Cartoon by Oleksiy KUSTOVSKY

Among the most popular tales produced by Russian ‘experts’ and media are the ones about “secret labs in Ukraine where they produce combat drugs”. According to Russian propagandists, such substances are made in Mariupol to deprive Ukrainians of fear in combat and to support their combat spirit.

The spread of this fake is supposed to justify the fail of Putin-designed blitzkrieg in the eyes of domestic audience, and to explain why the defenders of Ukrainian city on the coast of Azov Sea destroy the manpower and vehicles every day. On March 11 alone, Azov special force detachment eliminated a battalion tactical group of the 102nd Regiment of 150th Mechanized Division of Russia’s Armed Forces. The Ukrainian detachment also reported that they killed a General Major of the occupant forces and posted an image of the deceased invade in Telegram. There’s another fake about training of Satanists for war against Russia.

Russian media do not report their losses in Ukraine or attacks on peaceful Ukrainian cities. On the contrary, they claim it was Azov that bombed Mariupol, where every citizen actually knows who drops the deadly unguided bombs on their heads. One of these hit the building of drama theater, where hundreds of peaceful civilians were hiding. According to previous estimates, some 300 people, including women, children and elderly people deceased there.

According to Kremlin manipulators, “combat mosquitos” and migrating birds help the Ukrainian military, too. The local media cite “well-informed sources” from the Russian Ministry of Defense, claiming that Ukraine implements “a project aiming to study the transition of pathogens by bird migrating between Ukraine and Russia, carrying the African swine flu and anthrax. Moreover, these pathogens are allegedly supposed to be working specifically with Slavic ethnicity. One of Russian web sources states the following: “The adaptation of viruses to the people of Slavic ethnicity in Ukrainian laboratories is the most terrifying and dangerous threat to our country. There’s no scarier war than this: we can defend ourselves against the missile coming through, but there’s no defense against the mosquito infected with poliomyelitis or meningitis…”. 
The fakes of Muscovite propagandists are spread by officials. In one of his statements, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed quite seriously that Ukraine “ethnically-oriented biological weapon”. The campaign to spread the misleading information  also enjoys the support of Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov. Commenting on the topic of “American biolabs in Ukraine”, he says: “Biological weapons were made and tested on Ukrainian volunteers. Besides, they counted the trajectory of these birds across Russia… It’s absolutely fascist attempt to destroy the Slavic ethnicity as it is”.

False statements about “combat mosquitos” and “migrating birds that carry biological weapons” are being spread in Russian defense ministry, too. One of Russian MPs who was on the air on TV claimed that there’s a “Ukrainian trail” in the emergence of coronavirus. The Russian society has been trusting the TV, where they are told that developers of biological weapons in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa worked on the P-781 project. The reports say that the viruses are supposed to be carried by bats, and birds would be carrying the H5N1 flu strain, “which is 50 percent lethal”, and a virulent Newcastle disease. The spring and autumn migration routes of these birds include the territory of Russia. According to Russian propagandists, people caught the infected birds in Ivanovskaya and Voronezhskaya oblasts, and these birds were “released from a reservation in Kherson”. The thing is, there is no such reservation in Ukraine.

However, some of the occupants open their eyes when they come to Ukraine. Ukrainian special services intercepted a conversation between a Russian serviceman and his brainwashed relatives. 

“Well, say we captured Ukraine, then what? What would change?”, a man wonders.

“There’s nuclear weapon there!”, the lady replies.

“Well, they could fire at us, but they would be affected, too. It’s unprofitable for them”.

“You really lack political background, I just want to come there and kick your a**! You protect your people, your country!”

“Does Putin care about the people? He mostly cares about the land and his power… I keep asking people whether they needed our help”.

“We are protecting our borders so that Americans do not send their nuclear weaponry there. And there are these labs in Ukraine, you know? Look, all of our cattle gets sick. And coronavirus comes from there, too”.

“Don’t listen to that. How would they do anything like this? Their cattle would die, too. There are many farms here, it’s not like back home”.

“What’s not like back home?”

“There’s plenty of cattle everywhere. They all have their own cattle. We don’t. Why would they need these labs?”