The Center for Countering Disinformation reports that Russian propagandists continue to implement an information operation aimed at discrediting the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who are performing tasks in the Pokrovsk area. In particular, the Russians are spreading new fakes about ‘mass killings of civilians’. The propagandists lie that the Ukrainian military is killing civilians who are allegedly moving towards Russian positions in search of salvation.

Russia seeks to intimidate the people who still remain in the city, turn them against the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and disrupt the evacuation from Pokrovsk. Finally, the Center for Countering Disinformation adds that Russia intends to use the civilian population as a ‘human shield’ to deter the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Previously, we analyzed disinformation about the alleged mass registration of Ukrainians in Pokrovsk ‘to become Russian citizens after the occupation of the city’.