Russian Information War Against Ukraine
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A Russian concept of
information war Information warfare (IW) (as different from cyber warfare that attacks computers, software, and command control systems) is a concept involving the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a ...
against Ukraine was first enunciated by
Valery Gerasimov Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov ( rus, Валерий Васильевич Герасимов, p=vɐˈlʲerʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪdʑ ɡʲɪˈrasʲɪməf; born 8 September 1955) is a Russian army general serving as the Chief of the General S ...
in 2013 to describe a Western information war that he believed Russia needed to counter. He believed that
color revolutions Colour revolution (sometimes coloured revolution) is a term used since around 2004 by worldwide media to describe various anti-regime protest movements and accompanying (attempted or successful) changes of government that took place in post ...
and the
Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...
had been instigated by Western governments, and posed a threat to the
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. His definition reflected his assessment of Western involvement in these events, particularly in the 2011–2013 Russian protests. "Informatsionnaya voyna" () includes
cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic war ...
, usually framed as technical defenses to technical attacks in warfare, but only as one of many strategies. Russia's information war continuously seeks
strategic victory A strategic victory is a victory that brings long-term advantage to the victor and disturbs the enemy's ability to wage a war. When historians speak of a victory in general, they usually refer to a strategic victory. Usually it comes together with ...
and reflexive control through tools as diverse as undersea communications cables, national origin stories, control of the news cycle, or polluting an information space with
Russian bots Russian web brigades (also called Russian trolls, Russian bots, Kremlin Bots, Kremlins or Rustapar) are State-sponsored Internet propaganda, state-sponsored anonymous Internet political commentators and internet troll, trolls linked to the Governm ...
and
trolls A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...
. In part due to censorship, which has effectively shut down all but government-controlled media in Russia, Kremlin messaging has largely succeeded in convincing the citizens of the
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
to support its approach in Ukraine. The Kremlin denies waging war in Ukraine, saying it just wants to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine against Ukrainian Nazis. A full 58 percent of Russians polled between February 28 and March 3 approved. Don’t Sleep on Russian Information-War Capabilities: Indeed, the Ukraine invasion should galvanize U.S. investment in its own messaging infrastructure
Alyssa Demus and Christopher Paul. Defense One, April 5, 2022 Russian television had been claiming for eight years that Ukrainian Nazis posed a threat to Russia, giving the narrative a "first-mover advantage, reinforced by repetition and familiarity." Ukraine communicates with its population as well, but also with other governments and populations, portraying itself as indomitable and unafraid, but in need of weapons. "Ukraine's online propaganda is largely focused on its heroes and martyrs, characters who help dramatize tales of Ukrainian fortitude and Russian aggression." Such stories are spread not only by Ukraine's leaders but also by citizens using social media. Ukraine's strategy includes comedy, and teaching skepticism of Russian narratives.


Background

Gerasimov, chief of the
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (russian: Генеральный штаб Вооружённых сил Российской Федерации, General'nyy shtab Vooruzhonnykh sil Rossiyskoy Federatsii) is the mil ...
, describes a novel type of warfare that incorporates elements of
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
, demoralization, distraction and political posturing in both peace and times of war, and above all the importance of
social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
, beyond both
cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic war ...
and
information war Information warfare (IW) (as different from cyber warfare that attacks computers, software, and command control systems) is a concept involving the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a ...
as
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
understands them, He suggested a 4:1 ratio of nonmilitary to military measures. Nonmilitary tactics also come under the military in Russia, and although
United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
research suggests that the ratio is still largely aspirational, it indicates recognition of "the utility of nonmilitary measures in interstate confrontation, especially during what would be considered peacetime." ussia's Information Warfare: Exploring the Cognitive Dimension Blagovest Tashev, PhD; Lieutenant Colonel Michael Purcell (Ret); and Major Brian McLaughlin (Ret). Marine Corps University, MCU Journal vol. 10, no. 2, Fall 2019 https://doi.org/10.21140/mcuj.2019100208 p.133 The Russian Federation misinforms and misleads its citizens and the audience of its television channels in other countries -
Channel One Russia Channel One ( rus, Первый канал, r=Pervyy kanal, p=ˈpʲervɨj kɐˈnal, t=First Channel) is a Russian state-controlled television channel. It is the first television channel to broadcast in the Russian Federation. Its headquarters ...
and Russia-24 for example.


Reasons for the conflict


Identity

Like Ukraine, Belarus and Russia both consider
Kievan Rus Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern Europe, Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Hist ...
their cultural ancestor, part of a shared past. Many Russians see
Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
as the birthplace of their nation.A timeline of the tensions between Russia and Ukraine
Matthew Mpoke Bigg. Feb. 18, 2022, New York Times Kievan Rus' reached its greatest extent under
Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav the Wise or Yaroslav I Vladimirovich; russian: Ярослав Мудрый, ; uk, Ярослав Мудрий; non, Jarizleifr Valdamarsson; la, Iaroslaus Sapiens () was the Grand Prince of Kiev from 1019 until his death. He was als ...
(1019–1054); his sons issued its first written legal code, the ''
Russkaya Pravda The ''Russkaya Pravda'' (Rus' Justice, Rus' Truth, or Russian Justice; orv, Правда роусьскаꙗ, ''Pravda Rusĭskaya'' (13th century, 1280), Правда Руськая, ''Pravda Rus'kaya'' (second half of the 15th century); russian: ...
'', shortly after his death.Bushkovitch, Paul. ''A Concise History of Russia''. Cambridge University Press. 2011. In the 2000s, Russia waged a large-scale propaganda campaign in Ukraine, based on the doctrine of "
Russian world The "Russian world" (russian: Русский мир, lit=Russian world', 'Russian order', 'Russian community, translit=Russkiy mir; la, Pax Rossica, Pax Russica) is the concept of social totality associated with Russian culture. ''Russkiy mir'' ...
", and Putin said "...we are one nation. Kiev is the mother of Russian cities." Its ideological basis was post-Soviet
revanchism Revanchism (french: revanchisme, from ''revanche'', "revenge") is the political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement. As a term, revanchism originated in 1870s Fr ...
in the Russian Federation for the cultural, economic, and territorial restoration of pre-1991 borders and the restoration of the former Soviet "zone of influence" in Europe and Asia. This revanchism sees three categories of the world's population as "Russian": ethnic Russians, regardless of where they live; a Russian-speaking population regardless of nationality; compatriots who have never lived on the territory of the Russian Empire, the USSR and other state entities, as well as their descendants. At the 2008 Bucharest summit April 2–4, 2008, Putin told United States President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
: "You understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a state! What is Ukraine?" Also, many Russians idealize
Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
, the rule of the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
as a time of prosperity, and the ruling
United Russia United Russia ( rus, Единая Россия, Yedinaya Rossiya, (j)ɪˈdʲinəjə rɐˈsʲijə) is a Russian conservative political party. As the largest party in Russia, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the State Duma , havin ...
party as heir to the country's "glorious past." Since the
collapse of the USSR The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, Russian politicians have talked about restoring Russia's influence in
post-Soviet countries The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
. "According to
Vladimir Bukovsky Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Константи́нович Буко́вский; 30 December 1942 – 27 October 2019) was a Russian-born British human rights activist and writer. From the late 195 ...
, a dissident who spent a decade in Soviet prisons before his exile to the West in 1976,
Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...
is totally genuine when he says that the disintegration of the Soviet Union was a "geopolitical catastrophe"." Putin sees the growing number of
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
members in
Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...
as an "existential threat",What does Putin want in Ukraine?: The conflict explained
Eliza Mackintosh and Rob Picheta. CNN, February 28, 2022, accessed March 3, 2022 and has written that Russia and Ukraine are really one country.How the Soviet Union's collapse explains the current Russia-Ukraine tension
Greg Myre. NPR, December 24, 2021 This
revanchism Revanchism (french: revanchisme, from ''revanche'', "revenge") is the political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement. As a term, revanchism originated in 1870s Fr ...
focuses on Ukraine, whose withdrawal from the USSR led to its collapse. "Russia is restoring its unity—the tragedy of 1991, this terrible catastrophe in our history, has been overcome," exulted RIA Novosti, Russia's main state online news agency, on February 26, 2022. The Putin regime contrasts "ours" and "others" in Ukraine, and suggests that violence against "others" is desirable and even required.Russlands imitierter «Kampf gegen Faschismus».— DiePresse.com
(Russia's mock "fight against fascism”) (in German) The Russian government frames its hybrid war as a conflict between Russia and NATO, but while geopolitics and its desire for a post-Soviet sphere play into its focus on Ukraine, so do its domestic politics. An independent Ukrainian democracy might inspire Russians to demand the establishment of their own democracy and "perhaps even challenge Mr. Putin's
authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political '' status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic vot ...
."


