Volodymyr Zelenskyy. russia today

Here is a digest of the most notable fakes of the kremlin's special services launched in February 2025. We remind you that despite all the statements from moscow about its readiness for peace talks, russia is increasing spending on its army and intelligence services, including disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks around the world. The reality is that any country that does not submit to putin's regime is under threat. In 2025, new cases of interference in other countries' elections, cyber-attacks, sabotage and assassination attempts on political and public figures are expected.
Based on materials from Spravdi, StopFake, EuVsDisinfo

Fake: Zelenskyy's term has expired, he is no longer a legitimate president
russian propaganda is actively promoting the message that Zelenskyy's term of office expired in 2024 (the term of office for the president in Ukraine is 5 years), and he cancelled new elections.
Let us explain: Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains the legitimate president of Ukraine. The Constitution of Ukraine explicitly prohibits elections during wartime, and the current president of Ukraine exercises his powers until a new president is elected. The continuity of state functions is one of the key principles of the Constitution.
Almost all international observers consider elections in Ukraine to be unfeasible at the moment, as there are millions of refugees abroad and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians in the war zone. In addition, a large part of the Ukrainian population lives under russian occupation. There are also many funding and infrastructure problems that can hardly be solved during such a debilitating war.
The ultimate goal of this disinformation is to promote the idea that negotiations to end the war should be with other people. The Kremlin is very keen to remove Zelenskyy so that Ukraine is led by someone loyal to them. But another truth is that there are almost no such people left in Ukraine. More than 90% of Ukrainians consider russia to be their enemy.

Ukraine's mineral resources

Fake: Russia controls 70% of Ukraine's mineral resources
kremlin propaganda could not ignore US President Donald Trump's statements about his interest in a possible deal with Ukraine on rare precious metals and other resources. Against this backdrop, putin's propagandists, citing Forbes, broadcast a fake claim that russia controls 70% of Ukraine's mineral resources.
‘The russian Federation has gained control over 70% of Ukraine's mineral resources. The largest deposits are located in Donetsk, Luhansk and Dnipro regions. According to Forbes, their value is estimated at $15 trillion,’ Politicus quoted.
In fact, Forbes Ukraine published an article titled ‘Precious Metals in Exchange for Arms’. The article actually discussed where and in what quantities mineral deposits are located in Ukraine. Referring to a 2023 study, the journalists noted that Ukraine's total mineral wealth is estimated at $14.8 trillion. 70% of the estimated value of these deposits is geographically concentrated in three regions - Donetsk, Dnipro and Luhansk oblasts.
Of these three regions, russia has almost completely occupied Luhansk region and more than 55% of Donetsk region. Meanwhile, the Dnipropetrovs'k region remains fully under Ukrainian control. This means that the claim that russia controls 70% of Ukraine's minerals (or even 70% of their total estimated value) is mathematically incorrect. In their sick imagination, propagandists simply ‘appropriated’ most of Ukraine's valuable resources to russian control, but this is not the case. A little later, by the way, putin offered Trump in return the ‘russian’ fields that his army has occupied in Ukraine over the years. It's as cynical as it gets, don't you agree?

Fake: Ukrainian military put their equipment up for auction
Fact: The advert for the sale of old Soviet BTR-60PB and BTR-60 armoured personnel carriers, which is being referred to by pro-Russian users on social media, has nothing to do with Ukrainian defenders, nor does the equipment have anything to do with Ukraine. This post was posted on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/961309752307737/posts/1180365690402141) by a foreign user who sells decommissioned army equipment for historical reenactments: ‘Both vehicles are demilitarised, with full documentation. They have been parked for a long time and need attention and maintenance. They are ideal for collectors, museums and thematic military exhibitions, film producers and props, fans of off-road vehicles and military vehicles.’ In addition, the author notes that the vehicles are manufactured in Hungary.

