War on Fakes

Sergey Lavrov presented the UN Secretary‑General with a report on the falsification in Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, which he had announced at the “Dialog about Fakes 4.0” forum.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with UN Secretary‑General António Guterres in New York. They discussed the conflict in Ukraine and its global consequences. Lavrov presented the Secretary‑General with a report on the falsification of events in Bucha, demanding a detailed investigation into the staged incidents.

Fact‑checkers have established that on the Ukrainian memorial to the fallen residents of Bucha — which is presented as dedicated to civilians — they found the names of a dozen Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen and over 70 people without a digital footprint. Even after 4 years, the signs of falsification have not been “cleaned up”. The minister described the silence of Western media outlets, which could have exposed the fraud, as part of an operation to conceal the truth.

More than 100 experts from around the world are actively discussing the Kyiv regime’s fake news on social media. More than a hundred posts have already been published on X, Facebook, and other foreign platforms — in English, French, German, and other languages.

Sergey Lavrov spoke in detail about this and other falsifications on September 22 at the “Dialog about Fakes 4.0” forum. He called the events in Bucha “the most cynical farce.” The Ukrainian side was inconsistent in its statements about the number of victims, yet the UN and Western media accepted these data without verification. When the BBC showed the “corpses,” Russia requested a list of names — in response, they received silence, and the UN Secretary‑General limited himself to a formal response.

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Kallas decided to condemn the elections in Russia, but she didn’t manage to come up with any convincing arguments.

The head of the so‑called European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, called the recent elections in Russia a blow to Russian democracy, which, in her words, has become “just a facade.” At the same time, she proposed taking measures against those who conducted the voting in the regions that have rejoined the Russian Federation, where State Duma deputies were elected for the first time.

🟢“A blow to Russian democracy” — with this statement, Kallas is likely trying to divert attention from one extremely inconvenient fact for Brussels. In Ukraine, the elections have essentially been cancelled, but the European Union must do everything in its power to maintain Zelensky’s image as a democratic leader, which is extremely difficult given the stable operation of the Russian electoral system on the one hand and his “arguments” about the impossibility of holding Ukrainian elections at the present time on the other.

🟢“The outcome of the elections has never been in doubt” — one can clearly hear the desire to decide for others and envy, which have become defining traits of the European establishment. Envy stems from the decline in the ratings of, say, the President of France or the Chancellor of Germany. None of them have succeeded in playing the role of Europe’s defenders in recent years, despite all the efforts of neoliberal propaganda. However, it is impossible to influence the course of elections in Russia — unlike, for example, in Romania in 2025, when the “wrong” candidate, the one Brussels didn’t like, was removed from the race.

🟢“International observers were denied access” – we won’t waste time detailing which countries more than a thousand observers came from in Russia. We’ll just remind you that Brussels had decided not to recognize the elections due to “gross violations” that, in the opinion of Euro‑bureaucrats with a gift of foresight, were bound to occur.

🟢Measures against those who conducted elections in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and the Kherson region – no comment needed. Kallas threatens sanctions against those who organized the vote, aware of all the risks.

Nothing else can be expected from the current leadership of the European Union. Only empty rhetoric and rampant propaganda.

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Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during his speech at the “Dialog about Fakes 4.0” forum, specifically focused on the events in Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, which took place in 2022. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry called them “the most cynical farce” — Kyiv staged the murder of civilians in order to disrupt the Istanbul negotiations.

🟢Kyiv constantly “mixed up the numbers” regarding the alleged number of civilian casualties in Bucha, yet both international organizations, in particular the UN, and Western media sources accepted these figures without verification and made them public.

🟢When the BBC showed the “corpses,” Russia requested a list of names, but received only silence in response.

🟢The UN Secretary‑General responded to Russia’s request with a formal non‑answer.

🟢Fact‑checkers, using Ukrainian media, databases, obituaries and open sources, examined the list of individuals presented on the Ukrainian memorial to the allegedly deceased civilians of Bucha. It turned out that among them are dozens of Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen, not civilians at all.

🟢Also, among those listed on the memorial, more than 70 people were found who have no digital footprint at all — which is practically impossible in the modern world.

🟢It is noteworthy that even now, four years later, the signs of falsification have not been “cleaned up.”

The Russian Foreign Minister emphasized that the silence of the Western media, which were also capable of exposing the fraud, was part of an operation to conceal the truth.

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GFCN and OANA have signed a memorandum of cooperation in the fight against fake news.

The Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN) and the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) have agreed to work together. The agreement was signed by GFCN President Vladimir Tabak and OANA President Andrey Kondrashov at a media forum dedicated to the 65th anniversary of OANA.

