Russia cannot live a single day without a select portion of fakes. Despite the fact that the Russians suffered military losses at the front and a covert mobilization was taking place in Russia, the occupiers told real horrors about concentration camps, the shooting of Russian speakers, and famine in Ukraine in March 2023.According to them, life is so good in Russia, Biden has recognized Putin's invincibility, and Britney Spears publicly stated that Ukraine has been killing residents of Donbas since 2014. Today "Trybun" analyzes the main Russian fakes in March.
May 9 holiday was canceled in Ukraine
Such a message was circulated in this month. The reports say that the May 9 holiday has been canceled in Ukraine, and a new holiday has already been introduced - the “Victory day over Russia”. The basis for creating this fake was the submission to the Verkhovna Rada of a draft law on amending Article 73 of the Labor Code of Ukraine to establish “non-working holidays”. The main proposal of the bill is not to cancel holidays, but to establish other public holidays. So far, the bill has not yet been adopted and submitted to the vote, which means that no holidays have yet been officially introduced.
As to Victory day over nazism in World War II, which is celebrated on May 9, the authors of the bill note that this day “will be defined as a holiday, but a working day”. That is, the Parliament did not plan to cancel this holiday, moreover, they did not discuss the possibility of celebrating “Victory over Russia” day on May 9 instead.
"For the second time in the last decade, residents of Kherson oblast will celebrate "Victory Day" joyfully and freely, without looking in all directions. Last year, the May 9 celebrations became a turning point that help the people of Kherson confirm their choice in favor of Russia," the so-called "governor" of Kherson oblast, Volodymyr Saldo, recently noted.
And, of course, he is lying, because the celebration of May 9 was never banned during the years of Ukraine's independence However, mass events were limited due to the coronavirus pandemiс in 2020 and 2021. The collaborators are trying to pass off these cases as a "celebration ban" now.
Shortage of bread in Ukraine
In March, also another fake was spread. Reports say that Ukrainians seem to have started selling a “bread product” made from “the stale remains of unsold bread” due to product shortage. As proof, the authors of the fake add a video, which allegedly shows that in one of the grocery online stores you can buy the mentioned “bread product” of the “Kyivkhlib” (Kyiv bread) company. However, "Kyivkhlib" denied the presence of a “bread product” in the company's assortment.
The head of the All-Ukrainian agrarian council, Denys Marchuk, said earlier that there is no shortage of bread in Ukraine at present, but its price may rise during 2023.
In March 2023, the State statistics service reported that due to the crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, prices for bread products increased by 26% over the past year. However, we are not talking about any “deficit of bread”.
"How good life is in Russia"
Such a disinformation campaign was recorded by specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. According to them, telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric are reporting “high prices” for food products in Ukraine. Allegedly, food prices are skyrocketing in Ukraine, and therefore it is necessary to “surrender to Russia as soon as possible, because everything is cheaper there” and the situation with the economy is better. The authors of the messages also attach photos of price tags from Ukrainian supermarkets, comparing them with Russian ones.
The Center for Strategic Communications explains that food prices are rising in Ukraine and in the world because of Russia. Due to the occupation of a part of the south of Ukraine, where farmers are not allowed to work fully, as well as due to the blocking of the “grain corridor”, the world is faced with another crisis. Since it has become much more difficult to grow vegetables under the conditions of full-scale war and continuous Russian terror, internal supplies in Ukraine are not enough. Imported goods are more expensive, because of that prices really have risen in stores.
The thesis about a stable Russian economy is not true. According to the World Bank, 2022 has been a bad year for the Russian economy. According to experts, in 2022, Russia's gross domestic product fell by at least 2.2% in the best scenario and to 3.9% in the worst case. The Russian economy will shrink in 2023 as well.
Fake accounts of the Ukrainian military
During the month, Russian propagandists tried to promote hostile messages through fake accounts of the Ukrainian military on social networks, in particular on Tik-Tok.
One of the tiktok accounts masqueraded as the personal page of a sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who actually keeps his war diary. The account, which was a clone of the profile of a member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, contained real videos shot by real soldiers. However, the messages superimposed on them were not at all the messages that the author of the real tiktok account had in mind.F or example, propagandists promoted such messages: “Bakhmut cannot be kept”, “Military are tired”, etc.
