Detector Media

🔺 Identifying propaganda and disinformation
🔺 Analysing quality of media content
🔺 Building resilience to disinformation

🇺🇦 - @DetectorMedia

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🤔 AI fakes, migration scares, and Olena Zelenska’s “escape.” A review of Russian disinformation narratives for May 20–26, 2026

Between May 20 and 26, 2026, Detector Media analysts documented 14 disinformation narratives.

Among them, propagandists:

- circulated AI-generated images about “punishment for speaking Russian” in schools in Vinnytsia,
- promoted an anti-migration campaign about “millions of Indians” allegedly coming to Ukraine,
- manipulated hantavirus statistics to create an image of a “sanitary catastrophe” in the Armed Forces of Ukraine,
- fabricated a fake story about Olena Zelenska’s alleged “escape” with millions of euros,
- distorted Macron’s statement about the Arabic language in France,
- and forged a Euronews report to compare Pashinyan to the “warmonger Zelenskyy.”

🔗 Read more: https://t.co/FLW6Nk3B2Q

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

📣 On Journalist’s Day, we, representatives of Ukrainian media and human rights organizations, as well as the Media Movement, appeal to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, Members of Parliament, and Ukrainian society with a call to prevent the adoption of a new Civil Code of Ukraine in a version that creates systemic threats to freedom of speech, investigative journalism, the openness of public information, and citizens’ right to know the truth.

On April 28, 2026, the Verkhovna Rada supported draft law No. 15150—the draft of the new Civil Code of Ukraine—in its first reading. We recognize the importance of updating civil legislation.

However, the recodification of private law cannot take place at the expense of restricting fundamental freedoms, especially during a full-scale war, when independent journalism is part of the democratic resilience of the state.

🔗 Read more: https://t.co/tYlLJA6G7T

#Ukraine #Journalism #freedomofspeech

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

❌ “ICU Shut Down”: How the Pro-Russian Movement “Baltic Anti-Fascists” Invented a Latvian Disaster

📱 #Russian media outlets and Telegram channels are spreading a claim that an intensive care unit in a Latvian hospital allegedly lost power after Ukrainian drones crashed in the country.

The original source of the claim is a coordinator of the pro-Russian movement “Baltic Anti-Fascists,” who cites an anonymous phone call from “local residents.” Neither Latvian authorities, hospitals, nor power grid operators have confirmed any such incident, according to StopFake.

❓ What is being claimed?

The publications allege that Ukrainian drones “bombed power plants” in #Latvia, causing an intensive care unit in a hospital to stop functioning. However, they provide no details about the city, hospital, or energy facility involved.

❓ What actually happened?

In early May 2026, several drones did indeed violate Latvian airspace after entering from #Russia. According to the Latvian military and police, two drones crashed, while another caused a small fire at an oil storage facility in Rezekne, which firefighters quickly extinguished (Euronews, https://t.co/g7YFsteEIC). Official sources reported no damage to power plants and no disruptions to hospital operations.

❓ Why is this fake?

The claim contains no verifiable details: there are no names of the city, hospital, or allegedly damaged facility. In any real emergency that endangered patients’ lives, such information would immediately appear in official statements.

🤔 The only “source” is a coordinator of the “Baltic Anti-Fascists” movement, a structure linked to pro-Russian media outlets and Telegram channels that systematically promote anti-Baltic and anti-Ukrainian narratives (Novaya Gazeta Europe). He, in turn, refers to an anonymous phone call, without providing documents, photographs, or official comments.

Another issue is the scenario itself. Hospitals in EU countries, especially intensive care units, are classified as critical infrastructure and are required to maintain backup power systems and emergency response protocols for power outages. A situation in which an ICU completely ceases operation because of a temporary loss of electricity is highly unlikely. That is precisely why, if such an incident were to occur, it would inevitably become the subject of a public investigation.

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

📱 Russian messenger Max has disappeared from the App Store

This is reported by Current Time.

The developer’s press service — the VK company — said that a request has already been sent to the American corporation Apple, asking for “clarifications” and working on an “urgent resolution of the problem.”

📆 At the end of April, the global service Cloudflare assigned the domains of the Max messenger the status of spyware. Later, the label was removed, but eventually it was reinstated. The messenger is currently classified as spyware.

The beta version of Max was introduced in March 2025. According to Current Time, the app did not become popular, partly due to the lack of user protection features: end-to-end encryption of chats, secret chats, disappearing messages, and two-factor authentication.

