Russian propaganda scaring Ukrainians with tough winter through fake video from 'Energy Ministry'

Russian Telegram channels, bots on X, as well as Kremlin-run foreign media outlets are distributing videos with the logo of the Ukrainian Energy Ministry. The video says that due to problems in the energy sector that Ukraine will face in the winter period, Ukrainians should stock up on dung-based fuel briquettes to heat their homes in winter. Propagandists claim the video was allegedly released by the Ukrainian Energy Ministry.

This is a fake. Such a video or any other message on this topic was not published on the official website of the Ukrainian Energy Ministry or its social media pages. The video was created using pictures and videos found in the public domain.

In addition, they have nothing to do with Ukraine at all. The first frame with the cat and the radiator can be found on stock image sites. Fakers only flipped the picture vertically.

It should be noted that this photo is often used by utility enterprises in Russian cities to warn local residents about the start of the heating season.

Another part of the fake video is footage taken from a video published two years ago on the Moldovan website AgroTV Moldova. It tells about residents of a Moldovan village preparing for winter.

In fact, Ukraine is now actively preparing for winter. According to Oleksiy Chernyshov, CEO at Naftogaz of Ukraine, Ukraine is already at the final stage of preparation for the new heating season.

The Kremlin narrative that Ukraine or Europe is "freezing" is one of the most common among Russian propagandists. Every year, before the beginning of the heating season in Ukraine, this message can be heard on political talk shows on local Russian federal channels and online. Russia often uses rather absurd fakes for this. In particular, Ukrinform journalists refuted allegations that German citizens are being urged to switch from cars to horse-drawn vehicles due to halted supplies of Russian energy resources.

Such fakes in times of war and continuing Russian attacks on the Ukrainian energy structure are intended to make citizens feel hopeless and undermine their will to fight.

Russian propaganda earlier spread a fake that Ukrainians would be repaying a multibillion-dollar loan from frozen Russian assets on their own.

Andriy Olenin