In 2023, Famine is inevitable in Ukraine
Such a message is distributed to the propagandist by social networks. According to propagandists, the famine will happen due to the fact that Ukrainians no longer buy anhydrous ammonia from Russia, and imports are too expensive, so Ukrainian farmers "will not sow." News about the upcoming famine is accompanied by a video by " Suspilne Chernihiv " that shows an interview with a Ukrainian farmer.
In the video, farmer Leonid Yakovyshyn says that fertilizer prices have increased after the Russian invasion. Therefore, it is unprofitable to sow corn. However, the man doesn't tell about a lack of sowing campaign.
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In addition, on March 12, 2023, Taras Vysotskyi, the First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, announced on Public Radio that Ukraine produces 5 times more than it consumes.
According to him, as of now, we have enough product reserves for our consumption.
Regarding Sowing Campaign 2022, Taras Vysotskyi added: "80% of mineral fertilizers have already been purchased. This is enough to get an above-average yield"
Therefore, there is no hint of famine, and Ukraine has not stopped the sowing campaign. The country exports a lot of grain and oil crops and produces five times more food than it consumes.
Remelting Orthodox crosses into "correct" ones
The other day, "ukraina.ru" published a fake photo of a "price" with a post that allegedly Ukrainian jewelry workshops offer the service of remelting a cross from an Orthodox one to a "correct" one.
The photo shows the alleged price list of jewelry workshop services enclosed in a file. In the list of services and prices - an inserted drawing of two crosses, on which the difference is marked - a transverse beveled membrane in the area of Christ's feet. It is this "Orthodox" feature that is allegedly proposed to be remelted into a "correct" one for 500 hryvnas.
According to the price list with identical services and prices, there is no mention of the "correct crucifixion".
It is interesting that the price list of the workshop is publicly available, and if you search for "jewelry repair" on Google, it appears firstly. Russian propagandists found this information and "improved" it with new services.
The UN recognized that Ukraine discriminates against the Orthodox Church
Propaganda mass media say that one of the UN reports noted that Ukraine discriminates against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The propagandists referred to a document titled “Report on the situation of human rights in Ukraine – 1 August 2022 – 31 January 2023”. According to analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project, the report concerns war crimes of Russians in Ukraine, but propagandists are silent about this in their messages. The document contains a single paragraph about searches by the SSU in the premises of the UOC and reports of suspicion to the clergy of the UOC.
The authors of the document also note that "OHCHR is concerned that the activities of the state against the UOC may be discriminatory”.
Only “pure-blooded Ukrainians” can donate blood
An alleged announcement from the online service “Doc.ua” was being spread on social networks. It reported that from March 1, 2023, the reception of donated blood would be carried out only when the donor is a “pure-blooded Ukrainian”. Foreign citizens are prohibited from being donors.
The co-founder of the service Ihor Liski wrote on his Facebook page that the system did not provide such announcements. At first, he assumed that a similar action could be organized by competitors for “black” PR.Later, after finding the same messages on Russian TV channels, he reported that it was a psychological operation by Russian special services to influence Ukrainians.
The service itself denied the ad.
“In connection with the dissemination online of inaccurate information from the Doc.ua brand, we would like to note that we are not related to any blood collection or any other procedures related to donation,” it was stated in a post on the Facebook page Doc.ua.
The Ukrainian military burned the Koran
The Russians told the fake story about the brutality of Ukrainian "neo-Nazis" in March as well. They said that the soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces allegedly burned the Koran. The authors of the messages add a video where this can be seen. The video was staged. It contains errors in pronunciation and an “unhidden Russian accent”.
Biden recognized "Putin's invincibility"
In March, Russian mass media, propaganda groups on social networks, websites and Telegram channels spread information that US President Joseph Biden recognized "Putin's invincibility" in a closed meeting with congressmen.
We are talking about a 15-second audio recording, which they tried to pass off as a "leak" from a closed-to-the-press meeting of the US President with US congressmen. Allegedly, during this meeting, the head of the White House made a sensational "confession" about the impossibility of defeating Putin and spoke highly of his patriotism.
However, it is not Biden's voice, but a rather primitive imitation in the audio recording referred to by the Russian media.
StopFake offered to listen to the audio to several Americans, and they all said with confidence that English is not native to the person they are trying to pass off as Biden's words.
Joseph Biden's numerous public statements also contradict the meaning of the "leak". He has said many times that the Russian President is a "murderer" for him.
Survey in "Diia" about acceptable losses for Ukraine
According to Russian mass media, Diia is conducting a survey regarding which losses Ukrainians consider acceptable. Participants are offered to count in tens of thousands. Of course, there is no such survey and there was never in "Diia", although the picture shows that it ends on April 10, 2023.
