---
title: "Kremlin Launches New Wave of Fakes About 'AFU Atrocities' in Donbas: NSSC Counter-Disinformation Center Reveals Typical Propaganda Templates"
description: "The CDC at the NSDC of Ukraine reported a new wave of Russian disinformation about alleged 'AFU atrocities' in Donbas: propagandists are replicating unverifiable accounts of 'eyewitnesses' using standard templates to discredit the Ukrainian army and distract from the consequences of the aggression."
date: 2026-09-06T05:22:01.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/kremlin-launches-new-wave-of-fakes-about-afu-atrocities-in-donbas
tags: [russia, propaganda, disinformation, donbas, ukraine, ccd-nsu]
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# Kremlin Launches New Wave of Fakes About 'AFU Atrocities' in Donbas: NSSC Counter-Disinformation Center Reveals Typical Propaganda Templates

![Barbed wire in the foreground and a blurred Russian flag in the background: a visual symbol of the Kremlin's propaganda narrative on Donbas](https://xab.info/media/2026/09/06/kreml-launched-new-wave-of-fakes-about-wsu-atrocities-in-donbas/kreml-launched-new-wave-of-fakes-about-wsu-atrocities-in-donbas-1.webp)

## 🎯 Key Points

- Russian media have launched a series of articles about alleged crimes by Ukrainian military personnel against civilians in Donbas.
- The CDC at the NSDC of Ukraine states that these claims have no independent confirmation and are produced using standard propaganda templates.
- The goal of the campaign is to discredit the AFU, form an image of Ukraine as the 'enemy,' and distract attention from the consequences of Russian aggression.
- The campaign is accompanied by other fakes, including the alleged capture of the village of Khrapovshchyna in the Sumy region.

Russian propaganda has intensified a disinformation campaign aimed at portraying the Armed Forces of Ukraine as 'committing atrocities against civilians' in Donbas. This was stated by the Counter-Disinformation Center (CDC) at the Secretariat of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, according to RBC-Ukraine. According to the agency, Russian media outlets have launched a series of articles describing alleged crimes committed by Ukrainian military personnel against the civilian population, with none of these claims backed by independent evidence.

### Typical Propaganda Templates

The CDC notes that the circulated texts are produced using well-worn, standard templates of Russian propaganda. Their structure is predictable: at the center of the story is the account of an 'eyewitness' — a resident of a temporarily occupied territory — whose emotional but unverifiable testimony is presented as proof of alleged systematic crimes by Ukrainian military personnel. This approach allows propagandists to rapidly replicate uniform narratives without resorting to a documentary basis.

### 'Eyewitnesses' Without Evidence

Among the specific examples cited by the CDC is the story of a resident of Konotop who claims that a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle allegedly deliberately attacked her family, including an infant, during an evacuation. Another article tells of a woman who, according to her account, was forced to leave a wounded man on the road due to an 'AFU attack.' The Center emphasizes: the authenticity of these stories cannot be verified, and Russian resources present the accounts of individual people as full-fledged evidence, even though they have no independent confirmation.

### Goals of the Campaign

In the CDC's assessment, the main goal of such materials is to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to form in the minds of the Russian audience and residents of temporarily occupied territories an image of Ukraine as the 'enemy.' Additionally, the agency notes, the Kremlin is thus trying to shift attention away from the real destruction and deaths of civilians that are the result of Russian aggression. In other words, disinformation about 'AFU atrocities' serves to distract from the facts recorded in Ukrainian-controlled territories.

### Contradictory Data

Here it is important to honestly point out the discrepancy between the versions. On the one hand, Russian propaganda resources claim that Ukrainian military personnel are carrying out deliberate attacks on civilians in Donbas, citing the accounts of individual 'eyewitnesses' as evidence. On the other hand, the CDC at the NSDC of Ukraine categorically states that these claims have no independent confirmation, their authenticity cannot be verified, and the materials themselves are a product of standard propaganda templates. Thus, there is a direct contradiction between the version of Russian media and the assessment of the Ukrainian agency: what one side presents as proven facts, the other classifies as unverifiable disinformation. At present, no independent arbitration that would definitively confirm or refute specific episodes has been recorded in open sources.

### Context: Other Fakes and the Situation at the Front

The campaign about 'atrocities' is not isolated. Recently, Russia has also spread another fake — about the alleged capture of the village of Khrapovshchyna in the Sumy region, which also does not match confirmed data. Against this backdrop, Ukrainian military personnel, according to available information, continue to hold off the attacks of the occupiers on the eastern and northern frontiers, repelling the enemy's attempts to advance into Ukrainian territory. The combination of these factors shows that the information coverage of hostilities remains a key instrument, in which both sides actively use both real events and deliberately unreliable narratives.

## 🔍 Fact-Check Verification

- [Putin's team launches a new wave of fakes about 'AFU atrocities' in Donbas](https://www.rbc.ua/ukr/news/putina-zapustili-novu-hvilyu-feykiv-zvirstva-1788671908.html) - РБК-Украина со ссылкой на ЦПИ при СНБО Украины подтверждает факт запуска российской дезинформационной кампании и приводит примеры («жительница Константиновки», «раненый мужчина на дороге»). Сам ЦПИ подчеркивает отсутствие независимых подтверждений у этих историй, поэтому лежащие в основе эпизоды остаются непроверенными; подтверждена лишь сама кампания и ее шаблоны.

## ❓ FAQ

### Q: What, according to the CDC at the NSDC of Ukraine, is Russian propaganda spreading about the AFU in Donbas?
**A:** Russian media resources are replicating materials about alleged crimes by Ukrainian military personnel against civilians, relying on the accounts of individual 'eyewitnesses' that have no independent confirmation.

### Q: Have these 'atrocities' been confirmed by independent sources?
**A:** No. The CDC emphasizes that the authenticity of these claims cannot be verified, and the materials are produced using standard propaganda templates and are not supported by documentary evidence.

### Q: What is the goal of this disinformation campaign?
**A:** In the CDC's assessment, the goal is to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine, form an image of Ukraine as the 'enemy' among the Russian audience and residents of occupied territories, and also to distract attention from the real destruction and deaths of civilians resulting from Russian aggression.