Since February 24, Detector Media has been monitoring the Ukrainian social media segment and the Kremlin media, documenting the chronicle of Russian disinformation about Russia’s war against Ukraine on a daily basis. Over time, we started doing regular reviews. You can find the latest ones here: February 9-28, March 1-14, March 14-21, March 23-30, the final text for ten months, as well as a review of the most ridiculous fakes for the year of the full-scale war.
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Between March 31 and April 7, 2023, Detector Media recorded more than 40 disinformation items. Among other things, the Russian propaganda machine claimed that there were “almost no young twenty-year-old Ukrainians left”. In addition, the propagandists claimed that cancel culture had reached Putin.
Ukrainian refugees > Polish homeless
Throughout the week, analysts recorded a fake about Poland allegedly “allocating more funds for Ukrainian refugees” than for Poles themselves. The reports stated that the annual budget for assistance to homeless people in Poland for 2023 is 5 million zlotys. In the case of Ukrainian refugees, Poland allegedly “spends this amount in 5 minutes”.
In 2023, the launch of the government program Overcoming Homelessness will indeed amount to 5.5 million zlotys. However, these are not the only funds allocated in Poland to fight homelessness. The government program is an additional bonus as payments for organizations working in the field of social protection. It is not the general budget of the country. For example, in the Gdańsk local budget for 2023 alone, more than PLN 11.7 million is provided “to support homeless people and those at risk of homelessness”.
By spreading such fakes, the messages’ authors try to present Ukrainian displaced persons as criminals or terrorists, as a cultural and economic threat to the EU, in order to reduce support for Ukraine and Ukrainians. We wrote about this in our own study.
The West is economically strangling citizens
In another manipulation disseminated by Russian propaganda in an attempt to discredit the West, it was claimed that people in the West cannot achieve financial stability because “local elites” are constantly raising prices for everything: the cost of education, healthcare, and childcare services is “too high”. The authors of these reports refer to the article by the American Enterprise Institute, adding a graph that allegedly shows that the West is having a bad effect on the economy. It shows a drop in prices for computer equipment, toys, and TVs in the United States. On the other hand, you can see the rise in prices for medicine, education, etc.
The graph was created by economist Mark Perry. He demonstrates the difference in pricing in selected areas, which is explained by the presence or absence of government influence. The description of the graph does not indicate that the government is trying to limit ordinary citizens’ access to services. In other words, propagandists distorted the context of the information and added data from the graph that was favorable to their arguments. At the same time, in the American Institute’s material, the authors mention that the same graph has been regularly updated over the past few years. It does show a rise in the prices of healthcare and education. There is also a reduction in the cost of technology, software, and clothing. Perry attributes this to the impact of globalization: the more competition there is in the international arena, the lower the price of a product. Conversely, the more the state intervenes in market affairs, the more the price increases.
The point is not that Western leadership deliberately limits services for its citizens. The economist talks about general market trends and how high competition leads to low prices for products and vice versa.
Ukraine discriminates against the Moscow Patriarchate – UN
“The UN has recorded discrimination against the UOC-MP,” Russian propaganda claimed when the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate refused to comply with the decision of the Ministry of Culture to leave the Kyiv Cave Monastery. The propagandists spread the manipulation that the UN had released a new report that “on all pages” described the biased attitude of Ukrainians toward the parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. As evidence, the propagandists cited a recent UN report on the human rights situation in Ukraine and the Russian-occupied territories.
Of course, the authors did not point out that during the investigation, the UN Commission recorded numerous war crimes committed by the Russian army: attacks on civilians and shelling of energy infrastructure, premeditated killings, illegal detention, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. The report also mentioned the illegal relocation and deportation of children. And it did address the issue of religious freedom in Ukraine. Out of the 38 pages of the document, this topic was addressed in a few paragraphs — less than one page.
That is why the claim that the entire report is devoted to “discrimination against the UOC-MP” is manipulative. Moreover, in a single sentence, the report only suggested “that the state’s activities against the UOC-MP may be discriminatory”. This was not stated as a fait accompli.
A “French” cartoon about Zelenskyy
This week, fake news emerged in the media space about a French studio that allegedly produced an animated series Ukraine Inc. about Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The show illustrates how, in order to improve his rating and accumulate financial capital, the President of Ukraine, at the request of the West, is launching a “military meat grinder” by sending Ukrainians to their deaths.
There is no evidence that the animated series was produced by a “French studio”. There is no mention of any particular authors on the web, and news about the series is spread only in the Russian segment of social media. The episodes of Ukraine Inc. are full of Russian propaganda clichés. For example, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is portrayed as a drug addict and fully controlled by “Western curators” who urge him to sacrifice Ukrainians for the sake of war with Russia. The cartoon attempts to shift the responsibility for the numerous civilian casualties from Russia to Ukraine and the West.
A 1434 Putin to be removed from a museum
Detector Media analysts have refuted a fake news story that fuels the narrative about the existence of “Russophobia” among Europeans, this time the British. Allegedly, 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 man in the painting looks like Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In fact, the museum’s spokesperson said that there are no plans to remove the painting from the exhibition, as there are no complaints about it either. It is also impossible to find any press releases about such actions or public calls for them.
Burning is the enemy’s church
Also this week, Russian propaganda claimed that Ukrainian “nationalists” set fire to a church of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Mykolaiv region. Anonymous Telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric published a video of a “canonical church” in the village of Novopoltavka allegedly on fire.
However, the church on fire in the video is different from the one in Novopoltavka. In fact, this video shows a fire in the Russian village of Illinka. It was filmed back in 2013 when there was a fire at a church. By spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda seeks to incite religious hatred among Ukrainians and exacerbate social divisions.
Ukraine is losing young people
In addition, during the week, the propagandists claimed that Ukraine had “virtually run out of people in their twenties” because of the war. In their messages, the propagandists referred to “official statistics from the annual World Population Prospects publication, which is published by the UN Secretariat”. Russian propaganda alleged that last year, there were allegedly about 200,000 men and 200,000 women in their twenties in Ukraine, while this year’s data shows that there are about 60,000 men in the 21-year-old age group and only 50,000 women.
In fact, the data provided by World Population Prospects differ from the figures voiced by propagandists. In 2023, there were about 133,000 men and 118,000 women aged 21 in Ukraine, not 60,000 and 50,000, respectively. In 2021, when they were 19 years old, the number of men was about 190,000, and for women, it was about 180,000. That is, the number of young people in Ukraine has indeed decreased during this period, but not significantly, as Russian propaganda claims. The main reason for the decline in Ukraine’s population in 2022-2023 was emigration abroad due to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