History of the war

In June 2014, the Ukrainian
National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC; uk, Рада національної безпеки і оборони України, RNBO or RNBOU) is the coordinating state body of the executive power under the President of Ukrai ...
(NSDC) DC obtained materials used to train Russian information war specialists. They instructed Russian soldiers to "actively influence the consciousness and system of knowledge and ideas of the target country," according to NSDC Secretary Andriy Parubiy. Propaganda targeting the Russian people themselves, justifying a future war against Ukraine, appeared even before Russia's first incursion into Ukraine in 2014.American salo' tastes like Russian propaganda lard
Alina Pastukhova. Kyiv Post, April 1, 2009 In 2009, Maxim Kalashnikov's "Independent Ukraine: Failure of a Project" portrayed Ukraine as a Yugoslavia on the verge of an ethnic breakup. Novels such as
Fyodor Berezin Fyodor Dmitrievich Berezin (russian: Фёдор Дмитриевич Березин; born February 7, 1960) is a Russian science fiction writer. He has published 3 novel series, and 2 separate works, scoring him awards at the International Scienc ...
's "War 2010: Ukrainian Front", Georgiy Savitsky's "Battlefield Ukraine: The broken trident" and Alexander Sever's "Russian-Ukrainian Wars" posited a war against Ukraine. According to activists, Russia has also waged an information war against Ukraine through cinema.Активісти започаткували ініціативу «Бойкот російського кіно»
(Activists launch Boycott of Russian Cinema initiative) (in Ukrainian) Mediasapiens. 22.09.2014 Kremlin-run media in 2014 created the impression in
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
that "fascists, anti-Semites and extremists" were in power in Kyiv and chaos ruled the rest of Ukraine, but this had "little or nothing to do with reality." Since Ukraine's independence, Russia has waged a constant information war against Ukraine, especially under the pro-Russian President
Victor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of Di ...
. In February 2014, for example, Russians flatly denied that their military maneuvers in any way threatened Ukraine: "These were local self-defense forces," Putin said of the men who tried to seize the Crimean parliament.


Information operations


Censorship

In February 2017, the Russian
Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...
acknowledged the existence of "information operations forces" in Russia. In 2021,
Open Media Open Media is a British television production company, best known for the discussion series '' After Dark'', described in the national press as "the most original programme on television". The company was founded in 1987 and has produced more t ...
,Russian news outlet to close after being blocked by state media watchdog
Reuters. August 5, 2021 VTimes, and the Moscow bureau of
Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...
was shut down. A Russian law signed on 4 March 2022 provides drastic penalties for spreading "false information" or protesting the war or "discrediting" Russia's actions in Ukraine. Russian schools also must follow the official narrative.Do not call Ukraine invasion a ‘war’, Russia tells media, schools: Instead, ‘special military operation’ should be used to describe Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, according to officials
Al-Jazeera, March 2, 2022 After the 2022 legislation made it illegal to publish information on the Ukrainian war that the Kremlin deems "false", some Western media withdrew their reporters out of concern for their safety. Independent Russian media outlets that shut down in the wake of the law included
Dozhd TV Rain ( rus, Дождь, Dozhd, p=ˈdoʂtʲ, a=Ru-дождь (doʂtʲ).ogg; stylized ДОДЬ) is an independent Russian television channel. It was launched in 2010 in Russia, and since 2022 was based in Latvia. It focuses on news, discussio ...
(TV-Rain) and '' Novaya Gazeta'', whose editor received the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
in 2021.Russia: Fewer independent media outlets every day: Media outlets in Russia have to call the war against Ukraine a "special military operation." Journalists who try to resist face harsh consequences. The latest casualty is Russia's best-known independent radio station
Nicole Goebel, ed. Deutsche Welle, 03.03.2022 (in English) News website Znak announced its closure, and
Ekho Moskvy Echo of Moscow (russian: links=no, Эхо Москвы, translit=Ekho Moskvy) was a 24/7 commercial Russian radio station based in Moscow. It broadcast in many Russian cities, some of the former Soviet republics (through partnerships with local ra ...
, owned by Kremlin-linked Gazprom, also shut down. The websites of Deutsche Welle, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, Meduza and
Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
became inaccessible from within Russia without a
VPN A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...
. News sites Mediazona,
Republic A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
, and
Agentstvo Proekt (), also known as Agentstvo (), is an independent Russian media outlet specialising in investigative journalism. History and activities Since 2001, has worked for '' Gazeta.Ru'', ''Forbes'', Interfax, RBK and Dozhd as editor-in-chief ...
were also blocked from the Russian internet after the law passed, and only available by VPN. Russia also jammed commercial broadcast signals and penetrated both civilian and military communications networks.


Cyberwarfare


Telecommunications

Russia's Leer-3 drone system can listen to or suppress cellular communications, and even send text messages to front-line soldiers. Ukrainian soldiers have received texted jeers and threats from the Russians on their cell phones, and family members of Ukrainian soldiers have also reported receiving calls saying that those soldiers were dead. The Russian Orlan-10 has also been extensively used in
electronic warfare Electronic warfare (EW) is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EM spectrum) or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponen ...
in Ukraine. However, tactical communications have been an issue for the Russian military, to the point where some troops in Georgia received their orders from an Air Force officer who arrived by helicopter.Communication Breakdown: How Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine Bogged Down
Sergei Dobrynin and Mark Krutov. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, March 19, 2022 Then-president Dmitry Medvedev ordered an expansion of the military's radio system in 2009, with a contract to a manufacturer partially owned by a former Medvedev advisor. The contract was subsequently troubled by embezzlement allegations.


