The Kremlin promotes disinformation through the Nigerian publication THE NATION, the Senegalese SENE NEWS, and the Egyptian El Mostaqbal. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

• THE NATION, for example, published an article about the alleged sale by the Office of the President of Ukraine of land to the Soros Foundation in order to bury chemical waste.

• SENE NEWS publishes “investigative articles” about Ukraine with links to anonymous sources or fictitious journalists.

• El Mostaqbal quotes Russian officials accusing Ukraine and spreading narratives about “biological laboratories” or that “Ukraine is a US puppet”, for example.

Considering that the fakes on the analyzed resources have not received significant publicity among the international community, unlike the Russian information space, we can conclude that Russian propaganda uses these media to increase the confidence of the Russian domestic population in false information. Like, “even foreign media are writing about this!”.

You can read more about how Russia promotes its narratives through African media in a joint study by the Center for Countering Disinformation and the Molfar OSINT agency.

Australia's national broadcaster ABC has released a documentary “The Ukrainian War: The Other Side”, in which British journalist Sean Langan covers the war through the eyes of the Russian side.

In particular, the film disseminates the following Russian propaganda narratives:

- in 2014, a coup d’état took place in Ukraine;

- Ukrainians from Donbas wanted to go to Russia;

- Ukrainians are Nazis supported by the West;

- Bucha is a fake;

- The Ukrainian Armed Forces use civilians as “human shields” and fire at civilians;

– Russia did not start the war, it is ending it.

That is, in attempts to show the “other” side, Sean Langan actually provided the Russians with a platform to justify their aggression against Ukraine. The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council writes about this.

The dissemination of such materials to an international audience is promoting Russia and humiliating the Ukrainians, who today are fighting with blood for the right to freedom and independence. We previously wrote that the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko called the film “the equivalent of a bowl of vomit”, contacted the country’s Ministry of Communications and asked for an explanation from the TV channel.

Also, in February 2024, a British journalist filmed a similar documentary with the occupiers near Avdiivka, which also turned into an oasis of Russian narratives.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports that the Kremlin has intensified its disinformation campaign against Ukraine in the Middle East.

Russia is intensively using its diplomatic missions and intelligence network, and various means of propaganda.

The task of the Kremlin’s next hybrid special operation:

● justify a war of conquest;

● discredit Ukraine and Western countries;

● impose unacceptable terms of negotiations;

● improve your own position in the region;

● achieve a reduction in the economic and political pressure that Moscow experiences due to aggression and the commission of war crimes.

Employees of the Russian embassy in Egypt, for example, received instructions from the Kremlin to hold a series of meetings under diplomatic cover to spread disinformation about the war and carry out recruitment activities.

Also, as part of this operation, the Russians are sending propaganda materials to the embassies of other states in Cairo, which justify waging war against Ukraine.

It is, in particular, about two “documents” entitled “On the role of the West in the conflict in Ukraine” and “On the situation around Ukraine”. These materials present a pro-Putin version of the history of Ukraine since the collapse of the USSR. And Russia, of course, is presented as a victim.

The key idea that Russia is promoting in the Middle East is that there is no alternative to the scenario it has imposed for ending the war.

Screenshots of an allegedly published article in the online edition of the Daily Mail are being circulated online, which has the following title: “Why Ukraine’s President wants to be more Charlie Chaplin than Churchill”. Russian propagandists, for their part, say that it is with this title that the Daily Mail is presenting Simon Schuster’s book about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council checked this information. As it turned out, the article with that title is not available on the official website of the online newspaper. In addition, the Center discovered a fake news aggregator, where the article was posted on behalf of the Daily Mail.

By spreading “news” or “articles” on behalf of reputable foreign publications, Russian propaganda is trying to make its fakes more believable. This is one of the tactics of Russian propaganda. Previously, we have analyzed such artificially created materials more than once.

Russia is silent about the situation in the Belgorod and Kursk regions - the Putin regime is not able to ensure security in the border areas. Russian authorities are hiding attempts by residents there to evacuate on their own, and are also blocking the evacuation.

That is, propaganda is doing everything possible to hide the truth about the security situation in the country. Russia’s goal is to use the population as a “human shield” and hold “elections” at any cost. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

The project Beyond the News published a publication about a new youth subculture called Essence, which is added to the name of the city on the corresponding telegram channels. At first, it seems like just another online hangout for teenagers, where members publicly express their opinions about a certain person by suggesting new photos to the administrators. However, in reality it turned into public bullying. Some messages shock adults: “spit on them”, “circumvent them by the tenth road”, “tell them to fu*k off”, “beat them with your feet” - these are just some of the calls that can be seen on these telegram channels.