#Russia #RussiaIsATerroristState #messenger

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🇺🇦 In 2026, there are far fewer labor migrants in Ukraine than before the full-scale war. Yet there are far more disputes and manipulations about an alleged “influx of foreigners” who, in reality, are not coming here. We examined what triggers these waves.

✍️ On May 11, 2026, a petition was submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers demanding that the government “protect the national labor market” from migrants. It has already gathered 25,000 signatures. The paradox is that, for now, there is no one from whom the market needs protection. Foreign workers have been employed in #Ukraine for decades, but their numbers have always been and continue to be very small.

According to the State Employment Service, the number of official work permits issued to foreign labor migrants declined after the start of #Russia’s full-scale invasion. While 21,800 migrants received work permits in 2021, only 7,500 did so in 2025.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian information space is discussing an imaginary influx of migrants as if it were an event that is already taking place or is about to happen.

🔗 Read more about how these discussions emerged in the information space: https://t.co/yaPH6VVZl0

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

❌ AI Fake: Lithuanian Schoolchildren Allegedly Shown a Presentation About “Friendly Ukrainian Drones” During Lessons

An image is circulating on pro-Russian Telegram channels and on X (formerly Twitter), allegedly taken in a Lithuanian school during an air raid alert on May 20. The photo shows a slide that supposedly explains to students in a bomb shelter that a Ukrainian drone is “not dangerous” and “accidentally entered” Lithuanian airspace.

🔍 Fact-checkers from Gwara Media conducted a comprehensive analysis of this disinformation claim.

What Actually Happened

On May 20, an air raid alert was indeed declared in the Vilnius region after a drone was detected near the Belarusian border. Schools and kindergartens moved children to shelters, while public transport and airport operations were temporarily suspended. The alert lasted for about an hour and was lifted at 10:57 a.m. local time.

The drone’s origin was never officially established. According to the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT, the head of the National Crisis Management Center suggested that it may have arrived from Belarus. However, the object disappeared from radar and was never found.

Why It Is Fake

The very next day, on May 21, the image allegedly showing a school shelter began spreading widely through propaganda channels, with “Kryminforum” and “Voyenny Obozrevatel” among the first to publish it. However, the timeline alone makes the claim implausible: during a one-hour alert, teachers would not have had the time to prepare such a presentation and use it in class.

🔍 An analysis of the image using OpenAI’s AI-content detection tools identified an invisible SynthID marker — a digital watermarking technology developed by Google DeepMind that is used to label AI-generated content.

In response to an inquiry from Gwara Media, Lithuania’s Ministry of Education, Science and Sport confirmed that no such slides or lessons had been used in Lithuanian schools. The ministry also stated that Lithuanian authorities had classified the incident as a coordinated disinformation campaign.

#RussiaUkraineWar #disinformation

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🗣️ Kyrylo Budanov: “Other countries need, first and foremost, to grow up. They need to start looking at the world realistically.”

On June 1, 2026, the “Security Architecture” forum took place in Kyiv. During a panel discussion, the head of the Presidential Office and former chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov, spoke about the state of the negotiation process, internal pressure on Russia, the nature of modern warfare, and the future of security alliances.

Read more: https://t.co/fKBuomK799

#Ukraine #Russia #RussiaUkraineWar

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🕯️ On May 31, soldier, musician, and writer Yaroslav “Varnak” Ivanov was killed on the front line. He was 23 years old.

Since 2022, Yaroslav had been defending #Ukraine as part of the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade “Kholodnyi Yar,” the Air Assault Forces, and later the electronic warfare company of the Third Army Corps.

In addition to his military service, he created music and wrote prose. He did not have the chance to publish some of his works.

Detector Media extends its sincere condolences to the family, friends, brothers-in-arms, and sisters-in-arms of Yaroslav Ivanov.

#RussiaUkraineWar #RussiaIsaTerroristState

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

💥 As a result of the Russian attack on Kyiv during the night of June 2, the home of https://t.co/RV78KBGDVr investigative journalism agency reporter Yanina Korniienko was damaged.

The journalist herself was in a shelter at the time of the attack and was not injured. She told Detector Media about the incident.

💬 “I wasn’t at home that night. I saw messages in our building’s chat saying that our windows and doors were gone. So, in the morning, when the air raid alert ended, I came to see the condition of the apartment and figure out what needed to be done.

Then there was another alert, and after it ended, my neighbors and I started cleaning up the broken glass. I contacted municipal services to ask them to provide us with plastic sheeting and equipment to help clear the glass from the entrance hall,” Korniienko shared.

