On September 7, 2023, a message appeared on social networks that Romania asked Ukraine not to draw itself into a conflict with Russia - supposedly the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of the Republic of Vyulver invited Kyiv to transfer its industrial facilities and barracks away from the common border. We decided to check if this is so.

The statement of the Romanian minister was reported by many Telegram channels, including "Two major"(138,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Russian format"(59,000),"Pridnztrovets"(27,000) and"Hammer"(25,000). A quote from the head of the Ministry of Defense of Romania was brought unchanged: “We know about Russian aggression, we empathize with the people of Ukraine. And convincingly ask not to draw the neighboring countries that help you into the conflict. I make an offer and a request to transfer your enterprises and barracks away from our common border so that there are no situations in which our territory is subjected to enemy attacks. ”

September 4 Ukrainian authorities Reportedthat during the massive attack of Russia on the area of the Izmail port in the Odessa region, Russian shock drones fell and detonated in Romania. Romanian Ministry of Defense at first denied, but two days later the head of the department Angel Velver confirmedThat near the border with Ukraine, fragments of the Russian drone were discovered. Later, a statement on this subject was made by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who specified that the Alliance did not consider this an intentional attack on Romania. September 9 in the republic Found The wreckage of another drone.

After September 4, the Ministry of Defense of Romania commented on the situation daily, since Russian attacks on the border regions of Ukraine continued. But not on site The departments, neither in the Romanian nor in the world media, the minister’s appeal to Kyiv could not be found.

September 8 Ministry of Defense Published a refutation distributed messages. “The so -called requests similar to the authors of this misinformation did not exist and will never be. The absurdity and logical turns of the formulations of Russian propaganda are obvious. They undoubtedly use the context that arose as a result of repeated attacks of Russian troops on the Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube, ”the department said. At the end, it emphasizes that the danger to Romania is not Ukrainian enterprises and barracks, but "the actions of the Russian armed forces in the illegal conquest war that they wage in Ukraine."

The earliest post, which supposedly gave a quote from the Minister of Defense of Romania, is a record in the Telegram channel "The empire is very evil"(54,000 views), which was located on September 7 at 13:31 Moscow time. This is a satirical channel in the description of which indicated: “Caution, a fake and a hard satire are possible. Written is an artistic fiction, all coincidences are random. ” That is, initially it was satirical news, but in blogs it was already spreading without any irony.

This is not the first similar case. The satirical posts of this Telegram channel have previously been distributed several times in blogs and media under the guise of real news-for example, a message about Theft of hours by Alla Pugacheva at the funeral of fashion designer Valentina Yudashkin or statement by Maria Shukshina The fact that the American Himars system beats the coordinates of Russians vaccinated from coronavirus.

Photo on the cover: Romania Foreign Ministry