Australia's national broadcaster ABC has released a documentary “The Ukrainian War: The Other Side”, in which British journalist Sean Langan covers the war through the eyes of the Russian side.

In particular, the film disseminates the following Russian propaganda narratives:

- in 2014, a coup d’état took place in Ukraine;

- Ukrainians from Donbas wanted to go to Russia;

- Ukrainians are Nazis supported by the West;

- Bucha is a fake;

- The Ukrainian Armed Forces use civilians as “human shields” and fire at civilians;

– Russia did not start the war, it is ending it.

That is, in attempts to show the “other” side, Sean Langan actually provided the Russians with a platform to justify their aggression against Ukraine. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about this.

The dissemination of such materials to an international audience is promoting Russia and humiliating the Ukrainians, who today are fighting with blood for the right to freedom and independence. We previously wrote that the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko called the film “the equivalent of a bowl of vomit”, contacted the country’s Ministry of Communications and asked for an explanation from the TV channel.

Also, in February 2024, a British journalist filmed a similar documentary with the occupiers near Avdiivka, which also turned into an oasis of Russian narratives.

The project Beyond the News published a publication about a new youth subculture called Essence, which is added to the name of the city on the corresponding telegram channels. At first, it seems like just another online hangout for teenagers, where members publicly express their opinions about a certain person by suggesting new photos to the administrators. However, in reality it turned into public bullying. Some messages shock adults: “spit on them”, “circumvent them by the tenth road”, “tell them to fu*k off”, “beat them with your feet” - these are just some of the calls that can be seen on these telegram channels.

Most of the publications there resemble revenge on friends or acquaintances or collective bullying of a classmate. In order to insult or frame someone, it is enough to send a photo of the person causing hostility through a special bot and tell nasty things about him. The worst photos are chosen to highlight the victim's abnormality even more. Information is taken from open sources, because teenagers often publish their own photos on social networks, where they can look amazing - this is a kind of teenage trend. Or customers can wait for their victim and photograph him like a paparazzi.

Administrators of such channels are not responsible, since all messages are anonymous. And there were not even cases of punishment for this. Some channels offer victims to find out who ordered them and/or delete the message, but this costs 200-400 hryvnia. Not much, but for a child it can be noticeable.

According to project specialists, not everyone has forgotten the calls for child suicides due to the Blue Whale “game” and mass brawls between teenage participants of the “Redan PMC” in Ukrainian cities. The children first saw them as ordinary communities or subcultures that they wanted to be a part of. In both cases, this happened first in Russian cities and then spread to Ukrainian ones.

The national police then stopped the actions of the teenagers and blocked 30 channels and groups of the Redan private security company in Ukraine. According to official data from law enforcement officers, “the artificial spread of such a subculture is an attempt by Russian propagandists to conduct another information and psychological operation and attract teenagers to illegal activities”.

Specialists from Beyond the News analyzed dozens of telegram channels under the Essence brand. Many of them form one network and are administered by the same people, but there are also autonomous ones. They were unable to find unconditional evidence that this is part of Russian Internet propaganda. Most subscribers are Ukrainian teenagers; communication channel administrators indicate the numbers of Ukrainian mobile operators. There are no suspicious connections with Russian curators. If most of the channels of PMC Redan operated in Russia, then Essences operated primarily in Ukraine. Although investigators found “Entities” with references to Moscow and St. Petersburg in the title, the number of their subscribers is very small.

However, this does not mean that Russia cannot use them with bad intentions. Even if these channels are created and managed by Ukrainian ones, nothing prevents Russian propagandists and FSB agents from buying them out. Subscribers of such resources are a good audience for introducing the necessary enemy narratives. Teenagers in them are deeply involved in the Russian cultural, social and information space. They are well aware of Russian trends, music, the latest rumors, quotes from Russian rappers, sharing sticker packs with their images and Russian “voice memes”. Communication takes place predominantly in Russian, even in the “Essence of Lviv”.

It’s hard not to notice a certain cyclicality: in 2022, Blue Whale returned to Ukraine (the first mentions date back to 2017), in February 2023 – “PMC Redan”, in February 2024 – “Essence” (in fact, back in the summer of last year, however, they have gained popularity only now). This may indicate both natural changes in trends and subcultures among teenagers, and an artificial increase in attention to this phenomenon. Detector Media published a detailed analysis of how Russia actually came up with the subculture “PMC Redan” based on the cultural phenomenon “Redan”.

