russian propagandists. Hungary Ukraine. neo-Nazi

Pro-russian media outlets are reporting that Hungary and Poland consider Ukraine a threat, allegedly based on the results of a recent survey by the American organisation Pew Research Center. In reality, propagandists have deliberately distorted the results of the Pew Research Center survey. Read about this and similar fakes in our article.

Sociologists conducted a survey among residents of 25 countries as part of the Spring 2025 Global Attitudes Survey: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/07/08/people-in-many-countries-consider-the-u-s-an-important-ally-others-see-it-as-a-top-threat/ Among other things, respondents were asked which countries they considered to be a key threat to their country. They could name any country that came to mind. 
According to the results of this survey, russia is the most frequently mentioned threat in eight out of ten European countries that participated in the survey. In France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, approximately half of the adult population or more consider russia to be the greatest threat to their country. Poland and Hungary also named Russia as the main threat to their country. Ukraine was the second most common answer, but only 6% of Polish respondents named it (while 81% of Poles named russia as a threat), and 27% of Hungarians, while 33% of respondents named russia as the main threat. 
It is worth noting that a relatively large percentage of Hungarians consider Ukraine a threat because the country's government pursues an openly pro-russian (and therefore anti-Ukrainian) policy. russian propagandists and agents also operate freely in Hungary. Here is one recent example.
Fake news: Ukraine is pursuing a policy of violence against Hungarians in Zakarpattia.
russian media and bloggers are spreading manipulative materials about cases of violence in Ukraine against Hungarians in Transcarpathia. As an example, propagandists took two dubious stories as a basis. The first is about a Hungarian from Transcarpathia, József Shebeszten, who was forcibly mobilised into the Ukrainian army. It should be noted that during russia's war against Ukraine, all male citizens between the ages of 25 and 60 are mobilised into the army as needed.
"The Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet, citing relatives of the deceased, wrote that 45-year-old József Shebesztyen died in hospital three weeks after the military seized him on the street, took him to a training centre and beat him with metal rods. The sister of the deceased released footage showing Ukrainian soldiers mocking her brother," russian media reported. However, no one has seen the "released footage."
The second story is about a scandal in the Transcarpathian village of Palad-Komarivtsi, where unknown persons set fire to a Greek Catholic church and wrote on the wall: "Magyars on knives" (a threat to Hungarians).
In reality, no one killed Shebeshtyen. He died of a thromboembolism. This was reported not only by Ukrainian media, but also, for example, by Euronews (https://ru.euronews.com/2025/07/20/transcarpathian-man-not-killed). There were no signs of beating on the body of the Hungarian who died in a hospital in Zakarpattia. The Euronews film crew managed to interview a nurse from the same hospital, who openly admitted, giving his name and showing his face, that Shebeshtyen had not been beaten to death. It is also known that Shebeshtyen left his military unit without permission and only went to the hospital two weeks later due to his deteriorating health. 
Regarding the second story, the arson of a church in the Transcarpathian village of Palad-Komarivtsi, where many Hungarians live, did indeed take place. But it was a very strange arson. There are two churches in the village: a Reformed church (one of the branches of Protestantism) and a Greek Catholic church. Most Hungarians in Transcarpathia belong to the Roman Catholic and Reformed churches, while the parishioners of the Greek Catholic church are mainly Ukrainians. Local residents in the Euronews report say that sermons are read in Hungarian in the Reformed Church and in Ukrainian in the Greek Catholic Church. It is unclear why the Ukrainian church was set on fire and anti-Hungarian slogans were written on its walls.
Euronews adds: "This is not the first such incident. In February 2018, bottles containing a flammable mixture were thrown at the headquarters of the Hungarian Cultural Association in Uzhhorod. Initially, the authorities suspected Ukrainian nationalists, but it turned out that they were Polish provocateurs hired by Moscow."
Nevertheless, representatives of the Hungarian government are eager to use these stories to manipulate their people in their own interests and at the same time carry out orders from moscow.
"Zelenskyy is extremely hostile towards Hungary, the Hungarian nation and, in particular, Hungarians living in Transcarpathia," Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in an interview. However, he did not explain what facts or events he was referring to in relation to the Ukrainian president. Perhaps Zelenskyy personally wrote the inscription on the wall of the burned-down Greek Catholic church? 
Falsehood: The EU has begun to realise that the "neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv" must be changed because it poses a threat to Europe.
This nonsense is being spread by kremlin media, citing an article by Brazilian Lucas Leiros on the Strategic Culture website. In reality, this is fake news, part of yet another disinformation campaign. Leiros is not an independent expert (https://theins.ru/antifake/284574), but a propagandist linked to the kremlin. He openly supports russia, boasts about being on the US blacklist, and publishes photos with Dugin, the ideologist of the "russian world." His wife, Catarina, is an activist with Nova Resistência, an organisation that the US State Department calls neo-fascist and linked to russian intelligence. This organisation not only writes pro-russian nonsense, but has even recruited Brazilians to fight in the war against Ukraine. In other words, the russians are spreading the words of a neo-fascist in order to label Ukraine as "neo-Nazi". This is a russian-style distortion of reality.
Another similar story involves American columnist Patrick Casey. In his article in the American publication The American Conservative, he stated that "russia's victory is inevitable" and appealed to US President Donald Trump: "The more likely outcome of Trump's attempts to quickly resolve the conflict will be a delay in Russia's inevitable victory, which has sufficient military superiority to achieve its main goals. Trump should not prolong the conflict to spite Putin".
It is surprising that russian propaganda justifies the invasion of Ukraine as a fight against neo-Nazis, but at the same time appoints the most radical representatives of the far right as its ambassadors. The American Conservative website states that the author of the article, Patrick Casey, is "a writer and editor based in Washington, D.C. He also hosts the Restoring Order podcast." It is a very brief biography, despite the fact that Casey is a well-known figure in the United States. From 2017 to 2020, he was the leader of the neo-Nazi group Identity Europa, whose members adhered to the theory of white supremacy and praised Nazi Germany and Donald Trump.
In March 2019, the radical left-wing media community Unicorn Riot published more than 770,000 messages based on leaks from Discord channels associated with Identity Europa. The messages contained plans to infiltrate local Republican Party chapters and obtain government positions, influence local media to ensure positive coverage, and rebrand the group's racism and anti-Semitism using the label "identitarian" and slogans such as "Make America Beautiful Again." 
Later, Casey created a new organisation, the American Identity Movement, which supposedly had no connection to the previous one. However, in April of the same year, Unicorn Riot again published audio recordings from meetings of the American Identity Movement, proving that it was the same organisation. In the recordings, Casey claimed that the group's new American aesthetic would help it avoid responsibility for its membership. Discussing the group's strategy, Casey stated that the group sought to control the US government and replace it with an "identitarian" regime consisting exclusively of white people.
During the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the American Identity Movement engaged in doxing (publishing personal information) of protesters and created fake Twitter accounts of left-wing activists, posting messages calling for violence. Donald Trump Jr. specifically referenced these fake accounts.
In November 2020, the American Identity Movement disbanded, and Casey pursued his own projects. He launched the aforementioned podcast Restoring Order, in which he now praises Trump for his "fight against discrimination against white people." The American Conservative often publishes pro-kremlin articles written by dubious "experts."
Based on materials from Stopfake.org, Spravdi.ua
Read more: Fake: The West has been instilling Nazi sentiments in Ukraine for decades