The journalist also said that while she was cleaning up broken glass in her apartment, another air raid alert began during the day, during which one of the Shahed drones struck the same location that had been hit during the night.

💬 “My neighbors and I managed to take cover—we ran inside the building into the vestibule. As a result of that strike, the windows that had survived the first attack were blown out. As far as I know, no one was injured. The neighbors were very frightened and concerned. But I did not see anyone being hospitalized. Everything was fine. The same cannot be said about the neighboring building, where people were killed,” Korniienko said.

#RussiaUkraineWar #Ukraine #RussiaIsaTerroristState

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

💥 As a result of a Russian strike on #Kyiv during the night of June 2, the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio sustained damage.

The film studio reported this on its Facebook page.

“Broken windows. Broken road surface. Damaged heating main and sewage system. Consequences of Russian terror,” the post says.

The video shows that glass was blown out of many windows, while the most significant impact hit the road in front of the building, where a crater was formed.

❗ This is not the first time the film studio has been damaged as a result of #Russian attacks. Last July, a blast wave shattered about 90 windows. Production facilities were also damaged.

In April 2026, the European Film Academy included the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio in its list of Treasures of European Film Culture.

#RussiaUkraineWar #RussianWarCrimes

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🎭 How Russian propaganda justifies the deportation of Ukrainian children

Russian propaganda has released the film “SVOi Children,” which aims to justify the illegal removal of Ukrainian children from occupied territories and present these actions as a humanitarian mission.

This is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation.

👤 The initiator of the film was #Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, against whom in 2023 the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.

🎬 The plot centers on a project involving the removal of children from temporarily occupied territories to #Russian camps for so-called “integration shifts.” The filmmakers attempt to portray the forced relocation of children as an act of care and a way to “save them from the war.”

⚖️ At the same time, the film omits the reason why Ukrainian children found themselves in conditions of war — Russia’s full-scale invasion of #Ukraine.

Under the cover of humanitarian rhetoric, Russia continues its policy of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children, altering their identity, and integrating them into Russian society. Such practices are regarded under international law as one of the indicators of genocide.

👤 Lvova-Belova herself has previously publicly spoken about the illegal adoption of a teenager from occupied Mariupol and about his subsequent “re-education,” which became one of the most well-known examples of the policy of forced assimilation of Ukrainian children.

🖼 Screenshot from the film’s teaser. Source: YouTube

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🇺🇳 The UN has, for the first time, included Russian military personnel in its “list of shame” for sexual violence.

This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

🔍 From now on, the #Russian Federation appears in lists of violators under two key mandates established by the UN Security Council — on children and armed conflict, and on conflict-related sexual violence.

“This is yet another international confirmation of the criminal nature of the #Putin regime and the systematic nature of the crimes it commits,” the Foreign Ministry stated, calling on the UN to move toward concrete actions aimed at ensuring accountability for Russia’s crimes.

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🇺🇸 Donald Trump has said he may replace the concert lineup for the United States’ 250th anniversary celebrations with a speech of his own.

The concerts were planned as part of the 16-day Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C. However, five performers have already withdrawn from the event because of its political nature: Young MC, Morris Day, the Commodores, Poison frontman Bret Michaels, and country singer Martina McBride.

In a post on Truth Social, #Trump wrote that he is considering speaking instead of what he described as “highly paid third-rate entertainers.”

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🤖 Anthropic has become the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence company after announcing a new funding round worth $65 billion, The Guardian reports.

Following the investment, the company’s valuation is expected to reach approximately $965 billion. This surpasses the valuation of Anthropic’s closest competitor, OpenAI.

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is currently valued at around $852 billion.

#AI #technews

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

📵 White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles has advised Trump administration officials to significantly reduce their presence on social media.

This was reported by The New York Times, citing sources familiar with the matter.

❗️U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance reportedly received a specific warning.

According to the newspaper, Vance often scrolls through his phone during meetings and uses social media to push back against his critics. He frequently engages in arguments with opponents in comment sections.

The New York Times noted that U.S. President Donald Trump also posts frequently on Truth Social, but unlike Vance, he does not spend time responding to people online.

#Trump #Vence #USpolitics

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🪆 Russian occupiers have established a “Council for the Protection of Traditional Values” in the Luhansk region.

This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation.

As part of the council, seven specialized commissions have already been created. According to the Center, their members include local collaborators as well as #Russian officials and military personnel.

“The absurdity of the situation lies in the fact that Russian soldiers have been appointed as the bearers of ‘traditional values’ and ‘moral role models’ — representatives of an army of looters, rapists, and murderers that has brought destruction and death to Ukrainian soil,” the Center stated.

