Fighting continues on the territory of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the information war continues on the Internet, in which the media and users of social networks participate, either accidentally or intentionally. We have put together another selection with some popular fakes.
Lego released figures in support of Ukraine
In mid-March, Russian- and Ukrainian-language resources bypassed news that the Lego company has released a batch of mini-figures depicting President Zelensky and Molotov cocktails. All proceeds of about $16,000, according to media reports, were sent to help Ukraine. The publications were accompanied by quite realistic photographs of toys:
Is it true: These photos are absolutely true. However, Lego has nothing to do with them. The initiator of the promotion is an independent retailer Citizen Brick, specializing in the recycling of products from a Danish company. As part of the mentioned promotion, the company put up for sale plastic figurines of Vladimir Zelensky ($100) and Molotov cocktails ($10) of its own making. And already on March 6, a thank you message appeared on her official Facebook page. fast, in which it was reported that the fees amounted to $16,540 and the entire amount would go to medicines in Ukraine. New promotion from the company has a goal of raising $100,000.
Mostly not true
The letter Z from the bodies of killed Russian soldiers
March 12 Ukrainian social networks There was a photograph in which dozens of figures resembling the bodies of soldiers formed the semblance of the Latin letter Z - a marking often found on Russian military equipment in Ukraine. The captions under it were different - from “Welcome to Ukraine” to “Flash mob from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Letter Z from Russian occupiers in Ukraine":
Is it true: If you look closely at the photograph, you can see that many bodies are similar to each other down to the smallest detail and differ only in the angle of rotation or the specularity of the image. More precisely, the vast majority of bodies are one of only three types of figures (circled in the same color):
The enlarged figure of a man without clothes does not look like a real body, rather like a doll:
You don't need to be a specialist to understand that we are dealing with work done in a graphics editor. They came to a similar conclusion Izvestia experts. They also, like some other resources, claim that these are mannequins, although without providing strict proof. However, even without this we can say that this is a fake photo.
Fake
Jews of Zhytomyr were attacked by local Ukrainians
March 6 first on the Israeli Hebrew site 0404, and then on English-language sites JewishPress And The Jewish Voice news appeared that the Jews of the Ukrainian city of Zhitomir were forced to evacuate not so much because of the proximity of the combat zone, but because of pogroms and threats from the local population. It was reported that this news was spread by the Zhytomyr Jewish community “Chabad”, as well as the public organization “Lev Leyeled”. The news became widespread in Russian-speaking social networks.
Is it true: On March 9, the chief rabbi of Zhitomir, Shlomo Wilhelm, currently in Israel, categorically denied this report. On your page in Facebook he, in particular, wrote: “On one Internet trash heap, which mistakenly considers itself a serious information resource, an article was published that the Jews of the city of Zhitomir were forced to evacuate from the city due to pogroms and persecution carried out by local nationalists, and not because of the war. This fake was picked up by other sites, which resulted in a flurry of calls to me. <…> People of all nationalities live here peacefully and amicably, my children grew up here and studied at a school where teaching is in Ukrainian. What kind of Nazism can we even talk about? I urge everyone to be responsible about any information you read, double-check it through reliable and verified resources, and not trust hype headlines on dubious websites.”
On the same day he denied this information and Chief Rabbi of Ukraine. Later, the news was removed from most of the original resources.
Fake
Ukrainian soldier says goodbye to his wife
At the beginning of March, a touching photograph went viral on social networks, in which, according to the caption, a Ukrainian soldier was saying goodbye to his pregnant wife and unborn child before being sent to the front. The photo was widely shared on Twitter, especially among Chinese users:
Is it true: in fact, the man in the photograph does not say goodbye to his beloved, but greets her and his unborn child. This photograph was taken in 2012 in Slovenia, and its subject returned from a deployment to Afghanistan. The photo can be seen on official website Ministry of Defense of Slovenia.
Not true
British Defense Minister: volunteers will face criminal prosecution in their homeland if they take part in hostilities in Ukraine
March 9 in many Russian-speaking Media appeared information that British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, speaking in parliament, threatened with criminal liability all military personnel of his country who wish to take part in hostilities in Ukraine. “The government's position is that if you are in the armed forces, you will be breaking the law if you go to Ukraine to fight as a volunteer,” he said, according to a number of resources.
At the same time, the Ukrainian Center for Countering Propaganda under the National Security and Defense Council distributed statement, which said that “Russian propaganda is promoting an outright fake with reference to a falsified translation of a statement by British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.” The statement goes on to say: “According to them, the minister warned that “military personnel who go to fight in Ukraine will likely be prosecuted upon their return.” In fact, the translation is as follows: “According to Ukrainian estimates, 211 schools were damaged or destroyed. There is also footage of attacks on kindergartens.” The British minister also said that Vladimir Zelensky said that children are dying due to thirst. In particular, the Ukrainians estimate that about 1,000 civilians were killed or wounded, but the true figure appears to be much higher. And not a word about the foreign legion and their punishment.”
Is it true: Indeed, on March 9, 2022, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace made a statement on the events in Ukraine in the House of Commons.
The official UK government website has transcript his speech, in which there is not a word on the topic of British volunteers, but there is a quote about schools and kindergartens, given by the Center for Countering Propaganda.
However, the words of the British minister about volunteers were cited not only by post-Soviet resources, but also by dozens of authoritative British publications. It would be strange if this quote appeared in the press of this level out of nowhere. The fact is that, as is customary in parliamentary activities, after a public figure speaks from the rostrum, debate begins. It was the same this time. In particular, Labor Party representative Kevin Brennan asked for clarification of the government’s position regarding the sensational enrollment of hundreds of British military personnel in the Ukrainian Legion. In response to this Ben Wallace said: “The government's position is that if you serve in the armed forces, you will be breaking the law. The weekend newspaper reported three soldiers who went AWOL over the weekend. They have broken the law and will be prosecuted for AWOL or desertion upon their return. For others: since the government's travel advice is "Do not travel to Ukraine", we strongly advise against joining these forces." The transcript of the debate was not included on the official website of the government (unlike the website of the parliament), which was probably the reason for the error of the employees of the Center for Countering Propaganda.
True quote
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