attempt on Trump. russia today. ukrainian government

We are diligently recording all cases of russian disinformation and propaganda in the international media space. moscow is not going to stop its information aggression, cyberattacks and sabotage against its opponents. Moreover, putin's criminal regime is only increasing spending in these areas, bleeding its own people. Be careful what is written in the media and shared on social media. Evil must lose, no matter how it disguises itself.

Fake: Zelenskyy's government may be behind the assassination attempt on Trump.
This statement by American blogger Tucker Carlson is being spread by the kremlin media. In fact, Carlson does not support his statement about Zelenskyy's ‘involvement in the assassination attempt on the US president’ Carlson does not support his statement with any evidence. Donald Trump Jr, who also systematically spreads russian narratives, wrote the same thing on his X page.
This is not the first time that Tucker Carlson has tried to discredit the Ukrainian government and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in particular. Previously, he lied about Zelenskyy being a dictator who rules the country by force, bans the Christian denomination, and kills his opponents. Carlson also spread fictions that Ukraine sells weapons from its Western partners to Mexican drug cartels and that Ukrainians spend a million dollars a day on holiday in the Alps. In all of these cases, the journalist did not provide concrete evidence.
In fact, Carlson, like Donald Trump Jr, is working for russian propaganda by inventing this fake. Why is that? Most likely, they have a personal stake in this. The propagandists were inspired by the story of Ryan Root, who is accused of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump. The offender allegedly tried to buy weapons in Ukraine. In fact, this information is a lie. No credible source of information mentions that Ukraine is allegedly linked to the attempted assassination attempt on Donald Trump by US citizen Ryan Routh in September 2024. According to a report in The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/08/trump-assassination-suspect-court-filing), Ryan Ruth's only connection to Ukraine was that he tried to buy a rocket launcher and an anti-aircraft missile from a person ‘he believed to be a Ukrainian arms dealer’. However, judging by the wording, it is unclear whether the trader was actually a Ukrainian citizen. In any case, Ukraine as a state has nothing to do with the actions of the accused in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
It is worth noting that the network also includes thousands of illegal arms dealers who have no relation to the official governments of their countries and operate illegally. Thus, russian publics are once again trying to portray Ukraine as guilty of illegal actions against the US president, in an attempt to discredit Kyiv in the international arena and completely deprive Ukraine of American support.

Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Pope Francis

Fake: Head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine says the Pope died because of his support for russia
A number of russian media outlets have spread the news that the head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy, allegedly said that the death of Pope Francis was due to the pontiff's support for russia's war against Ukraine. This is another story invented by russian propagandists. With such fakes, the kremlin distorts the image of the OCU and its representatives, promoting a narrative about the allegedly low morality of its priests.
In fact, Metropolitan Epifaniy did not make such statements. On the contrary, on his Facebook page, the head of the OCU stated that he was heartbroken to hear the news of Pope Francis' death and that he had expressed sincere concern about the fate of Ukrainians suffering from russian aggression during the meeting: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1239311984229987&set=a.344801820347679 
Also, on 21 April 2025, a funeral service for the newly deceased Pope Francis was held at St Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv, conducted by Metropolitan Epifaniy.
Around the same time, pro-russian resources spread another fake claiming that shortly before his death, Pope Francis had allegedly spoken on the phone with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and expressed support for Ukraine's territorial integrity. Publications on propaganda resources were accompanied by a screenshot from Politico, where this statement was allegedly refuted.
In fact, Stopfake journalists have not been able to find any evidence of the so-called call between Zelenskyy and Pope Francis. Secondly, the refutation allegedly published on Politico's website is also fabricated - a simple search on the media outlet's website using keywords proves this. And finally, none of the official communication channels of the Holy See have any posts on this topic.

