Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels spread messages that allegedly the United States admitted the “failure” through Ukraine with reference to American media. They say that the Republicans in the United States are not able to resist the so-called “woke culture” (increased attention to issues of social inequality), their leader in the Senate supports pumping Ukraine with weapons. Allegedly, this casts doubt on the need for the existence of such a party in the United States. This is manipulation.

As The Insider fact-checkers note, Russian propaganda refers to a column of The American Conservative. Its author is journalist and writer Rod Dreher, who has built a career on scandalous homophobic and racist statements. Moreover, he now lives in Hungary, works at the Danube Institute and receives a scholarship from the government of Viktor Orban.

The holiday is coming and the fakes invented by Russian propaganda are becoming more and more like fairy tales. The fact-checkers of the Myth Detector edition recorded the distribution of a photo collage in Russian telegram channels, where Volodymyr Zelenskyi is supposedly sitting on Santa Claus’s lap and “asking him for another 50 billion dollars”. It's fake.

It was created by the American fictional satirical news outlet Babylon Bee. Today, on the front page of this publication is the news that Max will remain in the position of CEO of Twitter, if they count the votes received by mail. Also, that Cain killed Abel in the field, and not at home, so that the elf on the mantelpiece would not see this. Obviously, the news about Zelenskyi was about US President Joseph Biden signing a budget for next year, in which $ 45 billion is allocated to help Ukraine and its allies. This year, financial assistance to Ukraine amounted to $ 28 billion - and this does not include the cost of weapons transferred by partners of the Ukrainian army.

Messages of this content appeared in Russian propaganda media and in telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. The authors of the messages claim that Great Britain, together with its vassals - the Baltic countries and Poland, are preparing an anti-Russian coalition. Like, the Baltic countries are only colonies and vassals of Great Britain, and London is trying to build an anti-Russian coalition in order to reduce the influence of Russia. Analysts of the EU vs Disinfo project drew attention to the case in the network. According to analysts, Russian propaganda seeks to present the Baltic countries and Poland as dependent or even puppets of Western states (in this case, Great Britain). In this way, propagandists convince the world that because of ties with the UK, other countries are losing their sovereignty. The propagandists expanded the same narrative in relation to Ukraine. They say that Ukraine is controlled by third forces: both the countries of the West and NATO, and it is they who allegedly set Ukraine and Ukrainians against Russia.

Russian state television broadcast a story about an alleged mass rally in Nuremberg demanding the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions and a halt to the supply of weapons to Ukraine. The same information was disseminated in pro-Russian and Russian telegram channels. But, as Insider's fact-checkers found out, the rally was organized by the “Nuremberg Human Rights Group”, which has been organizing protests every Monday for years. The main demands of these rallies over the past two years are the abolition of mandatory vaccination against coronavirus, as well as more general slogans: against “digital surveillance by the state”, against “hysterical media” and for social justice. The only slogan that could refer to the war in Ukraine is the phrase “Let's create a world without weapons! No ignition!”. But in no way does it concern either Russia or Ukraine, and even more - anti-Russian sanctions or the supply of weapons to Ukraine from Germany.

Russian propaganda is constantly trying to promote the message that Europeans do not support Ukrainians and demand that their governments stop supplying weapons to Ukraine. In fact, support for Ukraine in the EU countries has not decreased: according to a survey conducted in October-November 2022 commissioned by the European Parliament, 74% of Europeans approve of all types of support for Ukraine. In the Scandinavian countries, the approval rate is the highest - over 90%.

Russian media write about this with reference to the words of Dmytro Medvediev. Like, Zelenskyi is less sorry for the Europeans, so he is ready to use them at infrastructure facilities as "cannon fodder" instead of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Center for Countering Disinformation drew attention to the spread of the message. Such a reaction was caused by Volodymyr Zelenskyi's appeal to the European Union with a proposal to send special missions of international control to Ukrainian critical energy infrastructure facilities. Such statements, according to the Center, indicate that international control will make impossible the Russian tactics of massive shelling of Ukraine's critical infrastructure.

Russian propaganda uses the tactics of information support of massive missile strikes to further pressure and intimidate Ukrainians. They say that massive rocket attacks are revenge for the explosions in the Russian rear, for Kherson, for the drone attack in the Sevastopol Bay, etc. Also, the Russians shift the responsibility for their crimes to the Ukrainian authorities, saying that the Office of the President exaggerates the effectiveness of air defense and “invents” missile attacks.

