StopFake #217 with Marko Suprun
Fake: Ukrainian presidential elections will be illegitimate. Ukraine may lose EU visa-free status. Ukraine is fast becoming most indebted country.
News
Fake: Ukrainian Presidential Elections Will be Illegitimate
Russia’s propaganda machine has declared Ukraine’s upcoming March 31 presidential elections illegitimate before they have even taken place, claiming the country’s Foreign Ministry “has made it impossible for its citizens living in the Russian Federation to cast their vote”. Russian Defense Ministry organ Zvezda, Regnum, Ukraina.ru and other Russian publications feature such fakes in response to the Ukrainian Central Election Commission’s decision to close polling stations in Russia. This decision…
Fake: Ukraine Preparing New Provocation in Kerch Strait
Russian propagandist media have launched a new wave of fakes claiming Ukraine is preparing “a new provocation” in the Kerch Strait, the body of water separating the Black and Azov seas. As proof of this alleged provocation Russian media point to a YouTube video which shows boats being transported to the Ukrainian port of Odesa. The video is real, but all it shows are tugs and pontoons belonging to the…
Fake: Ukraine to Punish Speakers who Refuse to Use Ukrainian
Legislation on the use of the Ukrainian language and resolutions or programs aimed at strengthening the use of Ukrainian are fertile fodder for the Russian propaganda machine. After centuries of state enforced Russification and official policy, during Czarist and Communist rule aimed at imposing Russian as the main language in Ukraine, the country is attempting to strengthen the position of Ukrainian as the state language through legislation. Each such attempt…
StopFake #216 with Marko Suprun
Fake: Ukraine refuses Christmas truce and prisoner exchange in Donbas. Ukraine does not have enough gas for the winter. Distortion: OSCE Secretary General calls creation of new Orthodox church in Ukraine a provocation.
Manipulation: OSCE Secretary General Calls Creation of New Church in Ukraine ‘Provocation’
Initiating the creation of an autocephalous church in Ukraine, Kyiv has once again provoked a deterioration in relations with Moscow, writes the Kremlin propagandist Ukraina.ru. The publication claims this was the message that OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger conveyed in his interview to the German Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper. Ukraina.ru’s distorted version of Greminger’s interview was reprinted by PolitNavigator, Pravslavie I Mir, Rusvesna, DonPress, Donetsk24 and NewsFront. According to Russian media,…
Fake: Ukraine Refuses Christmas Truce and Prisoner Exchange in Donbas
No Christmas truce. Ukraine does not agree to a prisoner exchange. This is what pro-Kremlin media and Olga Kobtseva from the recognized-by-nobody Luhansk People’s republic said following the last meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe with representatives from Ukraine and Russia. Ms. Kobtseva accused Kyiv of “breaking the negotiation process” and preventing a prisoner exchange taking place before the end of 2018. Ms. Kobtseva’s claim…
StopFake #215 with Marko Suprun
Fake: Kyiv preparing Crimea offensive. EU refuses to punish Russia for seizure of Ukrainian ships in Kerch strait. Manipulation: EU calls on Kyiv to lift ban on Russian language education.
Fake: Ukraine Doesn’t Have Enough Gas for the Winter
Ukraine’s underground gas reserves are melting before our very eyes, declared the pro-Kremlin publication Ukraina.ru last week, claiming that Ukraine did not have enough gas to keep homes warm during the oncoming winter. This is how Ukraina.ru chose to interpret data presented by Ukraine’s gas transportation company Ukrtransgaz; that gas reserves in the country’s underground storage facilities had decreased. According to Ukrtransgaz data, as of December 19 Ukraine’s underground gas…
Fake: Kyiv Preparing Crimea Offensive
Last week Russia’s Izvestia newspaper announced that Kyiv was preparing to launch an offensive in Crimea during the Christmas period. Citing an anonymous “highly placed source in Russian diplomatic circles”, Izvestia claims that Ukraine will launch a land offensive in an effort to provoke Russia to respond and after Moscow responds, shout from the rooftops about Russian aggression. Russian media all dutifully picked up this fake story as did Kremlin…
