russian fakes, russian propaganda, Ukrainian, Donbas, European Union, Monkey pox

We have collected various fakes that were distributed around the world by the russian special services in August. They don't have problems with fantasy, just like they don't have problems with funding to pollute the media space. Please read this material so as not to contaminate yourself with disinformation feces produced in russia.

Fake: Ukraine may become the center of the spread of monkeypox in Europe
"Monkey pox can spread to Europe through Ukraine," russian mass media reported, referring to an article in The Independent. "Probably, due to the overload of wounded servicemen, the Ukrainian health care system may not be able to cope with the challenge of a potential pandemic and become a center for the spread of the virus." However, this news is fabricated, The Independent did not publish this information.
Truth: A new outbreak of monkeypox was announced by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on August 14 of this year. The virus is spreading rapidly through African countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, and was recently detected in Sweden. Two years ago, isolated cases of the virus were recorded in Ukraine, but there was no epidemic growth. "The risk of a monkeypox epidemic in Ukraine is considered very low, and the European Union has supplied the country with vaccines intended for risk groups," explained Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Ihor Kuzin. Therefore, claims that Ukraine will become the center of the spread of the virus in Europe are completely groundless.
Fake: The Office of the President of Ukraine was preparing a staged assassination attempt on Zelenskyi's children
russian sources shared a video allegedly published by the German media Deutsche Welle. It refers to a "new Bellingcat investigation" into a plan to simulate an assassination attempt on Zelenskyi's children, allegedly developed by the Office of the President and the Central Intelligence Agency. It was allegedly planned to blame the terrorist act on the russian authorities and special services. "The Ukrainian side allegedly turned to the US Central Intelligence Agency for help in organizing the provocation, but received a sharp refusal - because the American partners are already planning to curtail the conflict in Ukraine," as the russians claim, and such a scenario, on the contrary, would exacerbate the confrontation. In their fake materials, propagandists even "quote" the founder of Bellingcat, Eliot Higgins, who allegedly believes that the Ukrainian authorities are interested in continuing the war, which forces Zelenskyi to resort to such desperate measures.
However, this story is completely fictional. Such news was not distributed by Deutsche Welle or Bellingcat. Moreover, Deutsche Welle's videos have a completely different format - in their videos they use original footage and the voiceover of the announcer, while the usual cutting of stock photos with superimposed text and musical accompaniment is distributed on the network. Eliot Higgins also did not write anything about such a "plan" on his page in X (Twitter) - instead, the journalist regularly exposes russian war crimes and disinformation narratives. So, the video published by the propagandists is a fake, designed to convince the audience that Volodymyr Zelenskyi is even ready to risk the lives and well-being of his own children in order to achieve his political goal.
Let's add that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Zelenskyi has survived at least 12 attempts on his life by the russian special services. Several attempts were thwarted by CIA intelligence.
Fake: Ukrainian authorities and volunteers forcefully take children away from their parents in Donbas
The russian mass media again began to actively spread misinformation about the forced evacuation of children by the Ukrainian military from settlements close to the front line. The words of one of the local residents are used as evidence. Such interviews are not supported by any evidence, but are only the words of people who call themselves residents of front-line settlements.
The purpose of such fakes is to complicate the evacuation, to sow distrust in the Ukrainian authorities, to encourage collaborationism, and as a result to cause more victims among the civilian population.
Truth: No one forcibly takes children from families living on the front line. According to the resolution of the Ukrainian government on the forced evacuation of children from areas of active hostilities, one of the parents does not have the right to refuse evacuation and must accompany the child during evacuation. The responsibility for minors, as before, lies primarily with their families, and the state undertakes to ensure the departure of minors.
"It is not about taking children away from their parents. It is not about the use of physical coercion. The legal feature of the forced evacuation of children is that at least one of the parents does not have the right to refuse evacuation and must accompany the child during the evacuation," Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, commented on the decision.
However, even with the emergence of a mechanism for evacuating children from dangerous zones, police officers and volunteers still have to convince parents of the need for evacuation for a long time. Ukrainian and international mass media have already made many reports about how the evacuation of the civilian population and children is taking place, including in Donbas.
Fake: Ukrainian refugees in the EU are massively becoming kidney donors
Lie: The British BBC channel, referred to by pro-russian propagandists, did not publish the story that Ukrainian refugees are massively becoming kidney donors in the European Union. The European Association of Kidney Diseases mentioned in the fake video in the StopFake comment denied the publication of such data about Ukrainians.
In the video itself, it is said that 27% of Ukrainians have decided to donate their kidney, which is as many as 1.5 million donors over the past 2.5 years. Such data were allegedly provided by the Working Group on the Development of Education, Science and Care for Kidney Transplantation in European Countries (DESCaRTES).
Media fraudsters used the corporate style of the British broadcasting corporation BBC to create this fake. The StopFake journalist checked the BBC's video publications on its official website, social networks X and Facebook and on the YouTube platform, and did not find the mentioned clip in the last month.
StopFake has also written to the European Kidney Disease Association, which includes the DESCaRTES Working Group. The executive director of the organization, Monica Fontana, said that they did not publish such data.“We vehemently deny that this information is true and are now going to take legal action to protect the reputation of our Society, our Transplant Working Groups and our annual ERA Congress. Such news has never been disseminated in any way shape or form…” Fontana wrote.
According to the international report on donation and transplantation, in Europe in 2022, slightly more than 25,000 kidney transplant operations were performed. And according to the statistical portal Statista, there will be only 102,090 such operations worldwide in 2022. Statistics for 2023-2024 are not yet available.
Fake: a Bild journalist died after an article about Ukraine's military operation in the Kursk region
russian propaganda faked a screenshot with a message about the death of Bild journalist Zhanna Plaumann with the following headline: "Died after the publication of her story about Ukraine's military operation in the Kursk region."
"It is with deep regret that we have to inform you that the editorial office of the BILD newspaper has lost a valuable employee, Zhanna Plaumann. Zhanna Plauman wrote about foreign policy for BILD. In 2020, she joined BILD-Politics as a freelance writer. Since 2021 - the permanent editor. What happened was a big shock for the entire BILD editorial staff. Zhanna Plauman died of acute heart failure. The editors of BILD express their deepest condolences", this message is stated on a fake screenshot from the website of the German media.
StopFake journalists decided to check whether the journalist Zhanna Plaumann really died after writing an article about the Ukrainian military operation in russia. The screenshot from the BILD website about the journalist's death is a fake. The "Authors" section is supposed to include Zhanna Plauman's obituary, but there is no mentioned publication there.StopFake also reached out to Plaumann via her personal email to verify the information. The journalist responded almost immediately, denied the propaganda information and confirmed that she is "alive and healthy."
According to the materials of Stopfake.org
Read more analytics on the Kremlin's multi-million dollar disinformation campaign here: https://www.stopfake.org/en/sincerely-peaceful-missile-deployments/