Such information is disseminated by Kremlin resources with reference to analyst Brian Clark and his article “If America Pushes For A ‘Total’ Ukraine Victory It Could Mean Nuclear War” at 19FortyFive.com. Like, Washington wants to have stable relations with Russia, it does not need the victory of the Kyiv regime in the Ukrainian conflict, since it could lead to a nuclear war with Russia.

On the 19FortyFive website, there is no single position on the direction in which the policy in the field of US national security, international politics, military analytics, etc. should be lined up. This is a kind of platform where experts with different opinions can express themselves, including those that do not coincide with the official position of Washington.

The article presented by Russian propaganda as the position of the United States is only the opinion of one of the analysts specializing in US foreign policy. In his article, Clark does not claim that the United States considered that the victory of Ukraine was not beneficial for the United States. The analyst reflects that if at first Russia was perceived as a serious adversary, and it was concluded that Ukraine would not be able to defend itself against such a rival for a long time, now the positions have changed.

In fact, the United States does not stop declaring guaranteed support until the victory of Ukraine, and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan noted that Russia will have to leave everything occupied in Ukraine.

Russian media write about it. Like, the Kremlin will condemn any attempts to create a tribunal. Also, Russia does not recognize any of its war crimes, blaming Ukraine for them.

The EU vs Disinfo fact-checkers drew attention to the spread of this message. Russian war crimes, including torture and civilian killings, are well documented and must be punished. This was discussed at a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Polish city of Lodz on December 01, 2022.

Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels write about this. They say that foreign mercenaries, including those from Poland, are increasingly fighting and dying in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. So, allegedly, a special cemetery was prepared for them in Olsztyn, Poland, which was placed in small squares like American cemeteries, so that everyone would have enough space. It is not true.

The news about the creation of a special cemetery was published only in the publication Niezależny Dziennik Polityczny. Fact-checkers of The Insider project discovered that this is a fake publication that had previously spread Russian disinformation about Poland's intentions to take over Ukraine. The reason for the fakes was the decision of the Polish Ministry of Defense to switch to American standards for the arrangement of military cemeteries throughout the country.

The network is spreading a message that Ukraine allegedly supplied Azerbaijan with banned white phosphorus ammunition during the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in the fall of 2020. Robert Menendez, chairman of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, said this. This is not true.

Speaking at the hearings on the consideration of US policy in the Caucasus, Robert Menendez really accused Azerbaijan of violating humanitarian law during the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in the fall of 2020, in particular, in the use of ammunition containing white phosphorus. He also said that these munitions were supplied by Ukraine. Mendez neither specified what kind of a "report" he was referring to, nor did he provide any other evidence that Ukraine did indeed transfer banned weapons to Azerbaijan. He added that in the fall of 2020, this information was "widely covered" in the media. Philip Reeker, senior adviser for Caucasus negotiations at the US State Department, denied the existence of such reports.

According to StopFake, in early November 2020, Russian media, citing the Russian film director of Armenian origin Sarik Andreasian, spread information that Ukraine allegedly supplies Azerbaijan with phosphorus bombs, which they use to bombard Nahirnyi-Karabakh. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine did not provide any military assistance to Azerbaijan during the war, although it supported the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

In German social networks and blogs, information is being spread that Europe allegedly provided 360 million euros worth of goods in 9 months, of which goods worth 342 million were stolen. The reports also claim that 22 sea containers, 389 railway cars and 220 trucks of humanitarian aid were stolen in Zaporizhzhia and its region. The messages refer to the report of GRECO, the anti-corruption monitoring body of the Council of Europe. But this is fake.

As the German fact-checkers from the Correctiv project write, such a report does not exist. The EU representative reported that it was neither prepared nor published. The statement that 55 million euros of financial aid was stolen is also untrue. There is no confirmation in Europe that humanitarian aid in Ukraine is being stolen. There are reports that the Security service of Ukraine (SSU) investigates cases of speculation or theft of humanitarian aid, but it is of a completely different scale and amount of money. Moreover, the propagandists lied even in general figures: Europe provided Ukraine with humanitarian aid in the amount of 335 million hryvnias - that is, less than was stolen from Ukraine according to the authors of the fake.

The Russian media and social networks are spreading information that allegedly Italy has tightened its policy towards Ukrainian refugees. In support of this, a video from an Italian TV news story is being distributed about how the police massively evict Ukrainian refugees who refused to voluntarily leave the hotel. This is manipulation.

The video of the Italian TV channel tells about the situation with Ukrainian refugees, but it is taken out of context. They are not talking about any "harder conditions". Moreover, Ukrainian refugees in Italy were given separate housing instead of a hotel. That is why the authorities asked the Ukrainians to leave the hotel for separate apartments. However, some Ukrainians did not want to move to new housing, since it is located in another settlement. Because of the move, you need to look for work and school again, to change language courses and so on. Also, some refugees are being treated at a local hospital. That is, it was about the fact that Ukrainian refugees, for certain reasons, do not want to move to another city, and not move out of the hotel.

Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels write about this. They say that the supply of weapons to Ukraine does not bring negotiations closer.

In fact, the message that the West is only continuing the war by providing weapons to Ukraine is one of the most powerful since the beginning of the war. However, propagandists are now manipulating it to force Ukraine into negotiations. The longer Ukraine opposes Russia, the more Russia tries to lead the situation to negotiations on its own terms. However, Ukraine's position on the negotiations remains unchanged - for this, Russia must withdraw its troops from Ukraine. The West provides Ukraine with weapons solely to protect Ukrainian territory. Russia, on the other hand, is destroying Ukrainian critical infrastructure, shelling the civilian population, and wants the surrender of Ukraine, not peace.

Pro-Russian telegram channels write that the White House (USA) is stopping aid to Ukraine. Like, all the hopes of Ukrainians collapsed.

Such messages are spreading against the background of the fact that the NATO Parliamentary Assembly has recognized Russia as a terrorist state and called for the creation of a special international tribunal. The decision was taken unanimously. The resolution contains a number of important decisions for Ukraine, in particular, on increasing arms supplies to Ukraine, developing specific steps for Ukraine's entry into NATO, and creating a mechanism for collecting reparations from Russia for the damage caused to Ukraine.

Thus, Russia is trying to disorient Ukrainians, worsen the attitude towards Ukraine's foreign partners and destabilize the situation inside the country.

Tiktok is circulating news which says that the Bundestag allegedly introduces a “solidarity tax”, which will be automatically calculated from wages to help Ukrainians. Like, such a decision was made due to the fact that Germany should support Ukraine with 500 million dollars a month. It is not true.

According to the fact checker of the Correctiv project, the video was published on Tiktok on October 31, it gained more than 815,000 views and 2,100 comments. Its primary source is a satirical account. However, in further shares, users often did not tag the video as satirical, so it received a lot of negative comments.

Fact checkers received a comment from the Federal Government in which the authorities denied the imposition of an additional tax. The government did discuss certain changes in taxation, but it was about existing taxes, and not about introducing new ones.

У такий спосіб проросійські користувачі намагаються нашкодити партнерським стосункам України та Німеччини, а також налаштувати німців проти допомоги Україні.

Russian media write that at the airport in Bali (Indonesia) the Russian delegation was allegedly greeted with an "updated" map of Russia with the temporarily occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine as part of Russia. It is not true.

StopFake fact-checkers write that Russian propaganda telegram channels were the first to spread the news. There are no other photos of this map on the network. Even the Russian media used the same photo as the telegram channels to illustrate the fake, it was a map with the circled temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. There is no information about who exactly took this “photo”.

InVID and FotoForensics check shows that this banner was most likely created in a photo editor. Also, a detailed examination of the "banner" shows its poor quality: on the right side of the image in the middle you can see how poorly the background behind the map is drawn, which is unlikely for such a major international event.

Earlier, propagandists wrote that Russia “has the right” to Ukrainian territories, since the West recognized the independence of Kosovo. Thus, the propaganda creates the illusion that the world supposedly supports Russia, but not Ukraine.

Russian media write about it. Like, during the announcement of the verdict on the downing of the MH17 Boeing, the judge stressed that it was a "non-international armed conflict in Ukraine." This is not true.

An international court judge said that in April 2014, Ukrainian troops fought against separatist groups controlled by Russia. The judge also stressed that the defendants do not have the right to use the immunity granted to the soldiers of the warring parties, since the representatives of the separatist formations are not soldiers of the Russian army. The Insider fact-checkers drew attention to the spread of the fake. Fact-checkers of the NatoYenota project recorded the spread of and refuted the fake that allegedly Ukraine was recognized as the “main criminal” in the case of downing the MH17.

The Kremlin media are spreading another fake - that Ukrainian recruits who are studying in the UK are "shocked by the seen" as the "ignorant" "came from the villages" and it will be “difficult for them to resist those mobilized and trained from Russia”. The Kremlin media cite an article by the Financial Times. The article is really talking about the training of the Ukrainian military, and the instructors really talk about several problems in training the Ukrainians: the training lasts 5-6 weeks while the British military has 14 weeks. And the Ukrainians are from different units, so it will be difficult for them in the future when they return to their own units. But this is all.

