US authorities have arrested and indicted a suspect in the leaked Pentagon documents investigation. There are however questions the public expect to be answered, from how a 21-year-old was allowed to upload top-secret documents online, to the nature of the data itself – are we truly looking at classified information, or is this an elaborate form of disinformation?
According to the Russian Parliament, by means of the “special military operation” Russia managed to stop the US production of biological weapons in Ukraine, a threat to its national security. In fact, Ukraine never hosted laboratories manufacturing biological weapons.
The Republic of Moldova is mobilizing one million reservists to launch an attack on Transnistria, according to Politnavigator.net, which refers to annual military drills carried out by the Moldovan Armed Forces. The article reiterates the false narrative about ongoing preparations to launch a war against Transnistria, this time fabricating a new number: the Republic of Moldova simply can’t mobilize one million people.
Estonia gave Ukraine old weapons, paid for with European money, but charged Brussels for new ones, according to European sources quoted by Politico. Many in Estonia’s political establishment categorically rejected the allegations, but some admitted there is some truth in them, explaining that the scandal has to do both with Tallinn’s self-righteousness towards its partners when it comes to helping Ukraine, and its desire to better arm itself.
The Ukrainian army has publicly got the US’s approval to bomb towns on the territory of the Russian Federation, according to a false narrative disseminated by the Russian state media. In reality, the US has clearly discouraged potential operations on Russian territory, but has recognized Ukraine's right to operate on its own territory, including the one illegally annexed by Moscow.
According to the Romanian Senator Diana Șoșoacă, Ukraine will break into pieces and lose territories but, at the same time, it will form a state alongside Poland and contribute to the dismantling of Romania. The narratives are similar to those promoted by Russia, especially the meta-narrative regarding the artificial nature of the Ukrainian state.
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A number of Ukrainian brigades report directly to the Pentagon and will be sent to certain death as part of an offensive in southern and southeastern Ukraine, according to a false narrative disseminated by the Russian media. In fact, Ukrainian combat units are subordinated to the Ukrainian Defense Staff, and the newly created brigades are made up particularly of seasoned servicemen.
Latvia is a staunch supporter of Ukraine. However, around one quarter of its population is made up of Russian ethnics, and the number of those speaking Russian as a first language is higher. The war in Ukraine brought into focus the loyalties of that population – do they support Riga’s policy and Ukraine, or Russia’s aggression and president Vladimir Putin? No one seems to know the answer to that.
Ukraine will be killing a number of people included on the website Mytrovorets, which allegedly shows the next targets of Kyiv, says the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. In fact, the said website is a private project meant to draw attention towards people who are, one way or another, supporting Russia’s interests, irrespective of their country of origin.
Germany has adopted a “green fascism”, similar to “Ukrainian Nazism”, and speaks of war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine in order to make people forget about the horrors of Nazism, according to a false narrative promoted by pro-Kremlin media. In fact, Russian servicemen did commit war crimes and Germany is helping Ukraine defend itself.
After Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014, the Russian oligarchs or others close to them continued to make money in Ukraine, where they invested in telephone networks, banks, industry, the energy sector and tourism. Many of these businesses have kept bringing money to the Russians even after the February 2022 full-scale invasion.
An investigation of the German media proves that Volodymyr Zelensky is tied to Ukrainian Nazi, with the West’s tacit blessing, Russian government media writes, quoting a false narrative published by a German far-left publication closely tied to the Russian media.
The government in Chișinău is backing anti-Russian hysteria, whereas the Ukrainian army is responsible for war crimes, are two of the messages conveyed by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. The Russian official commented on a speech by Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, where the president referred to the Russian dangers and threats in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Czech volunteers have been collecting funds to purchase a missile system for Ukraine, which will use it to bomb the civilian population in Donbas, according to a false narrative disseminated by the Russian media. In fact, weapons purchased as part of the “Gift for Putin” crowdfunding campaign are designed to consolidate Ukraine’s defenses against the Russian aggression.
Xi Jinping visited “dear friend” Vladimir Putin in Moscow to promote his peace plan and sign deals that will take trade to $200 billion. For Putin, increasingly isolated internationally, the visit was a lifeline. For Xi, an opportunity to promote China's interests and his own image.
Russia and China are looking for peace solutions in Ukraine, while the West wants a protracted war, according to Russian state media reporting on the talks in Moscow between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. In reality, it is Russia that started the war and is continuing it by keeping troops in Ukraine and trying to seize even more of that country's territory.
Kyiv does not want to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency to create a protection zone at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and wants to cause a nuclear accident there, pro-Kremlin media say, citing several Russian officials. In reality, the creation of this protection zone can only take place through demilitarization, that is, if the Russian troops withdraw from the territory of the plant, an option that Moscow is not even considering.
