Volodymyr Zelenskyy. russia today

Here is a digest of the most notable fakes of the kremlin's special services launched in February/January 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.

Ukrainian borders. russia today

Fake: Ukrainian borders in the West are controlled by foreign military
russian propaganda continues its disinformation campaign about the alleged territorial encroachment on Ukraine by its western neighbours. In particular, fakes are being spread that Ukraine's borders with Poland and Romania are ‘actually controlled by foreign militaries’ and that in some areas Poles and Romanians have ‘moved up to 2 km deep into Ukrainian territory’. 
As the only ‘confirmation’ of these messages, propagandists are spreading a video with a captured Ukrainian border guard. russia systematically uses videos of ‘confessions’ of Ukrainian prisoners to spread disinformation. However, given the large number of proven cases of torture and threats against Ukrainians in russian captivity, such recordings cannot be considered evidence. 
The recent statements by the Director of the russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, and the far-right Romanian politician Kelin Georgescu about the possibility of dividing the territory of Ukraine between different states are part of the same information operation. The purpose of such fake news is to justify russia's armed aggression against Ukraine and create the illusion of the ‘legitimacy’ of the occupation of Ukrainian territories.

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?

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’.

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.

Ukrainian scammers. kremlin propaganda. story about Zelenskyy

Fake: Ukrainian scammers defrauded victims of California wildfires of $40 million
Several russian websites, citing USA Today, have spread claims that ‘Ukrainian scammers’ have allegedly defrauded Americans of $40 million under the pretence of helping victims of the massive fires in Los Angeles. The fraudsters presented themselves as representatives of a charity organisation collecting donations for the victims of the fire. USA Today has never published such information on its official platforms. Further investigation by STEPFAKE showed that the source of this ‘news’ was a fake video containing the USA Today logo. Analysis using the OSAVUL service showed that the first to publish the video was the kremlin propaganda Telegram channel "Krymforom ZOV" on 15 January.
Fake: Zelensky bought a villa with a bunker for €18 million on the island of Saint-Barthélemy
The publications state that the expensive purchase of the Ukrainian president was reported by some French sources, but nowhere does it specify the name of the media outlet or the names of the investigators, the fact-checkers of the provereno.media project noted. The video used as ‘evidence’ by the fake news makers has signs of artificial intelligence: the text is full of repetitions of the same structures, the speaker's voice sounds unnatural and with some distortions. The ‘document’ referred to in the video is also fake. This was reported to the fact-checkers by notary Ciffreo Michel, whose signature allegedly appears on the sale and purchase agreement. This fake has received more than 8 million views on the Internet. The story about Zelenskyy's villa was even broadcast on russian television. 
It should be noted that this is not the first fake about Zelenskyy's ‘expensive purchases’ Zelenskyy's ‘expensive purchases’, but none of them have been confirmed.

Kurt Volker. to end the war in Ukraine

Fake: US representative proposes to divide Ukraine to end the war
russian media outlets are spreading disinformation that the United States is allegedly proposing to divide Ukraine as the best way to end the war. In doing so, they refer to former US State Department Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker. The truth is that Kurt Volker has never suggested dividing Ukraine. His words were taken out of context. In an interview with The Cipher Brief YouTube channel on 9 January 2024, Volker said that the main difficulty in ending the war is getting vladimir putin to stop fighting: ‘It is Putin who wants to capture and destroy Ukraine as a separate national identity. It is difficult to make him give up this goal.’
Speaking about possible scenarios for negotiations, Volker identified three key elements that, in his opinion, could form the basis of a peace process:
1. A ceasefire.
2. The international community's non-recognition of russia's occupation of Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, Donbas and other regions. In its turn, Ukraine also recognises that it will not return these territories by military means, leaving this issue to diplomatic and political means.
3. Reliable and effective security guarantees for the rest of Ukraine to prevent a possible recurrence of a russian attack.
On the second point, Volker cited historical examples: East Germany, the Baltic States, and Cyprus. After World War II, the USSR occupied East Germany. But the German Constitution enshrined a provision for the future reunification of the country. And it eventually took place not by military means. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were also occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II, but the United States never recognised their forcible annexation. The policy of non-recognition, enshrined in the 1940 Wells Declaration, remained unchanged throughout the Cold War. As a result, these countries regained their independence in 1991.
Thus, Kurt Volker was not talking about the division of Ukraine. He merely described a possible scenario for the end of the war (or rather, the military phase). russian propaganda deliberately distorted the diplomat's words to create the impression that the United States supports the division of Ukraine.