Not a word is mentioned about "villages", about "lack of education", or that the Ukrainian military is "shocked" by training conditions that simulate conditions close to combat - including a lot of blood and torn off fake limbs; there are also actors playing the roles of the wounded. All these phrases about “not professional enough” Ukrainian recruits were simply invented by Russian propagandists and added to the news, referring to the Financial Times. At the same time, the following phrase was thrown out of the text by Lieutenant Colonel Harris, who supervises Ukrainian recruits:

“They are the most motivated, determined, hungry-to-learn trainees that I’ve worked with across the world in my 20 years of soldiering. That they train in water up to their knees for 36 hours and can still laugh, joke and quickly answer questions says it all for me.”

Russian propaganda is constantly trying to convince their local audience and part of the Ukrainian that mobilization will “turn the tide” of events at the front and that the Ukrainian military does not know how to fight. They attribute Russia's defeats in the war to the abilities of mythical "foreign mercenaries" and "NATO command".

Such information is disseminated in social networks. The authors of the publications allegedly refer to a survey conducted for the German TV program ARD-Deutschland Trend. Russian media write that the Germans rebelled against the increase in military assistance to Ukraine. This is manipulation.

As StopFake writes, the German company Infratest Dimap really conducted a survey commissioned by the German TV program ARD-Deutschland Trend. Such surveys are carried out systematically. This time, 1,307 Germans with the right to vote expressed their opinion. The survey was conducted over the phone or online from 31 October to 2 November. The question on the supply of weapons to Ukraine sounded like this: “Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February. Germany reacted to this with different steps. Please indicate below in each case whether they are appropriate, excessive or insufficient (…) regarding German arms support for Ukraine?”. That is, in this case, they estimated the number of weapons, and did not investigate issues of support.

A total of 41% of Germans consider the volume of military assistance sufficient, which is 2% more than in August this year. 30% of Germans consider excessive deliveries of weapons - this is 2% less compared to August. 21% called aid to Ukraine insufficient, which is also 2% less than two months ago. The remaining 8% probably found it difficult to answer.

In social networks, they write that supposedly the US military is already on the territory of Ukraine. Social media users write that Biden is allegedly “approaching World War III” or “risking the lives of Americans to launder taxpayer dollars to enrich himself, his family and his corrupt allies”. This is manipulation.

In fact, US military personnel are checking the delivery and distribution of weapons in Ukraine. There is no evidence of the presence of combat forces in the country, Reuters fact-checkers note. During a November 1 press briefing, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder provided details on US military personnel in Ukraine. He said small teams of embassy personnel conduct "inspections" and provide security assistance. Their mission is to “track the US-provided weapons and prevent their illegal distribution throughout Eastern Europe”. Ryder also said that this should not be taken as an escalation of U.S. involvement in the war noting in particular that U.S. personnel "are not going to operate on the front lines".

Last week, the third demonstration in the last two months took place in the Czech Republic, organized by the ultra right, the Communist Party and fringe groups. Among the demands of the protesters: to start negotiations with Russia on the purchase of gas. To do this, they believe, it is necessary to cancel sanctions and stop the supply of weapons to Ukraine. They also demand to ensure the status of neutrality, that is, withdrawal from NATO and the EU. More than 100,000 Czechs took part in these protests, organizers say. This is manipulation.

In fact, eyewitnesses say that this demonstration was the weakest, with no more than 10-20 thousand people taking part in it. According to the fact-checkers of the NotaYenota project, according to the results of the poll, 8 out of 10 Czechs do not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, in support of Ukraine, many more demonstrators once again come out to Prague squares than to pro-Russian rallies. These actions are held under the slogans "Czech Republic against fear" and "We can cope".

Anti-government rallies in the Czech Republic are organized by pro-Russian leaders. One of them is Ladyslav Vrabel, known as "an ardent admirer of Putin." The day before, he noted the need to go to Moscow and conclude gas agreements. Vrabel repeatedly gave interviews to Russian propaganda media and rejoiced at pseudo-referendums in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. The action was filmed by Czech videographer Zharko Yovanovich who previously worked on the Russian army TV channel “Zviezda” (Star).

The Czech government has already taken action to deal with the crisis by capping energy prices and launching broad support for families and individuals struggling with rising gas prices. The government of Prime Minister Petr Fiala is taking a hard line on the Russian invasion and is an important partner for Ukraine. The Czech Parliament declared the Russian regime a terrorist one. Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov announced more than 50 projects with the participation of the Czech Republic to strengthen the Ukrainian army.

The Russian media distorted the words of the interview of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, which he gave to the Spanish publication El Mundo.

When Dmytro Kuleba was asked "how to live without gas or gasoline," he answered that he was asking a counter question - "what about Europe's plans to transform into a "green" economy." His question hadn't answer.