Most of the publications there resemble revenge on friends or acquaintances or collective bullying of a classmate. In order to insult or frame someone, it is enough to send a photo of the person causing hostility through a special bot and tell nasty things about him. The worst photos are chosen to highlight the victim's abnormality even more. Information is taken from open sources, because teenagers often publish their own photos on social networks, where they can look amazing - this is a kind of teenage trend. Or customers can wait for their victim and photograph him like a paparazzi.

Administrators of such channels are not responsible, since all messages are anonymous. And there were not even cases of punishment for this. Some channels offer victims to find out who ordered them and/or delete the message, but this costs 200-400 hryvnia. Not much, but for a child it can be noticeable.

According to project specialists, not everyone has forgotten the calls for child suicides due to the Blue Whale “game” and mass brawls between teenage participants of the “Redan PMC” in Ukrainian cities. The children first saw them as ordinary communities or subcultures that they wanted to be a part of. In both cases, this happened first in Russian cities and then spread to Ukrainian ones.

The national police then stopped the actions of the teenagers and blocked 30 channels and groups of the Redan private security company in Ukraine. According to official data from law enforcement officers, “the artificial spread of such a subculture is an attempt by Russian propagandists to conduct another information and psychological operation and attract teenagers to illegal activities”.

Specialists from Beyond the News analyzed dozens of telegram channels under the Essence brand. Many of them form one network and are administered by the same people, but there are also autonomous ones. They were unable to find unconditional evidence that this is part of Russian Internet propaganda. Most subscribers are Ukrainian teenagers; communication channel administrators indicate the numbers of Ukrainian mobile operators. There are no suspicious connections with Russian curators. If most of the channels of PMC Redan operated in Russia, then Essences operated primarily in Ukraine. Although investigators found “Entities” with references to Moscow and St. Petersburg in the title, the number of their subscribers is very small.

However, this does not mean that Russia cannot use them with bad intentions. Even if these channels are created and managed by Ukrainian ones, nothing prevents Russian propagandists and FSB agents from buying them out. Subscribers of such resources are a good audience for introducing the necessary enemy narratives. Teenagers in them are deeply involved in the Russian cultural, social and information space. They are well aware of Russian trends, music, the latest rumors, quotes from Russian rappers, sharing sticker packs with their images and Russian “voice memes”. Communication takes place predominantly in Russian, even in the “Essence of Lviv”.

It’s hard not to notice a certain cyclicality: in 2022, Blue Whale returned to Ukraine (the first mentions date back to 2017), in February 2023 – “PMC Redan”, in February 2024 – “Essence” (in fact, back in the summer of last year, however, they have gained popularity only now). This may indicate both natural changes in trends and subcultures among teenagers, and an artificial increase in attention to this phenomenon. Detector Media published a detailed analysis of how Russia actually came up with the subculture “PMC Redan” based on the cultural phenomenon “Redan”.

Propaganda resources are spreading disinformation to prevent the evacuation of children from the Kupiansk district of the Kharkiv region, which is under massive shelling from Russia.

In such messages, residents of the Kharkiv region are called upon to refuse evacuation, intimidated by the fact that the Ukrainian Armed Forces military will immediately move into their homes, and their children will be taken to the west of Ukraine, where they will be persecuted for speaking Russian.

At the same time, propagandists are spreading stories glorifying Avdiivka women who “buried children from evacuation”. However, of course, Russian propaganda does not mention that in this way parents exposed their children to mortal danger, writes the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council.

Propagandists present their “advice” as trusteeship, but the only goal of this campaign is to use the civilian population as a human shield to deter the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Russia systematically uses Ukrainian children for its criminal purposes, in particular by carrying out illegal deportations from the TOT. At least 20 thousand children have already been taken to Russia, for which a court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin.

The Center for National Resistance and the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security reported that the Russians are trying to force Ukrainians to participate in voting for Putin.

The occupation pseudo-administration announced a flash mob called “The whole family goes to the polls”, in which participants must publish photographs of their families from “polling stations” on social networks. In this way, Russians hope to create the illusion of mass participation in the elections.

The Center for National Resistance adds that the occupiers informed all employees of fake government agencies in the occupied Luhansk region that participation in the flash mob was mandatory. You can also read about how Russian propaganda uses residents of (de)occupied territories and what to do about it in another material of the Detector Media.

