REUTERS

Facebook has blocked articles by Russian news agencies claiming police last month arrested alleged Ukrainian nationalists after experts concluded the radicals were Russian.

RBK and Kommersant published articles in February reporting that Russian law enforcement had arrested alleged members of MKU, a Ukrainian nationalistic youth organization, in the southwestern city of Voronezh, RFE/RL reports.

Police reportedly discovered during raids extremist literature, symbols of nationalist organizations, knives, and an object resembling on old military mine.

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Citing Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) press service, the news agencies claimed their connection to a Ukrainian extremist organization.

However, Russia's Investigative Committee published a release at the time saying simply that three individuals aged 18, 19, and 33 had been arrested for stirring up racial animosity in Voronezh, the city located close to the border with Ukraine.

Read alsoExposed: Fake news sites run by Russian intelligence spread misinformation about COVID vaccinesIt made no claim whatsoever that the persons involved were members of a Ukrainian nationalist group.

StopFake, a Ukrainian agency that works with Facebook to find and block Russian disinformation on its platform, said its research concluded the three individuals arrested in Voronezh in fact all belong to a Russian nationalist organization.

Russia has tried to play up the actions of Ukrainian nationalist groups in an effort to justify its hostile actions toward its neighbor.