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.

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