The Center for Countering Disinformation continues to monitor the russian information space and identify new fakes and manipulations about events in the kursk region spread by russian propaganda.

Throughout the week, the CCD recorded another wave of disinformation narratives, including the following:

▫️ “Raped mother of ‘smo’ participant”. Propagandists spread a story about a woman evacuated from the kursk region, claiming that she spoke about the alleged rape of a resident of kursk by the Ukrainian military because her son is fighting in Ukraine. To make this fiction seem more believable, propagandists emphasize that the woman is a “mother of many children”.

▫️ “New atrocities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. Russian media have circulated numerous reports with alleged testimonies from people in the kursk region, describing how the Armed Forces of Ukraine supposedly shoot at civilians, including children, and commit mass beatings and other “atrocities”. However, the propagandists didn’t even bother to film videos and simply published text stories with an unrecognizable source.

▫️ “Polish looters”. Fakes about Ukrainian soldiers allegedly looting in the kursk region have become so frequent that even russians are no longer surprised. In response, the enemy’s propagandists escalated the narrative by claiming that Polish soldiers, allegedly alongside the Ukrainian Armed Forces, looted the homes of local residents.

▫️ “Georgian mercenaries who cut the throats of civilians”. Elderly women have become some of the primary objects for russian propaganda content creators regarding the events in the kursk region. For example, one woman claimed that “Georgian mercenaries” were “very fond of cutting heads” in the kursk region. However, she admitted that her story was nothing more than gossip, as she hadn’t witnessed any of it firsthand, but had only heard it from others.

▫️ “Murders of russian prisoners”. In light of new evidence about the brutal murders of Ukrainian prisoners of war by russian forces, russian propaganda attempted to downplay the situation by releasing a new video with baseless accusations against Ukrainians, claiming they killed russian prisoners.

▫️ “Stolen medals of grandfathers”.  In their anti-Ukrainian propaganda about the events in the kursk region, russian propagandists shamelessly exploit the emotional topic of “heroic grandfathers”. One video circulating claims that russians allegedly found a Ukrainian soldier’s bag during a clearing operation, which contained stolen documents and medals of a World War II participant.