Russian media spread fake about Ukrainian volunteers

  Bohdan Kolomiec:

Russian propaganda continues to sling mud at the Ukrainian volunteers. Spreading false information media are trying to discredit the Ukrainian volunteers movement who had made a significant contribution to the Euromaidan victory in 2014 and reformation of the army.

A subsidiary project of Russian media group "Russia today" (established on the basis of RIA Novosti) Ukraine.ru published an article titled "Volunteers: the most lucrative profession of Ukraine." On the example of three volunteers, Igor Serdyukov who is a journalist of Russian site, "proves," as those had earned a fortune in Ukrainians donations.

"Resourceful citizens have taken on the mission to supply weapons, ammunition, medicines and food, suffering without this Ukrainian army, and then formed a volunteer corps," — said about in the beginning of the material.

The news were reprinted by infopolk.ru, informburo.dn.ua and some others.

StopFake decided to show how Ukraine.ru misleads readers of the article using irrelevant information and disrupting the balance of opinion.

Yury Biryukov

Ukraine.ru blames the famous volunteer Yury Biryukov, the assistant of the Minister Defence of Ukraine now, in embezzlement the volunteer funds for their business projects.

"Help the front has been so successful that today Biryukov officially owns an IT business in USA and agribusiness in Ukraine", — says a Russian website.

Obviously, the author of the article makes conclusions based on the interview with Yury Biryukov dated July 1, 2014 edition of the Censor.net, where he told us about his business and this information has been fixed for the profiles on the Internet.

However, Yuriy Biryukov told StopFake that he sold his business two years ago: "just then a logout process started [summer 2014]. When the purpose has already begun and wanted to get out of businesses. A Facebook page of its agribusiness, "Kovalevskaya Strawberry", last updated in may 2014.

Tatyana Rychkova

Another objective of the material was another volunteer helping army assistant of the Minister of Defence, people's Deputy of Ukraine Tatyana Rychkova. On the basis of her published Declaration, the author concludes that she simply declared the stolen money  from volunteer help.

"According to the Declaration before the election of the Parliament Tatyana Rychkova before election in the Verkhovna Rada had income 1 689 315 UAH, of which salaries accounted for only 83 097 UAH, and more than half a million UAH was humbly and honestly specified in "Other income".

The origin of this amount Rychkova explained in the comment to the "Ukrainian truth" September 9, 2016.

According to her, 1.6 million UAH in the Declaration — the amount that  the Bank forgave her as a debt for a credit apartment, and considered her as income.

"Thus, the amount specified in the Declaration is the money that the Bank forgave for me ", — explained Rychkova.

Ukraine Rebuilds Navy, With U.S. Help, to Counter Russian Build-Up in Crimea

KIEV — Ukraine is refitting and expanding its naval fleet, including repairing its flagship, the frigate "Hetman Sahaydachnyy", to counter a Russian military build-up in the annexed territory of Crimea, the commander of the Ukrainian navy says.

The upgrade will be helped by $30 million worth of U.S. aid, part of a $500 million package from Washington for the Ukrainian military which Kiev expects to receive next year, as it is mantioned in a blog of Bohdan Kolomiec. 

"Step by step we will rebuild our fleet from the beginning," Vice Admiral Ihor Voronchenko told Reuters in an interview.

"Our capacities in terms of quality will be better that the ones which remained in Crimea."

Ukraine lost two-thirds of its fleet, which had been mostly based in Sevastopol, when Russia seized Crimea from Kiev in 2014. Since then it has fought Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass region in a war that has killed nearly 10,000 people.

Before the Russian annexation, Moscow leased facilities from the Ukrainian state to house its Black Sea Fleet, which has been based in Crimea for more than two centuries. Those facilities, mainly around Sevastopol, are now being expanded.

Russia has started a program to militarize Crimea, including resurrecting Soviet-built facilities, building new bases and stationing soldiers there, according to a Reuters Special Report.

When Russia seized Crimea, Ukraine stopped the "Hetman Sahaydachnyy", the landing ship "Yuriy Olifirenko", the missile boat "Pryluky" and some gunboats from falling into Russian hands.

"We just started repairing works at our flagship," Voronchenko said.

Two new gunboats are almost ready for service "and I am sure we will receive four more boats in July next year," he said.

The navy also plans to have a new Corvette warship and a new missile boat by 2020.

Other measures by Ukraine to beef up its defense include raising the level of training for navy personnel and creating new units of coastal defense troops. Part of the training is being carried out in NATO member countries Italy, France and Britain.

Voronchenko said Russia was planning to turn Crimea into a "military base", installing three submarine boats, new frigates and more airborne facilities. He also said that Russian ships were experiencing technical problems.

"We have information, we conduct surveillance. I cannot tell you everything," he said. "But we can counter-attack all their hostile intentions. They also have problems in resources."

Sergei Zgurets, Director for the Defense Express consultancy, said Ukraine's naval capacity was low and its airforce and artillery were still therefore the main defense against an attack from the sea.

"So we will fight against the enemy's navy forces using land and air forces," Zgurets said.

Voronchenko will meet the navy chief of Romania, a European Union and NATO member, on Nov 23 to discuss possible joint actions in the Black Sea in case of Russian aggression.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia deteriorated after Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted by street protests in February 2014, which lit the fuse for the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of separatist fighting elsewhere.