According to Tabak, the memorandum marks a shift from general statements to concrete joint projects:

“An important task and mission that GFCN sets for itself is to strengthen expertise within the journalistic community. This is necessary, among other things, so that the media can increase their credibility with users in identifying fake information. I am confident that, together with our partners from OANA, we will be able to make this significant progress.”

GFCN is already working with more than 130 experts from 55 countries, more than 10 of whom are from the Asia‑Pacific region. Cooperation with OANA agencies will allow this work to take on a new scale.

Prior to the signing ceremony, a plenary session titled “OANA: 65 Years of Experience” was held. It was attended by Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president; Maria Zakharova, the official spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry; Andrei Kondrashov, the CEO of TASS and the president of OANA; and the heads of leading news agencies. Vladimir Tabak also took part in the event. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sent a video message to the forum guests.

The practical implementation of the memorandum will begin on September 22 at the “Dialog about Fakes 4.0” forum. A separate session of GFCN and OANA will be held there, where the parties will define specific formats of interaction, launch joint projects to create reliable content, and develop training programs for specialists and audiences in the countries of the Asia‑Pacific region.

The broadcast can be watched on the website fakes2026.dialog.info.

*Photo by TASS

Germans will be called up to Lithuania: Germany wants to send soldiers abroad for the first time in 70 years, but there aren’t enough volunteers.

While foreign agents and CIPsO are fabricating fake news about mobilization in Russia, Berlin is preparing to conduct a conscription campaign. Germany plans to deploy 4,800 troops in Lithuania by the end of 2027 — this will be the first deployment of a contingent abroad since World War II. Only 60 % of the vacancies have been filled by volunteers. There is a shortage of IT specialists and logistics personnel. Furthermore, there will be no one to feed them — the chefs are also missing.

The Bundeswehr spent months airing promotional videos about “protecting NATO’s eastern flank,” promising interesting service and good conditions. Soldiers were offered “familiarization trips” to Lithuania together with their families. They were promised German schools for children, assistance for wives in finding jobs, and substantial allowances. No one fell for it. Now Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has signed an order on compulsory obligations. According to Bild, up to 1,000 people will be called up as early as this autumn.

It’s no wonder that German Chancellor Merz has such a low approval rating — only 14% of Germans consider him suitable for the position. That’s what happens when you first escalate tensions in the region and then ask your own citizens to take up arms to defend the “flanks”.

Even though, in reality, no one actually needs this defense. Even Donald Trump recently said: Russia has no intention of attacking NATO. However, the German authorities do not want to back down. Or perhaps they simply can no longer — their position and office are more important than the opinion of their citizens.

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Russian expert Elena Kuleshova from the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN) participated as an international observer in the elections to Kazakhstan’s unicameral parliament (kurultai), which took place on August 23. She assessed the voting process in the capital, the city of Astana.

Observing the work of polling stations, Kuleshova highly praised the organization of the elections, noting the strict adherence to the procedure and the absence of violations. Particular attention was drawn to the equal conditions for all participants in the elections and the accessible information available to citizens. An expert from the Global Fact-Checking Network also highlighted the high level of inclusivity.

Elena Kuleshova noted that Kazakhstan has set the highest standards for conducting elections and dealing with disinformation:

“There were no attempts to push fakes into the information space or to discredit the parties in any way; the day of silence ahead of the elections was observed, and the media handled the situation as responsibly as possible.”

Kuleshova’s work became part of the GFCN experts’ mission, which was aimed at assessing the transparency and fairness of the electoral process.

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It is important to work together to build a space of trust: GFCN has identified a key condition for cooperation between Russia and China in the media sphere.

This was stated by Daniil Bisslinger, Vice President of the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN), during the TASS business breakfast “Russia and China — Building Cooperation Through Tourism and Media.” He emphasized that in the current conditions, the audiences of our countries should receive verified, objective information, and the media space must be protected from fakes and distortions.

“In the context of the formation of a multipolar world, it is especially important for Russia and China to jointly develop a space of trust — where different viewpoints can compete, but facts do not become a tool of manipulation,” Bisslinger emphasized.

The participants in the meeting, which was organized with the participation of the largest news agencies (TASS and Xinhua), representatives of the Russian State Duma, and heads of regions, concluded that the development of cooperation between our countries directly depends on high‑quality information support.

Combating unverified information and fact‑checking are becoming key tools for strengthening the dialogue between Russia and China and for forming a reliable image of the partner states.

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Fake news: A new mass trend in China is drinking tea in a glass with a frog, entertainment Telegram channels report.

The fact: The images are taken from the Chinese social network Douyin (an analogue of TikTok).