Propagandists on anonymous telegram channels that spread pro-Russian rhetoric are publishing a video that in the United States a student was allegedly expelled from the University of Florida because he publicly sang a song about Volodymyr Putin in Russian. A deduction letter is included with the video. However, this is fake.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. Based on the phrase “Did a brave thing at Campus Square today”, which is shown in the video, they found the original video on Tiktok. In it, the man sings a different song, not in Russian, and the video does not contain any mention of expulsion from the university.

In the tags for the video, the singer indicated that there is a South African singer, University of Johannesburg and UJ student, which indicates that he is likely a student at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.

In addition, in the video, the man noted that he performed the song near Campus Square. A Google Maps search revealed that there is a shopping center with the same name in the city of Johannesburg. The image of the location on Google Maps matches the location in the video - this is indicated by blue and black signs and inscriptions on them, a black iron fence and the presence of sand on the street.

Therefore, there is no talk at all about the University of Florida or expulsion from it because of the performance of the song. To forge the expulsion letter, Russian propagandists used a real university admission letter, which can be found in open sources. This is confirmed by identical signatures on both documents.

Propagandists spread such fake news to discredit Ukraine’s Western partners and create a false impression of a better situation in Russia. They say America is a hypocrite because it censors its students.

Anonymous telegram channels are distributing a video allegedly from the European media Euronews, which states that a Ukrainian refugee in a Paris museum broke the statue of the Swedish artist Anna Uddenberg “Journey to Self-Discovery”, imitating sexual intercourse with it. It's a lie.

The case was investigated by VoxCheck analysts, who determined that Euronews did not create such a story, and the video was simply assembled from different photos and videos that were not related to each other. For example, no information about such an incident could be found on the official media pages on social networks: on the media website, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.

Using a reverse search on Google, it turned out that all the footage was used in the so-called story - can be found in the public domain. In addition, according to the information presented in the video, the statue was damaged and its limbs (arm and leg) were broken off. However, this was not shown on the video. No additional information about the destruction of the sculpture was found in other media.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to present Ukrainian refugees as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU - in order to reduce support for Ukraine. We mentioned this in our own research.

A video allegedly belonging to the British magazine New Musical Express is being circulated online. They say, according to YouTube Music statistics for 2023, Ukrainian musicians have been supplanted by Russian performers, in particular Basta, Aigel, Katia Lel, Instasamka and American singer Taylor Swift. However, it turned out to be a fake video.

Specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found that New Musical Express magazine had not released such ratings. In fact, Ukrainian performers are leading the official YouTube Music rankings in Ukraine. It's important to note that Taylor Swift does not appear in this ranking.

The VoxCheck 2023 study showed that in January and February, Russian artists temporarily made it into the top 5, but throughout the year, the leadership belonged to Ukrainian artists. This indicates that the statement about the advantage of Russian musicians is not objective. Also, according to public research, most Ukrainians avoided Russian-language content, indicating changes in cultural preferences during the war.

Propagandists spread such fake news to create a false impression of the superior status of Russian culture compared to Ukrainian culture, even in times of war. Like, Ukrainians really love Russian more because Ukrainian is a surrogate.

Users of social networks are again spreading information that the ex-husband of singer Kamaliya, Pakistani Mohammad Zahoor, bought fighter jets for Ukraine. However, this is a fake.

Specialists of the NotaYenota project drew attention to it. They found out that Zahur did not actually buy fighter jets for Ukraine. Kamaliya personally denied this information. This story begins with an interview with Kamaliya in 2022, where the singer stated that she received permission from Zahur to talk about the fact of providing two fighter jets to Ukraine, but without specific details. As it turned out, the singer was referring to military assistance from Pakistan. However, the quote is defaced on a number of websites and social networks, attributing to the Kamaliya man the acquisition of aircraft.

Project specialists drew attention to this situation due to the peculiarities of its reappearance in the Ukrainian media space. They found out that the fake was spread again in early January through one of the Facebook pages, which has more than 440 thousand subscribers. The comments to the message provide a link to the main article, and the domain name of the site distributing this fake is located in the .su zone - the national top-level domain for the former Soviet Union. Even after the Union ceases to exist, the SU domain remains Russian. They note that since 1993, the administrator of this domain has been the Russian Institute for the Development of Public Networks (RosNIRSM), located in Moscow. Since 2009, technical maintenance of this domain has been carried out by the Internet Technical Center, also in Moscow.