Internet infrastructure

On March 9 internet service provider suffered an outage in
Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...
routing on February 24. National telecoms operator
Ukrtelecom Ukrtelecom JSC ( uk, Укртелеком) (PFTS Ukraine Stock Exchange, PFTS:]UTLM is Ukraine's monopolist telephone company, also active in the Internet service provider, ISP and mobile telephony, mobile markets. The company was governed by t ...
in late March also suffered, then recovered from, a major cyber-attack. In Russia, as of March 14,
peering In computer networking, peering is a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the "down-stream" users of each network. Peering is settlement-free, also known as "bill-and ...
agreements were still in place but new regulation was expected to ban web hosting outside Russia and require the use of official DNS servers.
Transit Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world * ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...
providers Lumen and
Cogent The CoGeNT experiment has searched for dark matter. It uses a single germanium crystal (~100 grams) as a cryogenic detector for WIMP particles. CoGeNT has operated in the Soudan Underground Laboratory since 2009. Results Their first announ ...
both left Russia after the invasion in early March, but this had a limited effect on the Russian internet connectivity because they continued to peer with some of the larger Russian ISPs, such as
Rostelecom Rostelecom is Russia’s largest provider of digital services for a wide variety of consumers, households, private businesses, government and municipal authorities, and other telecom providers. Rostelecom interconnects all local public operators ...
and Rascom, at exchanges outside Russia.


War propaganda

Information warfare has deep roots in Russia. In addition to presenting a Russian narrative and version of events, it strives to cause confusion and cast doubt on the idea of truth.A Russian Federation Information Warfare Primer
Conor Cunningham. University of Washington, November 12, 2020 Russia transmits war propaganda through news media in its ongoing war against Ukraine. As early as September 2008,
Alexander Dugin Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin ( rus, Александр Гельевич Дугин; born 7 January 1962) is a Russian political philosopher, analyst, and strategist, who has been widely characterized as a fascist. Born into a military intellig ...
, a Russian
fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
Аргумент.уа: Профессор Дугин, обычный русский фашист
/ref>
(Putin's Rasputin: Bard of a panslavic fascism, ultranationalist Alexander Dougin is a secret advisor to the head of the Kremlin. His goal? Annexing part of Ukraine and rebuilding the
Russian empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
). Le Nouvel Observateur, 30 April 2014
in Russian)
/ref> known as "Putin's brain," advocated an invasion of Ukraine and other countries that had previously been part of the USSR: "The Soviet empire will be restored. in different ways: by force, diplomacy, economic pressure ... Everything will depend on place and time." On 28 February 2022 RIA Novosti published, then took down, an incorrect report that Russia had won the Russo-Ukrainian War and "Ukraine has returned to Russia". On 14 March,
Marina Ovsyannikova Marina Vladimirovna Ovsyannikova (russian: Мари́на Влади́мировна Овся́нникова, ; (); born 19 June 1978) is a Russian journalist who was employed on the Channel One Russia TV channel. She worked for Russia's main ...
, an editor at Channel One, interrupted a live broadcast to protest the Russian invasion of Ukraine, carrying a poster that said in Russian and English: "Stop the war, don't believe the propaganda, here you are being lied to." RT, a Russian state-controlled television network, was officially banned in the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
and suspended by television service providers in several other countries. YouTube blocked RT and Sputnik across Europe to prevent Russian disinformation. Many RT journalists resigned after Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian teachers received detailed instructions on teaching the invasion of Ukraine. The
Mayakovsky Theatre Mayakovsky Theater (russian: Театр Маяковского; Московский академический театр имени Вл. Маяковского) is a theater in Moscow, Russia, founded in 1920, first as ''Terevsat'' (Theater of R ...
in Moscow received a government email "to refrain from any comments on the course of military actions in Ukraine", warning that any negative comments would be "regarded as treason against the Motherland". The Russian government uses the "Z" symbol as a pro-war propaganda tool, Russian civilians as a sign of support for the invasion. ''The Guardians Pjotr Sauer says many Russians still support Putin and don't believe the "special military operation" in Ukraine has to do with propaganda and disinformation disseminated by the Russian government. Polls conducted by the
Levada Center The Levada Center is a Russian independent, nongovernmental polling and sociological research organization. It is named after its founder, the first Russian professor of sociology Yuri Levada (1930–2006). The center traces back its history to 1 ...
between 17 and 21 February found that 60% of respondents blamed the US and NATO for escalating tensions, while only 4% blamed Russia. Similarly, a telephone survey conducted by independent researchers from 28 February to 1 March found that 58% of Russian respondents approved of the military operation. However, a series of four online polls by Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation found that between 25 February and 3 March, the share of respondents in Moscow who considered Russia an "aggressor" increased from 29% to 53%, while the share of those who considered Russia a "peacemaker" fell by half from 25% to 12%. Some observers noted what they described as a "generational struggle" among Russians over perception of the war, with younger Russians generally opposed to the war and older Russians more likely to accept the narrative presented by state-controlled
media in Russia Television, magazines, and newspapers have all been operated by both state-owned and for-profit corporations which depend on advertising, subscription, and other sales-related revenues. Even though the Constitution of Russia guarantees freedo ...
. Kataryna Wolczuk, an associate fellow of
Chatham House Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, is an independent policy institute headquartered in London. Its stated mission is to provide commentary on world events and offer solutions to global challenges. It is ...
's Russia and Eurasia programme, said, " lderRussians are inclined to believe the official narrative that Russia is defending Russian speakers in Ukraine, so it's offering protection rather than aggression." Russian opposition politician
Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolievich Navalny ( rus, links=no, Алексей Анатольевич Навальный, , ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ nɐˈvalʲnɨj; born 4 June 1976) is a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption act ...
said the "monstrosity of lies" in the Russian state media "is unimaginable. And, unfortunately, so is its persuasiveness for those without access to alternative information." On 12 March, YouTube announced it had blocked an unspecified number of media outlets controlled by the Russian state, including RT and Sputnik, citing YouTube policy, that prohibits content that " denies, minimizes, or trivializes well-documented violent events". On 18 March, the British media regulator
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
revoked RT's broadcasting licence. On 2 April, it was reported that Putin's approval rating in Russia had risen to 83% a month after the invasion, from a 69% approval rating as prior to the invasion during the height of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. The state-controlled television channels, through which most Russians consume news, presented the invasion as a liberation mission and accused Ukrainian troops of attacking civilian targets. Mediazona, a Russian independent media outlet, reported that the FSB had fabricated a video of a woman accusing Ukraine of war crimes in
Mariupol Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russian i ...
. Mediazona also shared screenshots of what it said were emails from the FSB to media outlets, instructing them to not say where the video came from. In an op-ed published in the Russian state outlet RIA Novosti, Timofei Sergeytsev openly advocated the "purification" of Ukrainians, blurring the lines between the Ukrainian government, military, and civilians, then the
cultural genocide Cultural genocide or cultural cleansing is a concept which was proposed by lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 as a component of genocide. Though the precise definition of ''cultural genocide'' remains contested, the Armenian Genocide Museum defines ...
of Ukraine through the obliteration of the Ukrainian name and culture, and finally the reeducation of the remaining civilians together with a strict regime of censorship in order to incorporate them in a
greater Russia Russian irredentism refers to irredentist claims to parts of the former Russian Empire or the former Soviet Union made for Russia. It seeks to incorporate Russians outside of Russian borders into the current Russian state. The 2014 annexation ...
.
Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolievich Navalny ( rus, links=no, Алексей Анатольевич Навальный, , ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ nɐˈvalʲnɨj; born 4 June 1976) is a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption act ...
tweeted in April 2022 that "warmongers" among Russian state media personalities "should be treated as war criminals". On 13 April 2014, NATO Secretary-General
Anders Fogh Rasmussen Anders Fogh Rasmussen (; born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the 24th Prime Minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the 12th Secretary General of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became CEO of polit ...
, in a statement posted on the alliance's website, accused Russia of promoting war and wanting to overthrow Ukraine. In early 2022 the United States government warned that Russia was planning a
false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...
operation to invade Ukraine, and pointed to "a pattern of Russian behavior" that included invading and occupying parts of Georgia in 2008, and noted Russia's "failure to honor its 1999 commitment to withdraw its troops and munitions from
Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...
, where they remain without the government's consent." In 2014, Vladimir Putin called opponents of the war nothing more than "traitors" and a "
fifth column A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz, "fifth columns" are “domestic actors who work to un ...
". Children's television has also broadcast war propaganda, as when Phil the dog joined the army in 2014 to become "a real defender". The throttling of information into Russia also impedes the Kremlin's own information diet. The Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in 2022 that the Ukrainian invasion "bears an eerie resemblance to Soviet decision making in 1979 to invade Afghanistan," poor intelligence, misreading the international reaction, over-optimism, incomprehension of the costs.