This accusation is allegedly made on behalf of the authorities to show that the government is already preparing the ground for negotiations or surrender and at the same time want to inform the citizens about the real losses of Ukraine in the war.
Deportation of Ukrainians to Russia is not a war crime
After issuing a warrant for Putin's arrest, Russian propaganda says that the so-called evacuation of Ukrainian children and their further transfer to Russia allegedly cannot be considered a war crime. Russia substitutes the concepts and calls the crime “salvation”.
On March 15, 2023, UN international experts published a report that presents war crimes committed by the Russian occupiers. A separate block of the UN report is devoted to the results of the investigation into the forced displacement and deportation of Ukrainian children by Russian occupiers. The report explains that children are taken out not only from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but also from other occupied territories of Ukraine.
As of December 29, it is known that about 13,876 Ukrainian children were expelled by Russia. Ukraine regards such actions as the abduction of its citizens.
Prior to Biden's visit to Kyiv, it was ordered to gather people who "will chant about the friendly relations between the US and Ukraine"
In mid-March, the Kremlin media spread information that the Kyiv authorities allegedly issued a special order prior to the visit of US President Joe Biden to Kyiv, which took place back in February. The "document" indicates that the authorities have ordered to check the questions of journalists and gather people who will "chant about friendly relations between the US and Ukraine. "For all this, including security and the banquet, they allegedly ordered to spend 60 million hryvnias from the state budget.
We checked the official website of the Kyiv City State Administration, where such orders are supposed to be published, and did not find the above-mentioned "document" on it.
StopFake fact-checkers drew attention to the incorrect design of the document - on similar orders of the Kyiv City State Administration, the document number is indicated on the right. In the document distributed on the network, it is located on the left.
Vinnytsa diocese of the UOC blesses the murders of Russians
Propagandists are spreading information that the Vinnytsia diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church allegedly issued a statement according to which the killing of Russians is not a sin and in which it blesses the Ukrainian military to “wipe the Russian nation off the face of the Earth”.
Analysts of the Georgian project MythDetector drew attention to it. They found out that the “statement” was not real. Several details point to this. In particular, the Kyiv patriarchate is indicated in the heading of the “statement”, and allegedly the Metropolitan of the Moscow patriarchate signed the “statement”. In addition, the heading of the “statement” is not correct - the Kyiv Patriarchate of the UOC merged with the OCU in 2019.
Archimandrite Sofronii Chupryna, spokesman for the diocese of Vinnytsa-Bar, denied the diocese's involvement in this “statement”. He also noted that usually monks and priests do not sign documents with a regular signature, but write their names in manuscript. On the “statement” one can see the classic signature.
Shooting of the car by the Ukrainian military
Russian propagandists also spread a video on the Internet, in which Ukrainian soldiers allegedly stopped a civilian car and began to abuse a woman and a child. Telegram channels began to distribute the recording en masse, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation also published the fake.
According to the "plot", a car carrying a woman with children overtakes a military vehicle with a "Ukrainian flag". Two men in Ukrainian uniforms get out of the car. One of them threatened a woman in "broken" Ukrainian. The sound of gunshots can be heard later on the recording, and after that the " soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" fired to the side.The screams of a woman and a child can also be heard in the video. The filming is allegedly done from a video recorder located on the windshield of another car.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine cited several reasons that prove that this material is only a fake of Russian propaganda. Intelligence, using open sources, identified the location where the incident occurred. It is located deep in the occupied territory of Donetsk. Thus, the Ukrainian military could have been there.
In addition, the " soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine" in the video wear yellow armbands, which is an unusual practice among Ukrainian soldiers, because they now have green armbands. Moreover, all soldiers wear masks that hide their faces..
The intelligence service also drew attention to poor-quality installation.
"А military man in the immediate vicinity of the car shoots from a machine gun. But there are no loud sounds of gunshots. The car window is open. There was a conversation through the window. There is no window closing sound. When the car goes back, you can hear again that the window is open. There was a shot, because the video shows the scattering of shell casings. At this moment there should be at least some sound,” the intelligence service explained.
The Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense emphasizes that this video “was even criticized by a number of Russian propagandists and opinion leaders for its fakeness, and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which first distributed this video, instantly removed it."
Concentration camp near Odessa
Information about a concentration camp allegedly created near Odesa was recently disseminated. The provocative message was actively disseminated by the Russian media and information resources of the occupiers in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.