The most interesting thing is that the page distributing this stuff through .SU is administered by three persons located in Ukraine. Taking this into account, according to NotaYenota, through pages publishing “good news” about “support for Ukraine” from famous people, fakes can be launched, which test the audience for their reaction to various types of influence.

Pro-Kremlin media are disseminating information that Ukraine has allegedly banned the use of costumes for the characters Father Frost and Snow Maiden, and a fine of 20 thousand hryvnia has been introduced in case of violation. The publications also add a “memo” in which they write: “Father Frost’s clothing (robe, hat, boots, long white beard) is prohibited”, because “St. Nicholas walks with an angel”. It's a lie.

The StopFake analysts analyzed this case and explained that there are no official prohibitions on the use of costumes for these characters. And the Kremlin’s minions could easily create the “attraction” using graphic editors, and then spread the “news” about the ban on costumes. Moreover, as the StopFake experts explain, this information was disseminated only in the Russian segment of social networks, that is, no Ukrainian media published such news.

One of the factors that supposedly symbolizes the unity of Russian society and the state is the “great Russian culture”. In them, domestic literature is an important component of culture, the spiritual habitat of the people. This is about Pushkin, Dostoievskyi, Chekhov, Chaikovskyi, Gogol or Tolstoi in particular.

Russians use the term “great Russian culture” in fact with the goal of overcoming their inferiority complex and artificially exalting it in the international arena. They say that the cultures of different countries and peoples have the right to exist, but the “great” one, that is, with an exceptionally rich heritage, is Russian.

For centuries, Russia destroyed Ukrainian culture: language, history, customs and traditions, cultural elite, and this is not an exhaustive list. The Russians distorted facts and appropriated Ukrainian writers and cultural figures, for example, the writer Mykola Gogol or the artist Kazymyr Malevych. Ukraine is allegedly a territory that has always belonged first to the Soviet and now to the Russian heritage.

Russia's war against Ukraine showed the true face of the aggressor. It turned out that the “great Russian culture” can massively educate murderers, rapists and marauders who have thousands of war crimes to their credit. Russians also show the “greatness” of the culture they grew up with by physically destroying monuments of Ukrainian cultural heritage.

For example, in the town of Ivankiv in the Kyiv region, the occupiers fired at and set fire to the local history museum, which housed almost 20 works by the world-famous Ukrainian artist Mariia Prymachenko. In the Kharkiv region, Russian troops destroyed the National Museum of Hryhorii Skovoroda with a direct missile hit. In the Zaporizhzhia region, Russians robbed and destroyed the Vasylivskyi Historical and Architectural Museum “Popov’s Estate”, which is a national monument. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy claims that in total, the Russians have damaged 664 cultural heritage sites in Ukraine as of July 2023.

The position of Russian culture as great has always had the goal of justifying violence and disregard for others, which is one of the manifestations of xenophobia. Of course, one can be proud of one’s own culture, but when it actually appropriates the achievements of others of its own kind and tries to rewrite history, then talking about the “greatness” of that culture, in our case Russian, makes no sense. It turns out that there is no “great Russian culture” - this is a fiction, rather aimed at emphasizing the supposed superiority of this culture over all others.

In the Ukrainian segment of the Facebook social network, an alleged poem by Taras Shevchenko is being spread, where he seems to predict the events of modern Ukraine: “The poor man cries, the rich man rejoices, and the government robs. Poor people bury sons killed in the war. A rich man who is full and proud makes a wedding”. However, there is no such poem in the works of the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.

The case was investigated by fact-checkers of the Center for Countering Disinformation. Taras Shevchenko does not have such a poem, and it is not written in his style. This was pointed out by the Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko: “Style, damn, style: no matter how the Chekist rabble disguises itself, no matter how it forges a voice for itself, as in the fairy tale about the wolf and the kid, the style will definitely betray them”. In her opinion, “Shevchenko's fakes” are “concocted in the style of an illiterate graphomaniac and thrown into the network as if they belonged to the pen of Taras Shevchenko, with a postscript, to encourage the spreaders, in the spirit of “oh how relevant, indeed a prophet! [...]”.

