Russian propaganda fake about drone with hashish

Propagandists attributed civil incident in Volyn region to territorial defense forces operating in Chernihiv region

Russian Telegram channels have spread the information that representatives of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service allegedly shot down a drone transporting 22.5 kg of hashish in the Chernihiv region. Ukrainian border guards allegedly learned that the drone was operated by a serviceman of the 119th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade on the instructions of the battalion commander. To prove their fake story, the propagandists added a video from the official website of the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service.

This is a fake. Although the incident with the downing of the drone did happen, the Ukrainian military had nothing to do with it.

The 119th Territorial Defense Brigade is a formation of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine in Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, but the incident took place in the northwestern Volyn region.

On February 11, 2024, the State Border Guard Service's press service reported that border guards had landed a drone with hashish in the Volyn region. They illustrated this message with a video, which the Russians later used to create a fake.

The propagandists claimed that the incident occurred in the Chernihiv region and decided to discredit the service members of the 119th Territorial Defense Brigade.

The brigade's representatives told Ukrinform that the brigade was not involved in the incident.

In addition, State Border Guard Service spokesperson Andrii Demchenko stressed that the participants in the incident had nothing to do with the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or other military formations.

Earlier, Ukrinform refuted the fake that a "bot farm" was being created in Ukraine for an information campaign amid Russian President Vladimir Putin's interview with scandalous American host Tucker Carlson.

Dmytro Badrak