The experts of the fakenews.pl portal, together with analysts from GLOBSEC (Slovakia) and Political Capital (Hungary), with the support of the Open Information Partnership, conducted a study of the activities of pro-Russian anti-war movements in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. It describes the messages, connections of these movements, the background of their leaders and how the Kremlin manipulates pacifist ideas to legitimize the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin's main trick in this case, according to the above-mentioned experts, is to use anti-war appeals to justify Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine. Instead of real peace, these movements spread ideas that shift part of the blame to the victim of aggression - Ukraine.

They also came to the following conclusions:

Pro-Russian “anti-war” movements cover a wide range of political forces, from parties in power to opposition and small political movements

In some countries (Slovakia, Hungary) anti-war rhetoric was successfully used to gain political advantages.

Almost all the movements studied have direct or indirect links with Russian officials or structures.

Anti-war movements use the same set of pro-Russian messages, adapted to the local context, but maintaining the general pro-Russian line.

The Visegrad Group organizations (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic), as well as Germany, Bulgaria and Romania, cooperate, mutually promoting Russian propaganda.

Left- and right-wing movements are willing to cooperate if they are united by a pro-Russian narrative.

“Anti-war” movements that sympathize with Russia oppose supporting Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression. Although they hide behind ideas of pacifism, their rhetoric strengthens the Kremlin’s position and contributes to disinformation. Using fear and emotion, these movements try to influence public opinion, creating a false image of the world, which in fact involves concessions to the aggressor.

Propagandists on anonymous Telegram channels claim that Ukrainian volunteer and activist Serhii Sternenko allegedly tweeted that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States was “karma” and “punishment from God” for slow arms deliveries to Ukraine. They say that fewer people died during the terrorist attack than Ukrainians are currently dying due to delays in arms deliveries from the United States. However, this is fake.

There are no confirmed sources or evidence that Sternenko, other Ukrainian volunteers or officials made such statements. The quote is completely fictitious and does not reflect the real views of Ukrainian society or the state. The fake exploits the tragic events of September 11, which are very sensitive for many people, especially in the United States. Its goal is to incite hatred and create the impression that Ukrainians allegedly support or justify terrorist attacks.

The United States is one of Ukraine's main international allies, providing significant financial, military and diplomatic assistance. Despite the complex logistical processes, the support of the United States and Western countries has been and remains important for Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression. All such fakes are aimed at sowing mistrust and increasing cooperation between Ukraine and its Western partners.

Ukrainian society condemns any terrorist actions, and such statements are unacceptable for Ukrainians who themselves suffer from violence and terror from Russian aggression. This fake is specifically created to divide Ukraine and its international allies.

This fake is part of a wider Russian information campaign aimed at discrediting Ukrainian military and volunteers and attempting to present them in a negative light.

Propagandists spread information in their media that the Ukrainian authorities, if they do not like something in the work of journalists, can allegedly simply liquidate them, and Western human rights activists, they say, will remain silent. This is confirmed by the cases of “victims” of the Ukrainian authorities. However, specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security analyzed in more detail the situation with several “martyrs” that are actively mentioned by propaganda:

• Andrii Stenin was a Russian “journalist” who worked as a photographer for RIA Novosti in July 2014, filming the torture of captured Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region. These materials were used by Russian propaganda to demoralize the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

• Ihor Korneliuk and Anton Voloshyn were VGTRK correspondents who covered the occupation of eastern Ukraine in 2014, trying to support Russia’s hybrid aggression.

• Daria Duhina was a propagandist who, among other things, called the massacre in Bucha in 2022 “staged” and was distinguished by her anti-Ukrainian rhetoric.

• Vladlen Tatarskyi (Maksym Fomin) was a collaborator and propagandist who fought as part of the LPR and DPR gangs, and was a citizen of Russia.

• Gonzalo Lira was a propagandist who supported Kremlin colleagues such as Alina Lipp, Graham Phillips and Patrick Lancaster, actively spreading their fakes.

Thus, the Kremlin is trying to present the death of its own propagandists in various circumstances as a victim of repression by Kyiv, which is part of its disinformation campaign. The goal of such manipulations is to create the impression that Ukraine is fighting not only against Russian aggressors, but also against the international press, which calls into question its status as a democratic state.

Recently, the Polish segment of the TikTok social network has stepped up the distribution of anti-Ukrainian materials, the Center for Countering Disinformation reports.

Among the large number of TikTok accounts duplicating narratives in line with Russian propaganda, the following can be highlighted:

Martwyobywatel – the profile contains many videos discrediting Ukrainian refugees, as well as videos directed against the Ukrainian language. Narratives about the “Ukrainization of Poland” and the “displacement” of Polish culture by Ukrainians are spread here.