In some schools in Mariupol, which is temporarily under occupation, brochures with anti-Ukrainian content are being distributed. This was reported by the Mariupol City Council and the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

The postcards feature Russian propaganda clichés, namely Ukraine's “gay troops” and false comparisons. They say that Russia and its supporters are good, but Ukraine is a “wrong choice” and fascism.

The main goal of these materials is to justify and glorify the Russian occupiers and discredit the Ukrainian military. The main target audience of such postcards are children, which means that with their help they want to shape their civic position.

You can also read about how Russian propaganda uses residents of (de)occupied territories and what to do about it in another material of the Detector Media.

A team of propagandists from Kyrienko, the first deputy head of Putin’s administration, was involved in the Russian special operation Maidan-3 (M3). This is stated by the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Lieutenant Andrii Kovalenko.

Also involved in the implementation of the special operation are the Russian special services - the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which are responsible for creating profiles on TikTok, Russian channels on Telegram, as well as bot farms from which disinformation is spread.

Moreover, Medvedchuk and his project “The Other Ukraine” have been added to this special operation, which “uses individual odious pro-Russian characters with Ukrainian passports working for Russia”, notes Andrii Kovalenko.

Let us recall that the Intelligence Committee under the President of Ukraine previously revealed the plan of the Russian special operation “M3”, the budget of which was $1.5 billion and the goal of which was to destabilize the situation inside Ukraine.

• Read also: During the spring of 2024, the Russian information special operation Maidan-3 will reach its climax - The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine

To promote their narratives and undermine the situation in Ukraine, Russians are massively purchasing and creating channels on Telegram and other social networks. Representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate Andrii Yusov said this on Radio Svoboda (Liberty).

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine writes that in order to destabilize and influence the socio-political situation in Ukraine, the Kremlin is taking the following actions:

• to achieve the goals of promoting Russian narratives and destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, a massive purchase and creation of telegram channels is being carried out;

• bot farms are being created that amplify Russian rhetoric on social networks;

• The GUR has lists of people whom Moscow can attract to disseminate Russian narratives and influence the socio-political situation, but their data has not yet been disclosed;

• narratives are disseminated both in Ukraine and abroad.

We urge you to be careful and trust only verified sources of information.

Russian political scientist Serhii Karhanov, who previously proposed a “pre-emptive retaliation strike” against one of the NATO countries, published an article in which he demands a change in Russian nuclear doctrine. According to Karhanov, if the downing of Russian planes and subsequent bombing of Russian cities continue, then, according to the new doctrine, powerful nuclear attacks should be carried out on EU countries. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council.

Karhanov also proposes to abandon the nonproliferation doctrine and “help” “friendly countries” obtain nuclear weapons, in particular, the Arab world and Latin America. This should supposedly help Russia achieve victory in the war, which he considers the complete occupation of the eastern, southern and central regions of Ukraine.

Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to use the US election period to force the EU to reduce military aid to Ukraine and agree to peace negotiations on Putin’s terms.

Karhanov himself is considered an influential scientist and is a member of the scientific council of the Russian Security Council, but does not directly participate in decision-making. Moscow uses statements by Karhanov, as well as ex-President Dmytro Medvediev, solely to frighten the world with a “nuclear cataclysm”.

Read also: The EU flouts its principles because it supports providing Ukraine with depleted uranium weapons, but wants to impose sanctions on Belarus for nuclear weapons

The Washington Post has gained access to Russian documents proving that Russian propaganda is organizing a large-scale disinformation campaign in Ukraine, Europe and around the world.

As part of this campaign, tens of thousands of manipulative media publications, fake news and messages on social networks have already been published from a kind of army of Russian “trolls”. The purpose of these publications is to discredit the leadership of Ukraine, split the elite, demoralize the Armed Forces of Ukraine and disorient the Ukrainians. It should be noted that the theses from the fake posts of Russians echo the theses of individual political players and bloggers in Ukraine.

One of the main directions of the campaign is an attack on the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The Russians are trying to convince Ukrainians and the world that Zelenskyi is afraid of losing power and is allegedly replacing democracy in Ukraine with authoritarianism. The Russians are also promoting the message that Western countries will soon replace Zelenskyi because he is becoming uncomfortable for them. The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council urges not to be fooled by such information, and to trust only verified sources.

• Read on Censor.NET: How Russia tests the mood of Ukrainian society through pseudo-Ukrainian Facebook pages

The Internet advertises sites that are allegedly associated with the ex-commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Resources are located on different domains and created by anonymous users.

