Pro-Russian channels have shared lots of covers for printed newspapers of British media with “shocking” headlines that said that after the Russian strike on Ukraine with the “Oreshnik” intercontinental missile on November 21, people in Britain started mass purchasing sedatives.
Our fact-checking department has looked into whether these covers are real.
What happened?
On November 22, Telegram channels that systematically spread Russian propaganda, including Olesia Loseva (Олеся Лосева, Russia|News|Important (Россия|Новости|Важно), V Kremlin’s Hand Z (V Рука Кремля Z), Gagauz Republic (Гагаузская Республика), and others reported about “scared” people in Britain mass-buying instant effect sedatives, which has increased sales of these medications by 110%.
As evidence, these posts contain three images that seem to look like covers of the British newspapers’ (The Independent, The Liverpool Echo, and The Sun) November 22 issues with the corresponding headlines.
The Sun: Brits buy up instant sedatives when Putin launches Oreshnik to Ukraine
Echo: Sedatives are the only solas for Brits amid the launch of “Oreshnik.”
INDEPENDENT: Brits boosted sales of sedatives after Putin’s ‘Oreshnik’ strike on Ukraine.
This information was also shared by Russian profiles in social media X 1, 2) and on Russian forums (1, 2).
Analysis
Before pro-Russian Telegram channels started spreading this information, Russia launched a mass airstrike at Ukraine, hitting, among other cities, Dnipro with a ballistic missile. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that day that, although the expertise was still ongoing, all evidence collected in the aftermath of the attack points to the fact that Russia hit Dnipro with an intercontinental ballistic weapon.
On November 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that, during the attack on Dnipro, Russia tested one of the new medium-range Russian missile systems with a non-nuclear hypersonic version of a ballistic missile named “Oreshnik.” Putin claimed that the “test” was launched because Ukraine hit military objects on the Russian territory (in the Bryansk and Kursk Oblasts) with ATACMS, Storm Shadow, and HIMARS. After that claim, pro-Russian Telegram channels started purposefully sharing information about the panicked moods of people in the countries that have provided Ukraine with these weapons, particularly in the United Kingdom. This wave of disinformation included messages about people in Britain mass buying sedatives.
First of all, we’ve checked the issues of The Independent and figured out that, to create a fake cover, pro-Russian channels edited the cover of the November 22 issue, replacing a central image and the text with information about the death of a politician John Prescott.
Then, we’ve checked The Sun newspaper. Here, authors of the posts have also edited the cover of The Sun’s November 22 issue.
Finally, we went through the issues of The Liverpool Echo. Here, authors on the pro-Russian channels used the same tactic, editing the newspaper’s issue for November 22.
So, the covers pro-Russian telegram channels used to create an image of panic induced by Russia utilizing the intercontinental missile “Oreshnik” to strike Ukraine “in retaliation” for Ukraine hitting Russia with British weapons are fake.
Russian propaganda often produces messages that intend to threaten, intimidate, and humiliate Ukraine’s allies for domestic and foreign audiences, combining it with promoting Russia as the country that “defends itself” against NATO and “the rotting West” to justify attacks on Ukraine.
Conclusion: Fake
Author: Anna Ormanzhy
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