Category United Nations

DISINFO: Ukrainian Army has de jure lost its supreme commander-in-chief Zelensky

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative aimed to defame President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian leadership to absolve Russia from its responsibility for the fact that Ukraine cannot hold elections for the moment. Since 2022, Russia has waged large-scale armed aggression against Ukraine and is also responsible for the outbreak of the conflict in 2014, after having illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula and engineered the creation of rebel militias in Donetsk, Luhansk and other places, with its army actively participating in military clashes. Further, Zelenskyy's reported decision to postpone next year's presidential poll was made in accordance with current Ukrainian legislation. Article 19 of the 2015 Ukrainian law "On the Legal Regime of Martial Law" directly prohibits the holding of presidential and several other types of elections during wartime.

October 15, 2024
Democracy Disinformation Elections Fact checks / debunkings International community Misconceptions Ukraine United Nations

DISINFO: The IMF opposed the transfer of Russian assets to Ukraine

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation aimed at deterring nations from seizing Russia's frozen assets to fund Ukraine's reconstruction by warning of an imminent economic collapse. The narrative also aims at undermining Ukraine's cooperation with the International Monetary Fund. The disinformation is based on a press conference by Julie Kozack, Director of the Communications Department of the International Monetary Fund, on May 16, 2024. Answering a question from journalists about the possible use of Russian assets to support Ukraine, Kozack noted that the International Monetary Fund insists on a thorough study of this decision and its consequences.

October 15, 2024
Fact checks / debunkings International community Russia Ukraine United Nations

Fake: Zelenskyi’s Security Guard Got Into Drunk Fight in New York

The video evidence of the incident, allegedly published in an American media outlet, is a poorly made forgery, full of errors.

Fake: UN Believes Ukraine Threatens Nuclear Safety Worldwide

During the UN meeting dedicated to the International Day against Nuclear Tests, none of the countries accused Ukraine of threatening a nuclear disaster. Russia's rhetoric threatens international nuclear safety, as UN representatives from different countries clearly stated.

Fake: Russian Army Never Attacks Churches or Cultural Sites

UNESCO and UN specialists have recorded at least 270 Russian attacks on Ukrainian cultural sites, 116 of those were religious buildings.

Manipulation: UN Encourages to Stop Drone Attacks on Moscow

UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq neither encouraged to end any attacks on Moscow, nor spoke in their favor. The organization representative spoke against "any and all attacks on civilian facilities" and expressed the wish that they stop.

October 14, 2024
Disinformation Fact checks / debunkings International community Media taken out of context Methods Misconceptions Russia Ukraine United Nations

Vladimir Putin’s false war claims

Putin claims: “Does Ukraine need to be denazified” - false, “Is Russia’s attack a defense case under the UN Charter?” - false, “Was there a ‘genocide” in Ukraine?” - false. Russia has so far failed to provide any evidence in their claims.

January 5, 2024
Disinformation Fact checks / debunkings Genocide Misconceptions NATO Nazism Putin Russia Russian propaganda Ukraine United Nations

Killings of Civilians: Summary Executions and Attacks on Individual Civilians in Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy Regions …

As of 31 October 2022, OHCHR – through the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) – had documented summary executions and attacks on individual civilians in 102 villages and towns of the three regions between 24 February and 6 April 2022. The acts in question were committed by Russian armed forces in control of these areas and led to the deaths of 441 civilians (341 men, 72 women, 20 boys and 8 girls). One hundred of those killings are analysed in this report and its Annex, as illustrative examples of the suffering borne by civilians in these areas. Information available to OHCHR indicates that the total number of summary executions and lethal attacks directed against individual civilians by Russian armed forces in the three regions during the reporting period is likely considerably higher.

October 7, 2023
Attacks on civilians Bucha International community Russia Ukraine United Nations War crimes

Disinformation: Russia presented specific evidence to the UN on crimes committed by the Ukrainian authorities against their own citizens in Bucha

Therefore, the Kremlin’s claim that they presented a set of evidence to the UN which proves Ukraine’s crimes in Bucha is fake. That which the Russian Ambassador presented at a special press conference and the UN Security Council are impossible to be considered as “evidence.” Most of them are easily verifiable false claims and the rest is absurd allegations which are not considered as evidence in any format.

UN report details summary executions of civilians by Russian troops in northern Ukraine

KYIV (7 December 2022) – In the initial weeks of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian armed forces summarily executed or carried out attacks on individuals leading to the deaths of hundreds of civilians, the Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner said today. A UN Human Rights report based on the work of the Mission details how Russian troops killed civilians in Ukrainian towns and villages across the Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions of Ukraine from 24 February until 6 April 2022. Bogner said the summary executions examined in the report may constitute a war crime. “There are strong indications that the summary executions documented in this report may constitute the war crime of willful killing,” she said.