19_illegal_06 (SIEWCA_PRAWDY) – the page spreads anti-Ukrainian messages and memes to humiliate Ukrainians and discredit the Ukrainian political leadership. They fuel the narrative of the “Banderization of Poland” and promote hatred towards Ukrainian refugees.

Asherbur (Asher Burov-Şǔraev) – the page is run by a Russian citizen who lived in Lublin and now probably lives in Israel. The profile publishes videos on the topic of resistance to the “Ukrainization of Poland”, and also tries to portray Ukrainians in the worst possible light. There are also videos praising Putin and justifying Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

Polakpatriotaa – the profile contains narratives that are beneficial to Russia, directed against the Polish leadership, EU politicians and Ukrainians. Some publications by the account's authors try to intimidate Poles with the possibility of Poland's participation in the war against Russia. They spread the slogan “This is not our war” and call not to help Ukraine.

Previously, we wrote about how far-right movements in EU countries use TikTok to support Russian propaganda messages.

The administrators of one of the anonymous Telegram channels complained that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation blocked the site they created for a foreign audience. On it, propagandists in six languages spread Russian propaganda, especially about Russian attacks on civilians and critical infrastructure in Ukraine. The administrators called it a “crime against freedom of speech” and an attempt to “shut the mouths” of everyone who “tells the truth” about the events in Ukraine. They say that the fact that the FBI blocked them confirms that they are “on the right track”.

In reality, however, blocking the site is an important step in the fight against disinformation, not a restriction on free speech. Instead of providing “objective information”, as the site’s authors claim, it has been manipulating facts in an attempt to justify Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and discredit the actions of Western countries supporting Ukraine in the war. Disinformation spread by sites like this undermines international security, incites hatred, and destabilizes the situation.

The US actions are aimed at protecting truthful information and preventing the influence of fake news that threatens public order and security. Blocking such resources helps reduce the influence of propaganda campaigns aimed at distorting real events and misleading people.

The FBI has uncovered one of the Kremlin's largest networks for spreading disinformation and propaganda. This was reported by the Telegram channel Ukrainian Offensive based on a published document prepared by federal agents to support a lawsuit to confiscate a number of Internet domains. It describes an extensive network of clone sites and one-day news resources, such as the fictitious BBC California. The agents also managed to identify and translate into English Russian guidelines for bots and distributors of fake information.

According to their information, the network is headed by one of the most influential Kremlin officials, Serhii Kyryienko, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. With the help of organizations such as ANO Dialog and the Institute for Internet Development, Russia has created a huge network of sites-clones of large media outlets in different languages. These sites publish fictitious news along with copies of real materials, creating the impression that the source is reliable. The methods pay special attention to the dissemination of fake information in the Ukrainian language with reference to Ukrainian resources, emphasizing the importance of the language issue. The network does not even limit itself to publishing materials that are unfavorable for the Russian Federation, since the main goal is to create the illusion of division and polarization of society.

Researchers at the Detector Media Research Center have joined the Alliance4Europe report, created by an international group of disinformation experts, which provides information on how Operation Doppelganger continues to operate, especially on social media.

Russian propaganda continues to produce new fakes about the events in the Kursk region. The Center for Countering Disinformation has discovered another wave of false publications aimed at discrediting Ukraine.

“Ukrainian Nazism”. One of the fakes concerns a supposedly British TV channel, which counted 1000 cases of the use of Nazi symbols by Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. This is a completely fabricated story, since no British media resource has published such information. The purpose of this fake is to reinforce old Kremlin narratives about the “Nazi” character of the Ukrainian army and to create an image of an enemy that allegedly poses a threat to civilization.

“Torture of Russian prisoners”. This is a fake video in which Ukrainian soldiers are accused of abusing Russian prisoners. Such materials have repeatedly proven to be fakes, and they are aimed at demoralizing the Ukrainian military and justifying the cruelty of the Russian army. It is also supposed to intimidate Russian soldiers so that they do not surrender.

“Stolen Headphones”. Propagandists are spreading a story about looting by Ukrainian soldiers, claiming that a “resident of the Kursk region” allegedly tracked her stolen headphones to the Sumy region. This fake is aimed at creating a negative image of the Ukrainian military, but there is no evidence to support its veracity.

“Training of the military in school”. The enemy claims that Ukrainian military personnel were trained in a school in the Zhytomyr region for operations in the Kursk region. This information is part of a strategy aimed at destabilization and preparation of the information base for possible missile strikes on peaceful targets.