The original source of the fake poem is the Solomia Ukrainets Facebook page, which is not the first time that it promotes disinformation, anti-Semitism and pro-Russian narratives. In 2018, the publication Chitomo wrote about this with reference to the research Opora.

In this way, Russian propaganda tries to destabilize Ukrainian society, discredit the Ukrainian government and incite a rebellion against it. This “fake poem” appears in posts accusing the authorities of devaluing the lives of Ukrainians almost at the same time as Russian fakes that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is calling for a military coup.

Russian media, broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric, are disseminating information that Western countries are using the war in Ukraine to take away Ukrainian historical values. In the Kharkiv Historical Museum, allegedly under the guise of digitizing monuments, they are exporting them to the west of Ukraine, where “their traces are lost”. They seem to be taken “for temporary storage”, but in fact they are not going to return them. This is manipulation.

The case was investigated by the fact-checker of the StopFake project. The Kharkiv Historical Museum named after M. F. Sumtsov is a participant in the international project “Memory Savers”, the purpose of which is to digitize historical monuments, scientific research of museum collections and enter them into a European database. There is no talk about exporting valuable exhibits abroad.

However, it is Russia that plunders Ukrainian museums and galleries and removes cultural property from temporarily occupied territories.

Russian propaganda uses reflexive tactics: it accuses the West of stealing Ukrainian monuments and valuable exhibits. That is, it accuses it of what Russia is really doing in the temporarily occupied territories in order to divert attention from its crimes. Previously, we talked about the message that Russia does not destroy Ukrainian cultural and historical heritage and refuted the fake that Kyiv agreed with UNESCO to transfer holy relics to museums in Italy, France, Germany and the Vatican.

A number of anonymous telegram channels with pro-Russian rhetoric are disseminating information that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi invited the “Satanist” Maryna Abramovych to become the Ambassador of Ukraine so that she would “be involved in Ukrainian schools”. It's fake.

The specialists from the VoxCheck project drew attention to it. They found out that the article on the British media The Telegraph, to which the propagandists refer, has already been deleted. Its author, in turn, refers to an interview with Maryna Abramovych, a shareholder of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai, but the fact-checkers were unable to find it. They also note that the English term ambassador, used in the article, can mean both a diplomatic rank and an unofficial representation of the interests of a specific group of people without a government appointment. Ukrainian-language media have no mention of this, and foreign media, such as The Jerusalem Post, refer to the Italian publication La Repubblica, which has no open access publications on this matter. There are no messages about the invitation on the website of the Office of the President of Ukraine, its official telegram channel or Facebook page. Abramovych’s official accounts make no mention of this either.

Propagandists also do not detail why they consider Abramovych a Satanist, not only in messages on this topic, but in all messages where the name of the shareholder appears. According to the VoxCheck analysts, they refer to the situation since 2016, when WikiLeaks published part of the emails from the broken account of John Podesta, who then headed Hillary Clinton's election campaign in the US presidential election. Among them was a message from Abramovych expressing her joy that Podesta's brother, an art collector named Tony, would be attending the spirit cooking. This can be translated as both “spiritual cooking” and “spirit cooking”, which is the more threatening version. In response to this, the shareholder noted in an interview that it was an ordinary dinner with a regular menu, which she calls “spiritual cuisine”. In addition, Maryna Abramovych has a poem called Spirit Cooking, which does not contain satanic motives. From the very beginning of her career, her performances involve testing the boundaries of her own body, which is why they are considered Satanic rites.

Maryna Abramovych has publicly supported Ukraine since February 25, 2022, but there is no evidence that she has received offers to be an embassy or ambassador for Ukraine.

By resorting to such fakes, propagandists aim to discredit the Ukrainian government and those who support Ukraine. They say that it can only be supported by Satanists who grab the opportunity to stay in the headlines on current topics. All this is in order to justify its aggression against Ukraine; it seems that Russia is fighting against the “Satanists” and those who support them.

Russian media and social media users spreading pro-Russian rhetoric claim that it is planned to hold a sale of icons from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra at a separate auction in Paris. Like, proof of this is a photo of a billboard announcing an event with a scheduled date of October 1. It's fake.

Specialists in the StopFake project drew attention to it. They took a comment from the representative of the Auction House Osenat indicated on the billboard. He stated that this announcement is fake, like the “auction” itself. In addition, on the official website of the House, one can see that there are no auctions or other events scheduled for October 1st.

