Russia’s top 100 lies about Ukraine

This article represents personal opinions of the author. Stopfake editors may not share this opinion.

The American website Examiner.com published Russia’s top lies about Ukraine.

Russia’s propaganda machine shows no signs of slowing down. To the contrary, it seems to have reached a new hysterical level of blatant disinformation, since Russian and pro-Russian terrorists in Ukraine are rapidly losing ground.

To attract reluctant “volunteers” into the trap of a misguided war machine, Russia wages twisted information war through its mainstream media, useful fools in the West and a legion of paid trolls. Russian disinformation locomotive twists the facts and invents entirely false stories, accompanied by deceptive imagery. When exposed, it attacks the debunkers, questioning their motives.

Russia’s mainstream media doesn’t operate according to the journalistic standards of the civilized world. It often uses social media as their sole sources for breaking news stories. Most of the time, Russian publications fail to retract falsified or entirely made up stories, even after they have been thoroughly debunked. Kremlin trolls operate the same way, intentionally spreading falsehoods to infect public opinion, propagate war-mongering and hatred. It’s important to recognize the information war in all of its ugly manifestations.

You can review previous installments of the series of articles exposing these falsehoods by visiting the following links:

“Russia’s top lies about Ukraine. Part 4”

“Russia’s top lies about Ukraine. Part 3”

“Russia’s top lies about Ukraine. Part 2”

”Russia’s top lies about Ukraine. Part 1”

Here is a collection of 20 additional fabrications and intentional misrepresentations:

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Russian media claimed that “activists” are seeking a probe into Ukraine’s alleged use of “child soldiers” in Eastern Ukraine. These “activists” in reality turned out to be members of Russia’s Public Chamber. While Ukraine is not using child soldiers in Ukraine, Russia is boasting of their 15-year old “commanders.”

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Komsomolskaya Pravda attempted to debunk the true story of the now infamous “mascara girl,” Ekaterina Parhomenko of Torez, Ukraine. Komsomolskaya Pravda incorrectly concluded that photos of Ekaterina Parhomenko depict a different girl. In fact, even minimal fact-checking would confirm that the photos are in fact of Ekaterina Parhomenko and were obtained from her own social media postings, before her pages were deleted. 94 Russian media networks proudly reported that so-called “rebels” again succeeded in shooting down a Ukrainian airplane. This act corresponded with the pattern of terrorist attacks on Ukrainian aircraft. On June 13th, terrorists shot down a Ukrainian transport plane, killing 40 paratroopers and 9 crew members. On June 24th, they downed a Ukrainian helicopter, killing all 9 on board. On July 14th, terrorists shot down a Ukrainian military cargo plane. On July 16th, terrorists downed a Ukrainian fighter jet. These attacks were praised and touted in the Russian mainstream media, as the victories of the imaginary “Novorussia” over the government of Ukraine. LifeNews outlet, whose reporters proudly serve on the frontlines alongside terrorists, rushed to the scene. In the meantime, their network announced on Russian television that another Ukrainian plane was shot down by the “rebels.” They also published a corresponding article on their website. Once the network’s reporters discovered that the plane shut down by the terrorists was in fact a civil airliner, the article and the video were promptly removed (although still available here, side by side with the conflicting coverage that followed). In the first clip, LifeNews proudly announced that “the rebels” successfully downed another Ukrainian plane, AN-26. In the subsequent coverage (on the same day, with the same host, wearing the same clothes), LifeNews claimed that civilian Malaysian airliner was shot down by the Ukrainian military. 95 One of the most bizarre exertions, blaming the Ukrainian military for allegedly shooting down the Malaysian airliner, was based on a claim that this was an attempt to murder Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Networks reported that on July 17, 2014, the presidential plane took quite a bizarre round-about route across Ukraine, on its way from Warsaw, Poland to Moscow, Russia. It was reported by Russia Today (more than once), Komsomolskaya Pravda and a number of other Russian mainstream media outlets. Russian aviation sources assert that Putin’s airplane never flies through Ukrainian airspace (particularly since the time Russia started fomenting unrest in the East of Ukraine this year).