“Civilian atrocities”. Russian media are spreading “testimonies of refugees” from Kursk, where they accuse Ukrainians, without evidence, of mass murder and abuse of civilians. The propaganda fabrication even mentions the French flag raised by “foreign mercenaries”. This is another attempt to denigrate the Ukrainian Armed Forces and frighten both the Russian population and the international audience.

A photo of what is supposedly the cover of the German magazine Handelsblatt is being circulated on social networks. The cover shows a road sign with the inscription “Kursk” and the headline “Ukrainian soldiers have occupied Russian territory”. The sign shows crosses buried in the ground and Ukrainian military helmets thrown over the crosses.

Fact-checkers of the Georgian project MythDetector have established that such a cover does not exist. The fake photo published has the publication date: “Saturday-Sunday, August 23/24/25”. In fact, the cover of the real issue, published on that day, shows Armin Pappergeri, director of the largest German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. In addition, the distributed photo incorrectly indicates the issue number; currently, only issue 163 has been published, not 164, as indicated in the fake cover.

We have documented fakes many times, whether they involve fake graffiti, foreign magazine covers/newspaper columns, or advertising videos. In this way, propagandists aim to show that their rhetoric (for example, that Zelenskyi is hated by the whole world) is also repeated in the West. This may make readers think that the public is really unhappy with Ukraine. And especially when the authors use elements of popular culture, implying that people are laughing at the situation in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian agenda is a reason for Europe to laugh.

Anonymous Telegram channels are spreading a supposedly Bloomberg video story. It says that military analyst and retired general Bradley Gerik gave an interview for a podcast to Military.com: there he allegedly expressed the opinion that the results achieved in the Kursk region are “insignificant” and not worth the large material and human losses suffered by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this operation.

VoxCheck analysts explained that Bloomberg did not publish a similar story. Moreover, there is no such video on the official website of the publication, nor on the media's pages on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X), TikTok and YouTube.

At the same time, retired General Bradley Gerik did not comment on the operation, all his quotes are made up. He never gave comments on the Military.com podcast. Although Military.com covered the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk, it did not refer to this analyst. The online publication believes that the operation in Kursk proved “Ukraine's ability to seize the initiative” and raised the morale of the fighters.

Read on Censor.NET: The US is allegedly involved in the operation in the Kursk region.

While monitoring the information space, the Center for Countering Disinformation discovered a fake Telegram channel illegally using the name of the 46th Separate Airmobile Brigade of the Airborne Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This fake Telegram channel actively spreads false messages aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian military. In particular, the channel spreads manipulative information about the situation on one of the front lines in the Donetsk region.

It is important to note that this channel has nothing to do with the 46th Brigade. Official representatives of the brigade stated this on their official pages, noting that the information on the fake channel is manipulation and disinformation.

The purpose of spreading such fake news is to undermine confidence in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and sow panic among the Ukrainian population. Propagandists are trying to demoralize citizens, raise doubts about the effectiveness of defense and the ability of the military to protect the country. In addition, such disinformation may be part of a broader information war aimed at creating chaos and destabilizing society, which may ultimately weaken national resistance to the aggressor.

The Center for Countering Disinformation continues to monitor the Russian information space, identifying new fakes and manipulations that the enemy is spreading about the situation in the Kursk region. Detector Media writes about the latest of them.

“Chemical attacks”: Propagandists are spreading a photo of a downed drone, claiming that the Ukrainian military planned to use it to spray chemical or biological weapons in the Kursk region. However, this information is not true. Ukraine strictly adheres to the Chemical Weapons Convention, while Russian troops have repeatedly used gas attacks on the front, which is confirmed by numerous reports even from their own war correspondents.

“Civilian Murders”: Russian propaganda has come up with a new story about “murders of people” trying to evacuate from Kursk region. One version tells of a man who allegedly drove 100 kilometers with his dead wife in the car after the car was fired upon by Ukrainian soldiers. However, this information is also untrue.

“Ukrainians against the operation in Kursk”: the enemy launched an information and psychological operation (IPSO), claiming that the Ukrainian population allegedly massively opposes the operation in Kursk. Materials with the narrative “we do not need Kursk” are being distributed in social networks, the purpose of which is to create the illusion of discontent among Ukrainians regarding the situation at the front.

“Overcrowded morgues in Khmelnytskyi”: false information is being spread that 215 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in Kursk have allegedly been delivered to Khmelnytskyi. No evidence has been provided for this information.

Russian propaganda is also spreading disinformation about looting allegedly committed by Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. A new, probably staged, video has appeared about the trident brand” with which Ukrainian soldiers allegedly planned to brand civilians in the Kursk region. In addition, a significant number of manipulative publications concern the so-called “failure of the Kursk adventure”, which Russian propagandists are trying to attribute to the words of both the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Syrskyi and an American fighting on the side of Ukraine.