Control of news outlets


Public relations

Russia has learned to use respected Western media like BBC News, Reuters, and AFP to promote anti-Ukrainian propaganda. These media outlets were unprepared for the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, and often became unintentional distributors of Russian anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Russia has also learned to skillfully use Western PR companies to disseminate the narratives it needs in the interests of various Russian government institutions and private corporations. The Kremlin has instructed official Russian television outlets to rebroadcast
Tucker Carlson Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American television host, conservative political commentator and writer who has hosted the nightly political talk show '' Tucker Carlson Tonight'' on Fox News since 2016. Carlson began ...
's show “as much as possible.” Marjorie Taylor Greene has also gotten approving coverage on Kremlin media, as when she said that the US was responsible for the 2014 overthrow of the Russian puppet government in the Ukrainian
Revolution of Dignity The Revolution of Dignity ( uk, Революція гідності, translit=Revoliutsiia hidnosti) also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution,
.


Ukraine

Many Ukrainian news outlets are financed by wealthy investors. Some of these investors have close ties to Russian political power. This highly concentrated ownership of Ukrainian media has set a high
barrier to entry In theories of competition in economics, a barrier to entry, or an economic barrier to entry, is a fixed cost that must be incurred by a new entrant, regardless of production or sales activities, into a market that incumbents do not have or have ...
for the market. Four financial-political groups control nearly all broadcasting in Ukraine. The top 20 most-viewed TV channels almost all belong to Ukraine's wealthiest oligarchs: *
Rinat Akhmetov Rinat Leonidovych Akhmetov, ; russian: Ринат Леонидович Ахметов, ; tt-Cyrl, Ринат Леонид улы Әхмәтов, translit=Rinat Leonid uly Äkhmätov (born on 21 September 1966) is a Ukrainian billionaire and b ...
, richest man in Ukraine; supports the
Opposition Bloc russian: Оппозиционный блок , colorcode = , logo = Opposition Bloc.png , logo_size = 240px , leader1_title = Chairman , leader1_name = Rinat Akhmetov (one wing)Dmytro Firtash & Yuriy Boyko ( ...
, successor of the
Party of Regions The Party of Regions ( uk, Партія регіонів, Partiia rehioniv, ; russian: Партия регионов, Partiya regionov) was a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine formed in late 1997 that then grew to be the biggest party of U ...
, the party of President Viktor Yanukovych, ousted in 2014. He reportedly controls
Media Group Ukraine Media Group Ukraine ( uk, Медіа Група «Україна») is a media holding company that manages System Capital Management Group's television and new media projects. The holding company is a professional investor in Ukrainian media bus ...
. *
Viktor Pinchuk Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk ( uk, Віктор Михайлович Пінчук, ''Viktor Mykhailovych Pinchuk''; born 14 December 1960) is a Ukrainian businessman and oligarch. As of January 2016, ''Forbes'' ranked him as 1,250th on the list o ...
- owner of four TV channels and a popular tabloid,
Fakty i Kommentarii ''Fakty i Kommentarii'' (russian: Факты и комментарии, translated as ''Facts and Comments'') has been coming out since August 1997. Fakty was published five times a week except Sundays and Mondays till January 2018. In 2018 it h ...
. Has been a member of the Ukrainian parliament *
Dmytro Firtash Dmytro Vasylovych Firtash ( uk, Дмитро́ Васи́льович Фі́рташ; born 2 May 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman who heads the board of directors of Group DF. He was highly influential during the Yuschenko administration and th ...
described as a “Kremlin influence agent in Ukraine;” with his business partner Serhiy Liovochkin, affiliated with openly pro-Russian Opposition Platform – For Life, led by Viktor Medvedchuk Denies having ties to crime boss
Semion Mogilevich Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich ( uk, Семен Юдкович Могилевич, Semén Yúdkovych Mohylévych ; born June 30, 1946) is a Ukrainian-born Russian organized crime boss. He quickly built a highly structured criminal organization, in ...
* Serhiy Liovochkin - ran
Office of the President of Ukraine The Office of the President of Ukraine ('' uk, Офіс Президента України'') (formerly ''Administration of the President of Ukraine'', uk, Адміністрація Президента) is a standing advisory body set up by ...
for Yanukovych *
Igor Kolomoisky Ihor Valeriyovych Kolomoyskyi ( uk, Ігор Валерійович Коломойський, translit=Ihor Valereriyovych Kolomoyskyi; he, איגור קולומויסקי; born 13 February 1963) is a Ukrainian-born billionaire, business magnat ...
- 1+1 *
Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko se ...
*
Viktor Medvedchuk Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk ( uk, Віктор Володимирович Медведчук, ; born 7 August 1954) is a Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who is since September 2022 living in exile after being handed over ...
, often referred to as a grey cardinal of Ukraine, important voice of the Kremlin there, put under
house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
on 13 May 2021, allegedly supported and funded by the Kremlin.Court gives permission to detain Kozak
Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukraini ...
(20 May 2021) Owner of First Independent TV channels, 112 Ukraine and ZIK. * Yevhen Murayev's NewsOne and Nash TV essentially replaced Medvedchuk's pro-Russian outlets and received the same funding. A decline in advertising revenues has left media outlets even more dependent on support from politicised owners, hence hindering their editorial independence. Paid content disguised as news (known as ''jeansa'') remains widespread in the Ukrainian media, weakening their and journalists' credibility, especially during electoral campaigns.
Freedom House Freedom House is a non-profit, majority U.S. government funded organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Wil ...