At the same time, Europe has already found an alternative to Russian gas in other markets, which Kuleba also drew attention to in his interview. Kuleba noted that Kremlin lobbyists mostly promote the theme of the lack of alternatives to Russian gas.

Russian propaganda again used interviews of Ukrainian officials in foreign media to promote the narratives they needed: about the alleged futility of sanctions against Russia and Russian gas, which only cause damage and suffering to Europeans. Moreover, as Kremlin propaganda wants to show, Ukrainians allegedly don't appreciate such sacrifices. More details.

In the Georgian and Russian segments of social networks, pictures allegedly showed the results of a survey of the French regarding the "escalation of relations with Russia" being distributed. The opinions of the French on whether it is worth supplying weapons to Ukraine in the future were divided: 23.3% supported Ukraine, while 76.7% gave a negative answer to this question. It is not true.

In fact, the results of the vote were shared on Twitter when the question was discussed on the TV show. According to MythDetector fact-checkers, any social network user could participate in the vote.

So the survey results represent the opinion of social network users, not the French. In fact, according to various studies, the attitude of the French population to the supply of weapons to Ukraine is different. According to a survey by the "Institute of French Public Opinion" (Ifop), 60% of French people support the supply of arms to Ukraine, and two-thirds support economic sanctions against Russia. The survey also showed that 6 out of 10 French people support Ukraine's accession to the European Union. Russian propaganda systematically manipulates "public opinion" to create the impression that citizens of other countries don't support Ukraine.

Earlier, propagandists wrote that the Austrians were allegedly demanding an end to support for Ukraine, and the Germans were less and less supportive of anti-Russian sanctions. Also, over 3 billion people reportedly abstained from voting on Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territories.

The Russian media spread this information. Foreigners allegedly escape the cold in local offices of Russian cooperation called "Russian Houses." The day before, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia launched a propaganda campaign to show that Europe is allegedly freezing without Russian gas.

The first results of this action were announced the very next day. Allegedly, they have already basked in "Russian houses" in Finland and Luxembourg. Analysts at The Insider found out Luxembourg was quite warm last week - from 17 to 21 degrees during the day to 10 to 14 at night. In addition, propagandists used a video from the showing of the cartoon "Alyosha Popovych and Tugaryn Zmiy" at the "Russian House" in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, as proof of the "warming" of Finns and Luxembourgers.

This disinformation is intended to show that Europe will freeze without Russian gas, but Europeans can avoid it if they forget about Russia's war in Ukraine. They allegedly can speak out against anti-Russian sanctions and start consuming Russian culture en masse.

The Russian media wrote about it. Israel refuses to transfer any weapons to Ukraine precisely because of these reasons. Such words are attributed to the former prime minister of Israel, the leader of the opposition, Benjamin Netanyahu. The opposition leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, interviewed the American TV channel MSNBC, in which there was a discussion about Russia's war against Ukraine and the situation with Iran, which helps Russia with weapons.

To the question, "Should Israel do more to support Ukraine?" Netanyahu replied that his country has a reasonable policy in this sense. He didn't say anything about Ukraine stealing or reselling weapons to someone. Netanyahu also didn't say that this is the reason for the refusal to supply arms to Ukraine. "When it comes to weapons, there is always the possibility, it has happened repeatedly, that the weapons that we supply to one battlefield will end up in the hands of the Iranians and be used against us," Netanyahu said. Russian propagandists distorted the words of the Israeli leader.

Russia has repeatedly tried to accuse Ukraine of selling weapons received from Western partners on the black market, but these "facts" turned out to be faked. Propagandists throw such theses into the information space to cause distrust of the Ukrainian army at the international level and reduce or even stop, the support of Western partners. More details.

Russian propaganda media spread such a message. Propagandists claim that Germany "send trains with soldiers to death to Ukraine." German soldiers allegedly go to Ukraine and will all be killed there.

In their messages, propagandists refer to the words of a Russian woman who lived in Germany for more than 30 years. As StopFake writes, propagandists don't mention the woman's name, don't refer to her social networks, but devote an entire paragraph to her emotional experiences. "However, even during life in a European country, the big and kind heart of a Russian woman is unshakable: a voice-over doesn't stop repeating that German soldiers are supposedly being sent to certain death," the text of the propagandists reads. In fact, it is not true. StopFake fact-checkers contacted the press service of the Bundeswehr.

They noted that the equipment and people were moving for the training, and they will return to their former place after the training. However, it isn't the first time propagandists have claimed that foreigners are fighting in Ukraine. In this way, they are trying to create the appearance that, in fact, Russia is not at war with Ukraine but with other countries.