This wave of disinformation is aimed at discrediting Ukraine and its military, increasing panic among the population, and attempting to sow doubts about the success of Ukrainian military operations.

Trumpist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene released a statement claiming that the war could have ended months ago, but Zelenskyi's calls for more weapons are only leading to the deaths of a generation of Ukrainian men. Propagandists are actively spreading this statement. However, it is manipulative.

This was noted by experts from the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security. They claim that the assertion that the war could have ended several months ago is an outright lie. Moscow has not offered any peaceful solutions since the start of the full-scale war, only ultimatums, which are equivalent to Ukraine's capitulation. Russia is also trying to convince the world that military and financial aid to Ukraine allegedly increases the number of victims among Ukrainians, while its cessation will lead to peace.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is known for her statements that echo Kremlin propaganda and her ardent opposition to aid to Ukraine. She has previously also claimed that Ukraine is allegedly waging a “war against Christianity”, that “civilians are being tortured”, and that “Nazism is thriving in Ukraine”. Greene echoes the propagandists, distorting the reality that aid to Ukraine allows it to more effectively resist the aggressor, preventing even greater casualties, destruction, and terror brought by the occupier.

Administrators of the fake telegram channel “Red Cross of Ukraine” encourage people to leave their personal data in an online application to supposedly “receive cash assistance in the amount of 6,500 UAH”. The Ukrainian Red Cross warned about this on its official Facebook page.

The organization noted that it does not collect personal data or bank card data through social networks and bots, and also emphasized that all official communication channels of the Ukrainian Red Cross are verified, that is, “recognized by social networks and have a blue circle with a tick next to the name, which confirms this status”. If suspicious information is found, they encourage people to write to the Ukrainian Red Cross support service sos@redcross.org.ua or check the information in the Information Center at 0 800 332 656.

On August 6, it was already reported about scammers who sent out fake letters from the tax office in order to break the mail of Ukrainian organizations.

The court's decision to detain the once leading 1+1 TV channel and others, and now Russian propagandist Zhan Novoseltsev in Ukraine, allegedly demonstrates exemplary punishment of citizens who defend their rights. Propagandists claim this.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security explains that Zhan Novoseltsev is not a journalist or human rights activist, but is known as a distributor of fakes and an ally of anti-vaccination activist Ostap Stakhiv. On July 23, the Security Service of Ukraine detained him for calls for armed resistance against the Territorial centers of recruitment and social support workers and attempts to destabilize the situation in the country. Novoseltsev and his accomplices, including pseudo-experts and administrators of online communities, disseminated false information about the Ukrainian military and published personal data of Ukrainian defenders and law enforcement officers. All of them pretended to be journalists, the SBU reports. Novoseltsev also spread conspiracy theories and fake news about the war and energy situation in Ukraine.

Russian propaganda uses this information drive to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and create distrust in state institutions. This is part of an information war aimed at weakening internal unity and damaging its international reputation.

Russian propaganda is actively using Russia's presidency of the UN Security Council to promote its own narratives regarding Ukraine. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine drew attention to this when on July 25 Russia convened a meeting due to the “problem of supplying weapons to Ukraine”, where diplomats from the aggressor country disseminated propaganda messages.

Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vasyl Nebenzia, repeated several propaganda clichés that were discovered by the Center for Research and Explained and explained by Detector Media.

“The West is robbing Ukraine with colonial schemes”

With the help of this cliché, Russian propagandists are trying to show that the West allegedly really does not help Ukraine, but only uses its resources and capabilities. This statement is aimed at undermining Ukrainians' trust in Western aid and support, presenting it not as help but as exploitation. In this way, Russia is trying to sow doubts among the population of Ukraine and the international community regarding the honesty and selflessness of assistance from the West. Propagandists also want to influence the mood in Western countries so that the population begins to doubt the advisability of supporting Ukraine.

“Corruption in Ukraine has reached unprecedented proportions”

This unsubstantiated statement attempts to discredit the Ukrainian government, undermining its legitimacy and the credibility of its international partners. The purpose of its dissemination is to convince the international community that support for Ukraine is wasteful and ineffective. The exaggeration of corruption at high levels is intended to discourage other states from continuing to provide assistance.

“Volodymyr Zelenskyi has lost legitimacy”

Propagandists are once again seeking to portray the President of Ukraine as an illegitimate leader in order to weaken his domestic and international support. This is done in order to reduce his influence and authority. Russia is trying to increase destabilization in Ukraine and create the impression of chaos, which can be used as justification for its crimes against Ukraine and its inhabitants.

