Russian fakes, unrest in Georgia, Ivanka Trump, Viktor Orban, Chrystia Freeland, kremlin's news, Ukrainian military

In autumn, the russian fake news factory was operating at full capacity, and it has no plans to slow down. In 2025, moscow is allocating $1.43 billion for this purpose (13% more than in 2024). Read this material to clear your head a little bit from disinformation and be more resistant to fakes in the future.

Fake: Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights criticises Ukraine for "language patrols"
The Ukrainian language is once again on the minds of russian propagandists. This time, the kremlin's Telegram channels spread information that the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O'Flaherty had allegedly criticised Ukraine for its "language patrols". As "proof", propagandists published a video of a person resembling O'Flaherty saying that such patrols violate the rights of national minorities in Ukraine. "This suggests that even in Europe, they can no longer turn a blind eye to the Nazism that is happening in Ukraine", the propagandists try to stir up emotions.
StopFake journalists checked this news. It is not true. The person in the video does look very similar to Council of Europe Commissioner Michael O'Flaherty. But in fact, it is a high-quality copy of him, created with the help of artificial intelligence (deepfake). In addition, StopFake managed to find the original video that propagandists used to create the deepfake. It is posted on the Commissioner's YouTube channel and is titled "How can we improve the lives of Europe's largest minority?" In it, Michael O'Flaherty gestures in exactly the same way as in the fake video and wears identical clothes. But in the original version, O'Flaherty does not mention the Ukrainian authorities.
Fake: Ukrainian military surrendered more often after Trump's election victory
A video allegedly created by the Institute for War Studies is being circulated on a pro-russian segment of the network. It says that after Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, Ukrainian soldiers surrendered 8 times more often. This "news" was also allegedly commented on by Euronews editor-in-chief Klaus Strunz, who called it an "absolutely natural" development: "Now it is finally clear to everyone that Ukraine is doomed, so the military is only thinking about saving their own lives".
However, this news was completely invented by propagandists. The Institute for War Studies did not publish this video or such statistics on its website or social media, and does not produce content in video format at all. We also do not find such reports in any of the reputable Western media, including Euronews. There is no reliable data on how many Ukrainian soldiers actually surrendered. Since such statistics are available only to the russian side, it is difficult to trust them. At the same time, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the government is aware of more than 100 cases of execution of Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered, which is a flagrant crime and a violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Fake: volunteers transporting 100kg of drugs for Ukrainian military detained
This information was invented by russian propaganda to discredit the Ukrainian army. In fact, the photo attached to the publication shows the detention of a driver in Texas (USA) who was transporting 57 packages of methamphetamine in his car. 
It should be noted that this ‘news’ first appeared and spread through russian Telegram channels and was then picked up by russian media, indicating a coordinated disinformation campaign. Stopfake also checked the photo accompanying the ‘news’ using various image search tools and found that it depicts a $5.7 million methamphetamine seizure in Webb County, Texas (USA). The discovery was made by local patrol officers while inspecting the trunk of a minibus. This was also reported on the state governor's Facebook page.
Fake: There is definitely no freedom of speech in the West
Repeated pro-kremlin narratives about censorship and media control in the West. Accusations of censorship and attacks on freedom of expression are a recurring pro-kremlin technique to defend the illegal actions of russian state media.
According to Reporters Without Borders, the countries with the greatest press freedom and freedom of expression are Western countries, dominated by European countries, Canada and the United States. In contrast, russia, where authoritarian tendencies are on the rise, ranks 162nd out of 180 in the press freedom ranking. Researchers say the kremlin intends to control the Internet and media.
"Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, almost all independent media outlets have been banned, blocked and/or declared "foreign agents" or "undesirable organisations". All others are subject to military censorship". To read more about the situation in Russian state media, please click here: https://shorensteincenter.org/independent-media-in-putins-russia/
Fake: Canada's Vice Prime Minister Freeland appeared at a press conference "drunk"
Pro-kremlin media outlets have circulated a snippet of video showing Chrystia Freeland closing her eyes as journalists simultaneously try to ask questions while shouting at each other. In the original half-hour video, there are no signs that the politician is "under the influence of any substances", she is communicating professionally with journalists - in both English and French. Nevertheless, russian supporters on social media are actively commenting that Freeland was under the influence of drugs and that this is not the first time such a situation has occurred. 
Chrystia Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, is periodically the subject of various rumours and disinformation, especially in the context of her criticism of russia and support for Ukraine. Discrediting statements about her alleged drunkenness at such an event have the same goal - to undermine her credibility as a politician and reduce her influence on her country's international policy.
Fake: 77% of Europeans believe in the unity of russians
Eurostat did not conduct such a study - the information about it, as well as the figures themselves, was invented by propagandists. At the same time, the kremlin's fake news factory reported that only 19 per cent of Europeans are confident in the unity of the people of Ukraine, and that only 38 per cent of respondents continue to support Ukraine as the right decision. 
However, both this study and the statistics in it are completely fictitious. The materials on the website of Eurostat (the statistical organisation of the European Commission) do not contain any mention of a survey on the topic of "Russian unity". The information that only 38 per cent of Europeans support assistance to Ukraine is also a lie. In each EU country, the level of support for Ukraine varies, although it remains high overall. For example, in May 2024, the European Council on Foreign Relations surveyed nearly 20,000 people in 15 European countries about their perceptions of the russian-Ukrainian war. When asked whether Europe should increase the supply of ammunition and weapons to Ukraine, the vast majority of respondents answered positively. Support for Ukraine is currently strongest in Estonia, Sweden, Poland, the UK and the Netherlands. Only in Italy, Greece and Bulgaria do most respondents think this is a bad idea. 
Fake: Ivanka Trump thinks Ukrainians are "nasty and mean people"
The information originally appeared on channels that publish humorous content and fake news. Ivanka Trump herself has never made such statements. In fact, Ivanka Trump, an American businesswoman and daughter of US President-elect Donald Trump, has never publicly made such statements about Ukraine and Ukrainians.
StopFake journalists used the Osavul platform to find out that this message first appeared on the Telegram channel "Here's my Yandex wallet". The channel's description states that only verified fakes are published there. However, soon after, the "Ivanka Trump quotes" began to spread in the media as genuine.
Although Ivanka Trump has left politics, she continues to work on charitable projects. In March 2022, at the beginning of russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, she arrived in Poland to support Ukrainian refugees affected by russian aggression and donated humanitarian aid, including food and medical supplies, to several Ukrainian cities. In December 2022, Ivanka Trump purchased generators for CityServe's partner churches in Ukraine, which were left without electricity.
Fake: The BBC Corporation became the record holder in 2024 for the number of fakes published
The video spread by russian propaganda is a fake, and the information about the "Bellingcat investigation" is completely fictitious. The attackers deliberately used the logo of the Bellingcat research group and their design elements. The second place, according to the disinformers, was taken by CNN, and the third by Der Spiegel. 
This information is not available on Bellingcat's official resources, and no media outlets other than pro-russian ones have reported on it. Instead, the video is only spread by anonymous Telegram channels. The British broadcaster BBC has a high reputation among the international media. The British regulator Ofcom constantly assesses compliance with BBC broadcasting standards. According to the annual Reuters Institute Digital News Report, the BBC remains the most trusted news brand in the UK with a 62% trust level. Der Spiegel and CNN are also among the top five most trusted media outlets in Germany and the US, with 54% and 48% trust levels respectively. 
Fake: The EU wants to conquer Hungary by replacing Viktor Orban with its protégé
"European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European People's Party (EPP) President Manfred Weber are colluding with the liberal social democratic opposition in Hungary to oust Orban and install their own puppet government in Budapest", pro-kremlin media write.