Ukraine 2015 Freedom of the Press
report Media ownership remains opaque, despite a February 2014 bill requiring full disclosure of ownership structures. *
Inter Media Group Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club * FK Inter Bratislava, a forme ...
is linked to gas trader
Dmytro Firtash Dmytro Vasylovych Firtash ( uk, Дмитро́ Васи́льович Фі́рташ; born 2 May 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman who heads the board of directors of Group DF. He was highly influential during the Yuschenko administration and th ...
and Yanukovych-linked politician Serhiy Lyovochkin. The channel is part of
GDF Media Limited Inter ( uk, Інтер) is a Ukrainian television channel. It covers 99.7 percent of Ukraine's territory.According to the channel's own information According to Kyiv Post it is among the most-watched television channels in Ukraine.Dmytro Firtash Dmytro Vasylovych Firtash ( uk, Дмитро́ Васи́льович Фі́рташ; born 2 May 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman who heads the board of directors of Group DF. He was highly influential during the Yuschenko administration and th ...
bought 100 percent of InterInter Media Group Limited (back) from
Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi Valeriy Ivanovych Khoroshkovsky ( uk, Валерій Іванович Хорошковський, born 1 January 1969 in Kyiv) is a Ukrainian businessman, former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, former Minister of Finance, and former Firs ...
on 1 February 2013.Khoroshkovsky sells Inter channel to Firtash (UPDATED)
Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. History American Jed Sunden founded the ''Kyiv Post'' weekly newspaper on Oct. 18, 1995 and later created KP Media for his holdings. ...
(1 February 2013) *
StarLightMedia Starlight Media (stylised as starlight.media), previously stylised as StarLightMedia is the largest Ukraine, Ukrainian broadcasting group, composed of six television stations and nine other media and advertising companies. It was founded 11 Nove ...
, linked to the billionaire
Viktor Pinchuk Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk ( uk, Віктор Михайлович Пінчук, ''Viktor Mykhailovych Pinchuk''; born 14 December 1960) is a Ukrainian businessman and oligarch. As of January 2016, ''Forbes'' ranked him as 1,250th on the list o ...
, includes six television and several other media and advertising companies. * 1+1 Media Group is deemed owned by
Ihor Kolomoyskyi Ihor Valeriyovych Kolomoyskyi ( uk, Ігор Валерійович Коломойський, translit=Ihor Valereriyovych Kolomoyskyi; he, איגור קולומויסקי; born 13 February 1963) is a Ukrainian-born billionaire, business magn ...
, who in March 2014 was appointed governor of
Dnipropetrovsk Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
. * 5 Kanal TV channel remains owned by the former President of Ukraine,
Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko se ...
, despite criticism of the conflict of interest. *
UMH group UMH group (United Media Holding group) is an international multimedia group. It controls a portfolio of over 50 brands in Internet, radio and press markets, covering news, politics, business, sports, fashion, celebrity and TV. The portfolio inclu ...
, once controlled by
Serhiy Kurchenko Serhiy Vitaliiovych Kurchenko ( uk, Сергі́й Віта́лійович Ку́рченко; born 21 September 1985) is a Ukrainian businessman and founder/owner of the group of companies "Gas Ukraine 2009" specializing in trading of liquefie ...
**internet publications strana.ua, and Other oligarch-owned media outlets: *
Rinat Akhmetov Rinat Leonidovych Akhmetov, ; russian: Ринат Леонидович Ахметов, ; tt-Cyrl, Ринат Леонид улы Әхмәтов, translit=Rinat Leonid uly Äkhmätov (born on 21 September 1966) is a Ukrainian billionaire and b ...
**
Media Group Ukraine Media Group Ukraine ( uk, Медіа Група «Україна») is a media holding company that manages System Capital Management Group's television and new media projects. The holding company is a professional investor in Ukrainian media bus ...
***youth entertainment TV channel NLO-TV ***News channel , national FTA TV channel ***thematic TV channels Football 1, Football 2, Football 3 ***regional TV channel Channel 34 *** Segodnya Multimedia **telecom
Ukrtelecom Ukrtelecom JSC ( uk, Укртелеком) (PFTS Ukraine Stock Exchange, PFTS:]UTLM is Ukraine's monopolist telephone company, also active in the Internet service provider, ISP and mobile telephony, mobile markets. The company was governed by t ...
**
SCM Holdings System Capital Management or SCM ( uk, Систем Кепітал Менеджмент) is a major Ukrainian financial and industrial holding company established in 2000 in Donetsk in the east of the country and since 2014 headquartered in Kyi ...
Akhmetov has been its
sole proprietor A sole proprietorship, also known as a sole tradership, individual entrepreneurship or proprietorship, is a type of enterprise owned and run by one person and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business entity. A sole ...
since 2009. ***Landline business Vega Telecom ***Russian-language newspaper
Segodnya ''Segodnya'' ( rus, Сегодня, p=sʲɪˈvodʲnʲə, t=Today, a=Ru-сегодня.ogg) was a Russian-language Ukrainian tabloid newspaper founded in 1997. While run from Kyiv, it was linked to Donbass political and business groups; its hold ...
has drawn criticism for coverage allegedly favoring certain politicians and public figures, say journalists at the paper.


Russia

Russian media have been used for propaganda to persuade domestic and world audiences. Among the best-known are Sputnik, RT (formerly RussiaToday), RIA Novosti,
Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
(formerly ''LifeNews''). Employees of Russian news outlets have been resigning since the 2022 incursion into Ukraine: “English-language RT staff member and one frequent RT contributor in Moscow have quit the network in recent days over the editorial position on the war, the Guardian has learned.” Zhanna Agalakova, a correspondent for two decades for Pervy Kanal (Channel One) in New York and Paris, announced in March that she was leaving over the invasion. Liliya Gildeyeva, an anchor on the state-run channel NTV, also resigned. Marina Ovsyannikova has been hired by the German media company Die Welt, a month after she drew worldwide attention for bursting onto the set of a live broadcast on Russian state television to protest the war in Ukraine.


= RT

= RT is an important Russian weapon in the information war. In 2014,
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
, then
United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
, called it a state-sponsored "propaganda bullhorn". Its audience in 2015 was 700 million people in more than 100 countries. In 2012, RT had the highest government spending per employee in the world, $183 thousand per person. As of 2014, Russia had spent more than $9 billion on its propaganda. In 2021, it increased the state media budget to 211 billion rubles (about $2.8 billion), 34 billion rubles ($460 million) more than the previous year.