“The Ukrainian peace formula makes no sense”

This cliche is aimed at discrediting Ukrainian peace initiatives in order to present Ukraine as an obstacle to peace. The goal is to impose on the world community the opinion that the Ukrainian proposals are not successful, and thus force them to accept conditions favorable to Russia. Thus, Russia seeks to impose its vision of scenarios for ending the war and its peace conditions, which would ensure exclusively its strategic interests.

The latest meeting of the Security Council once again showed that Russia is using the international platform and diplomats as a propaganda tool, avoiding constructive dialogue. It seeks to convince the international community that it is right and justify its aggressive actions in Ukraine by spreading distorted information and manipulation.

The “information alibi” method consists of proactively accusing the other party of actions that will actually be committed by the accusers themselves. This technique is used to cover up or justify one's criminal actions by creating a preemptive message to confuse the audience and deflect responsibility. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council spoke in more detail about its use.

Its experts showed with real examples how it works. Russian troops launched a missile attack on a railway station in Kramatorsk in April 2022, killing civilians. In anticipation of this attack, Russian telegram channels distributed warnings about the danger of evacuation by rail, blaming the Ukrainian Armed Forces for the concentration of militants at the station. This created the preconditions for accusing Ukraine of organizing the attack. A few weeks before Russia blew up Colony No. 120 in Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners were kept, a telegram spread information that Ukraine was allegedly preparing to destroy the colony. When Russia prepared and carried out mass civilian killings in Izium and Uman, propaganda disseminated information in advance about Ukrainian “provocations” in these cities. The Russians are also still distributing “information alibis”, the formation of which has not yet been completed, for example, about the staging of the mass death of locals in Kherson.

By anticipating possible charges, Russia is trying to confuse the international community and divert attention from its actions. By accusing Ukraine of future or already committed crimes, propagandists also try to undermine trust in the Ukrainian authorities and the Armed Forces of Ukraine both within the country and abroad. Creating alternative versions of events helps Russia spread doubt to an international audience, making it difficult to unequivocally condemn its actions and subsequently impose sanctions. Russian propaganda deliberately complicates the establishment of the truth, which is beneficial for the aggressor to continue his criminal actions without due responsibility.

The NATO Washington Summit took place on July 9-11, 2024. Subsequently, Chinese journalists began to write about the results of the summit. In particular, some of them criticized the decision to help Ukraine and spread a narrative consistent with Russian propaganda: “NATO is fomenting confrontation”. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

In addition, the Chinese publication Global Times published an interview with American economist Jeffrey Sachs, who voiced theses on Ukraine that were beneficial to Russia. It should be noted here that this is not the first time he has spread pro-Russian rhetoric.

As for India, its media pays great attention to the visit of the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Moscow, which took place on July 8-9, 2024, and sees benefits from relations with Russia. However, in India they are unhappy that the agreement on the dismissal of their citizens from service in Russia is not being fulfilled.

Also, some Indian publications, without context, are disseminating comments from Russian representatives about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and relaying Moscow’s calls to Washington to stop supplying arms to Ukraine and focus on internal security.

With the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine began to actively develop relations with countries of the Global South. First of all, contacts take place in the context of the implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula, because it has a global context. However, Russia doesn’t really like this, so it is trying in every possible way to ruin these relations.

Propaganda telegram channels disseminate a number of manipulations and narratives in the best traditions of Russian propaganda on issues related to Ukrainian energy. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

Thus, as a result of monitoring the information space, the following main disinformation messages were discovered:

– Ukraine is on the verge of an energy catastrophe;

– a black winter awaits Ukrainians;

– the authorities are incompetent in the conditions of the energy crisis;

– Ukraine sells electricity abroad while its population is without electricity;

- The authorities are profiting from raising tariffs.

Moscow is spreading these narratives with the aim of destabilizing the situation inside Ukraine. Also, by spreading manipulations about supposedly “mass protests of Ukrainians against blackouts”, Russia is trying to create the illusion that Ukraine is on the verge of a social explosion.

At the same time, on the TikTok social network, propagandists are artificially promoting the trend about the unbearability of life in Ukraine with calls for citizens to go abroad. Thus, Russia seeks to provoke a new wave of migration by driving Ukrainians out of their homes.

A coalition of investigative journalists from Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Germany, Romania and Poland investigated for VSQUARE how right-wing radical movements in EU countries used the social network TikTok, which spread messages consonant with Russian propaganda as well as themes of Russian aggression against Ukraine. They noted that TikTok's algorithm inadvertently promotes political activism, extremism and propaganda, complicating research due to limited access to data, which requires a combination of API data, web scraping (active search of open sources) and manual collection for conducting investigations.

