There was no reasoning provided for the claims shared online beyond the distance between Estonia's border and Pskov.
However, the Estonian government has firmly denied the claims. A statement sent to Newsweek from a spokesman for the Government Office of the Republic of Estonia said: "This is false information."
The U.S. did not accidentally send Ukraine $6 billion in military aid, as some online have alleged. This claim misinterprets a Pentagon announcement in June that the agency had overestimated the value of weapons it sent to Ukraine.
Misleading Material. Although Shoigu appeared to shrug off or dismiss the question of whether Russia will win, the clip of him shared on social media is edited. In the unedited version, the Russian defense minister goes on to say "We have no other option."
As Congress debates additional support for Ukraine, the anti-Ukraine echo chamber will peddle myths and half-truths, including these four:
Myth: Washington is writing Kyiv “blank checks” that Americans cannot afford.
Myth: There is not enough oversight of US aid to Ukraine.
Myth: America is exponentially the largest donor to Ukraine.
Myth: Russia is a distraction. The US must focus on China.
A newly declassified American intelligence analysis says Russian spy agencies are using influence laundering techniques to hide the Kremlin’s involvement in cultivating pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine messages.
CNN reports: Russian intelligence is operating a systematic program to launder pro-Kremlin propaganda through private relationships between Russian operatives and unwitting US and western targets, according to newly declassified US intelligence. [...]
The official stressed that the Western voices that eventually became mouthpieces for Russian propaganda were almost certainly unaware of the role they were playing.
“At the end of the day, this unwitting target is disseminating Russian influence operation, Russian propaganda to their target public,” the US official said. “Ultimately, a lot of these are unwitting people — they remain unaware who is essentially seeding these narratives.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was quoted saying that U.S. contributions were needed for voting.
Currently, Ukrainian law forbids holding elections during wartime.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, some have claimed that "children" are being recruited into the Ukrainian army. Three viral photos, purporting to show graves of very young soldiers, have been shared since mid-August as evidence of this phenomenon. However, two of these three photos have been manipulated, and actually show the burial sites of adult men.
Kyiv is not spending money hiring sex workers for injured soldiers, as the post on X claims.
The post quotes part of a BBC article about a rehabilitative service for Ukrainian soldiers run by a support organization called Veteran Hub. It does not employ sex workers and there is no evidence that funding provided to Ukraine or Ukrainian government spending has been used in this way.
Founded in 2014, StopFake.org's initial goal was "to verify and refute disinformation and propaganda about events in Ukraine being circulated in the media. Eventually the project grew into an information hub where we examine and analyze all aspects of Kremlin propaganda.
We not only look at how propaganda influences Ukraine, we also try to investigate how propaganda impacts on other countries and regions, from the European Union to countries which once made up the Soviet Union."
