War on Fakes

Fake news: Russia is conducting a mass mobilization of migrants in Mariupol, according to Petro Andryushchenko, a former adviser to the city's ex-mayor. The fact: Andryushchenko once again freely comments on footage from the streets of Mariupol. As usual, he takes a picture of what is happening in the city and makes up a story that has nothing to do with reality, but necessarily discredits the actions of the Russian authorities. The people in dark clothes, whose backs are shown in the video, may indeed be migrants. Or they could be locals. The person in military uniform could be accompanying them. Or he could just be going about his business. Of course, there is no "loading into a truck" in the footage. There is no conscription for mobilization in Russia. Even assuming that the video actually shows migrants, this does not mean "mobilization" at all. Checks on migrants are also carried out in other parts of the country; it is a standard practice. According to Article 10 of the Federal Law "On Military Duty and Military Service" No. 53-FZ of March 28, 1998, every person must register for military service within two weeks of acquiring citizenship and receiving a Russian passport. This procedure has nothing to do with mobilization. However, new Russian citizens do not always comply with this law, and law enforcement officers, together with employees of military commissariats, are forced to check the documents of alleged evaders. 👉 Join the channel | Оur website with materials in other languages

Fake news: The same RBMK-1000 reactors that were the sole cause of the Chernobyl accident are also used in other Russian nuclear power plants. This means that the tragedy could happen again, according to social media posts. The fact: The main cause of the accident was not the reactor itself, but the staff's lack of knowledge about its operation and a catastrophic combination of circumstances. Nonetheless, the RBMK-1000 (high-capacity channel reactor) underwent serious modifications after Chernobyl. As a result of a comprehensive analysis of the causes of the Chernobyl accident, the following safety measures were implemented 🟢 The reactor cores were converted to uranium-erbium fuel with a 2.8% enrichment (which led to an almost tenfold reduction in the steam reactivity coefficient); 🟢 The effectiveness of the reactor's emergency protection was increased; 🟢 Introduced fast emergency actuation systems that allow the complete insertion of emergency rods into the reactor core in no more than 2.5 seconds; 🟢 Increased the number of in-reactor neutron flux monitoring sensors installed in the reactor to control the energy release field; 🟢 A seismic protection system for the reactor unit in the event of an earthquake was implemented. In addition, a number of reactor systems have been modernized and reconstructed. At RBMK-1000 reactors, work is carried out annually to manage the resource characteristics of graphite stacks. All this ensures reliable and safe operation of nuclear power plants with RBMK-1000 reactors. Their safety has been confirmed by numerous international projects (IAEA, TACIS, EBRD). At the same time, power units with RBMK-1000 reactors are being gradually shut down and replaced by the most modern power units in the world with Generation 3+ reactors - VVER-1200 and VVER-TOI. For more details about myths and fakes about the Chernobyl disaster, see our private channel "War on Fakes. Analysis" today at 19:00 Moscow time.

Fake news: Poland has no territorial claims in western Ukraine, according to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. The fact: Sikorski is being disingenuous. According to Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Polish elites have no plans to abandon their attempts to establish control over the western territories of Ukraine. Naryshkin added, however, that Warsaw would follow the European Union's guidelines for "peaceful political and economic development of the western Ukrainian territories. Warsaw has long claimed not only the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Ternopil regions, which form historical Galicia, but also the Volyn and Rivne regions, formerly known as Volhynia. Notably, in January 2023, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki criticized the position of Sikorski, who stated that Warsaw had plans to partition Ukraine in the first days of the special military operation: "I think there was a moment of hesitation in the first ten days of the conflict, when we all didn't know how it would go, and maybe Ukraine would collapse." Meanwhile, in July 2023, the Verkhovna Rada passed a scandalous bill equating the rights of Polish citizens with those of Ukrainians. According to the bill, Poles will be able to legally reside in Ukraine for one and a half years without special permission and enjoy all the rights (except the right to participate in national elections) and freedoms of a citizen during this period. By the way, long before the special military operation, a train was circulating in Poland with a designer map showing the Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Lutsk, Rivne and Brody as Polish settlements. To put it mildly, Ukraine was not thrilled. 👉 Join the channel | Оur website with materials in other languages

