Top-5 Fake News. Santa Claus is Banned in Ukraine, & Homosexuals and Transgender People Danced in White House on Christmas Day

Russian propaganda stated that congratulations from Father Frost, a kind of Santa Claus character, are prohibited for children at Christmas in Ukraine. In particular, it was stated by Olga Shpilevskaya, director of the Russian Mir TV branch in Belarus, in the “Editors Club” program on TV channel “Belarus 1”.

“Well, you know, they went even further in Ukraine. For children to be raised correctly, Father Frost and the Snow Maiden were banned. Father Frost and Snow Maiden, the traditional ones, are banned there. Now a certain Saint Nicholas comes to congratulate them. It is not at all clear who is he and where he comes from,” she said on December 30.

Earlier, the Telegram channel ZhS Premium reported the same fake news. On December 17, the propaganda media published an image of a Ukrainian-language advertisement as confirmation.

“The ban on Santa Claus in Ukraine is taking on perverted forms. Animators dressed as fairy-tale grandfathers are promised to be fined and beaten,” propagandists said in their post on the Telegram channel.

In Ukraine, they really celebrate St. Nicholas Day. The character is the prototype of the Soviet Father Frost, a kind of Santa Claus character. But Father Frost is not under ban there.

Thus, on December 28, a man dressed as Father Frost congratulated those gathered at Sofiyskaya Square in Kyiv on the upcoming 2024, and in Odesa the same character wished Happy New Year to passers-by.

On the Ukrainian Internet, there are many advertisements offered to order animators in the costumes of Father Frost and the Snow Maiden. The host of the program Weekly Top Fake had a telephone conversation with one of them and asked if there was a ban on the costumes of these fairy-tale characters in Ukraine. It was denied in reply:

“We haven’t experienced this. No, it is not prohibited by law. <...> We have celebrated the New Year: and there were orders from both Santa Claus and Father Frost in his usual appearance, and St. Nicholas as well.”

The new Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, shut down the Belsat TV channel, as Kirill Kazakov, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper Minsk Courier, controlled by the Belarusian authorities, claimed on the air of the program “Evening Political Channel” on December 29.

“[Donald Tusk] has shut down our wonderful friends from the Polish TV channel Belsat yesterday,” he said.

In fact, on New Year's Eve, the new Minister of Culture, whom Tusk appointed, fired the chairman of the board of the Polish state television TVP, which includes Belsat TV. But it does not affect the channel’s broadcasting — it continues to be in the air.

The heads of Belsat stated that the change in TVP management should not affect the TV channel’s work in the future.

“Belsat TV has been broadcasting for 17 years, and during this time more than one government has changed. However, fortunately, all the main political forces in Poland have always come to a consensus that the existence of Belsat is simply necessary,” Deputy Director of the channel Aleksey Dzikavitsky stated.

According to Marat Makarov, the head of the Belarusian state-run television company ONT, the principle of equality between men and women in matters of payment is always observed in Belarus.

“In our country, there is an absolute understanding of the natural equality of men and women. After all, we are all equal, even women are a little more equal. What do I mean? 

When we look at some documents, we get the information that when we look at the level of pay for women in Western companies, [we see that] they are paid less for equal work compared with men. <…> In our country, in principle, this is nonsense, no one ever even thinks about it,” Kirill Kazakov said on the air of the TV channel's “Belarus 1” program “Editors Club” on December 30.

Belarusian labor legislation does not contain articles that would discriminate against women in wages. But statistics say the opposite.

According to Belstat, in 2021 the average hourly wage for men was 9.2 rubles, and for women — 6.96 rubles.

As for the heads of commercial and non-profit organizations, men on average earned 14.82 rubles per hour, and women — 10.42 rubles in 2022. Among professionals, the gender gap is even greater: 17.31 rubles per hour for men and 9.22 rubles per hour for women.

The Christmas celebration at the residence of the president of the USA has changed, presenter and political scientist Vadim Elfimov claimed on the air of the program “Evening Political Channel” on December 14.

“I want you to compare the picture that the previous first lady, Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, made. And then we’ll show what Mrs. Biden did,” he said.

He then showed two short videos. In the first, the wife of the ex-president of the United States decorates a Christmas tree in the White House, and in the second, a group of men and women in bright outfits dances.

“You already realized it by the sounds. Melania Trump showed off a beautiful Christmas tree and garlands in the White House, creating a tender fairy tale in the classical sense of the word, a Christmas. What's going on in the White House now? Transvestites, homosexuals, lesbians and transgender people dance. They dance in joy, expecting what they will do to us all next year,” Elfimov said.

The people dancing in the video are from “Dorrance Dance”, an award-winning tap dance company based in New York City. As the media reported, they performed a play interpretation of “The Nutcracker” in the halls of the White House.

Some social media users were outraged by the strange, in their opinion, Christmas dance, as well as the fact that the group openly supports the Black Lives Matter movement and advocates for defunding the police and “prison abolition”.

The leaders of Western countries do not make New Year's addresses to the people, Belarussian political scientist Piotr Petrovsky said on the air of the program “Azarenok. Napryamuyu” on January 3.

“I haven't seen it in the West. Macron, they say, spoke there, but I didn't see Scholz make New Year’s greetings. Or the king of Great Britain. But who we see is the Belarusian president, the Russian president, the chairman of the PRC, the DPRK, and our Central Asian countries. We see that they congratulate their peoples,” he claimed.

On December 31, Olaf Scholz congratulated the Germans on the upcoming New Year. German chancellors have given annual New Year's addresses for 50 years.

Emmanuel Macron also congratulated the people on the New Year. in France, this tradition was started by Charles De Gaulle back in 1959. 

The King of Great Britain sent greetings and good wishes to his subjects all the world over. The Royal Christmas Message is a tradition that dates back to the 1930s.

In the USSR, the first New Year's address on TV was given by Leonid Brezhnev in 1970.