Category Coordinated disinformation

Fake: President Zelensky Orders Catherine II Odesa Statue be Replaced with Monument of US…

The Catherine II statue is the property of the Odesa City Council. The city of Odesa, and not the Ukrainian President will decide its fate. The Ukrainian President cannot single handedly order that the Odesa statue be demolished or replaced, he simply does not have the authority or the power to do so. This is the responsibility of the local city authorities. Russian media however chose to focus only on the petition which ironically proposes to replace a Russian empress with an American porno star, which gathered 26,468 signatures of support.

Read MoreFake: President Zelensky Orders Catherine II Odesa Statue be Replaced with Monument of US…

Fake: Ukraine’s Leading Grain Magnate Killed by Ukrainian Missile

Oleksiy Vadaturskyi, the founder and CEO of Nibulon, one of the largest Ukrainian agriculture companies, was killed along with his wife on July 31 during the massive shelling of Mykolayiv by Russian invaders. One of the 50 rockets that Russia fired at the city that night hit his home. Ukraine's Prosecutor General opened an investigation into his killing, one line of investigation being pursued is Vadaturskyi's home was targeted intentionally.

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Fake: Ukrainian Commander Held Captive by Russia Accuses Ukrainian Military of Shelling Olenivka Prison…

Serhiy Volynsky, the commander of Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade, who is in Russian captivity, has not said anything that could be interpreted as support for the Russian propaganda version of the deadly explosions at the prisoner of war camp in Olenivka.

Read MoreFake: Ukrainian Commander Held Captive by Russia Accuses Ukrainian Military of Shelling Olenivka Prison…

Fake: NATO Confirms Russia Fighting ‘Not at Full Strength’ in Ukraine

A NATO Defense College report highlights that Russia appears unable to gain victory over Ukrainian forces, but expresses fears that the Kremlin may rebuild its army and accumulate forces to confront NATO countries in the future.

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Fake: Official Status for Ukrainian Language Demanded in Poland

Russian propaganda presented a single activist's social media post about the Ukrainian language as a popular belief held by all Ukrainians in Poland. In reality, Ukrainian refugees are not demanding that Ukrainian be made an official language in Poland. The Polish Constitution clearly states that the only official language in the country is Polish, which is spoken by a majority of people. If minorities constitute at least 20% of the total number of inhabitants of a given municipality, and their language is entered in the Official Municipalities Register, they have the right to use their own language as a secondary language. Today, the Ukrainian language does not have such a status in any of the municipalities.

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Fake: Ukrainian Military Shell Olenivka with HIMARS on President Zelensky’s Orders

Ukrainian prisoners of war held in a detention center in Russian occupied Olenivka in eastern Ukraine could not have been fired upon from the Ukrainian side. Facts available in the public domain, international experts' conclusions, the interceptions of Russian military conversations, all show that the Ukrainian military did not fire on the Russian prison camp where Russian invaders were keeping Ukrainian Azovstal defenders.

Read MoreFake: Ukrainian Military Shell Olenivka with HIMARS on President Zelensky’s Orders

Photo Fake: Energy-Saving Light Bulbs Disappear in the UK due to Rising Utility Costs

The photo of empty shelves with supposedly sold-out energy-saving light bulbs was actually taken in a US supermarket at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read MorePhoto Fake: Energy-Saving Light Bulbs Disappear in the UK due to Rising Utility Costs

Fake: Children are Taken Away from Ukrainian Refugees in Germany “for Having Emotion and…

StopFake found no evidence of Ukrainian refugees living in Europe having their children taken away from them. The German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) and the Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt) are not aware of any such cases in the families of Ukrainian refugees.

Read MoreFake: Children are Taken Away from Ukrainian Refugees in Germany “for Having Emotion and…

Fake: Russophobic Authorities in Barcelona Take Kids Away from Russian Woman

The story is certainly complicated, and the information currently accessible to the public is clearly not enough to draw any conclusions. But the topic of Western russophobia was clearly added to it by the correspondent of Channel One. The publications in Spanish and Swiss media do not mention that the problem is related to the war in Ukraine. They only cite Elena's words: "At school, the war in Ukraine is talked about a lot. They say that we, Russians, are all bad. And the girls would come home sad because of it" - without claims that it could have caused the children to be taken away. And the story that the girls are allegedly considered children of Ukrainians killed in the war is found only in Valentina Solovyova's story.

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No, these people with Nazi tattoos are not Ukrainian refugees

A new hoax has been targeting Ukrainian refugees. These two men covered in Nazi tattoos, wearing beach shorts, have been presented as Ukrainian refugees in Croatia by pro-Russian Twitter accounts. In reality, the images show Hungarian members of a neo-Nazi group.

Read MoreNo, these people with Nazi tattoos are not Ukrainian refugees