Russian interference with Ukrainian media

On March 6, 2014, " 1 + 1" and Channel 5 in the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea were turned off and
Russia 24 Russia-24 (russian: Россия-24) is a state-owned Russian-language news channel from Russia. It covers major national and international events as well as focuses on domestic issues. It is owned by VGTRK. History The broadcast began January 1 ...
captured the broadcasting frequencies of Crimea's private "Chernomorskaya TV and Radio Company". In
Simferopol Simferopol () is the second-largest city in the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, ...
, state television and radio broadcaster Krym was also blocked by people in camouflage uniforms. General Director Stepan Gulevaty called the police, but they did not respond. On March 6, 2014, an Internet poll on the ATR TV website found that most respondents opposed the annexation of Crimea. The next day Russian military in Crimea disconnected the ATR website. They also shut down the analogue broadcast signal of the Ukrainian TV channel
Inter Inter may refer to: Association football clubs * Inter Milan, an Italian club * SC Internacional, a Brazilian club * Inter Miami CF, an American club * FC Inter Sibiu, a Romanian club * FC Inter Turku, a Finnish club * FK Inter Bratislava, a form ...
, on the frequencies of which
NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televis ...
is broadcast. On August 10, 2014, the German provider Hetzner Online AG sent a letter of apology to Glavkom. The provider had previously moved to block Glavkom at the request of the Russian
Roskomnadzor The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as ''Roskomnadzor'' (RKN) (russian: Роскомнадзор КН, is the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, co ...
for publishing material about the March for the federalization of Siberia. In July 2019, Hetzner Online warned
The Ukrainian Week ''The Ukrainian Week'' ( uk, Український Тиждень, translit=Ukrainskyi Tyzhden) is an illustrated weekly magazine covering politics, economics and the arts and aimed at the socially engaged Ukrainian-language reader. It provides ...
that the site would be blocked until "extremist content" was removed. The provider received a request for this from Roskomnadzor, which considers the 2015 material on
Right Sector Right Sector ( uk, Пра́вий се́ктор, ''Pravyi sektor'') is a right-wing to far-right, Ukrainian nationalist organization. It originated in November 2013 as a right-wing, paramilitary confederation of several radical nationalist org ...
a violation of Russian legislation. For several months,
DDoS In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connec ...
attacks were carried out against Ukrainian information sites: Censor.NET, Tizhden.ua,
Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukraini ...
and others, as well as the website of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine ( uk, Міністерство внутрішніх справ України, Ministerstvo vnutrishnikh sprav Ukrainy, MVS) is the ministry of the Ukrainian government that oversees the interior af ...
, with the appearance of ads for V. Yanukovych. Similarly, in January 2022 Ukrainian cyber official Victor Zhora reported attacks on over 90 websites of 22 government groups on January 14, 2022. About 50 websites were vandalized while the remainder suffered some damage.


Methods and resources


Disinformation

Russia uses disinformation both to support an image of its greatness and importance — or of the weakness of its enemies — or sometimes to deny its actions. Kyiv “hasn’t been bombed by anyone” Channel One pundit
Artyom Sheynin Artyom Grigoryevich Sheynin (russian: Артём Григорьевич Шейнин; born 26 January 1966) is a Russian journalist and propagandist. He has been alleged to serve as a government. He worked as a TV presenter and as First Deputy Di ...
assured viewers on February 24, 2022, for example.‘Pure Orwell’: how Russian state media spins invasion as liberation: State propaganda mobilised to sooth public’s deep unease over incursion into Ukraine
Pjotr Sauer. NPR, Moscow, 25 Feb 2022 Also on February 24, “explosions and gunfire were heard through the day in Ukraine's capital and elsewhere in the country, with at least 70 people reported killed,” according to Reuters. Most Russians get their information from television, although younger Russians tend to prefer online sources. These now require a VPN connection, making the truth now “mostly is discovered by people who already distrust the Kremlin and its state-sponsored media.” The untethering of the Russian news diet from facts doesn't just affect the populace. The Kremlin has been described as: Other more subtle attacks, known as reflexive control, systematically distort and reinterpret words, leading "extremists" to become an accepted description for independent journalists and human rights activists, or peaceful demonstrators to be arrested as security threats.


= Falsehood and adamant denial

= "You could spend every hour of every day trying to bat down every lie, to the point where you don't achieve anything else. And that's exactly what the Kremlin wants," says Greg Pryatt, former US ambassador to Ukraine.:59


2014

In November 2013, the pro-Russian Ukrainian president
Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of Di ...
blocked the legislatively approved course towards European integration, and the
Revolution of Dignity The Revolution of Dignity ( uk, Революція гідності, translit=Revoliutsiia hidnosti) also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution,
began. Putin "used disinformation to lay the groundwork to annex
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
in 2014, and to support continued fighting in Ukraine's Eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk," wrote
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
contributor Jill Goldenziel. Again in 2022, Kremlin propaganda had the goal of preparing world public opinion for the invasion of Ukraine. In 2014 Putin for quite some time denied sending troops into Ukraine. He later said Russia was "protecting" the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine. When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, it gave many alternative explanations for its actions there as well, and denied having plans to attack it. In 2014 Putin again denied his invasion, despite photos of military vehicles there from the
North Caucasus Military District The North Caucasus Military District was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces, which became in 2010 the Southern Military District and lately also included the Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla. It comprised the Republic of Adygeya, ...
One car had forgotten to camouflage an icon of the Guards Division. The soldiers also carried the Dragunov self-loading sniper rifle), only used by the Russian military. In March 2022, Russians said they had found evidence at the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant that Ukraine was working on a nuclear bomb. Experts scoffed at the claim, which they said was both impossible with the fuel there and not how anyone would run a secret weapons program.4 Falsehoods Russians Are Told About the War
Stuart A. Thompson. March 10, 2022


Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

The most fake tweets in a day, or on a single topic, by Russian disinformation agency
Internet Research Agency The Internet Research Agency (IRA; russian: Агентство интернет-исследований, translit=Agentstvo internet-issledovaniy), also known as ''Glavset'' (russian: link=no, Главсеть) and known in Russian Internet sla ...
(IRA), following the shooting down of the Malaysian MH17 airliner. Russia took extensive measures and gave many narratives to hide its involvement. In three days after the crash, the Russian
Internet Research Agency The Internet Research Agency (IRA; russian: Агентство интернет-исследований, translit=Agentstvo internet-issledovaniy), also known as ''Glavset'' (russian: link=no, Главсеть) and known in Russian Internet sla ...
posted 111,486 tweets from fake accounts, mostly in Russian. At first they said that Russian-backed rebels downed a Ukrainian plane; later tweets said Ukraine had shot the airliner down. RT quoted a Twitter account purportedly of an air traffic controller named Carlos who said he had seen Ukrainian fighter jets following the airliner Supposedly Ukraine mistook the airliner for the Russian presidential jet. In August 2015 Komsomoloskaya Pravda published a wiretap transcript of two named
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
operatives planning the MH17 attack, ridiculed for English that recalled "Google translated Russian phrases read from a script". On December 20, 2017, the Intelligence and Security Committee of the
British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...
in a report specifically emphasized that Russia had waged a massive information war with intense, multi-channel propaganda to convince the world that Russia did not shoot down the plane.