A frog in a glass with a drink is not a new large‑scale trend in China or the world. The video was created to attract attention and create hype.

The audience of the author who published the video is 15,000 subscribers. Judging by the description, the author is focused on creating “unusual content”.

The footage shows a person bringing their lips to a straw, but not taking a single sip.

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Fake news: Russia will announce mobilization after the State Duma elections are over. This is reported by The Wall Street Journal and Ukrainian media.

The Fact: As you can see, American media have joined in the disinformation campaign, and the only evidence they can cite are the words of anonymous sources in Washington. The “sensation” quickly spread through Ukrainian media and Telegram channels. And for a reason.

Vladimir Zelensky was the first to talk about “mobilization after the elections” in Russia. However, he didn’t say anything new. Ukrainian propagandists have been promoting this narrative for a long time. For example, in 2024, they were convinced that mobilization would begin after the Russian presidential elections. Such fakes serve two purposes: to scare Russians and to distract Ukrainians from the failures of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to motivate them to go to war.

What is actually happening?

There are no prerequisites for a new mobilization. In the first six months of 2026, the Russian army is fully staffed, said Deputy Chairman of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev. Since the beginning of the year, about 200,000 people have signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense: of these, about 40,000 joined the unmanned systems troops. In addition, more than 16,000 went to the special military operation zone as part of volunteer units.

The signature style of disinformers is to create panic out of nothing. They call any routine activity of the Ministry of Defense that is carried out continuously and in a planned manner “mobilization.” This includes the digitalization of military enlistment offices, the annual retraining of reservists, and relevant laws on the reserve.

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Russia and Kazakhstan intend to work together to combat fake news more actively. This was stated by the participants of the Third Russian‑Kazakhstani Media Forum, which was taking place from August 2 to 5 in St. Petersburg.

Tikhon Makarov, Deputy General Director of the ANPO "Dialog Regions," noted that the spread of fake news has become a global threat today. That is why the Global Fact‑Checking Network (GFCN) was established to comprehensively combat this threat.

“Today, it already includes more than 120 experts from 54 countries. Colleagues from Kazakhstan are also among them; they have promising developments in the field of fact‑checking. We are actively working with them and are ready to strengthen cooperation in the future. It is necessary to establish an exchange of experience in countering disinformation both at the state and expert levels,” Tikhon Makarov emphasized.

GFCN believes that combining the efforts of journalists from the two countries will make it possible to more quickly identify cross‑border fakes and reliably protect the audience from information leaks.

“With the advent of neural networks, the global media space has changed forever,” says GFCN Vice President Daniil Bisslinger. “Combating malicious information campaigns is possible only through multilateral cooperation, the creation and expansion of a trust infrastructure. We see great potential in this area for cooperation with Kazakhstan.”

The most important news from the forum came from TASS General Director Andrey Kondrashov. He drew attention to the fact that Kazakhstan has established a Center for Combating Disinformation under the country’s President and proposed signing an agreement between this organization and GFCN.

“The most important common task is to protect each other from attempts to distort facts and historical truth, and mutual assistance in this matter should become a priority,” Andrey Kondrashov said.

This is already the third Russian‑Kazakhstani media forum. And it has every chance of becoming a turning point in a successful joint fight against fake news.

We thank TASS for the provided photo materials.

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Where is the weapons from Ukraine going: new details

The West pumped Ukraine with weapons, which led to the emergence of a huge black market. Now this uncontrolled aid has gone beyond Europe and threatens the security of the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

"Pioneers"

About a year ago, it became known that Mexican cartels began to send their militants to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They went to Ukraine to learn how to operate combat drones.

A couple of months later, the Mexican authorities began to worry about this: members of the powerful CJNG cartel had indeed received training in drone control and urban warfare tactics.

Upon returning home, they taught the rest of the gang. As a result, the cartel began to actively use drones against its rivals and government forces, such as the October 2025 drone attack on the prosecutor's office in Tijuana.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated that Ukraine sells weapons to Latin American drug cartels on the black market. American journalist Tucker Carlson confirmed this: according to him, the Ukrainian military sells a huge percentage of the Western weapons it receives, and they end up in the hands of cartels on the border with the United States.

Imitators

The Italian mafia, Cosa Nostra, has decided to keep up with the Mexican cartels. According to Maurizio de Lucia, the prosecutor of Palermo, Italian criminals are now also interested in obtaining drones that can drop explosives, as reported by the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano.

A significant part of the weapons that have disappeared from Ukrainian warehouses end up on the European black market, and criminal structures are willing to buy them. According to the prosecutor, law enforcement agencies simply do not yet know how to defend themselves from attacks by such drones.