Fake: Charlie Hebdo has made a cartoon about Zelenskyy and Pope Francis
russian media have spread a fake that the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has depicted Zelenskyy with the body of the Pope in the Vatican Bank: "The satirical drawing is accompanied by a caption: ‘It's me, Pope Francis, please send all my money to Ukraine."
In fact, this cover of Charlie Hebdo magazine does not exist. The rail image shows the date 23 April and the serial number 1710. The issue of the magazine dated 23 April 2025 with serial number 1709 does refer to the death of the pope, but Zelenskyy is not depicted on it. There are more than ten similar fakes related to Charlie Hebdo magazine. But the russians are really counting on an uneducated audience that is not used to checking information. 

Ukrainian refugees. russian fake. rt news

Fake: Europeans are outraged by benefits for Ukrainian refugees and their luxury cars
The russian news agency Novosti published an ‘observation’ by Irish ‘journalist’ Chay Bowes:
"Irish journalist Chay Bowes on social network X expressed outrage at Ukrainian refugees driving expensive cars. Also in Ireland, the government repairs cars of Ukrainian “refugees” for free. They are exempt from many car taxes, which are the responsibility of local taxpayers. At the same time, billions are allocated to Ukrainian refugees for housing and assistance," said Bowes.
Recently, there have been reports on TikTok that the Irish government is paying for car repairs for Ukrainian refugees. In late March, this was even discussed in the lower house of the Irish parliament. In fact, there is no programme to help Ukrainian refugees with car repairs in Ireland, but money can be spent on repairs from additional needs payments allocated by the Department of Social Protection. This programme is not specifically designed for refugees. Any legal resident of Ireland is eligible for these payments if they are working but their income is insufficient to pay for the goods or services they need. Payments can be made for property repairs, rent deposits, food, furniture, funerals, and childcare equipment. Car repairs are also included in the list of grounds for receiving payments.
Bowes illustrated his post on social network X, formerly Twitter, with a 30-second video titled ‘Ukrainian cars in Warsaw’. The video shows 9 cars with Ukrainian licence plates, including a Porsche 911 and a Lamborghini Urus. But all these cars are not new. The year of manufacture is easy to determine from the number plate through the open database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Only the Porsche 911 was made in 2024. The rest of the cars are older than 3 years or more. And it is somehow unprofessional for a journalist to draw conclusions about all Ukrainian refugees from individual business representatives.
We would like to remind you that Chey Bowes is a cog in the russian fake news factory, specialising in anti-Ukrainian statements. Earlier, he said that human embryos are trafficked in Ukraine and that Ukraine's accession to the EU would be the end of the world for him.

damage Tesla. Ukrainian refugees

Fake: Ukrainian refugees in the US massively damage Tesla cars
Pro-kremlin Telegram channels report that more than 12,000 cases have been opened against Ukrainian refugees in the US for damaging Tesla cars. In reality, this is another fake to discredit Ukrainian refugees abroad. To create the fake, russian propagandists used the corporate identity of the British news agency Newsweek.
According to StopFake fact-checkers, genuine Newsweek stories do not use the logo in the upper right corner, but instead usually have a window with the date and/or location of the event. In the fake video, there is no such pop-up at all. By the way, Newsweek has collected data on cases of damage to Tesla cars and property in the United States, and in general, there are dozens of such facts, not tens of thousands of ‘cases’ as russian disinformers write: https://www.newsweek.com/tesla-attack-map-shows-wave-elon-musk-products-being-targeted-2046951 
In addition, the US law enforcement agencies also did not report on their official pages about such a number of cases in general or directly against Ukrainian refugees.
Fake: A line to complain about ‘noisy Ukrainian refugees’ has appeared in Lisbon
Pro-russian sources have circulated photos of advertisements allegedly posted by the Portuguese migration service in the capital. They read: ‘If you are worried about noisy refugees from Ukraine, call the Portuguese Migration Service’. 
However, this is another russian fake. Firstly, when you enlarge the image, you can see that this ‘sign’ is an ordinary A4 sheet with printed text that anyone could have put on it. Secondly, we managed to identify the location of the photo: it is St Paul's Church, built in 1768. It's hard to believe that the migration service would ‘litter’ the facade of an ancient building with trivial warnings. There are always a lot of people in this city, and noise is a common occurrence. Its main cause is not Ukrainian refugees, but tourists from all over the world. Thirdly, the website of the Portuguese Migration Service did not contain any information about this ‘initiative’ or the relevant hotline. This is not surprising, since it is customary to call the police, not the migration service, to complain about noisy neighbours. Using the Osavul platform, it was possible to establish that the fake news was first published by the Telegram channel of russian blogger ruslan reutov.