Collaborator Yurii Barbashov told about that fake. The publication has several messages that particularly attract attention: a concentration camp has been created near Odessa; violent mobilization has now gained momentum in Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kherson regions; people are kidnapped on the streets, and those who do not want to fight are imprisoned.
The message about the concentration camp is an absolute lie and it has no basis. First of all, there is no indication of exactly where something similar is located in the region. Secondly, there is no such institution as a concentration camp within the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine.
Citizens evading mobilization can indeed be held in penal institutions and pretrial detention centers located on the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities. However, they are kept there only by a court decision, and the court cannot send a person to an institution that does not exist in the legislative field.
In Ukraine, there is administrative responsibility for evasion of mobilization: deprivation of liberty for a period of three to five years. The subject of the crime provided for in Article 336 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is a person conscripted for military service, if he was properly informed in accordance with the procedure established by law about the obligation to appear for general mobilization at the conscription area of a certain recruitment and social support center, and the person evaded conscription on military service during mobilization. At the pre-trial stage of the investigation, such a person may be detained in a pre-trial detention center or, after a court verdict, in a penal institution.
That is, it cannot be about "grabbing" and "imprisoning". Mobilization takes place on the basis of the law, and if a person commits illegal actions, including those related to evasion of the draft, measures are applied to him within the limits of the legislation.
Ukraine continues to sell weapons donated by NATO countries to terrorists, and 80% of aid is stolen
In recent days, propaganda has tried to translate allegations of weapons corruption into a political aspect. It wants to discredit not only Ukraine itself, but also suppliers of weapons and aid. Propaganda resource "Ukraine. ru", published a material with the title: "All 20% goes to Ukraine. How is the military and financial aid of the United States actually spent?" The material emphasizes that the relevant departments in the US received 189 complaints about the abuse of financial and military aid.
However, on March 29, at the hearings "regarding the oversight, transparency and accountability of aid to Ukraine" in the US Senate Nicole Angarella, Acting Inspector General of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said that despite an increased number of reports of possible misuse of US aid, inspectors have found no signs of serious violations in this regard.
"We have not seen any evidence that there was any egregious wrongdoing when it comes to the use of military aid going to Ukraine. I would like to note that Ukrainian officials also share our concern about ensuring proper accountability and transparency of things that reach and relate to the battlefield," National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said at a briefing on March 29.
On January 27, inspectors from the US government, the World Bank and the international company Deloitte arrived in Ukraine to audit the American aid that the US provides to Kyiv at the expense of American taxpayers. The U.S. Treasury Department, after an inspection, said that it did not notice any signs of misuse of the money that the White House provides to Ukraine.
Printing advertisements on the pages that contain reports of the military death
Another narrative about the impiety and lack of humanity of the Ukrainian people was the notification that on the reverse side of the notifications about the death of a military man, in the Dnipro, well-known Ukrainian companies allegedly placed an advertisement with a promotional code for a discount "nashchiti2873"
Gwara Media fact-checkers drew attention to the address indicated in the header of the letter. Ivan Mazepa Avenue in Dnipro is not part of the Shevchenko raion of the city.
It is reported that the document is signed by the management of the Shevchenko District Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support. It is also worth paying attention to the position of the person who is the signatory. According to the photo of the letter, Anatolio Zharkov, head of the Shevchenko District Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support, is a lieutenant colonel. However, according to the data of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council from 2020, Zharkov became a colonel.
The fake news said that the notice of death contains advertisements for four Ukrainian companies: Eva beauty and care store, Megogo movie streaming media service, Zakaz.ua hypermarket delivery service, and Sushiya Japanese restaurant.
However, on Eva's page, the promotional code is considered incorrect. It is also not possible to use the promotional code on the Megogo service page.
The jets delivered from Poland and Slovakia are ineffective
The Kremlin's propaganda media have reported that the jets that Poland and Slovakia gave to Ukraine are not effective for combat operations. The leadership of the Air Force of Ukraine allegedly recognized it. In their messages, the propagandists refer to the Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat.
In fact, the Russian media took the quote out of context. He did not say that jets from Poland and Slovakia were ineffective. Ihnat said that these aircraft will help Ukraine on the battlefield during airspace patrolling, covering strike groups of Ukrainian bombers and in other cases.