Ukraine is persecuting the Orthodox just like it did during communism, a false narrative launched by a Moscow Patriarchate spokesman reads. The narrative also tries to promote the idea that the Patriarchate is unbiased and opposes the “fratricidal” war in Ukraine. In fact, the Moscow Patriarchate has been acting as a propaganda channel for the Kremlin, whereas Ukrainian authorities were merely trying to investigate possible connections between the Patriarchate and Russian secret services, on the one hand, and certain clergymen in Ukraine, on the other.
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Baltic countries have been skeptical about Russia’s true aims. It was a view that proved to be more realistic than those held by many in the West, who thought that Russia can be a genuine partner of the Western liberal democracies and part of a stable international system.
According to some false narratives launched by the Russian state media, in Ukraine, nuclear power plant specialists will be mobilized and sent to the front due to the shortage of army staff. The reality is that Ukrainian legislation prohibits the mobilization of specialists from critical enterprises, and the document published as evidence by the Russian media is a fake one.
At the behest of President Klaus Iohannis and with Parliament’s complicity, Romania will bring troops into the war in Ukraine in the near future, a controversial Romanian deputy claims. The truth is that the president’s information regarding the country’s armed forces, in joint session of the two chambers of the Romanian Parliament, is a rather formal procedure, which takes place every year.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called on NATO member states to send troops to the territory of Ukraine, according to a false narrative of the Russian government media. In fact, the statement of the Ukrainian leader was taken out of context. Zelenskyy in fact referred to the activation of Article 5 in the NATO treaty should the Alliance be attacked by Russia.
The Russian leadership believes the country is permanently at war and pursues imperial and expansionist policies, the Russian independent media writes. Russian journalists also say Putin’s plan to restore “Great Russia” seeks to capture Ukraine through armed force and Belarus by forcing a unification.
Russia is fighting a new “war for the defense of the fatherland”, but this time the enemy is not Nazi Germany but NATO, which wants to defeat Russia through Ukraine, according to a false narrative carried by the Russian state media. The truth is that NATO is not part of the conflict in Ukraine, and the confrontation with the West cannot be considered a war for the defense of the fatherland because Russia was not attacked by anyone, it was Russia who invaded an independent state.
The first anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Russia provoked a wave of pro-Ukraine marches in Bulgaria, a country traditionally associated with heavy political dependencies from Russia. The pro-Russians stayed mostly out of sight for the one year anniversary of the war, but that does not mean that they went everywhere: Moscow still has its supporters in Bulgaria, both among the politicians and the public.
Russia launched its “special military operation” in the early hours of February 24. The scale and direction of the Russian attack show that Moscow was planning a blietzkrieg that would end with the beheading of the Ukrainian leadership and at least the seizing of the entire Black Sea coast to open the way to Transnistria. However, the Ukrainian resistance overturned Moscow's plans, and the conflict became a long-lasting one, in which both camps have scored successes, but also failures. Veridica presents 10 of the main moments of this war.
Putin expected Ukraine to give in quickly, and the West, frightened by the prospect of a gas crisis, divided and unable to make firm decisions, would react rather rhetorically, as it happened with the war in Georgia in 2008, or the initial attack on Ukraine, in 2014. Ukraine resisted, dispelling, at the same time, the myth of the mighty Russian army, and now it only envisions victory. Both camps seem determined to fight until they achieve their goals. The war continues.
Russia was forced to launch military actions in Ukraine to save itself from NATO military bases and Ukrainian Nazism, and the “special military operation” is necessary and important for all Russian citizens, according to a propaganda narrative distributed one year after the start of the full-scale invasion. The truth is that Russia, without being threatened in any way, launched an imperial war to bring Ukraine under its control.
Formally, Tbilisi maintains its course towards integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, but the movement towards the West has been on inertia lately, while Moscow's influence is only growing. The ruling party, founded by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, increasingly links national interests with his personal interests, be it political or business related. At a decisive moment for Georgia's future, such a policy may prove fatal.
Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova are preparing for a military operation against Transnistria and an “armada” of tanks stationed in Romania will come to help, writes the Russian publication politnavigator, citing statements made by so-called Russian experts. Just three days after the false narrative was published in the press, it was officially resumed , in a slightly modified form, by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Russians must understand that the war in Ukraine is lost in order to be able to bring about a change for the better in their own country, dissidents quoted by independent Russian media believe. They also talk about the losses caused by the war launched by Russia against the neighboring country, but also about the need for the West to become more attractive to developing countries, in order to win the competition with the alternative model offered by autocracies.
Ukraine would need two fully equipped mechanized divisions to push the Russian forces out of the four regions annexed in the fall, according to the reserve lieutenant general Cătălin Tomiță Tomescu, tank officer and former commander of the Multinational Corps South East (MNC-SE ), NATO’s regional command. General Tomescu warns, however, that its human and material resources are an advantage to Russia, as well as the fact that its leaders are indifferent to the huge losses they are experiencing on the front.