Viktoria Roshchyna. war crimes of russia. russian journalists. Ukrainian soldier

Fake: a Ukrainian soldier apologised on social media for killing a russian boy.
A photo of the child and a post with the Ukrainian soldier's ‘apology’ on Facebook are being replicated by russian Telegram channels. In fact, it is a fake. Using the fake recognition software Hive Moderation, Ukrinform fact-checkers found that the image was 88% likely to have been generated by artificial intelligence. In addition, the ‘military’ account, created in January 2025, has only three posts. It is impossible to identify this person, as the only photo in the profile shows a group of 13 people wearing military uniforms. 
The profile also states that its owner is ‘from Zhytomyr’, but he studied at Escuela Parroquial Padre Arturo, a school in the Dominican Republic. It is possible that this account belongs to a bot for russia's disinformation campaign against Ukraine, the investigators add. The purpose of the fake is to reinforce the kremlin's false narrative about ‘atrocities committed by the Ukrainian military’ during the operation in the Kursk region and to justify russia's aggression against Ukraine.
Fake: Ukraine is targeting russian journalists
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman maria zakharova accused Ukraine of killing Channel One correspondent Anna Prokofyeva in the Belgorod region: "Journalists could have died in such a massive way in a natural disaster. Today, this natural disaster is called the terrorist Kyiv regime, which is targeting both journalists and the international legal principles that are supposed to protect them."
zakharova's statement was first published by tass.ru. Twenty-six minutes before it was published, the same news agency reported on Prokofyeva's death, citing a statement from Channel One's press service: "Anna Prokofyeva, a military correspondent for Channel One, was killed in the line of duty. It happened in the Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, where the Channel One film crew hit an enemy mine."
Thus, at the time of zakharova's statement, the cause of the Channel One employee's death was already known: a mine explosion, apparently an anti-tank mine. But this did not prevent the government representative from claiming that the journalists were being ‘targeted’. It is very difficult to imagine how someone can be killed with an anti-tank mine.
Another interesting fact. Prokofyeva was killed near the village of Demidovka, Krasnoyaruzsk district, which at the time, according to russian military correspondents, was being attacked by the Ukrainian army. It is likely that russian troops had mined the area around the village to stop the enemy's advance.
Every time russian correspondents are killed in the war zone, the kremlin claims that the journalists were ‘targeted by Ukrainian troops’. At the same time, putin's gang is silent about the crazy assignments for journalists from the government (all media in russia are controlled and funded by the state) to work literally in the zone of active hostilities, under fire. And, of course, the russians are silent about how many journalists they have killed on their own and Ukrainian territories, and how many they have imprisoned ‘for activities against the russian government’. The most recent and most horrific case is the murder of captured Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna by russians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Roshchyna

