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.

Pro-Russian resources are distributing a photo showing Ukrainian graduates at the last bell celebration ceremony, dressed in graduation ribbons. And, according to propagandists, this year the ribbons seemed to depict a map of Ukraine without the temporarily occupied Crimea.

However, this is a fake photo. The photo has been edited, because in the original photo the map of Ukraine on the ribbons is shown including Crimea. This was reported by specialists from the VoxCheck project. Using the PimEyes program, which performs a reverse face search, they found a photo of one of the girls in the feed - she was present at the Ukrainian Greco-Roman wrestling championship in Ternopil.

Then, thanks to a search using the words “last call celebration Ternopil”, it was possible to find original footage from the graduation. In fact, they were made not in Lviv, but in Ternopil - they were distributed by local media on May 31, 2024. In the photo of all graduates, the ribbons of all graduates depict Ukraine within the internationally recognized borders of 1991, including the temporarily occupied Crimea.

In addition, on the fake photo one can see signs of editing, probably with spot correction: on one ribbon in the place of Crimea there is a noticeable darkening, on the other there is a gap in the outline of the map.

Also, in all online stores where such graduation ribbons are sold or produced to order, Ukraine is depicted within the internationally recognized borders of 1991. In the end, this “news” is spread mainly by Russian websites and telegram channels. There is no mention in the Ukrainian media of the incident, which would certainly provoke outrage in the Ukrainian-language segment of social networks, because such situations are reacted sharply in the media space.

Russian propaganda media are spreading the message that Ukraine will supposedly “end up just like Afghanistan” - when the collapse happens, it will happen instantly. In asserting this, propagandists refer to the statement of the Irish “journalist” Chey Bowes.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine writes that such statements have nothing to do with reality and are not supported by any facts.

In fact, “journalist” Chay Bowes is a well-known relay of Kremlin narratives and propaganda. He collaborates with Western publications that spread Russian lies. For example, Bowes claimed that the Ukrainian military has allegedly “killed thousands of civilians” since 2014, and that there is an ongoing “civil war” in Ukraine that began after the “Maidan coup” for “CIA sponsorship”.

The Center also adds that the Ukrainian Defense Forces continue to destroy Russian occupiers, and international partners provide all necessary assistance and support to Ukraine. This, in particular, does not give grounds to talk about the so-called Afghan scenario in Ukraine.

This stuffing is another information operation of the Russian Federation, the purpose of which is to convince the Western audience that supposedly “the victory of the Russian Federation is close and inevitable”, and support for Ukraine makes no sense. Previously, we analyzed the message that the United States could turn Ukraine into a new Afghanistan.

Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels spread information that Polish doctors are allegedly being sent to Ukraine to front-line hospitals and to participate in hostilities. According to Russian propagandists, this will happen in the near future and, moreover, forcibly. As proof, the Russians provide screenshots of one of the Polish sites with the corresponding article.

However, this information does not correspond to reality, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security Council. The article actually says that 15 Polish doctors will come to Ukraine precisely for educational purposes. The material does not mention their participation in hostilities at all.

By spreading such messages, Russian propaganda promotes the narrative of “foreign mercenaries” allegedly fighting against the Russians in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Earlier, we refuted information that a Ukrainian called on Poles to go fight against Russia.