Russian propaganda creates fake about subversive activities of anti-war Ukrainian movement in Romania

On the eve of the NATO summit, propagandists were trying to convince the Western community not to provide assistance to Ukraine

On July 9, the 75th anniversary NATO summit kicked off in Washington, D.C., with Russia's war against Ukraine as one of the central topics.

Russia has launched another information campaign to discredit Ukrainians in order to prevent the adoption of positive decisions for our country. Through Russian Telegram channels and accounts on social media platform X, as well as in English, Spanish, German, Greek and Romanian for the western audience in the media, Russian propagandists are spreading the fake that Ukrainian partisans from the so-called anti-war movement "Resistance" are allegedly sabotaging the transfer of Western weapons to Ukraine by destroying them in Romania. As "proof," they have circulated a number of images and videos that allegedly confirm the arson and bombing of a train with military equipment, two military warehouses, and the BulRom gas Impex terminal in Romania.

The Russians created this fake using existing photos and videos on the Internet. In particular, the photo of the burning train, which, according to the fake newsmakers, was carrying Western ammunition, UAVs and missiles and was "attacked" by mythical "Ukrainian partisans," has nothing to do with the European continent.

The train in the photo was not in Romania, but in the Argentine city of San Martin back in 2019. This was reported by the local newspaper Clarin.com.

The video shared by the propagandists clearly shows the very fire that they tried to pass off as the "work" of Ukrainian saboteurs.

To illustrate the alleged fire at a NATO weapons warehouse, propagandists used photos from a real event that took place in late June in the village of Slătioara in Romania. According to local media, it was not a military warehouse that burned, but two houses and three outbuildings. The website contains the photos used by the Russians to create the fake.

Another fire, which fake newsmakers tried to link to the arson of "Ukrainian saboteurs," also has nothing to do with Western assistance to Ukraine.

The original video can be found on Facebook. As it turned out, the footage depicts a fire at a cement factory in the Romanian city of Medjidie. According to preliminary information, the fire was caused by an ignition of stored tires.

Another video, allegedly showing another arson, can also be found on Facebook. It appeared there back in 2014, showing a tire factory burning in the village of Slobozia Sucevei in Suceava County, Romania, the very place where the propagandists intended to locate a military depot.

Other videos are unidentifiable due to the night shooting and very low quality, but given that the Russians chose random fires in different parts of the world to create the fake, it can be argued that they are in no way related to the alleged subversive activities of Ukrainians in Romania. In addition, there is no information in the media about the recent fire at the BulRom gas Impex terminal.

This is not the first time that Russians have created such fakes. Last month, propagandists accused Ukrainians of setting fire to a logistics hub with military equipment to cause additional tension in Ukrainian-Polish relations.

Dmytro Badrak