Kursk Operation. support for Ukraine

Fake: Ukraine is causing France twice as much financial damage as the earthquakes did to Myanmar and Thailand
russian social media outlets are circulating an alleged screenshot of an article from 31 March in The Wall Street Journal, which claims that Ukraine is causing France twice as much financial damage as the earthquakes did to Myanmar and Thailand. ‘In just one week, France's aid to Ukraine lost twice as much as the budgets of Myanmar and Thailand after the earthquakes,’ the article allegedly said.
In fact, this is a falsification that uses the well-known brand of a reputable publication for manipulative purposes. The Wall Street Journal has never published an article with such a title or content. This is confirmed by the Wayback Machine archives. According to the Osavul project, the russian Telegram channel Medved was the first to publish this fake screenshot on 1 April. The screenshot indicates that the author of the material is James Glynn. This journalist actually works for the WSJ, but he specialises in Australian energy markets and does not cover topics related to France, Ukraine or international aid. His real publications can be found on the official website of the publication.
Most likely, the attackers faked the screenshot by editing James Glynn's article of 31 March titled ‘Goldman Sachs Lifts US Recession Probability to 35%’. This fake fits into a broader kremlin disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting allied support for Ukraine. In particular, it promotes the idea that assistance to Ukraine allegedly ‘destroys the budgets’ of its allies.
However, comparing France's spending on support for Ukraine to the economic damage caused by the earthquakes in Southeast Asia is incorrect and manipulative. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, as of the beginning of 2024, the amount of military aid provided by France to Ukraine was approximately €1.8 billion: https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/02/29/france-and-germany-are-at-loggerheads-over-military-aid-to-ukraine?utm_source=chatgpt.com 
This is not comparable to the scale of damage from natural disasters. On 28 March 2025, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 occurred in Myanmar and Thailand. More than 3,100 people died, thousands more were injured, and infrastructure was severely damaged. According to the US Geological Survey (PAGER), Myanmar's losses alone could exceed its GDP of $64.2 billion.
Fake: Kursk Operation Cost Western Taxpayers $7.8 Billion
"Kyiv lost 5,500 pieces of Western-supplied military equipment in the Kursk region. This reckless military operation has robbed Western taxpayers of $7.8 billion," russian Sputnik.Globe reports.
The fake news is aimed at undermining international support for Ukraine by portraying it as a source of wasted Western taxpayer money.
According to the accounts of independent observers of the Oryx Osint project, which tracks Ukrainian and russian losses using open-source data, Ukraine lost about 870 pieces of military equipment during the operation in the Kursk region (russia). And this figure includes equipment from Soviet-era arsenals as well. So the economic calculation presented in this disinformation story is necessarily incorrect and grossly exaggerated.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in South Africa

Fake: Zelenskyy acquired a controlling stake in Northam Platinum Ltd, the largest platinum mining company in South Africa
Another story is circulating on social media that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has allegedly made a purchase that does not correspond to his income. This time, Zelenskyy is credited with buying a controlling stake in Northam Platinum Ltd, the largest platinum mining company in South Africa. The deal is allegedly valued at $1.6 billion.
Information about the possible deal began circulating in various sources in early April 2025. The reports also mentioned that on 10 April 2025, Zelenskyy was planning to visit South Africa to meet with President Cyril Ramaphosa and the mine's unions to ‘approve’ the deal. 
Although such a visit did take place, the news of the share purchase is fake, as are other similar news about large ‘acquisitions’ by Zelenskyy and his wife during the war. A representative of Northam Platinum Holdings Limited confirmed to PolitiFact that the information about Zelenskyy's acquisition of a stake in the company was not true: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/apr/04/viral-image/ukraine-president-zelenskyy-didnt-buy-a-controllin/ Another representative of Northam told Lead Stories that Zelenskyy did not buy any shares in the company: https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2025/04/fact-check-zelensky-northam-platinum-mine.html Instead, the video used by propagandists in the ‘news’ shows signs of manipulation with the help of artificial intelligence. 