🤥 The newly created body will engage in propaganda activities, including the promotion of Kremlin narratives and the imposition of a distorted version of history.

#RussiaUkraineWar #RussianWarCrimes

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

💥 Russia has destroyed or damaged around 4,500 educational institutions in #Ukraine during the years of the full-scale war.

Minister of Education Oksen Lisovyi reported this.

🏚️ Among the damaged facilities are 153 university buildings, while three universities have been completely destroyed. Universities in Dnipro and Kharkiv remain under constant attack and have repeatedly had to repair windows and roofs damaged by shelling.

❗️The minister also recalled the Kalibr missile strike on a dormitory of Oles Honchar University in Dnipro, which killed a student.

“This is #Russia’s deliberate terror aimed at forcing as many young Ukrainians as possible to leave the country,” Lisovyi emphasized.

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🗣️ Twenty-four hours until “retribution.” How propaganda justifies the massive attack on Kyiv

Russians portray the attacks on #Ukraine as “retaliation” for the strike on Starobilsk.

📆 On the night of May 24, 2026, Russia carried out one of the largest combined aerial attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, radio engineering troops detected up to 690 aerial attack assets — around 600 strike drones and more than 80 missiles of various types, including the RS-26 Rubezh intermediate-range ballistic missile, known as “Oreshnik.”

💥 The attack came two days after, on the night of May 22, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck a number of enemy facilities in occupied Starobilsk in Luhansk region — an oil refinery, ammunition depots, air defense assets, command posts — among them, as confirmed by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, one of the headquarters of the Russian Rubikon drone special unit.

#Russia, meanwhile, insisted that the strike had damaged the building of a former pedagogical college where students were allegedly staying overnight. On the same day, Vladimir #Putin promised a “response” for Starobilsk, so both the Russian Ministry of Defense and propaganda framed the attack on Kyiv as a “strike of retribution” — symbolic revenge for the “children of Starobilsk.”

🔍 The Detector Media Research Center analyzed how propaganda Telegram channels justified one of the largest combined aerial attacks involving drones and various types of missiles, including the “Oreshnik.”

Read more: https://t.co/AZ4KzNzMiA

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

🏆🇺🇦 The Ukrainian documentary film “Palyanytsia” has won the Impact Award for Peace at the Ethos Film Awards festival in Santa Monica, California. The film’s communications team announced the news.

The documentary was also screened at the 20th Dallas International Film Festival (DIFF) in Texas. According to the creators, organizers and attendees described “Palyanytsia” as one of the most powerful films in the festival’s official program. 🎬

🗣️ “The film’s first international award is recognition of the collective work of the entire team, including directors Kadim Tarasov and Yuliia Bolshynska, as well as everyone who poured their soul and heart into creating this project. This award belongs not only to the filmmakers, but to all of Ukraine and to the Ukrainian defenders who fight every day for freedom and independence at the cost of their lives,” said producer Kateryna Tymchenko.

“Palyanytsia” tells stories of freedom, war, and the inner strength of Ukrainians through the language of street art. The film follows American street artists Bandit, Tristan, and Johnny, who traveled across #Ukraine together with producer Kateryna Tymchenko to witness and document Ukrainians’ struggle and express it through art. 🎨

Over the course of two and a half years, the artists visited Kyiv, Irpin, Bucha, Borodianka, Kharkiv, Izium, Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, Odesa, and Mykolaiv, creating 33 artworks along the way.

#RussiaUkraineWar #StandWithUkraine

[Detector Media @DetectorMediaEn]

👮🇳🇱 Dutch police have seized 800 servers allegedly used by Russian hackers for cyberattacks across Europe.

According to Bloomberg, the Dutch fiscal investigation service dismantled infrastructure that Russian-linked hackers had reportedly been using to carry out cyber operations.

Last week, investigators searched two data centers in the Netherlands and confiscated 800 servers belonging to the companies WorkTitans and MIRhosting, which provide hosting services and online space for websites. 💻

Dutch authorities said the companies are suspected of violating sanctions by allegedly providing servers to organizations controlled by two Moldovan brothers added to the EU sanctions list in 2025 for assisting #Russian state hackers.

MIRhosting founder, 39-year-old Russian citizen Andrey Nesterenko, denied any wrongdoing and claimed his company had seen “nothing suspicious” on its network. WorkTitans did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Dutch newspaper Volkskrant reported that these networks were heavily used in pro-Russian cyberattacks targeting Danish government organizations last November. ⚠️

#Russia #cybersecurity