The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council reports that these sites are not associated with Zaluzhnyi, and Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have already been informed of their existence. Probably, behind the creation of these online platforms are Russians who are striving to split Ukrainian society, which is why they use different means to achieve this.

The sites lead to anonymous telegrams that collect information about users, which in the future can be used against citizens of Ukraine. The Center warns against registering on these resources and asks you to trust only verified sources.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are distributing videos depicting discreditable posters of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and First Lady Olena Zelenska. This content is accompanied by the caption: “Rome, Italy. Our days. Zelenskyi is shown on all streets. Judging by the posters, he is not liked everywhere”.

The Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council reports that such posters were posted by the Russian community in Italy to produce propaganda content. The Center learned about this after they submitted a corresponding request to the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The purpose of this slander is to create the illusion of fatigue from Zelenskyi and Ukraine. In addition, Russian propaganda systematically discredits the Zelenskyi family with the hope that Ukrainians will “eventually rise up against them”.

For now, the discreditable posters have been removed, and the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy is already working to prevent similar actions by Russians in the future. Previously, we refuted the information that the journalist who published the “investigation” of the purchase of a villa by the Zelenskyi family was allegedly “killed”.

In such messages, the authors, on behalf of the “prayer department”, offer to pray for the Ukrainian military who find themselves surrounded. For example, one of the messages talked about two Ukrainian brigades that were allegedly surrounded by 40 thousand Russian soldiers near Avdiivka.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security reports that the vast majority of such messages are the work of Russian intelligence services.

This is evidenced by the following:

- sometimes messages are written in Russian, which may already be the first sign of it;

- in the structure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine there is no “prayer department” responsible for prayers;

- lack of specifics about the brigades and the time of the location of hostilities;

- the desire to evoke an emotional reaction in the reader in order to obtain maximum coverage;

- in the comments there may be calls for Ukrainians to give up.

Russians can manipulate even such intimate areas as religion, so you should not trust overly emotional messages and calls on this topic.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are distributing a video in which an unknown person in a Ukrainian Armed Forces uniform allegedly shoots a serviceman for allegedly refusing to participate in assault operations. As propagandists write, the victim of the “execution” seems to be a soldier of the 425th Special Operations Brigade “Skala” of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

However, after verifying the information together with the StratCom of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other relevant structures of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Center for Countering Disinformation reported that this video was fake. It is impossible to identify the characters and the area, as well as determine the nationality of the participants in the video. In addition, 425th Special Operations Brigade “Skala” is part of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and not the Main Intelligence Directorate, as propagandists are trying to imagine.

Considering all the above-described signs of a fake and the fact that the video is being distributed by Russian resources, the Center reports that the video was probably shot by the Russians as part of the IPSO in order to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is not the first time that fake videos have been created to demonize the Ukrainian army. Here, for example, is an analysis of a video in which the Russian military allegedly captured a pregnant Ukrainian female soldier.

Pro-Kremlin telegram channels are distributing photos of a letter allegedly from the SBU to the Ukrainian Embassy in Germany with a demand to provide information about all adult men participating in the rallies for further sending their data to the ​​Territorial centers of recruitment and social support.

After verifying the letter at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Center for Countering Disinformation reported that this “document” was fake. The text of the letter contains signs of Photoshop; there is no electronic signature on the “document”, as well as errors in the formatting of the letter. In addition, the letter allegedly from the SBU was written on the letterhead of the Ukrainian Embassy in Germany, and this does not comply with the rules for organizing office work.

By spreading such fakes, Russian propagandists are trying to sow panic among Ukrainians abroad, in particular in Germany. It should be noted that this spread of misinformation occurred against the backdrop of a new version of the Mobilization Bill.

• Read also: In Ukraine they allegedly call on people to mobilize into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with their entire families.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security reports a new tactic for cybercriminals. Attackers specifically accompany the dangerous file with text containing general phrases that may seem familiar to business correspondence:

“Hello, I am sending documents at your request. Please provide the incoming correspondence registration number.

Sincerely,

Mobilization department.”

The names from which the letters come are ostentatiously invented, for example, Konotopenko Radyvoi Ratyborovych. The signature “mobilization department” can confuse and force one to click on the file.

Here are tips from the Center on how to protect yourself from cybercriminals:

- under no circumstances open files received from unknown addresses;

- install an antivirus and keep it activated;

- make backup copies of important documents and files to restore them in case of loss.