By spreading such fakes, propagandists want to show that Western countries allegedly deliberately take out works of art from the historical monuments of Ukraine, so as not to return them ever again. However, in fact, some exhibits are being evacuated to European museums precisely because of the relentless Russian shelling of civilian infrastructure. Detector Media wrote how Russian propaganda instrumentalizes the history of Ukraine for its own purposes.

In the Russian and Georgian segment of Facebook and in the media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric, they disseminate information with reference to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service that Kyiv allegedly agreed with UNESCO to transfer the Orthodox relics of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to museums in Italy, France and France as if the holy relics had to be taken out in order to preserve them. It's fake.

The fact-checkers of the Myth Detector project drew attention to the case. They established that the information about the removal of holy relics from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to European countries is false. The Minister of Culture of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko wrote on his Facebook page that “not a single sacred value will leave the territory of Ukraine”.  Also, the acting director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Maksym Ostapenko, noted that “the reserve did not have such plans and will not have them”. Information about this agreement cannot be found on the official website of UNESCO. This fake was denied on the official Facebook pages of the Ministry of Culture and the National Commission of Ukraine for UNESCO.

By spreading information that Kyiv has agreed to transfer relics to European countries, propagandists are trying to discredit UNESCO and the Ukrainian authorities. Russian propaganda created a fake to sow religious discord, as well as divert attention from the crimes committed by Russia, in particular, from the looting of museums and galleries. Earlier, Detector Media talked about the message that allegedly Russia does not destroy Ukrainian cultural and historical heritage.

Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that an art object dedicated to Volodymyr Zelenskyi has been created at the Paris City Museum of Modern Art - a nose that “sniffs white powder”. It is not true.

The case was noticed by the specialists of the VoxCheck project, who investigated that it was an object of an exhibition in Italy in 2018, the author devoted it to dependencies. There was no mention of Volodymyr Zelenskyi at the exhibition.

The art object was created by artist Tom Palluh and first presented in September 2018. The exhibition was held in Parma (Italy), at The Mori Center. Palluh’s Instagram account has a selection of stories about this installation, one of which contains photos and videos that are now being circulated online.

Propagandists spread the information that the National Gallery in London intends to remove from the exhibition a portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, painted by Jan van Eyck in 1434. Allegedly, visitors to the gallery are outraged that the person in the picture looks like Russian President Volodymyr Putin. It's fake.

Reuters fact-checkers drew attention to this trend. They received a comment from the gallery speaker, who said that there are no plans to remove the painting from the exhibition now, since there are no complaints about it either. It is impossible to find any press releases for the removal of the picture, nor public calls for such actions.

The propagandists want to show in this way that Europe is choking on absurd russophobia. Like, in their blind hatred for Russia and everything Russian, Europeans stick to everything in a row. Detector Media has already described a particular vision of “russophobia” propagated by propagandists.

Propagandists spread information, allegedly on Chinese television during the broadcast of the international festival on the occasion of the Chinese New Year, hopak was called a Russian dance. It's fake.

VoxCheck analysts drew attention to it. They found out that you can see in the screenshots of the broadcast that it took place back in 2021. The festival showed dances from different countries, in particular Egypt, Spain, Argentina and China. Among them was a Russian folk dance, but it was not a hopak.

VoxCheck notes that in this case we are talking about the Kamarynska dance. It differs from hopak in that girls play balalaikas during the performance. Hopak elements can be found in the Belarusian folk dance “liavonykha” and “trepak”, as well as in Crimean Tatar dances.

Thus, propagandists are trying to show that there is no independent Ukrainian culture, since it is allegedly a simulation of Russian. Allegedly, even abroad, everyone recognizes this.

The network quotes the representative of the Russian foreign ministry Mariia Zakharova. She believes that the world is “demonizing Russia”, carrying out “forced Ukrainization” and supporting the culture of abolishing everything Russian that exists. Zakharova calls the report on crimes against Ukrainian culture an attempt to “shield the Kyiv regime” and “infringe on the rights of Russian speakers”.

According to the fact-checkers of the project “Beyond the News”, in this way Zakharova reacted to the statement of UN experts regarding the destruction of Ukrainian identity by the Russians, published on the eve of the anniversary of a full-scale war. UN experts published a report in which they note that Russia continues to “denigrate the history and identity of the Ukrainian people to justify war and hatred”. It says that among the important cultural sites of Ukraine affected by the shelling are museums, libraries and churches.