In particular, it found that the TikTok landscape has become a breeding ground for German right-wing extremists, with a content reach of approximately 23 million users. The investigation shows how easy it is to manipulate TikTok's virality algorithm, which tolerates the creation of fake accounts and misinformation. The German AfD party has particularly benefited from this right, using TikTok to strengthen its pro-Russian position and influence young voters.

Olga, a TikTok influencer from Moscow, shows her Czech-speaking audience moments from everyday life and street interviews, subtly hinting at the “minimal” impact of international sanctions on Russia. After living in the Czech Republic for 12 years, she returned to Russia. Among the reasons for this decision, she names bureaucracy and a decrease in freedom in Europe. On her account Z Ruska s láskou (From Russia with Love), she discusses current events in the Czech Republic. For example, she answers the country's Prime Minister Petr Fial, comparing prices to emphasize lower costs in Russia. With more than 10,000 followers, her audience overlaps with that of Czech and Slovak politicians, a pro-Putin biker gang, and an anonymous extremist account critical of the Czech government and Ukraine.

Claudiu Tarziu, a Romanian MEP from the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), posts videos on his account that have been identified as containing disinformation. The authors of the study found that conspiracy theories and xenophobic messages make up more than 41% of its content. AUR and another far-right party, SOS RO, together won eight seats in the European Parliament elections. Context.ro analyzed the TikTok content of seven MEPs affiliated with these parties and found that between 20 and 42% of their videos contained toxic messages. Using automated software, Context.ro analyzed more than 5,800 videos from 36 MEP candidates, finding 2,000 instances of exaggeration, fear-mongering or false content.

In the 2024 European Parliament elections, Poland's far-right Confederation alliance won six seats, marking a significant increase from 2019, when no far-right candidate was elected to represent the country. Their success is largely due to a strong presence on TikTok, where alliance leader Slawomir Mentzen boasts over 850,000 followers and the Confederation's official page has 329,000 followers. Despite the fact that TikTok accounts were created recently, in late 2022 or early 2023, members of the Confederation actively joined the network during election campaigns, but subsequently began to publish less material. In particular, MEP Grzegorz Braun, known for his anti-Ukrainian rhetoric, also gained more than 100,000 subscribers, correlating with his electoral support. In addition, influential figures such as Stefan Tompson, who has more than 100,000 followers, amplify Polish far-right narratives, although such accounts are registered abroad, particularly in Germany.

After the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico, Slovakia saw a surge in disinformation and conspiracy theories on this topic, including on TikTok. Former judge Stefan Harabin, linked to nationalist SNS MP Roman Mihelko, spread a conspiracy theory blaming the attack on someone linked to the country's former president Zuzana Caputova, calling her the “ideological architect” of the attack. Despite TikTok's limited reach in Slovakia compared to Facebook's dominance in the context of political content, a video related to the murder received 60,000 views, and other content on the topic reached more than 300,000 viewers. The Jan Kuciak Investigative Center found that high-profile figures such as President Petr Pellegrini and the Smer party were the driving force behind this narrative, along with lesser-known profiles that spread baseless accusations, for example linking the attacker to LGBTQ activists.

Hungarian TikTok features mainstream, not just fringe, media outlets spreading Russian disinformation. Channels such as M1-Híradó and VILÁGHÍRADÓ ROLI OLDALA attract more than 125,000 and 50,000 subscribers respectively by publishing snippets of news programs with a pro-Russian slant, despite the fact that these accounts are not officially affiliated with copper. Even figures associated with pro-government media, such as Daniel Ferko of Hír TV, distribute similar content, such as statements linking the recent Moscow terrorist attacks to Ukrainian forces.

As Eesti Ekspress found out, Estonian TikTok videos in which their creators expressed fear of possible power outages were part of the disinformation ecosystem in Estonia. Examining conspiracy content related to Russian aggression against Ukraine, the report's authors found that 63% of such videos on Estonian TikTok could be classified as disinformation. Although there are approximately 400,000 TikTok users in Estonia, it is dominated by Russian propaganda aimed at stoking anxiety and fear. Eesti Ekspress found around 50 accounts spreading disinformation, posting monologue-style videos and dark humor about the risks of war in Estonia.

TikTok, owned by ByteDance, responded to queryers by reiterating its efforts to combat misinformation, saying it uses fact-checkers and proactively removes harmful content. They noted that misinformation is rare on TikTok: less than 2% of removed videos in Q4 2023 violated the virtue and authenticity policies, and less than 40% violated the misinformation or civic virtue policies. TikTok ensures that toxic content is either removed completely or its access to users' feeds is reduced. The company denies the accusation that it promotes the spread of misinformation, noting that it has strict policies against the accounts of governments, politicians and political parties aimed at maintaining freedom of expression and creating a “cheerful platform for the community”. However, the report's authors note that these efforts are not enough.