This was recorded by specialists from the Center for Strategic Communications and Security. They explained that unknown persons are sending phishing emails allegedly on behalf of the SBU - after all, in such messages users are asked to download malware with dangerous content. For example, Russian intelligence services can use this to collect private information about Ukrainian users.

The SBU department urged not to click on links or download anything when receiving such emails. If such a situation occurs, you should report it by phone: 0 800 501 482 or send an appeal by email: callcenter@ssu.gov.ua .

In the Ukrainian segment of Facebook, enemy groups and pages that masquerade as Ukrainian, but are actually controlled from Armenia, are again becoming popular. Specialists of the NotaYenota project drew attention to them. For example, on one of the pages there is the same type of text with different emotional photos generated by artificial intelligence. The messages also contain images of military or wounded people, but often these are photographs from open sources depicting people not involved in the war in Ukraine. Examples of the names of such pages are “We are Ukrainians, We are Strong”, “I am from Ukraine”, “Prayer”, “My Ukraine”, “Life is Beautiful”.

Moreover, project specialists pay attention to one of the messages containing the Russian-language caption “It’s a pity that this photo will score less than a naked singer”. This indicates that the pages are maintained by native languages. This message received more than 80 thousand likes, and according to NotaYenota, it was designed to emotionally influence the audience of the page.

The contact information of these pages indicates an email with the Russian domain mail.ru (the same on all pages). In addition, in some messages one can notice the replacement of Cyrillic characters with Latin ones, such as a, u, x, i, k, 0, which allows one to bypass blocking systems.

In general, according to NotaYenota, such groups are used by Russians for information interventions aimed at dividing society on trigger topics, testing the audience for vulnerability to patriotic and emotional fakes. People interacting with such content can then be used to target advertising campaigns and plan further information attacks using the discovered vulnerabilities.

This was recorded by the fact-checker of the Brekhunets (Liar) project. They explain that Ukrainians began to receive messages seemingly from Ukrposhta that their parcel was “detained because it does not have a number”. In order for it to be sent, one needs to update their address by clicking on the link.

The Ukrposhta main office previously warned that messages with similar content could be sent on their behalf. Ukrposhta specialists are convinced that in this way scammers are ready to obtain users’ personal data in order to take possession including, for example, of their funds. Therefore, one should not click on unclear links.

Attackers in the Signal messenger send messages to Ukrainian Armed Forces military personnel on the topic of recruiting for the Third Separate Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), containing malicious software.

The hackers’ messages contain archived files, the launch of which will lead to infection of the computer with REMCOSRAT and REVERSESSH malware. At the same time, the attackers try to make the names and contents of the archives interesting for the military: “interrogation of a prisoner”, “geolocation”, “encoding commands”, “claims”, etc. Specialists from the American-Japanese company Trendmicro showed suspicious activity back at the end of December 2023.

Afterwards, the Ukrainian government computer emergency response team CERT-UA, operating under the State Special Communications Agency, took action on a series of cyber attacks. The team also noted that if suspicious activity is detected on computers and in information and communication systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the ITS Cyber Security Center (military unit A0334; email: csoc@post.mil.gov.ua ) should be immediately informed.

The name of such a chat is President’s Messenger. The leaflets themselves are distributed on behalf of the chairman of the Zaporizhzhia regional council, Olena Zhuk. They say that city residents can share all their problems and what worries them through a chatbot by clicking on the QR code on the leaflet, since “this is a quick way to draw attention to an existing problem”.

The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security reported that the head of the local regional council, Olena Zhuk, called these leaflets fake, saying that she, her colleagues and the regional council have nothing to do with them, as well as with the President’s Messenger chat. In addition, Olena Zhuk asked citizens not to follow the QR code on the leaflets and not to transfer their personal data to unknown persons on the Internet. She also reminded residents of Zaporizhzhia about cybersecurity, urging them to observe the rules of digital hygiene.

An information attack in the form of mass SMS messaging is aimed at Ukrainians located in different countries of the world. The messages were created in the style of Lubianka linguists: next to the cliché about the need to work together “to revive Kyiv  Rus to harm our enemies” there are phrases like “take care of yourself and your loved ones” or “save the lives of people” - Russian propaganda and threat in one sentence.

The Main Intelligence Directorate notes that in addition to the provocative content with a call to help Moscow expel “American Satanists” from the “original Russian land”,  Kremlin intelligence officers add the cynical one: “from Russia with love”.

The purpose of this information attack is to intimidate, demoralize and disorganize Ukrainian citizens. If you receive such messages, we urge you to ignore them and think critically.