Russian disinformers devoted every third piece of news to the war and its consequences for Russia. The central topic of the news is the confrontation with the West, while Russians prefer to write less and less about the economy, sanctions, and hostilities. However, the successes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the south do not allow the propagandists to relax and force them to invent new absurd explanations for the delays of the “special operation”. For example, last week the Russian media stated that the failures in the Kherson region take place due to the fact that the Russian Armed Forces are directly fighting the Americans. We analyzed almost 22,000 news items from Russian state media and manipulative websites that purposefully spread Russian disinformation, and we continue to review what the enemy is telling its own population about the attack on Ukraine.

Since the middle of April, the second most populous regional center in southern Ukraine has been living without a centralized supply of drinking water, while the tap water is only suitable for toilets. The reason for this is a water pipeline that was cut off by the Russians, which stretches for more than 70 km from the Dnipro, and which had been supplying Mykolaiv with drinking water for more than 40 years. As long as the majority of the water line is in the occupied territory, it is impossible to repair it. TEXTY researched whether it was possible to establish an alternative water supply in three months and how the situation may be solved in the long-term perspective. Translated by Dmitry Lytov, Mike Lytov

Russia periodically launches missile strikes on objects in Ukraine from the territory of the Caspian Sea. The sources of these strikes are both ships from the Caspian Fleet, which carry Kalibr cruise missiles, and Tu-95 and Tu-160 heavy bombers, which launch Kh-101 and Kh-555 cruise missiles on Ukraine’s territory while "barraging" over the Caspian waters.

In this project, we decided to show what hypothetically happens around the Ukrainian position when it’s showered with "lead rain".

In the past 10 days, there has been a significant increase in the number of Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s rear military positions. Ukraine troops are now actively using HIMARS (High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) supplied by Western allies. They are believed to be the modern analogues of the Soviet Uragan and Smerch fire systems.

Russia’s National Day on 12 June became an important talking point on Telegram channels used by Russian propaganda machine in the occupied regions across the southeast of Ukraine. Every fourth post that day contained either the word “holiday” or the phrase “Russia Day”.

As soon as the Russian troops launched their offensive on February 24, another offensive took place in the media. Within a few days after the full-scale invasion, Russian propagandists created dozens of information channels on Telegram – one of the most popular messaging services in Ukraine – to prepare the population of southern Ukraine for Russian occupation. Using the already available pro-Russian media resources, they broadcasted a message of hatred for Ukraine and gratitude to Russia. In cooperation with the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, we launched a research series studying the use of Telegram channels in the newly occupied territories of Ukraine.

This is a painful question for those who remained in the occupied towns and villages.Is putting out a fire, rescuing people, assisting with childbirth or teaching children mathematics considered betrayal if you live in occupied Berdiansk?We talked to a firefighter, a teacher and a doctor from Berdiansk who love Ukraine and are awaiting the arrival of the Ukrainian military. Two of them did not leave Berdiansk that was captured by the Russian army in the first days of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Warfare expert Mykola Bielieskov explores Ukraine’s military strategy, which has allowed the country to successfully fight off Russia for the second week in a row, despite being written off by western experts as doomed by default, and finds it is similar to Finland’s Winter War.