328 injured. Immediately after the attack, Russian propaganda launched a large-scale psychological operation aimed at exaggerating the losses among Ukrainians from the Russian attack and influencing the morale of society. Let us consider several cases of how Russian propaganda manipulates the number of those killed in the Russian strike on Poltava according to the principle of "who can give…

Russia is trying to justify its own crimes with the help of so-called foreign “experts” Russian media outlets, z-Telegram channels, and Russian TikTok accounts are spreading a video excerpt from an analytical program on the Hungarian TV channel HirTV. The propagandists broadcast a quote from Balint Somkuti, a Hungarian historian and political scientist, who claims that Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure began on October 8, 2022, allegedly following an explosion on the Crimean bridge, which the Russian occupiers illegally built across the Kerch Strait. Somkuti calls the explosion on the bridge a “terrorist attack” and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s…

Propagandists created a fake screenshot from the Facebook account of a Polish volunteer On August 26, Russian troops launched a missile attack on the Aurora Hotel in Kryvyi Rih, killing four people and injuring five others.  After it became known that the Russians had once again targeted a civilian facility, Russian propaganda promptly started to disseminate disinformation via z-Telegram channels and media outlets claiming that mercenaries and instructors from Poland and Canada were allegedly staying at the Aurora Hotel. Subsequently, in order to lend credibility to their claims, propaganda began to disseminate an alleged screenshot of a Facebook post supposedly…

Propagandists intimidate foreign journalists who tell the truth about Russian aggression against Ukraine. On the night of August 25, 2024, Russian troops launched a missile attack on a hotel in Kramatorsk, where foreign journalists were staying. The strike killed Ryan Evans, a Reuters team member, and injured several other journalists. The international human rights organization Reporters Without Borders believes that the Russian attack on Kramatorsk was aimed directly at journalists and is preparing to file a lawsuit. Russian officials have traditionally refuted such accusations. In particular, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not provide a direct answer to the question whether…

Russia spreads propaganda to both domestic and international audiences by using pro-Russian Western "experts" and distorting theses of reputable world media outlets Russian propaganda often misinterprets and distorts various historical events to explain its unjustified aggression against Ukraine. In particular, this relates to the fake narratives that allegedly “Ukraine was created by Vladimir Lenin” or “the Austrian General Staff” during World War I. The successes of the Ukrainian army during the operation in Russia’s Kursk region have forced Russian propaganda to resort to new absurd historical parallels. To give more weight to their propaganda narratives, Russian information forces use their…

Propagandists falsified ads from OLX marketplace to discredit the Ukrainian military Russian Telegram channels have recently begun to circulate disinformation that Ukrainian soldiers participating in an operation in Russia's Kursk region allegedly steal icons there and then sell them on the OLX online marketplace. As "proof," they distributed screenshots of ads from the Ukrainian marketplace, where the authors allegedly indicate in the description that the icons were brought from Kursk. Our team found out that it was a fake. Even though such icons are sold on the OLX platform, the "ads" that were distributed by propagandists were faked in a…