Prime Minister of Slovakia. Ukraine and the United Kingdom provides

Fake: Ukraine became a British colony after signing a 100-year partnership agreement.
In fact, the agreement signed on 16 January between Ukraine and the United Kingdom provides for the expansion of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries in the security, economic, cultural and other spheres. It does not contain any provisions that would confirm the ‘colonisation’ of Ukraine.
Increased international cooperation strengthens Kyiv's position, and that is why moscow is trying to discredit Ukraine's achievements in this area. the kremlin wants to see Ukraine isolated and deprived of international support in order to implement its own - not fictional, but quite real - plans for its colonisation.

Fake: global elites are trying to overthrow the Prime Minister of Slovakia
russian propagandists are calling on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico to learn how to successfully counter ‘foreign interference’ from the Georgian authorities, Belarusian and Serbian rulers. Obviously, the kremlin is thus trying to protect its agent and keep him in power. There is no evidence to support the allegations of any foreign involvement in the protests in Slovakia on 24 January 2025.

crimes in Bucha. russian armed forces

Fake: Former US ambassador doubts that crimes in Bucha were committed by russians
russian Telegram channels have once again started promoting the 2022 fake that former US Ambassador to the USSR Jack Matlock allegedly stated that there was no evidence of russian soldiers' guilt in the tragedy in the Ukrainian town of Bucha (March 2022). The former ambassador allegedly made this statement during an interview on CNN.
In fact, Jack Matlock, commenting on the situation in Ukraine as of March 2022, said: ‘First of all, we don't know exactly what happened in terms of the atrocities. And, of course, we don't know that they were carried out on instructions from Moscow.’ Matlock then went on to repeat well-known russian propaganda narratives that Ukrainians should try to strike a deal with the russians and allow russia to keep Crimea, where ‘the majority of the population is russian’, and that it is dangerous to make a nuclear-armed country a pariah. But at the same time, Matlock ‘did not expose the Bucha fake’ and did not absolve russia of responsibility.
In the same CNN broadcast, Brian Klaas, associate professor of global politics at University College London, expressed his opinion: ‘It's impossible to believe that crimes like the one in Bucha would take place without at least the knowledge of senior Russian military officials, and I don't consider Crimeans to be Russians. They were annexed by Russia. They may be Russian-speaking, but that's not the same thing.’
Important: for almost 3 years of the great war, many independent investigations have emerged that confirm the facts of mass killings of civilians in Bucha. International organisations such as the United Nations and Amnesty International have conducted their own investigations and concluded that russian troops were involved in these events. As a reminder, in March 2022, the bodies of more than 600 civilians were found in Bucha during the russian occupation, many of whom were victims of extrajudicial executions and torture. These events caused an international outcry, and charges of war crimes were brought against the russian armed forces, which they continue to commit to this day.

Baltic Sea. Baltic Sentry

Fake news: NATO legalises piracy in the Baltic Sea
‘At the last summit, NATO decided to take control of the Baltic Sea, which is a direct violation of international maritime law. This decision destroys both the global maritime trade system and the principles of international law. These steps are being taken under the pretext of allegedly protecting ‘democratic countries’ and for an invented reason - often accidents with submarine cables connecting Estonia and Finland.’ This is what the russian ‘fake news and manipulation factory’ writes.
The kremlin's disinformation campaign on the security situation in the Baltic Sea and incidents related to the Baltic Sea (Nord Streat, Baltic Connector, Undersea Internet Cables) is gaining momentum. On 14 January 2025, the Baltic Sea countries announced the launch of a new NATO military activity to strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure. The Baltic Sentry project will increase NATO's military presence in the Baltic Sea and improve Allies' ability to respond to destabilising activities. The NATO Secretary General said that the recent sabotage has damaged important energy and communications cables. Such steps have been taken by the countries of the region due to regular incidents of damage to critical cables on the bottom of the Baltic Sea involving ships linked to russia and China.
Read about other developments related to the Baltic Sea security situation here.

cyber track trump. russian disinformers

Fake news: cyber track explosion near Trump hotel may be a Ukrainian operation
russian disinformers claim that the suspect who blew up a car near Trump's hotel in Las Vegas wore a ‘Glory to Ukraine’ T-shirt in his life. This is confirmed on social media, which suggests that he had contacts with Ukrainian special services. The propaganda describes this case as a warning to Donald Trump from Ukraine, who is going to end the war.
This fiction is not supported by any evidence. The russians are constantly trying to link any terrorist or other tragic events in the world to the Ukrainian special services. Such fakes appear within days after the events, while there are no official details. And, of course, uninformed citizens often believe the ‘original source’. No one will wait for official evidence. This is how propaganda works. 
In the case of Las Vegas, the bomber was identified as Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a senior sergeant in the US Army Special Forces. There is no evidence or even a suggestion of his links to Ukrainian intelligence services.