Disclosure Russian propagandists use 23 names to denote the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The Institute of Mass Information investigated how one of the largest telegram channels of the occupied Donetsk region spreads Russian disinformation in the occupied territories and how it changed the main message topics five months after the start of the full-scale invasion.
According to the research, propagandists most often refer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine as "VFU" (Armed Forces of Ukraine; 632 mentions), "Nazis" (601), "militants" (495), "Ukras" (160), "terrorists" (134), "neo-Nazis" (131), "Ukrainian Nazis" (117). Propagandists most often associate the Ukrainian army with Nazism in their word-making experiments, IMI writes.
IMI researchers identified five groups of messages:
- discrediting the Armed Forces of Ukraine and everything Ukrainian;
- recognition of the Russian army as powerful and successful;
- "DPR — a promising region of Russia";
- "All of Russia is a successful and authoritative country";
- anti-Western messages.
More details in the study.