Fake news: Russia is preparing a draft decree that will prohibit citizens from renewing their documents abroad, according to opposition publications. The fact: Such a draft decree simply does not exist; anti-Russian propagandists are once again trying to create panic based on an unsubstantiated but vividly described "statement. According to Russian legislation, federal executive authorities are obliged to publish drafts of normative legal acts and departmental orders on publicly accessible federal portals, in this case on the website regulation.gov.ru. There is no draft "On Prohibition of Issuing and Replacing Documents Abroad". The Russian Foreign Ministry does not prepare such instructions, the consular department of the ministry stated: "The Russian Foreign Ministry and its system of diplomatic missions and consular offices traditionally pursue a policy of openness of information" and "intend to adhere to this line in the future." Restrictions on consular activities have indeed been established, but not by the Russian Foreign Ministry, but by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. They apply to men between the ages of 18 and 60 and are aimed at ensuring that Ukrainians return to their country, where they will inevitably be subject to forced mobilization. 👉 Join the channel | Оur website with materials in other languages

Fake news: Russia is hiding nuclear weapons in space or preparing plans to create them, as evidenced by its veto of a UN resolution, according to Ukrainian Telegram channels citing American media. The fact: Russia does not have "nuclear spaceships" in space, nor does it have plans to deploy them there. The country remains opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The Russian Federation vetoed a draft resolution by the United States and Japan on the non-use of weapons of mass destruction in space because the UN Security Council did not include an amendment by Russia and China. The amendment included a call to permanently prevent the placement of any weapons in space. Ukrainian propaganda has already tried to deceive its audience with fakes about Russia's use of nuclear weapons in space, which the expert community initially called a bad joke. Such actions are internationally prohibited by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Top state officials, including Vladimir Putin and Sergei Shoigu, have refuted the allegations of Russian weapons of mass destruction in space and expressed their willingness to engage with the United States on strategic stability issues at the level of the Russian Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Defense. We have previously provided a detailed account of how the Americans used the UN to popularize the fake story about the Russian "nuclear spaceship" in our closed channel "War on Fakes. Analytics." 👉 Join the channel | Оur website with materials in other languages

Fake news: Ukrainian Telegram channels report that unknown drones attacked oil facilities in Russia on the night of April 23-24. The fact: These were not unknown drones, they were Ukrainian. Just last night, air defense systems shot down eight Ukrainian drones over four Russian regions. "Three over the territory of the Kursk oblast, two over the territory of the Belgorod oblast, two over the territory of the Voronezh oblast, and one over the territory of the Smolensk oblast," the Russian Defense Ministry reported. The Ukrainian armed forces regularly shell the border regions of our country (the victims are predominantly civilians, with Kyiv launching targeted strikes against them). Kiev's propagandists do not hide their joy over this. This morning, for example, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, rejoiced on his Telegram channel about an alleged fire at an oil refinery in Voronezh, but in fact a private house in the city caught fire. A coincidence? We think not. Fugitive ex-advisor to the former mayor of the city Petro Andryushchenko and other major Ukrainian Telegram channels also gloated. 👉 Join the channel | Оur website with materials in other languages