From February 24, 2022 to March 1, 2023, UNESCO registered 245 cultural heritage sites of Ukraine that were damaged or destroyed due to the war unleashed by Russia. There are 106 religious sites, 20 museums, 88 historical and/or artistic buildings, 19 monuments, 12 libraries among them although they add: according to other sources, there may be about a thousand damaged objects.

According to the report, in Mariupol, Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk and Rubizhne, historical buildings were destroyed for 90%. More than 10 thousand works of art were taken out of the Kherson Art Museum. In the Donetsk region, the invaders use burial mounds as field fortifications. The report also reminds that Russians have destroyed important cultural monuments in the temporarily occupied Crimea since 2014.

Thus, the Russians are trying to deprive Ukrainians of their historical and cultural heritage. Also, such messages feed the Russian narrative about the inferiority of Ukrainians. And the words of Zakharova are an example of the substitution of concepts: they say they destroy and devalue Russian culture, and not Ukrainian. Earlier, propagandists said that Ukraine was striking at its own cultural heritage, and the Kyiv totalitarian regime was waging a cultural war against Russia.

Reports are circulating on social media that a sculpture in the shape of a nose has been installed in Milan, around which white powder is scattered. Like, the Italians called the sculpture “Zelenskyi's nose” because it reminds them of the Ukrainian president. This is not true.

In Milan, indeed, they placed a sculpture in the shape of a nose, but it has nothing to do with Volodymyr Zelenskyi. A sculpture with a nose and cocaine is located in the Corso Como shopping mall in Milan. It was created by the Italian activist and artist Christina Donati Meyer. The activist sought to use the sculpture to protest the increase in drug trafficking in Milan, especially cocaine. MythDetector fact checkers note that this sculpture is actually called Bianco Natale, Milano-Medellin (White Christmas, Milano-Medellin).

Russian propaganda systematically creates fakes to discredit Volodymyr Zelenskyi both in Ukraine and abroad. To do this, propagandists use cartoon graffiti and fake covers of satirical magazines.

Russian propaganda is spreading messages that the actions of the Ukrainian authorities are comparable to the Taliban. They say that the demolition of the monument to Catherine II in Odesa, which was a “sacred symbol” for many Ukrainians, is reminiscent of the destruction of Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley by the Taliban in 2001. The fact-checkers of EU vs Disinfo drew attention to the spread of the message.

Russian propaganda systematically manipulates the theme of a “single Russian-Ukrainian cultural space” and universal history. Also, propagandists systematically use comparisons of Ukraine or Ukrainians with criminal regimes for manipulation and emotional pressure. The dismantling of the monument to Catherine II in Odesa was repeatedly used to spread messages about russophobia and create a destructive image of Ukrainians. In fact, the monument was dismantled after a long public discussion, that is, in a democratic, not totalitarian way.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC - MP) spread a fake that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine allegedly did not receive permission from the administration of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra reserve to hold a service on January 7. The UOC-MP calls Epifanii's intention to hold a service in Lavra an “attempt to seize by force”.

The UOC-MP also said that Oleksandr Rudnyk, the reserve's acting general director, told them on January 5 that he had not received any requests from the OCU regarding the use of the Uspenskyi (Assumption) Cathedral and the Refectory Church for worship.

In fact, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine granted OCU permission, and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra national reserve concluded a corresponding agreement. This, in particular, is confirmed by the acting general director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra reserve Oleksandr Rudnyk, who said that he gave permission to the OCU and concluded an agreement to hold a service on January 7 from 8:00 am to 12 pm.

He explained that the conversation with the UOC-MP took place in the morning of January 5, and in the evening of the same day he received an appeal from the OCU and a corresponding permit from the Ministry of Culture. The representative of the press service of the OCU provided Ukrainska Pravda with a document confirming that the ministry had agreed to hold the OCU service in the Uspenskyi (Assumption) Cathedral.

Telegram channels from the Russian intelligence-controlled network began to spread the message that the Office of the President allegedly “made a list of monuments” that need to be dismantled in Ukraine. That is why in different cities, including Dnipro and Odesa, monuments to Oleksandr Matrosov and Empress Catherine II have recently been dismantled. At the same time, Russian propaganda channels, such as the “Kremlin washerwoman”, Volodymyr Soloviov’s channel and others, spread the thesis that russophobic orders to dismantle monuments to Russian and Soviet figures in Ukraine are given directly in London and Washington. And that is why, supposedly, the US-controlled and UK-protected UNESCO does not make statements about their dismantling.