Death of famous actors
At the end of March, a fake was spread on Facebook that the famous TV presenter Yurii Horbunov had tragically died in a road accident. The link leads to a suspicious site with a Russian-language domain name. And if the ad blocker is not turned on, the reader will be bombarded with a bunch of advertising messages with clickbait headlines.
"News" is also written in Russian. And at the end, the authors of the "sensation" report that STSI is asking eyewitnesses and people who know anything about this incident to come forward." The Russians are probably not aware that there is no "STSI" in Ukraine, and the State Automobile Inspection was abolished in 2015. Now there is a Patrol Police in Ukraine.There is a similar fake about the Ukrainian actor Volodymyr Horyanskyi.
Receiving summons through the "Diia" app
On March 12, the Ukraina.ru Telegram channel shared a post that the mobilization register will be linked to the Diia app in Kharkiv oblast.This will allow mobilization to be carried out electronically.At most, to avoid mobilization, you should just not install the "Diia" application. This is, of course, a fake. The news appeared without reference to the original source and without any justification.
No Ukrainian resolution specifies the possibility of sending a summon to Diia. This information was denied on January 27, 2023 by the head of the development of electronic services at the Ministry of Statistics Mstislav Banik in an interview with the publication "The Village".
"The decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, which caused such publicity, actually just settled the issues of some acts that were chaotically adopted after 2014, and we continue to regulate these issues. Therefore, the military card will appear in "Diya" sooner or later, but I cannot say that we are currently working on it. As for subpoenas, "Diia" will not have them," he emphasized.
On March 10, Mstislav Banik once again denied this information, already in response to a request from NV.
"There will be no summons in Diia." As for military registration, data on conscripts are in the Oberig register, which belongs to the Ministry of Defense. This registry has nothing to do with Diia, because Diia is not a registry," the head of the development of electronic services at the Ministry of Digital Affairs said
SSU fines Ukrainians for having relatives in the Russian Federation
Russian propaganda media says that the Security Service of Ukraine allegedly fines Ukrainians for having relatives living in Russia.
This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security Council of Ukraine.
"In fact, such a message does not correspond to reality and it is completely absurd, since Ukrainian legislation does not define domestic communication with relatives, even those who live on the territory of Russia, as a criminal or administrative offense. The same fake message, allegedly distributed on behalf of the Security Service of Ukraine, contains a number of grammatical errors that are uncharacteristic of the Ukrainian language: "Russia", "in the Russian Federation", "represent themselves", the message says.
Such fakes are aimed at discrediting representatives of the Defense Forces of Ukraine and provoking a decrease in trust in them among Ukrainians.
Ukrainians march in defense of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
Propagandists are spreading information that allegedly thousands of Ukrainians protested in defense of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Like, they oppose the oppression of Orthodox Ukrainians. Authors of posts on this topic even add "photos" from "protests".
In fact, when searching for the images that are being added as proof of the "protests", you can see that they were taken on March 12 of this year. That day, the faithful gathered for the Divine Liturgy in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on the day of commemoration of the Cathedral of All Saints of Pechersk. The video from this event was published by the UOC (MP) page.
In this way, Russian propagandists want to strengthen their information campaign regarding the "oppression of religion" by the "Kyiv regime". Like, the Nazi regime oppresses people for believing in God.
Elon Musk writes that Bakhmut is surrounded and it's good
Such information was disseminated in Telegram channels that broadcast pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that Elon Musk allegedly tweeted that Bakhmut is "almost surrounded and that's a good thing."
The comment “It's good” was written by Elon Musk in response to one of the users, and this can be seen from the screenshots distributed by propagandists. It is in no way related to Bakhmut, because this comment by Musk is in a thread about mattresses that can regulate temperature.
Britney Spears supports Russia
Propagandists are spreading information that the Instagram account of the American pop start Britney Spears was blocked for a post in which she expresses support for Russia in the war against Ukraine. Like, this is how American freedom of speech works, oppressing critics.
According to a “screenshot” of the post that allegedly banned Spears' account, the singer “believes that Western media coverage of the crisis in Ukraine has the sole purpose of fueling the war”. In addition, she allegedly stated that she believes in “freedom from Western hegemony and controlling US media capitalist oligarchs ”. At the end, Spears allegedly said that “Ukraine has been bombing Donbas since April 2014 and nobody has said a word”.
Analysts of The Insider project drew attention to the fake after it appeared on Russian television. They found out that the post was not real, and the singer deleted her Instagram page on her own, which she does regularly. In addition, the fakeness is indicated by the fact that not a single popular American show business media wrote about the post.