Mark Zuckerberg. kremlin's special services

Fake: Ukraine sells organs of wounded and dead soldiers on the black market
Another shameful fake to arouse readers' indignation and strong negative emotions towards Ukraine. This story is periodically repeated in pro-kremlin media, although no evidence is ever attached to these claims. In fact, Ukraine is now under close international scrutiny and control in all important areas of state activity, including in the medical and humanitarian spheres. But for some reason, only russians (or rather, representatives of the kremlin's special services), who have no access to Ukrainian (and European) financial flows or customs, write about these terrible things.

Fake: US intelligence services read WhatsApp users' messages
‘Zuckerberg also expressed his dissatisfaction with the censorship pressure imposed on social media by the Biden administration and admitted that US intelligence agencies read WhatsApp users' messages.’
Disinformation that distorts certain comments made by Mark Zuckerberg, founder of META, on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast (02:32:20). Zuckerberg did not say that the CIA reads WhatsApp messages, but that intelligence agencies such as the CIA can read messages if they have physical access to devices or exploit some vulnerabilities on the device (e.g. by jailbreaking the device).

Polish rabbis. Ukraine is recruiting

Fake: Ukraine is recruiting Finnish criminals and people with mental disorders for the war
This lie was told to russian media by Finnish journalist kosti heiskanen. heiskanen is actually konstantin lebedev, a native of the russian city of Leningrad (now St Petersburg), who changed his citizenship and surname. He does not support his statements with any evidence. This fake news is a deliberate effort by the kremlin's special services to discredit Ukraine and its Finnish allies.
As for the propagandist heiskanen, since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, he has been a frequent guest on russian propaganda TV channels, which present him as an ‘independent Finnish journalist’.

Fake: Polish rabbis protested against Zelenskyy's participation in the ceremony of the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
The video of the protest was shared by russian propagandists on Telegram. In fact, the video turned out to be fake. Fact-checkers found that this ‘news’ first appeared on the pro-russian Telegram channel, which has been caught repeatedly spreading disinformation. The video was designed in the style of Sky News, but the fake's authors were given away by the font - it is noticeable by the letters g and m. In addition, the video is not available on the Sky News website or social media. Also, the video about the rabbi with the blue background of the inscription lacks the colour transition typical of the channel's style.

UNESCO Ukraine

Fake: UNESCO is playing along with Kyiv and silencing Ukraine's crimes
This statement was made by russian Foreign Minister lavrov. In fact, lavrov's accusations are a cover for a series of war crimes committed by the kremlin to destroy cultural heritage sites in Ukraine, loot museums, remove artefacts from the temporarily occupied territories, and complicity of russian state museums in these crimes.
This attack on UNESCO is also an attempt to ‘interrupt’ the intensification of the Agency's cooperation with Ukraine and the coverage of information about the kremlin's crimes in the world media. After all, the first UNESCO cultural hub was opened in Lviv at the end of January. Consultations have also intensified on the inclusion of the State Industry building in Kharkiv, which was damaged by russian shelling, in the UNESCO World Heritage List. 
Earlier, Mykola Tochytskyi, Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, announced the statistics of russia's crimes: more than 2,250 destroyed or damaged cultural institutions and more than 1.7 million artefacts stolen by russians.

Joe Biden. Ukrainian military

Fake: Biden administration spent $144 million to buy game consoles for Ukrainian military
kremlin media outlets are spreading information that the administration of former US President Joe Biden ‘purchased’ $144 million worth of game consoles and games for the rehabilitation of the Ukrainian military. USA TODAY was used to create the fake.
StopFake found that this information is not true. The USA TODAY video being shared online is in fact a fake. The russians used the corporate style of the American media to create another fake that discredits the administration of the previous US President Joe Biden and the assistance it provided to Ukraine. USA TODAY's informational videos include a caption for the source of each photo/video they use. The propagandists did not take this into account when they created the fake, and neither the video nor the photos are credited.
The video distributed by the russian media network is not available on the official USA TODAY website, as well as on social networks X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. In addition, no reputable American media outlet has written about the ‘disappearance’ of the $144 million.