Firstly, none of the dismantled monuments was protected by UNESCO. Moreover, the monument to Catherine II was generally restored only in 2007, since it was demolished in 1917. Restoring it was an initiative of Odesa officials, which immediately caused a lot of criticism from local activists. Secondly, the dismantling of monuments does not mean their destruction as they are gradually transferred to museums, where they will be stored if they really have artistic value. And thirdly, the list really exists: back in August, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy compiled the top 10 most common toponyms associated with Russian or Soviet figures that really have nothing to do with Ukraine. The list includes Yurii Haharin, Oleksandr Pushkin, Ivan Michurin, Valerii Chkalov, Maksym Horkyi, Mykhailo Liermontov, Oleksandr Suvorov, Volodymyr Maiakovskyi, Oleksandr Matrosov, Volodymyr Komarov. The Ministry of culture and information policy of Ukraine expert council on overcoming the consequences of russification and totalitarianism recommended, first of all, to rename streets, squares, metro stations, squares and other names associated with these people. Monuments to these people from the cities of Ukraine are also gradually dismantled.

Before the start of a full-scale invasion, all these toponyms and monuments existed in hundreds of thousands in Ukraine. And the process of “de-russification” of Ukraine has a simple explanation: it is a military aggression against Ukraine, which was committed by Russia on February 24. Now no one, neither the authorities nor the inhabitants want to have anything to do with the aggressor. This is evidenced by the data of opinion polls: in May, 98% had a negative attitude towards Russia.

This was reported in the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. It recommends using Ukrainian swearing instead of Russian obscenities on TV channels.

To create a fake, they used the old emblem of the Ministry of Culture, which has not been in Ukraine since 2019 (the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy was created in 2021). The authors of the “memo” used the Russian word “mat” (swear word), which is not in the Ukrainian language (there is “cuss words”, “curse words” or “dirty words”).

The list of “recommended terms” includes both samples of Ukrainian swearing and literally translated Russian swear words. Such a selection appeared in Runet in the early 2010s, it can be found in the archives of Pikabu and other entertainment sites.

Russian propaganda systematically distributes fake documents on social networks and instant messengers on behalf of various authorities: the Cabinet of Ministers, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada, and regional administrations. Thus, they are trying to undermine the credibility of the authorities.

In Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-na-Amuri, as well as in social networks, posters of Vierka Serdiuchka’s concerts performed by Ukrainian artist Andrii Danylko appeared. Like, performances will be called “For my own people”. According to the announcement, the concerts should take place on December 28 and 29.

Andrii Danylko ridiculed this Russian fake: “Are you really there?”.

Later, this information was refuted in Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-na-Amuri, saying that the announcement was a fake, there would be no concert.

In the fake announcement of the performances, it was noted that Vierka Serdiuchka continued to sing in Russian and therefore had problems after the performance in Lviv. Vierka Serdiuchka is touring Europe now.

At the beginning of a large-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, Danylko changed the words in the song Dancing Lasha Tumbai, with which he took second place at Eurovision 2007. Since then, he only sings “Russia goodbye”.

The allegedly new cover of the Turkish humor magazine LeMan is being circulated online. The cartoon depicts a skeleton symbolizing the President, and the inscription: "It is important to take to your heels on time". However, this is not true.

According to VoxCheck specialists, the magazine did not publish an issue with this cover. Fact checkers compared the magazine number and publication date and found that the real cover looks different.

Pro-Russian telegram channels write about this in the context of the decision to demolish the monument to Catherine II in Odesa. Like, now in Ukraine there is a “cleansing” of the remnants of Russian culture. Further, there will allegedly be a “change in reality”: renaming cities, replacing monuments and names of heroes, the Russian language will be banned “everywhere”, moreover, people will be fined for its use.

In fact, Russia (USSR) has been rewriting history and continued Russification for many years. Now Ukraine is restoring historical truth and Ukrainian culture. Due to Russian aggression, Ukrainians voluntarily refuse to use the Russian language, associating it with the language of the occupier. Russian propaganda manipulates the language issue and uses the "inferiority complexes" of Ukrainian culture and Ukrainians imposed by the Soviet period.