2022

In 2022 Russia insisted it was merely conducting military exercises on the Ukrainian borders, then declared that it needed to protect Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine. Russia also amassed troops at the Ukrainian border with Belarus and held naval exercises in the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
and
Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov ( Crimean Tatar: ''Azaq deñizi''; russian: Азовское море, Azovskoye more; uk, Азовське море, Azovs'ke more) is a sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch, ...
, which Kyiv called "an unjustified complication of international shipping", that made navigation "virtually impossible". On February 15, 2022, Russia said it would "partially pull back" from Ukraine's borders, but according to the US, in fact sent additional troops.The increasingly complicated Russia-Ukraine crisis, explained: How the world got here, what Russia wants, and more questions, answered
Jen Kirby and Jonathan Guyer, Vox, February 23, 2022, accessed March 2, 2022 "We can't really take the Russians for their word" said Canadian ambassador to the United Nations Bob Rae, after Russia resumed shelling within hours of announcing a ceasefire for civilian evacuation. After shelling a nuclear power plant complex in Zaporizhzhia, the Kremlin said its military seized it "to prevent Ukrainians and neo-Nazis from 'organizing provocations'".


Tropes

Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia has circulated propaganda and disinformation to demonize Ukrainians. Neo-Nazis play a recurring role in Russian propaganda; in 2022 to justify military "denazification." In Mariupol, Russians were told in 2022, Ukrainians fired on Russian soldiers despite the cease-fire, and according to TASS neo-Nazis were "hiding behind civilians as a human shield." According to Kacper Rękawek, a postdoctoral fellow with the Center for Research on Extremism at the
University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...
, simultaneously portraying Ukrainians as fascists and depraved pro-gay liberals, as opposed to the solid conservative values of Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, has roots in a longstanding narrative of politicians both in and outside Ukraine that ties Ukrainian speakers in Western Ukraine to far-right nationalists who fought against Soviets in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.Why Vladimir Putin Trotted Out a ‘Nazi’ Smear to Justify Invading Ukraine: The Russian president didn’t invent the notion that Ukraine is run by Nazis, but he’s given the trope its biggest airing yet
Tim Hume. Vice, February 24, 2022 Russia "has an extensive network of allies and front organizations, and reconstructs reality and rewrites history to legitimize itself and undermine others", says a 2018 article in
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
.Karlsen, G.H
Divide and rule: ten lessons about Russian political influence activities in Europe
Palgrave Communications 5, 19 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0227-8 In the early 1990s, the first such propaganda tropes presented events with the phrases "after the collapse of the USSR", and "with the collapse of the USSR", to create the impression that these phenomena arose because of the collapse of the USSR, and not the reverse. Propaganda tried to portray Ukraine as economically and politically bankrupt as a state. In 2009 Russia accused Ukraine of " stealing Russian gas".The Russo-Ukrainian gas dispute of January 2009: a comprehensive assessment
Oxford Institute for Energy Studies The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies is an energy research institution which was founded in 1982, and serves a worldwide audience with its research, guides understanding of all major energy issues. It is a recognised independent centre of the ...
, ''Section 3'', Retrieved on October 13, 2009 Ukrainian figures have been allegedly quoted making provocative statements. A criminal case was brought against the leader of the Ukrainian
Right Sector Right Sector ( uk, Пра́вий се́ктор, ''Pravyi sektor'') is a right-wing to far-right, Ukrainian nationalist organization. It originated in November 2013 as a right-wing, paramilitary confederation of several radical nationalist org ...
,
Dmytro Yarosh Dmytro Anatoliyovych Yarosh ( uk, Дмитро Анатолійович Я́рош; born 30 September 1971) is a Ukrainian activist, politician, nationalist and military commander who is the main commander of the Right Sector's Ukrainian Vol ...
, for supposedly publishing an appeal to
Dokka Umarov Doku Khamatovich Umarov ( ce, Ӏумар Хьамади кӀант Докка, translit='Umar Ẋamadi khant Dokka, ; russian: Доку Хаматович Умаров, Doku Khamatovich Umarov; 13 April 1964 – 7 September 2013), also known as ...
to carry out terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation. A day later authorities announced that the "appeal" had been the work of hackers. In the same way as Russian propaganda sought to portray its swift victory as inevitable against incompetent Ukrainian commanders, Russian media also sought to create fear and loathing with stereotypes of its own Chechen fighters.


Social media

In 2022 government groups posed as independent news entities and created fake personas on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and also the Russian-language
Odnoklassniki Odnoklassniki ( rus, Одноклассники, t=Classmates) is a social network service used mainly in Russia and former Soviet Republics. The site was developed by Albert Popkov and launched on March 4, 2006. The website currently has more ...
and V Kontakte, to disseminate Russian narratives, such as the alleged helplessness of Ukrainians and videos of their fighters surrendering. According to ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', in 2014 the Russian military intelligence (
GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...
) created more than 30 pseudo-Ukrainian groups and social media accounts, as well as 25 "leading English-language" publications. Posing as ordinary Ukrainians, intelligence operatives concocted news and disseminated comments to turn pro-Russian citizens against the protesters. In early 2016 Ukrainian journalists discovered a network of dozens of social media groups, run from Moscow on multiple social media, that used nationalist rhetoric to undermine the Ukrainian government and mobilize protesters.


= Access to social media

= *
MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
reported in October 2017 that Russian information warfare operatives "reported" the
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
posts of Ukrainian activists, baselessly claiming that they were pornography or another regulated type of message. * On July 14, 2014, Facebook blocked the page "Book of Memory of the Fallen for Ukraine", after warning that the content of some messages "violate(d) Facebook standards". They were primarily messages about the death of Ukrainian soldiers from the OZSP NSU "
Azov Azov (russian: Азов), previously known as Azak, is a town in Rostov Oblast, Russia, situated on the Don River just from the Sea of Azov, which derives its name from the town. Population: History Early settlements in the vicinity The mo ...
". *On March 5, 2022, Russia blocked access to Facebook and Twitter, in response to their freezes and bans on Russian state-owned media.RT America Shuts Down Amid Russian State-Media Bans
Rebecca Alter. Vulture, March 6, 2022 A few days later it announced it would block access to Instagram.


= Attempts to censor Russian Wikipedia

= Ever since the early 2010s, Russian Wikipedia and its editors have experienced numerous and increasing threats of nationwide blocks and country-wide enforcement of blacklisting by the
Russian government The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russia ...
, as well as several attempts to
Internet censorship Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains (such as Wikipedia.org) but exceptionally may extend to all Int ...
, propaganda, and disinformation, more recently during the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian war in the Donbas region and the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War. In February and March 2022, the first week after the
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
and break out of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Russian Wikipedia editors warned their readers and fellow editors of several, reiterated attempts by the Putin-led Russian government of
political censorship Political censorship exists when a government attempts to conceal, fake, distort, or falsify information that its citizens receive by suppressing or crowding out political news that the public might receive through news outlets. In the absence of n ...
, Internet propaganda, disinformation, attacks, and disruptive editing towards an article listing Russian military casualties as well as Ukrainian civilians and children due to the ongoing war. On March 11, 2022, Belarusian political police (
GUBOPiK The Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the MVD of the Republic of Belarus, abbreviated ГУБОПиК (GUBOPiK), be, Галоўнае ўпраўленне па барацьбе з арганізаванай злач ...
)
arrested An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be questi ...
one of the most active users of Russian Wikipedia Mark Bernstein for "spread of anti-Russian materials", violating the "fake news" law after being
doxxed Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this in ...
on
Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
. In April–July 2022, the Russian authorities put several Wikipedia articles on their list of forbidden sites, and then ordered search engines to mark Wikipedia as a violator of Russian laws.