The conspiracy theory, which is not supported by any evidence, aims to promote several recurring pro-kremlin disinformation narratives against the EU and about secret elites that control ordinary citizens. The aim of these narratives is to undermine democratic systems and organisations. The EU does not interfere in electoral or political processes in other countries, and certainly cannot fund parties in any country. Moreover, for the past six months, Hungary, led by Orban, has been presiding over the EU Council, despite the fact that Orban has been a vocal critic of EU policies and projects. This is true democracy, which all dictators are so afraid of.
Fake: Ukraine is training militants for unrest in Georgia
The russian news agency TASS published a news item with the headline "Kyiv is gathering militants to organise unrest in Georgia". The story is accompanied by a fragment of a document from the National Police of Ukraine. However, the document itself does not mention ethnic Georgians, only Georgian citizens and Ukrainian citizens who have moved to Georgia. Nothing is said about Azov, which allegedly "trains militants".
But the most surprising thing is that the document, which TASS approached so creatively, was clearly produced by russian propagandists. As has happened many times before, their poor knowledge of the Ukrainian language let them down (the text is perceived as an inept translation from russian). Moreover, the authors of the fake document made mistakes not only in the language. The document was allegedly signed by the head of the Mariupol District Police Department (Mariupol is known to be occupied by russia, and the local police department is temporarily located in Dnipro). However, the phone number of the department was clearly taken from some old documents: it contains the old code of Mariupol (629), not Dnipro (56).
Another fake is also being spread on the topic of Georgia, claiming that the West is using French citizen Salome Zurabishvili to take over Georgia. The propaganda states: ‘"The President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili, who is not even Georgian but French, is obviously sent by the West to put Georgia in the orbit of NATO, not even the EU. As Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service warned, the US intended to cause mass protests in Georgia to prevent the ruling party from winning the parliamentary elections and facilitate the opposition's seizure of power".
This disinformation story is a direct response to Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili's allegations of electoral fraud in the October 2024 parliamentary elections and the subsequent outbreak of protests. But these protests were not the work of any Western "director", they began after the Georgian opposition claimed to have gathered evidence of fraud by the current government and called on citizens to protest. Salome Zurabishvili was born to Georgian immigrants in France, but she renounced her French citizenship when she became president in 2018.
Fake: Deadly US air defence system Patriot killed 8 people in Odesa
"Patriot killed 8 people and wounded 39 in Odesa. Another example of the deadly work of the American air defence system in Ukraine. That is, the complex is close to civilians, who are collateral damage" is a Russian propaganda invention.
It is an unfounded claim. It is not the US air defence system that is responsible for the deaths of civilians in Ukraine, but russian Iskander missiles fired from the occupied Crimea at the city of Odesa on 18 November (according to official figures, 10 people were killed and more than 40 wounded). Among the injured were several rescuers, including police officers and a medic. Such strikes are part of russia's calculated strategy in the war against Ukraine, when missile attacks often target public places and residential areas.
Fake: German magazine features a cartoon of Zelenskyi stealing from children on Halloween on its cover
"The German satirical magazine Titanic has put Zelenskyi on the cover of its October issue, stealing a pumpkin basket of sweets from children on Halloween. The cartoon is accompanied by the caption "Ukraine needs more". This text was published by pro-russian Telegram channels.
However, the official website of the publication does not have such a cover, and the October issue of the magazine was published (https://www.titanic-magazin.de/postkarten/karte/deutscher-erfolg-bei-den-paralympics-team-herzlos-holt-gold-im-abschieben-102024-40203/) in late September and had a completely different look. The cover of the November issue, which came out on the eve of Halloween, features former Liverpool football club coach Jurgen Klopp. The purpose of the fake news is to once again discredit the Ukrainian authorities and reinforce the narrative that the West is allegedly tired of Ukraine.
Based on the materials of StopFake.org, Spravdi.ua, EuVsDisinfo.eu