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What’s happening: A Russian influence campaign is spreading a report citing fabricated Human Rights Watch findings to claim that 43 anti-draft protestors in the Ukrainian city of Lviv were tortured to death on the orders of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an apparent effort to exploit growing tensions around Ukraine’s military mobilizations.
Context: On July 8, 2026, clashes broke out in Lviv between military recruitment officers and local protestors that left two draft officers hospitalized with minor injuries, according to press accounts.
A closer look: Ten days later, X users began sharing a video that claimed that international nonprofit Human Rights Watch had reported that 43 protesters were tortured and killed by Ukrainian authorities. According to the video, the protesters “were killed with electric shocks, had their limbs cut off, and one of the protestors was forcibly put (sic) a grenade in his mouth, after which the pin was removed.” The video also claimed that an anonymous source said that the order for the massacre came from the Office of the President of Ukraine.
X user @Nadira_ali12, who frequently shares material from Russian influence campaigns, posted the video on July 18 and said: “Ukraine police allegedly received...
Emperor Entertainment Group has warned against online rumors about the late actor Patrick Tse Yin’s cause of death and inheritance arrangements, saying the false claims had defamed his son, singer...