Top-5 Fake News. Polish opposition wants to negotiate with Minsk and Moscow, & Washington — to gain control of Kiev

Ukrainians intentionally change their first and last names and patronymic ones to abracadabra, the Telegram channel Our Land reported on October 5. The following photograph of a Ukrainian ID card with unusual personal data was published as proof.

“Life hack from Ukrainian mobilization. 

Ukrainian men change their full names to abracadabra so that military registration and enlistment offices issue summonses with errors. 

The potential grave keeper's name is:

"Bronivognevladislav-Eduardoleonardokonstantinoslav Volodymirenklimenzhilenko-Grominrevingradintemenko",” they said in their Telegram channel post.

The above-mentioned person changed his last name 13 years ago. Here is what he, in particular, said to the media outlet T1 Noviny in June 2019: 

“A colleague told me that this was possible. I didn't even know. It could’ve been done at the age of 16. And I only did it in 2010.”

According to him, the reasons for changing his first and last name are not related to conscription.

“The goal was that I have the right to make my own choice. My parents deprived me of it. They took it and shackled me. And they continue to do this indirectly,” he explained.

On September 28, Washington put forward a list of priority reforms expected to be carried out in the Ukraine for further military assistance.

The host of the Belarusian propaganda TV Belarus 1, Daria Tarasova, interpreted this news as if the United States was trying to “deprive Kyiv of all its independence”.

Here's what she, in particular, said on the air of the program Around the Planet on October 1: 

«Zelensky has gotten a so-called reform plan that will enable Ukraine to join the European Union.

Seemly, what does the US have to do with it? But that's not the most surprising thing.

Ukraine is demanded to include American appointees on the supervisory boards of all strategically important companies. Anti-corruption and security agencies should also be under US control.

And finally, criminals will be subject to extradition at the first request of foreign courts.” 

So, there was a reform plan published by the media outlet Ukrainian Pravda in the propagandists’ video. It contains a clause calling for “a seventh member participating in the supervisory boards of both Ukrenergo and Naftogaz”. However, in the document, there is no mention, that these members should be appointed by the United States.

Both Ukrenergo and Naftogaz charters prescribe, that their supervisory boards consist of seven members each. However, against the charters, now both companies have six members appointed.

At the same time, in the published document, there is no condition requiring to introduction of US representatives into law enforcement agencies. It only says that the election of the new head of the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption must be independent, transparent, competitive and timely.

The document also contains a point about improving the election procedure for the head and key officials of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office.

The reform plan has nothing to do with Ukraine joining the EU. Though it specifies the conditions for providing Western assistance.

Belarusian leading propagandist Grigory Azarenok accused the Ukrainian former Defense Minister of buying an expensive house in France.  

“And now the former Minister of Defense is boasting. It's impossible to call him neither a minister nor a defense minister... He's nobody at all, he's a worm. He boasts that he bought his daughter a mansion. He would have to work for 230 years to buy that house for his salary. Already calculated,” the propagandist claimed in the program Azarenok.Napryamuyu on October 2.

Earlier, on July 24, the website of the Belarussian state-run TV channel ONT spread that piece of information referring to the Telegram channel of the former head of the Ukrainian government Mykola Azarov. 

“The daughter of Defense Minister Reznikov, Anastasia Shteingauz, distinguished herself again. At the beginning of June, she bought a house in the town of Vallauris near Cannes. There is a swimming pool, elevator, and seven bedrooms. Everything is as it should be. Price: €7 million,” it says in the video on Azarov’s Telegram channel. 

There is the watermark of Christie's International Real Estate on the video showing that luxury mansion. According to the announcement on the real estate agency website, that house is still available for sale.

In response to the Weekly Top Fake team request, the Agency said, that the information about this villa buying by Alexei Reznikov's daughter was fake.

Several small anti-war actions took place in Berlin on October 3. The following day, commenting on that news on the air of Alpha Radio, Vadim Borovik, a Belarusian political scientist, claimed that Europeans were tired of supporting Ukraine:

“Is all of that comfortable for an ordinary resident who gets into a car and just drives? No, it's not convenient. Is it convenient that he pays four times more for electricity? Not. Fuel is 1.5 — 2 times more, depending on the EU country. Of course, that will affect the public opinion,” Vadim Borovik said in the program Budni on October 4.

As of October 4, diesel price in Germany was about €1.85 per 1 liter, and on February 23, 2022 — €1.73. Thus, the growth is not 1.5 —  2 times, but about 7%.

At the same time, the price of diesel fuel in the Netherlands increased by almost €0.20, that is, by 10%. Fuel prices in other EU countries have changed by approximately the same scale.

And vice versa — electricity prices in the EU have fallen. So, before the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, households in Germany on average paid €0.37 per kilowatt hour, and on October 4, 2023, the cost already was about €0.295.

In Warsaw on October 1, the Million Hearts march gathered about a million people.  It was reportedly organized by the opposition ahead of parliamentary elections due on October 15. The day following the march, Alexey Avdonin, the analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, claimed new pro-European forces were behind the protests, opposing conservatives from the ruling Law and Justice party.

“Nowadays these forces are gaining more and more public support because they are talking about one thing: we need to stop pursuing the policy of sanctions against Russia and Belarus, we need to negotiate again. For what? To obtain cheap energy resources,” Avdonin said on the air of the state-run media outlet Alfa Radio.

The Million Hearts march was organized by the Civic Coalition. It unites several opposition political parties that have no disagreements with the party in power regarding their attitude towards Russia. 

Coalition leader Donald Tusk previously was the Prime Minister of Poland and served as President of the European Council. As head of government, he advocated easing tensions in Polish—Russia relations, but after Russia's annexation of Crimea, he started to criticize that approach. 

In 2019, Tusk stated: “Almost every week I had to remind others that Russia has been not our ‘strategic partner’ but our ‘strategic problem’”.

He also criticized Emmanuel Macron for proposing to reconsider the EU's position towards Russia: “President Macron says he shares the same views on the issue as Viktor Orban and that he hopes Mr. Orban will help persuade Poles to change their position on Russia. Maybe, but not me, Emmanuel”.

In September 2023, the leader of the Civil Coalition called on the Polish authorities not to reduce military assistance to Ukraine.

Belarusian authorities were criticized by Donald Tusk as well. In an interview with Radio Liberty in October 2020, he, in particular, stated: “Lukashenko will lose this fight. And even if not this battle, then this war, that he started against his own people and Belarusian civil society.”

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