The telegram channel “Digital army of Russia” operates on the network, the authors of which in their messages give instructions to subscribers from Russia on how to comment on messages in Ukrainian telegram channels.

The fact-checkers of the “Beyond the News” project investigated this case and found that the subscribers of the “Digital army” are the distributors of prepared comments found in Ukrainian telegram channels. In the tasks, the administrator points out to the “digital army fighters” that they should evoke emotions in Ukrainians. For example, impotence, sadness, panic, fear, “everything is gone” feeling. Or the administrators set the task of convincing Ukrainians with comments that “nothing will ever change”. Comments are translated into Ukrainian through a translator, so there are typical errors. The administrator also attaches names and links to telegram channels to the task, where one can write something.

Analysts add that another goal of the “Digital Army of Russia” is to force Ukrainian telegram channels to close comments so that Ukrainians do not have platforms to express their opinions. Then, according to the intention of the authors, Ukrainians will switch to pro-Russian resources for the “truth”, but in reality, those are resources imbued with Russian propaganda and lies.