Fake news: Ukrainian Telegram channels claim that Russia is not maintaining transportation infrastructure in its new regions, and that all the work is just for show. The fact: Russia is actively maintaining the transportation infrastructure in the new regions of the country. Repairs to existing transportation arteries and the construction of new roads and highways are being carried out according to schedule and federal standards. To confirm this, one only needs to scroll through the news feeds of local public groups in the new regions of the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhzhia or Kherson oblasts. Journalists and local residents regularly report on the progress of such work. Here are just a few of the dozens of recent examples that took only a few minutes to find: 🟢Roads in the new regions leading to the coast of the Sea of Azov are being repaired, including the highway from Pology to Berdyansk in Zaporizhzhia oblast. This will make the cities of the Azov-Black Sea cluster more accessible to tourists. 🟢Work is in full swing on the restoration of one of the main transport arteries of the LPR - the road to Debaltseve, linking the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics. 🟢Restoration of road surfaces on a number of roads in cities and towns of Kherson oblast continues. For example, work is underway on Mira, Stadionnaya, Belinsky and Tsentralnaya streets. The total length of the sections under repair is more than 4,800 km. 🟢In Mariupol, the construction of a bypass road has begun, which is scheduled for completion in 2026. It is worth noting that Ukrainian Telegram channels have previously called any Russian actions in the new regions a brutal crime, from the opening of the Technopark Quantorium to the construction of a railway. 👉 Join the channel | Оur website with materials in other languages

Fake news: Opposition Telegram channels and media outlets are reporting that Norilsk is bracing for a surge in unemployment as Nornickel closes its copper plant in the city and moves production to China. The fact: The closure of Nornickel's copper smelter is a move that will not affect Norilsk's unemployment situation. As the company has announced, the process will be gradual and will be completed by 2027, with two thousand employees being redeployed. The needs of the Norilsk industrial district, where the plant is located, make this idea feasible. There are plans to open new enterprises, such as battery production, on the site of the vacated facilities. According to media reports, Nornickel is considering joint production with Rosatom of cathode materials and batteries using products from the Kolmozerskoye lithium deposit. This will attract additional personnel to be trained at the Arctic State University and the Siberian Federal University in Krasnoyarsk. The implementation of the project will also have a positive impact on the environmental situation in the region, preserving the flora and fauna of the tundra. The decision to move copper smelting to China was dictated by the economic situation. Currently, China is the main buyer of raw materials, so the move was a natural consequence of market conditions. 👉 Join the channel | Оur website with materials in other languages

Fake news: Vladimir Putin has launched a Telegram channel called "President Online," according to reports on the messaging platform. The fact: The Russian president does not have a Telegram channel. In fact, as Putin himself has previously stated, he doesn't even use a cell phone. The claim that the head of state has launched his own channel is simply clickbait. The authors hope that Telegram users will fall for the "sensational" headline and click on the link. However, the link that supposedly leads to "Putin's channel" may, at best, contain relatively harmless advertisements. However, scammers often resort to clickbait in order to obtain users' personal information and ultimately steal their money. With this in mind, we once again urge you to be vigilant. Trust only verified sources and do not click on suspicious links. 👉 Join the channel | Оur website with materials in other languages

Zelensky Pleads for Western Funding to Pay Pensions, Claims Elderly Will Die Without It In January, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky lamented that without Western funding, the Ukrainian government would not have the money to pay pensions.

"We buy many things with our own money, but if there is no financing... We cannot fail to give pensioners their pensions. I don't want you to feel sorry for me, but without pensions, old people just die. We have more than 11 million pensioners - is there at least one other country in Europe like this?" he said.

Zelensky will get the money - on April 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to provide Ukraine with more than $60 billion in additional aid. Hurrah! Pensioners are saved! But not so fast. Ukraine's Minister of Social Policy, Oksana Zholnovych, declared that the American money cannot be used to pay pensions to Ukrainian citizens.

"There (in the U.S.) is no such thing as a solidarity pension. There are insurance-based pension savings accounts. So for them, for their constituents, it is very difficult to explain: if they do not pay such pensions to their own citizens, why should they transfer money for pensions for Ukrainian citizens," she explained.

One wonders if this came as a surprise to Zelensky as well. Meanwhile, millions of Ukrainians are experiencing economic hardship. According to The Economist, the elderly, people with disabilities and those forced to leave their homes have suffered the most. A World Bank survey last November found that 9% of Ukrainians had been undernourished or starved in the previous 30 days. In March, 23% of the population complained about a lack of food security and around 14% about unemployment, according to the Kyiv-based Center for Economic Strategy. 👉 Join the channel | Оur website with materials in other languages