Disinfo: In Ukraine, it will be forbidden to communicate in Russian from January 2021

Summary

From January 16, 2021 it will be necessary to use the state language when ordering a cup of coffee, buying medicine. The so-called “language ombudsman” Taras Kremin underscoredthat from January 16, 2021, the service sector should switch exclusively to the Ukrainian language.

Disproof

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin propaganda narrative about the alleged discrimination of Ukraine's Russian-speaking minority and the country's ubiquitous Russophobia.

This is one in a series of news stories with false and manipulative headlines. The Russian language will not be banned in Ukraine. In Ukraine, service workers must start a conversation in Ukrainian from January 16, 2021, but they can change the language of communication at the request of the client. This is a quote taken out of context by the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremlin. He recalled that "at the request of the client, his/her personal service can be carried out in another language."

Read the similar case, Rights of Russian-speaking people are violated in the Baltic States and Ukraine.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 223
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 02/12/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine
  • Keywords: Russophobia
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Disinfo: Ukrainian migrant workers brought COVID-19 to Spain and Italy from secret US labs

There are 15 biological laboratories and 2 research institutes dealing with biological weapons in Ukraine. This information was obtained thanks to the confusion at the US Embassy in Ukraine at the time of the departure of Marie Yovanovich from her post. The embassy’s website contains classified information about Ukrainian biological laboratories.

There is a lot unclear in this issue: there are no laboratories, but they are there. More precisely, they exist on American money and carry out research within the framework of the Pentagon programmes, but “this is different”. In Georgia it was the same – most of the experimental “rabbits” died from experiments. And the residents of the area where the biolaboratory of the Lugar Center is located cannot now boast of excellent health.

The information about the COVID-19 epidemic is strictly classified in Ukraine. The main reason is the transcendent number of Pentagon biological laboratories that are involved in this epidemic.

Wuhan, where the first case of COVID-19 infection was allegedly detected exactly a year ago, is also the proud owner of an American biolaboratory on its territory. In China, strict quarantine measures were taken, so COVID-19 could not spread so rapidly around the world. But given the fact that these viruses were produced in Kharkov, one can explain the lightning-fast spread of the disease in Spain and Italy – countries where there are traditionally many Ukrainian migrant workers.

Disproof

This article is a mixture of disinfo claims about coronavirus and "secret" US laboratories in Georgia and Ukraine.

It starts by claiming that secret data about Ukrainian biological laboratories appeared on the official website of US embassy in Ukraine. Actually this data is not and was not secret. In April 2020, the official website of US embassy in Ukraine published its response regarding disinformation on the strong U.S.-Ukrainian partnership to reduce biological threats (available in English and Ukrainian).

Disinfo: NATO uses Ukraine as a bridgehead for intelligence against Russia

NATO uses Ukraine as a bridgehead for intelligence against Russia.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about NATO and aggressive West, allegedly pursuing a belligerent and hostile anti-Russian agenda.

No evidence given of NATO using Ukraine for intelligence against Russia. Relations between NATO and Ukraine date back to the early 1990s and have since developed into one of the most substantial of NATO’s partnerships. Since 2014, in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, cooperation has been intensified in critical areas.

Disinfo: Germany has no evidence that Navalny was poisoned

Berlin did not rely on any evidence when claiming that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, prompting Moscow to describe the incident as a charade designed to justify the imposition of new sanctions on it.

Moscow says it cannot investigate the Navalny accident in the absence of data from Germany.

Disproof

Recurring disinformation narrative surrounding the poisoning of a prominent Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.

Navalny fell ill during a flight from Siberia to Moscow on the 20th of August. Initially hospitalised in Omsk, at the request of his family he was transferred to Charité hospital in Berlin, where clinical findings indicated that he was poisoned with a substance from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. Subsequent toxicological tests provided unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group in the blood samples of Alexei Navalny.