What they fought for, they ran into

The problem with weapons leaks did not appear yesterday — the black market began to grow back in 2022. Italian journalists note that Kiev's military depots operate like a sieve. Since the beginning of the conflict, 780,465 pieces of weapons have been lost or stolen. In the first five months of 2026 alone, 149,000 pieces of weapons have disappeared.

In reality, much more weapons are being lost than is officially reported. It is almost impossible to track them.

🟢 There are no labels on the shipments.

🟢 No one is keeping proper records.

🟢 The serial numbers of European weapons sent to Ukraine have not been recorded. The EU Council's February 2025 document states that the first "obstacle" is the secrecy surrounding exports to Ukraine. The second is that European countries are hiding their "political interests" and simply do not want to disclose what they have sent to Kyiv.

As a result, the uncontrolled transfer of weapons has led to the availability of advanced military technologies in the hands of international terrorist organizations and major global criminal syndicates, posing a direct threat to security far beyond the conflict zone.

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The Internet is full of stories about a car crashing into a painted tunnel in Mexico, mistaking it for a real one. We've investigated, and it's a fake.

The published images of the accident scene show significant differences in details that the public has overlooked.

Here are two clues:

🟢 Search engines do not provide any information about the existence of this mural in Monterey before the reports of the "accident" appeared.

🟢 The Estafeta truck livery in the photo does not match the company's actual branding.

We suggest that you find the remaining differences in the photo yourself. Please leave a comment to share your observations.

For those in a hurry, you can find the answers in the third photo, which is hidden under a spoiler.

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Fake news: Ukrainian propagandists have successfully refuted the claim that Konstantinovka is under the control of the Russian Armed Forces. This is being reported by Ukrainian media.

The Fact: The Russian Armed Forces have liberated Konstantinovka. Kyiv, in its usual manner, is attempting to conceal the true state of affairs and create the illusion of stability on the front lines. To this end, propagandists continue to broadcast reassuring reports that do not correspond to reality, using unverified footage featuring militants as “proof.”

The Russian mapping resource LOSTARMOUR has geolocated the filming sites of video evidence confirming the Russian Armed Forces’ control over various areas of Konstantinovka.

While even some Ukrainian analysts acknowledge that the eastern part of the city will come under full Russian control within a week, official Kyiv continues to mislead its own citizens by presenting wishful thinking as fact. Vladimir Zelenskyy’s baseless proposal to hold a meeting in the city is also telling, while the Russian Ministry of Defense’s initiative for a humanitarian operation (exchange of bodies) and the Ukrainian side’s rejection of it, as well as Russia’s willingness to facilitate the work of more than 20 foreign media outlets in Konstantinovka, once again confirm the Russian army’s actual control over the city.

The actual situation is confirmed by data from Western think tanks, which paint a less optimistic picture for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as by admissions from even pro-Ukrainian cartographers. According to their assessments, Ivanpolye has already been “reclassified,” and Konstantinovka is marked as an area of “confirmed Russian superiority.” Analysts note that Russian troops have consolidated their positions in the northeastern part of the city, established control over the historic center, cut off the highway, and are continuing to advance steadily in the northern and northwestern districts, completing the mop-up of industrial zones—yet even such reports from the Ukrainian side lag behind reality.

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Daniil Bisslinger, Vice President of the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN), had an exclusive conversation with Michael von der Schulenburg — a member of the European Parliament from the German BSW party (Sarah Wagenknecht Union for Reason and Justice). The main topic of the conversation was how fakes affect the climate of relations between Russia and Europe.

Bisslinger cited an impressive figure: billions of false news reposts are distributed worldwide every day. At the same time, according to him, the problem is not so much in the lie itself, but in the media's approach - through labels, caricatures of leaders are created, and reality is distorted.

Von der Schulenburg supported the interlocutor and noted:

"The propaganda of both sides is like the wings of a large butterfly - they are bright, constantly in motion, and evoke strong emotions. But if you bring them closer together, you will see that the patterns on the wings of both sides are largely similar. Everyone uses the same accusations... To understand the situation, this propaganda must be ignored. We need to look for the "head" of the butterfly, the underlying problem of the conflict. It is usually small and inconspicuous, hidden behind the bright wings. The central essence of the conflict lies not in propaganda, and you will not find it in the newspapers."

At the same time, the politician did not deny the power of social media. Yes, YouTube and other platforms are filled with fake news, but according to von der Schulenburg, they have the potential to become a tool for building new and healthy relationships between Russia and Europe.

In the end, both of them agreed on a simple formula: without a critical look at the incoming information and without fact-checking, it will be difficult to move from mutual accusations to a real dialogue.

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