Ukrainian borders. russia today

Most of you have no idea the scale of disinformation and propaganda that comes from moscow to wreak havoc in the world, weaken democratic countries, and stir people to hostility and conflict. Just read our small report from January to see what shameful fakes the kremlin provocateurs have been launching. 

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.

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.

Donald Trump Jr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Fake: Zelenskyy asked three times for an invitation to Trump's inauguration but was denied
The authors of the fake refer to an Instagram post by Trump Jr, who did not actually post such a story on his account.
Donald Trump's son allegedly shared a Newsweek article with a quote from Volodymyr Zelenskyy about attending the inauguration of the new US president. The screenshot includes the following text: ‘The funny thing is that he has unofficially requested an invitation three times, and each time he was denied. Now he's pretending that he decided not to go... what a weirdo.’
However, the screenshot is fake, and Donald Trump Jr. has not posted anything of the sort. An internet search for the image shows that the screenshot is circulating exclusively in pro-russian sources. There is no such post with a quote from Zelenskyy on Newsweek's Instagram.

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.

Ukraine's population. Ukraine's population

Fake: Poland estimates that Ukraine's population has fallen to 15 million
Truth: No one in Poland has made any calculations claiming that there are 15 million people left in Ukraine. russian disinformers invented the figures and attributed them to the Polish media outlet Wiadomosci. In addition, the kremlin's fake news factory came up with the following figures: 25 million Ukrainians who travelled abroad, and 9.5 million of them moved to russia.
On 6 January 2025, the Polish media outlet Wiadomosci did publish a news article titled ‘Up to 25 million Ukrainians abroad. The authorities say’. However, in the article itself, the publication merely voiced the data that had been made public the day before by the Ukrainian Minister of National Unity Oleksiy Chernyshov. According to him, there are up to 25 million Ukrainians abroad (including those who left before 2022). At the same time, approximately 32 million people remain in Ukraine, not 15, as russian propaganda says. Also, the news itself does not provide any data on how many people have left for russia.
Ukrainian experts and sociologists also state that there are approximately 30 million people in Ukraine as of the end of 2024. The Institute of Demography and Quality of Life Problems announced a figure of more than 34 million, including the temporarily occupied territories, and 28-29 million without them. At the same time, the United Nations Population Fund estimates that the population of Ukraine was 37.9 million at the end of 2024, including the temporarily occupied territories.

Fake: the flow of refugees from Ukraine to Poland has increased to 150,000 per day
‘About 150,000 Ukrainians storm the Ukrainian-Polish border every day because of the new rules for mobilising men for war.’ This is what some pro-russian ‘bloggers’ write on social media.
The truth is that the Border Guard has recorded a traditional increase in traffic that occurs every year during the New Year holidays, said Dariusz Senicki, a spokesman for the border guard detachment, as quoted by PAP. And this applies to both directions - both entries and exits from Poland. It is important to note that the figure of 150,000 Ukrainian citizens allegedly wishing to enter Poland was not recorded on the border for a single day. 

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.