StopFake News #234 with Marko Suprun
Fake: Kyiv recognizes that Russia is protecting Donbas residents. Distortion: US delegation leader condemns NATO actions in the Black Sea. Touted Russian robot turns out to be… Korean
Tag "Kyiv"
Fake: Kyiv to Close Nuclear Power Plants Because of Shortage of Enriched Uranium
Ukraine is facing an energy famine, declared the pro-Kremlin Moskovskyi Komsomolets newspaper, and because it is facing a nuclear fuel shortage Kyiv will be forced to start closing its nuclear power plants this year. This dire prediction is the opinion of nuclear physicist Igor Ostretsov who is often quoted by Russian media. Sputnik, Yandex and Newsfront dutifully echoed this fake. Currently Ukraine’s nuclear fuel is provided by the American company…
Manipulation: Kyiv Creates Provocation, Blames Moscow for Everything
On November 25 Russia fired on two Ukrainian naval gunboats and a tug boat in the Kerch strait, wounding at least six Ukrainian sailors. A Russian naval boat rammed one of the Ukrainian vessels, after which Russians captured all three Ukrainian ships and sailed them to Kerch. The wounded Ukrainians are in a Kerch hospital while the rest of the ships’ crews are being held and questioned by Russian by…
Fake: Kyiv ‘Not Ready’ for Prisoner Exchange with Russia
Kyiv has no intention of exchanging prisoners with the Kremlin – is one of Russia’s classic disinformation narratives about Ukraine which Moscow has been propagating tirelessly since the beginning of Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014. Russian media regularly feature fake stories claiming Ukrainian authorities are refusing to claim their political prisoners and prisoners of war held by Russia. Last week Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared that Kyiv is…
Fake: US Tells Ukraine to Give Up on Crimea
Moskovskyi Komsomolets and other Russian media featured stories based on an American magazine article claiming that the US is telling Kyiv to give up on returning Crimea to Ukrainian control. Crimea is not Ukraine and Kyiv has no chance of returning the peninsula, declared Moskovskyi Komsomolets, citing Doug Bandow’s article Settle Crimea with a referendum in the National Interest bi-monthly magazine. Bandow’s article was spun by Russian media as representing…
Fake: Kyiv to Poison Donbas Water Supply and Blame Russia
On August 15 Cyberberkut, a group of pro-Russian hackers announced that Ukraine, together with the help of US secret services is preparing to use nuclear waste to poison the water supply of the Russian backed separatist controlled swathes of Luhansk and Donetsk territories. Russia’s Defense Ministry television channel Zvezda, Pravda.ru, Moskoskyi Komsomolets, the conservative monarchist orthodox site Tsargrad and many other Russian sites dutifully disseminated this fake. Cyberberkut claims that…
Fake: Kyiv Demands Extradition of EU MP
Spain’s Público newspaper featured a story last month claiming that Kyiv was demanding that the European Union extradite 50 European antifascists, including 7 Spaniards to Ukraine for suspicion of terrorism. Among those named by Público was Eleonora Forenza, a member of the European Parliament from Italy’s Communist Refoundation Party. The 50 people mentioned in the Público article are members of various communist movements who took part in what they call…
Fake: Kyiv Forcing Waiters and Shop Clerks to Speak Ukrainian
Nationalists demand shop clerks speak Ukrainian, declared RIA Novosti. Only Ukrainian in cafes and shops, announced Vesti. Kyiv city council surrounded by nationalists demanding only Ukrainian is spoken, warned Novostnoe Agentstvo Kharkov. Complete Ukrainization starting in Kyiv blazed News One. All these fake warnings raising fake alarms arose because the Kyiv City Council agreed to explore a new language project. The document, which was approved as a draft and its…
Fake: German Media against Eurovision in Kyiv
German media are against holding the 2017 Eurovision Song contest in Kyiv, declared the Russian news site Politexpert at the end of February. Written by Artem Kolchyn, the story does not cite an actual German publication nor does it link to any article and offers no direct or indirect quotes to support the author’s claim. Kolchyn also sweepingly asserts that Europe doesn’t want the annual song contest to be held…
Fake: Kyiv to Cull Stray Dogs for Eurovision Song Contest
At the end of January the Eurovision Song Contest’s official German language site published a story claiming that Kyiv authorities were planning a massive culling of stray dogs in the Ukrainian capital before the May 2017 song contest. The article includes petitions addressed to Eurovision organizer, the European Broadcasting Union and to Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko calling on them to stop the inhumane killing of street dogs. The article claims…