The Russians managed to create a network of their contacts among local journalists and politicians in Israel, who are becoming instruments of influence in the region. Israel Hayom writes about this, citing Israeli intelligence services. These contacts are actively used to spread Russian propaganda and disinformation aimed at undermining stability in Israel.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine notes that in order to analyze the activities of Russians in the Israeli media space, it was discovered that the Kremlin uses a wide arsenal to promote propaganda in it. This includes both traditional and new methods to maximize influence on public opinion.

Key technologies include:

- creation of websites masquerading as Israeli media. They look like real news outlets, but they actually spread pro-Russian information and disinformation;

- dissemination of pro-Russian messages in the comments of popular political groups on social networks. This allows one to form public opinion and support the necessary narratives among the population;

- Distribution of anti-Ukrainian publications, including interviews with Israeli military and political figures calling for continued cooperation with Russia. These materials should undermine support for Ukraine and justify Russian aggression.

Israeli intelligence services are actively monitoring these influence attempts and working to neutralize them, but the problem remains relevant and requires constant attention and counteraction.

A recent Bloomberg report highlighted how Russia is using Western bloggers to spread its propaganda. With an audience of more than two million subscribers, they either moved to Russia permanently or traveled there after the start of the full-scale invasion. In their content, these bloggers mostly ignore the topic of the war in Ukraine. In turn, they focus on the supposedly insignificant impact of sanctions and the creation of a positive image of Russia.

There is no direct evidence that these bloggers are part of a coordinated pro-Kremlin campaign. However, the Russian propaganda machine often uses social media to spread disinformation, and bloggers have become an important part of this mechanism.

Specialists from the Beyond the News project analyzed this using the example of Russian blogger Elina Bakunova, known as Eli from Russia, who promotes Kremlin narratives due to her travels around Russia.

She has a YouTube channel with over 700 thousand subscribers, some of her videos have received millions of views. In them, Bakunova shows Lake Baikal, Mount Elbrus and other sights of Russia, creating the impression that her content is dedicated exclusively to travel.

She positions herself as an ordinary girl from Perm, although her education and access to professional equipment indicate otherwise. She began her career by talking about studying in Italy, where she studied English and PR. Her videos include professional drone footage and time lapses.

Her connection with propagandists is evidenced, in particular, by her interview with an American working for Russia Today about the advantages of living in Russia. In addition, in June 2022, it joined the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), whose honorary president is Shoihu and whose supervisory board is headed by Putin. The organization has become an instrument of hybrid warfare in the international arena and in the field of education. They use cartography to create false maps that label temporarily occupied territories of other countries as Russian.

In its videos, Eli from Russia shows different peoples as part of “great Russia”, focusing on landscapes and cuisine and only briefly mentioning culture and customs. She constantly emphasizes Russian as the main language for everyday use. The YouTuber avoids discussing the past and contemporary problems of these peoples, keeping silent about their true history of “annexing” to Russia, trying to create an attractive image of the state.

While traveling through countries that Russian propaganda calls post-Soviet, such as Georgia and Kazakhstan, she ignores anti-Russian sentiment and focuses on nostalgia for Soviet times. The YouTuber talks about life under the Soviet Union as “the best of times”.

In the comments to the video, she is reproached for keeping silent about Russian aggression against Ukraine. However, her supporters argue that the blog is dedicated to nature and cultures, so she should not talk about political topics. She continues to move freely around the country and travel abroad. After February 24, 2022, she published a video about her trip beyond the Northern Circle, without uttering a word about Russian aggression.

Also, she doubts the fairness of international sanctions against Russia, arguing that they only harm ordinary people, and not Putin and his circle. She focuses on the difficulties that the sanctions created for her personally, without mentioning the reasons for their introduction.

On her travel channel, Elina made several videos that even her fans considered inappropriate. Like the one where she talks about “Victory Day” and praises her grandfather who “fought” “Ukrainian nationalists” during Russia’s modern war against Ukraine.

Eli from Russia disseminates pro-Kremlin narratives to Western audiences who know little about history and life in Russia. They see a beautiful picture that creates the impression of a different Russia and reduces the critical perception of its aggressive actions. She keeps quiet about the war in Ukraine and avoids critical topics, furthering the goals of the propaganda machine, despite the lack of direct evidence of coordination with the Kremlin.

In its digest of anti-Ukrainian messages in Russian media, the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine highlighted the manipulation and fake news spread by Russian propagandists.

Russia seems to be offering a “peace agreement” rather than issuing an ultimatum to Ukraine.