Ukrainians in Sweden. Swedish citizens with HIV

Fake: Ukrainians in Sweden are forced to resort to sex work and infect locals with HIV
Pro-russian sources are spreading information that Ukrainian immigrants are massively infecting Swedish citizens with HIV through sex work. Citing an article by the local newspaper Dagens Nyheter, propagandists write that due to the low level of social support and limited rights, many Ukrainians in Sweden - both men and women - are on the verge of survival, which is why they are forced to turn to prostitution. The publications state that Ukrainians are the most likely to be infected with HIV in Sweden, followed by Thai and Ugandan nationals, respectively. 
However, such publications blatantly distort the information provided by the Swedish Public Health Agency, and some aspects of the news are completely fictitious. Firstly, the Dagens Nyheter article does indeed talk about the problems faced by Ukrainian refugees in Sweden. However, the article makes no mention of the fact that these difficulties drive Ukrainians to the brink of poverty and force them into prostitution: https://www.dn.se/debatt/ukrainska-flyktingar-i-norden-har-det-samst-i-sverige/ It is important to note that in Sweden, ordering such services and pimping is considered a criminal offence. 
Secondly, the report that Ukrainians are the highest rate of HIV infection among local citizens is also false. In fact, the cases recorded in Sweden are due to previously infected refugees arriving in the country and thus becoming part of the local statistics on morbidity. This is also confirmed by the fact that in 2022, when the first wave of refugees arrived in Sweden, the number of cases from Ukraine was twice as high. The statistics show only 51 cases of HIV infection among Ukrainian citizens in Sweden - while there are more than 35,000 migrants from Ukraine in the country.

spawned in Birmingham. Prince Harry

Fake: cat-sized rats have spawned in Birmingham, UK, due to a binmen strike
The russian TV Channel 1 aired a story with the headline about a binmen strike in Birmingham:"Rats the size of cats have appeared on the streets of Birmingham, UK. The streets are buried in 17,000 tonnes of waste. The garbage collapse was caused by a strike by utility workers".
The strike of the binmen in Birmingham is really happening, and the footage in the Channel 1 with the garbage bags laid out in several tiers on the sidewalk is real. But the giant rats were never shown in the story. The story about the cat-sized rats was apparently spied by Channel 1 from the British tabloid Daily Mail, which is considered to be a ‘yellow press’. In the publication, a Birmingham rat-catcher told reporters that ‘rats in the city are getting bigger as they are more likely to feast on protein-rich human food from uncollected garbage bags left on street corners’. However, no photos or video evidence could be found. The purpose of this fake is to distort the standard of living in Europe and European values in general, to increase drama and anti-democratic narratives. russians dream that Europeans really live worse than they do. So far, this has only been possible thanks to russian propaganda.
Fake news: Prince Harry was deceived by a fake boy in Ukraine
With reference to a BBC News video, pro-russian resources spread the news that during his visit to Ukraine, Prince Harry allegedly ‘met a child who was passed off as a war victim by medical staff - even though the boy had been injured in a fire started by his drunken mother’.
But this is another invention of the russian fake news factory. BBC News did not publish such a story on its website or in social media. The propagandists edited the video themselves from stock footage. The video also includes a screenshot of a news story about a fire in which the boy was allegedly injured. However, the full story about the incident does not mention anything about the child's injury. 
The story of the boy who met Prince Harry is well known and documented in the media. This is 10-year-old Roman Oleksiv, who was hit by a russian missile attack on 14 July 2022 while waiting with his mother for a doctor's appointment at the Neuromed clinic in Vinnytsia: https://suspilne.media/lviv/262828-raketnij-udar-po-vinnici-7-ricnogo-lvivanina-vidpravili-na-likuvanna-za-kordon/ It is particularly cynical that in their fake news, propagandists accused the boy's mother of drunken arson - when in fact the 29-year-old woman died on the spot as a result of the missile strike. Roman suffered burns to 45% of his body, including the most severe, fourth-degree burns. The boy spent a hundred days in intensive care, during which he underwent 27 operations. When the child's condition was stabilised, Roman was sent to Dresden for treatment. In September, the boy and his father returned to Lviv, where he is currently undergoing rehabilitation, and at the end of last year he was allowed to remove his face mask.