Ukrainian refugees

Russia uses AI to generate diplomatic fakes about ‘ungrateful’ Ukrainian refugees
As part of the ‘Matryoshka’ information operation, russians are creating fake videos for social media and boosting their views with bots, Voice of America reports: https://www.golosameriki.com/a/russia-uses-deepfakes-against-ukrainian-refugees/7953485.html
One of these videos was a report with a Ukrainian refugee studying in the United States. The russians added to the real footage of the girl fragments with crowded school corridors and drugs, as well as a generated voiceover telling about the ‘horrors of studying’ in US schools, using racist stereotypes.  
In fact, in the original video, the girl spoke positively about studying at a private American school. The purpose of publishing such fake stories is to spoil the attitude towards Ukrainians by showing them as ‘selfish’ and ‘ungrateful’.
Fake: a group of Ukrainians are wanted in France for robbery
‘Ukrainian thugs are starting to terrorise Europe’ - these are the sensational headlines used by pro-russian media to spread the “news” that four Ukrainians were allegedly put on the wanted list in the French city of Annecy. They are accused of luring hundreds of thousands of euros in cryptocurrency under the guise of volunteers and robbing their victims' homes. 
However, this story has all the hallmarks of a fake. The fact-checkers conducted a reverse search using the image of a leaflet allegedly putting a Ukrainian citizen Valentyn Semekha on the wanted list. It turned out that this image was used only in pro-russian sources. The announcement is not available on the website of the French National Police, Interpol or Europol. Secondly, the regional newspaper La Dauphine Libere (or other French media), which publishes news including Annecy, did not write anything about the so-called gang or their crimes. It is surprising that russian propagandists know more about this event than the local media (Annecy is a small resort town where such a series of robberies would certainly attract attention).

Zelenskyy Kelsteinhaus

Fake: Zelenskyy bought a house belonging to the Nazi Party of Germany for 14 million euros
The news that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has allegedly become the new owner of Kelsteinhaus, a house in the Alps that the Nazi party of Germany, the NSDAP, presented to Hitler on his anniversary, is widely circulating online. The authors of the fake news write that Zelenskyy paid more than 14 million euros for this house. The publications refer to the German media outlet Aktuelle Nachrichten in Deutschland, which released a video with relevant information and confirmation of the sale and purchase agreement. 
However, this news is another shameful fake by propagandists aimed at a Western audience. The website of Aktuelle Nachrichten in Deutschland is not a real German media outlet, but a fake resource that was created and filled with content in advance specifically to launch this disinformation campaign. The website has all the features typical of such fake websites: it publishes a disproportionate amount of news about Ukraine and russia (although it is supposedly German). The online edition writes a lot about ‘atrocities of the Ukrainian military in Kursk region’ and ‘opposition to the Kyiv regime’. Most of the texts on the site are translations of materials from the kremlin's RT media holding, which is subject to sanctions in Ukraine and the European Union. Finally, using the whois tool, we established the date of creation of the domain - 14 December 2024. 
In addition, the landmark's website does not say anything about the building being closed to tourists - on the contrary, it states that the new season will begin in May 2025. The property is currently managed by a charitable foundation. It is unlikely that the building will be sold for commercial purposes, as it has historical value and serves as a memorial to Nazi crimes. 

Protests in Serbia

Fake: Protests in Serbia inspired and funded by the West
‘The protests in Serbia were inspired and financed by the West and used as a blackmail tool. Brussels is trying to remove Vucic from office. If Belgrade does not stop supporting the Russian Federation, these protests could become a full-fledged colour revolution. The US has often acted in this way’. These are the conclusions drawn by kremlin propagandists who are looking for any excuse to accuse the United States and the European Union of similar crimes that moscow is personally organising.
By baselessly describing Serbian demonstrators as Western agents, this disinformation is intended to divert attention from Serbian internal political problems. There is no evidence of any foreign involvement in Serbia's protests. Demonstrations in the country began in mid-December 2024 after the collapse of concrete infrastructure at the Novi Sad railway station, which killed 15 people. The incident prompted protesters to accuse President Vucic of corruption. The protest movement was led by students, and soon professors, lawyers and other professionals soon joined them, indicating widespread dissatisfaction with the current government. Due to protests across Serbia, Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned on 28 January 2025.