Russian propagandists are spreading information that Russia is offering Ukraine a peace agreement to end the war. Thus, Russia is highlighted as a peacemaker, a party desiring peace. At the same time, propagandists claim the “unwillingness” of Ukraine or the West, which “leads Ukraine”, to end the war.

In fact, Russia issued an ultimatum to Ukraine. The Russians’ demands included: the transfer to Russia of the territories it occupied and international recognition of Ukrainian territories as part of Russia, the non-aligned and nuclear-free status of Ukraine, and the lifting of sanctions against Russia.

Russian propagandists have resorted to replacing concepts in order to portray Russia not as an aggressor, but as a peacemaker. Such propaganda affects both Russian and foreign audiences. It demonizes the West, portrays Russia as morally superior, and instills doubts in Western society about the wisdom of continuing to support Ukraine.

Ukraine allegedly uses cargo ships for military purposes

Propagandists baselessly claim that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are allegedly launching missile attacks on Sevastopol and Crimea using dry cargo ships on which launchers with ATACMS missiles are placed. Thus, the ship is supposedly capable of entering the Black Sea or Odesa cargo port after an attack and merging with the dry cargo ships stationed there.

However, this is a fake, since a cargo ship is a transport vessel designed to transport dry cargo and is not suitable for installing weapons on it. Moreover, Russian propagandists cannot provide any evidence of the use of such vessels by Ukraine.

The dissemination of such a fake is an attempt to legitimize Russian attacks on non-military vessels that are allegedly used for military purposes. So the Russians are blowing up maritime security and jeopardizing one of the trade routes for Ukraine. In addition, in this way, Russian propagandists are spreading fear among Ukrainians and, in general, undermining trust in Ukraine.

Pro-Russian resources are disseminating information that Ukrainians are supposedly receiving bills to pay for the telethon. As “proof”, propagandists add a photo of a “receipt” from the Rivne Regional Energy Supply Company, which, in addition to electricity charges, allegedly shows charges for the telethon amounting to 40 UAH.

However, this information is not true, write experts on the VoxCheck project. In fact, the United News telethon is financed exclusively from the state budget.

A sample invoice for services from the Rivne Regional Energy Supply Company is presented on the company’s official website. There is no payment for the telethon. Also, the Bereznivskyi district, which is mentioned in the receipt, no longer exists for a long time - as a result of the administrative-territorial reform, four districts were formed in the Rivne region, the former Bereznivskyi district became part of the Rivne one.

Finally, the telethon is broadcast on a dozen national television channels, available on digital airwaves, satellite television and online for free. It is technically impossible to separate “Unified News” into a separate package of services. Citizens of Ukraine either watch it for free or pay providers for a package of channels, which may include channels broadcasting the marathon. Accordingly, when purchasing such a package, the money goes directly to the provider and cannot be combined in one bill with utilities.

Previously, we refuted the information that in Rivne those who evade are disconnected from public services.

Journalist for the American online publication The Washington Post, Lee Hockstader, claims that Russia began actively spreading disinformation in Europe even on the eve of the European Parliament elections. In his column, Hockstader writes that in 2022, Europe was already experiencing a large-scale Russian disinformation operation: “The Moscow-controlled organization cloned the websites of newspapers, magazines and news services, including the British Guardian and the German Bild, posted copies under similar domain names and filled them with Kremlin”.

The main attacks of Russian disinformation are directed against Ukraine: “A website posing as the French Ministry of Defense announced that 200 thousand French recruits will be sought for service in Ukraine. A prominent German TV journalist known as a “Putin expert” and Moscow sympathizer was found to have received more than $600,000 from a Kremlin-linked Russian billionaire”.

Russia's war against Ukraine has removed obstacles to Moscow's use of various disinformation tools. The United States may face a similar or even greater challenge this fall on the eve of the presidential election. If Europe does not respond to this challenge, Hockstader said, which is looking increasingly likely, then the picture will look even bleaker in some places. Particularly in the United States, where dysfunctional policies and First Amendment protections make tracking Russian mischief even more difficult.

This resource disseminates fake news, in particular, about “the death of soldiers of the French Foreign Legion in the war in Ukraine”, criticizes the French government, publishes caricatures of President Macron, promotes pro-Russian fakes and supports right-wing radicals. They write about this in the Center for Strategic Communications and Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

Resistancerepublicaine.com is registered and hosted in Moscow - that is why the .com domain was chosen rather than .fr, intended for French online resources. This was determined by researchers from Insight News Media.

According to investigators, the materials on this site are intended to spread chaos, despair and protest sentiments in France, to blow up the French government and support right-wing radicals committed to Moscow. Previously, we denied information that France had allegedly made an official decision to send its troops to Ukraine.