The Russian media writes Kyiv alone is to blame for the prolonged conflict in Ukraine. The narrative is used alongside older propaganda messages, according to which Moscow is carrying out a special military operation aimed at protecting civilians, whom Kyiv is using as human shields.
A concentration camp was discovered in the region of Luhansk, where Russian speaking people were tortured, according to a false narrative disseminated by the Russian state media. It presents Russia as a state that, through its “special military operation” in Donbass, freed the local population and chased away “the Nazis” and “the nationalists”.
Russian propaganda continues to seek to justify the invasion of Ukraine and the bombing of civilian targets, including schools and hospitals. According to a recent narrative, a Ukrainian attack on Donbass was imminent, and Kiev was hiding its intentions by deploying troops to schools and hospitals.
An important part of Ukraine's population has close ties with Russia and wants good relations with it, according to the Russian propaganda, which also claims that Russian-speakers are being used by Ukrainian nationalists as human shields.
Ukraine was preparing to attack Russian and Belarussian troops on the day Russia launched the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko says. This false narrative was also picked up by the media in Russia and Belarus.
Ukraine’s biological laboratories were conducting experiments on bats to produce coronavirus, the Russian media writes. This is part of the metanarrative about biological laboratories, where Ukraine was producing weapons of mass destruction, with support from the United States.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is ready to talk terms with Russia about Donbas and Crimea with a view to ending the conflict, according to the Russian media, which continues to spread fake news about the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The Russian government media published a series of documents designed to prove Ukraine was planning an invasion of Donbas in March. The narrative was launched with a view to justifying Russia’s military operations against Ukraine.
Russian soldiers have identified and destroyed 13 labs in Ukraine where biological weapons were being produced. According to these narratives, Russia must bomb the Ukrainian cities ‘in order to save humanity.”
Russia reportedly attacked certain sites in Ukraine in order to prevent Ukraine from producing military weapons. This is how the Russian media describes the attacks on Kharkiv, the capturing of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant and the occupation of the disaffected nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, where the world’s biggest nuclear disaster occurred in 1986.
Russian media and media in the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk are disseminating fake news about war crimes committed by Ukrainian soldiers, nationalists in particular, against civilians in eastern and southern Ukraine. In reality, Russia is the one bombarding Ukraine’s cities and destroying lots of civilian targets, including blocks of flats and schools.
The city of Mariupol in Donbass is turning into a concentration camp, blocked by Ukrainian soldiers and paramilitary groups, the Russian press reads, quoting representatives of the separatist militias of Donetsk and Luhansk. In reality, the humanitarian corridors are blocked by Russian soldiers who are firing at critical infrastructure.
The Pro-Kremlin media in Russia and in the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine have launched a series of false narratives about the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Donbass, which was allegedly staged by Kiev to “justify” its attacks on Russian-speakers.
Amid rising Russian-Ukrainian tensions and accusations against Moscow for surrounding Ukraine militarily, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukrainian officials were bound by the Minsk peace deal to negotiate with the separatists in Donbass, and Kiev's counterarguments were termed as propaganda in the style of Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Public Propaganda during the Nazi regime.
British special troops have been deployed to Ukraine to organize diversions and escalate the situation in Donbass, according to the pro-Kremlin media, which resumed a string of narratives about a Western attack on the Russian-speakers in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
“Russia is the last country in the world that would want a war with Ukraine”, the Kremlin-affiliated media writes, accusing Kiev of seeking to trigger a conflict. This false narrative is at odds with the situation on the ground, where Russia (a country that already attacked Ukraine in 2014) has amassed a sizable force.
The military equipment Ukraine got from the United Kingdom is obsolete and/or out of commission, according to a piece of fake news carried by the Russian media. The United Kingdom is one of the NATO countries that, in the context of an impending Russian invasion, has provided Ukraine with deadly equipment in order to defend itself.
Ukraine is planning on massacring the civilian population in Donbas, according to the separatist and Russian state media. This false narrative comes in response to Ukraine’s decision to mobilize its territorial defense forces in the face of a high risk of Russia invading the region.
According to the Russian media, Ukraine has turned into a Nazi state with the direct support of the West and is a danger to Russia's security. The narrative is constructed with the help of false arguments about the rising level of crime following the Donbass war.
Odessa, a port-city in southern Ukraine, has been turned into a NATO military base, according to a new narrative published by the Russian media, which also condemns NATO military exercises in the Black Sea and labels Odessa and southern Ukraine Russian territories under foreign occupation.
The fake narratives about Ukraine targeted pro-European reforms and Kiev’s plans to join the EU and NATO, the situation of the Russian-speaking population in Eastern Ukraine, the country’s economic problems, etc.
The UK allegedly called on NATO to admit it stands accountable for the crisis in Ukraine and to recognize the West’s destabilizing actions, the Russian state media writes. This false narrative echoes an obscure British publication with no connection to government sources.
Kiev is accused of persecuting the people of Donbass and Crimea because it wants to legalize dual citizenship without including among the beneficiaries of the law the Ukrainians from the occupied regions, who were forced to take Russian citizenship.
The EU caused the migration crisis for refusing to build refugee camps and for terminating its readmission agreement with Belarus. This false narrative is promoted by the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
NATO and the USA might be planning a conflict in Donbass, according to a piece of disinformation carried by Kremlin-linked media. In fact, Russia is the one who again rallied troops on the Ukrainian border.
The pro-Kremlin media presents the steps taken to strengthen ties with the separatist republics that Russia supports in Donbass as a measure to stop a so-called “genocide” committed by Ukraine and the West in the region.
While Ukraine exports food to the EU, its children are starving, and the country is turning onto a Western colony. These narratives have been reiterated by the Russian state media, which distorts a series of statistics presented by international organizations.
Belarus is only complying with international norms in managing the refugee crisis on its borders with the EU, according to the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. In an interview with the state television station Russia 24, Lavrov has also resumed false narratives about Ukraine, which is allegedly violating the Minsk Agreements and is becoming increasingly neo-Nazi and Russophobic.
After Ukrainian forces in Donbass for the first time used a Turkish-made drone in response to the attacks of pro-Russian separatists, the Russian state media reiterated a series of narratives regarding Ukraine’s violations of the Minsk Protocol and its “genocide” targeting Russian speakers.
NATO wants to turn Ukraine and Georgia into territories for military action, but the Alliance is unwilling to provide any of them with security guarantees. The narrative was promoted by the Russian state media in the context of the visit to Kiev of the United States Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.
As the natural gas crisis is deepening and prices are rising in the EU member states, the Russian state press is promoting narratives about Europeans panicking and seeking Russia's help.
The UN has criticized Kiev for serious human rights violations, noting, according to the Russian media, that Ukraine “kills its population”, “tortures” and “restricts freedom of speech”. In reality, the Russian press has tried to manipulate the public opinion by selectively using information from the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