Timeline


2014

During and before its annexation of Crimea and encroachment into Donetsk and Luhansk with AstroTurf rebellions, Russia demonized Ukrainians in the eyes of the Russian and international communities. *January 21 - Protesters received
text messages Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/ laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...
saying that they were "registered as a participant in the mass disturbances." Cell service providers denied sending the messages, but two of them were owned by Russian companies. Experts suggested
state actor In United States constitutional law, a state actor is a person who is acting on behalf of a governmental body, and is therefore subject to limitations imposed on government by the United States Constitution, including the First, Fifth, and Four ...
involvement.


February 2014

*Protests in Ukraine *Overthrow of Yanukovych - Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych ( uk, Віктор Федорович Янукович, ; ; born 9 July 1950) is a former politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was removed from office in the Revolution of Di ...
elected to accept Russian foreign aid rather than join the EU, and violent protests broke out. Yanukovich fled Kyiv. The Ukrainian Parliament decided that he had abdicated and removed him from office. *Yanukovych called the vote a coup *Russian foreign minister
Sergey Lavrov Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (russian: Сергей Викторович Лавров, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat and politician who has served as the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004. Lavrov served as the Permanent Represe ...
said that "illegal extremist groups" had taken control in Kyiv. This and similar language frequently recurred in the ensuing years. *Parliament appointed Alexander Turchinov acting president pending an election scheduled for May. * 19 February - Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to Euromaidan revolution as " Brown revolution" and Euromaidan protesters as "rampant thugs." *20 February - Russians enter Crimea ** According to Russian media, Euromaidan supporters brutalized a bus convoy of anti-Maidan activists on the night of February 20–21, 2014 in Korsun-Shevchenkivskyi, Cherkasy Oblast, burned several buses, and killed seven passengers. On April 3, 2014, occupation forces in Crimea said seven people had died and 30 had gone missing.
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
,
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
and the local police force all questioned the accuracy of this account. However, Putin said this story was the reason for the military operation in Crimea, and the alleged killings of anti-Maidan activists near Korsun were later reflected in the Russian pseudo-documentary
Crimea. The Way Home ''Crimea. The Way Home'' (russian: «Крым. Путь на Родину») is a Russian propaganda television documentary about the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014. The film premiered both on Russian channel Rossiya 1 ...
. * February 27, 2014 - Russian soldiers seize Crimean Parliament **
Sergey Aksyonov Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov (russian: Сергей Валерьевич Аксёнов, uk, Сергій Валерійович Аксьонов, ro, Serghei Valerievici Aksionov; born 26 November 1972) is a Russian politician serving, since ...
installed **Putin gives multiple versions of Russian participation **Donetsk People's Republic separatist
Igor Girkin Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin ( rus, И́горь Все́володович Ги́ркин, p=ˈiɡərʲ ˈfsʲevələdəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡʲirkʲɪn; born 17 December 1970), also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov ( rus, И́горь Ива́ ...
said in January 2015 that Crimean members of parliament were held at gunpoint, and forced to support the annexation of Crimea.


March 2014

* March 2, 2014, Russian media reported that Ukrainian saboteurs shot at a crowd and the House of Trade Unions near the Crimean Cabinet in
Simferopol Simferopol () is the second-largest city in the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, ...
. The masked saboteurs were armed with modern Russian weapons, including the latest GM-94
grenade launcher A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially-designed large-caliber projectile, often with an explosive, smoke or gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary grenade cartridges. The mos ...
, and the "victims" of the attack were unharmed. *March 18 - Annexation of Crimea * March 19 - Russian media reported the arrest of a 17-year-old
Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
sniper in
Simferopol Simferopol () is the second-largest city in the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. However, ...
the day before, killing an APU serviceman Sergei Kokurin and a Russian mercenary. No further information about the 17-year-old sniper was given, but
Igor Girkin Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin ( rus, И́горь Все́володович Ги́ркин, p=ˈiɡərʲ ˈfsʲevələdəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡʲirkʲɪn; born 17 December 1970), also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov ( rus, И́горь Ива́ ...
later admitted that his unit was responsible. (See also: 2014 Simferopol incident) * On March 24, 2014, several media outlets reported that the deputy commander of the Kerch Marine Battalion, , had written a statement about joining the Russian army. However, he went to the mainland and studied at a Ukrainian military university.


April 2014

*Russia annexes Crimea. *The Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic secede. * April - Oleg Bakhtiyarov arrested in a plot to storm Ukraine's parliament and Kyiv Cabinet of Ministers building. He recruited some 200 people, paid them each $500 to help, and stockpiled petrol bombs and tools. Bakhtiyarov arranged for Russian TV channels to film the incident, then blame it on Ukrainian radicals.Alexander Dugin: The Crazy Ideologue of the New Russian Empire – The Daily Beast
Thedailybeast.com. Retrieved 1 May 2014. * Vitaliy Yarema said that Russian Special Forces units, including the 45th Parachute Guards Regiment from Moscow, were operating in
Kramatorsk Kramatorsk ( uk, Краматорськ, translit=Kramatorsk ) is a city and the administrative centre of Kramatorsk Raion in the northern portion of Donetsk Oblast, in eastern Ukraine. Prior to 2020, Kramatorsk was a City of regional significa ...
and Sloviansk. On 16 April, 450 Russian special forces troops were said to be there. * On April 27, 2014, Russian media aired a story about "EU concentration camps in Ukraine." Construction began at the site in 2012, under pro-Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych, an EU-funded project to detain illegal migrants. * On April 29, 2014, Russian news agency ITAR-TASS called a brutal attack by a pro-Russian mob on a peaceful Ukrainian march in Donetsk as " krainianradicals attacked thousands of anti-fascist marchers." * In June 2014, after the capture of
Nadezhda Savchenko Nadiya Viktorivna Savchenko ( uk, Надія Вікторівна Савченко; born 11 May 1981) is a Ukrainian politician, former Army aviation pilot in the Ukrainian Ground Forces and former People's Deputy of Ukraine. During the 2014 ...
, Russian TV channels
NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televis ...
and Channel 5 aired a misleading sound bite in a LifeNewd interview with Nastya Stanko from a soldier named Volodymyr Kosolap, an
Aidar Battalion 24th Separate Assault Battalion "Aidar", also known as the Aidar Battalion, is an assault battalion of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. The unit took part in the war in Eastern Ukraine and had roughly 300-400 members in 2014. It was named after the ...
fighter from
Shchastia Shchastia ( uk, Ща́стя, lit=Happiness, translit=Shchastia, ; russian: Сча́стье) is a city in the Shchastia Raion of the Luhansk Oblast (province) in Ukraine. Population: The Luhansk power station, a large powerplant built in the 19 ...
. Russian media presented him as a "punisher" from a barricading detachment, ordered to shoot anyone who did not want to kill members of pro-Russian armed groups. In the full video of June 16, 2014, Kosolap said that he would have shot any Aidar fighter who tried this. LifeNews took this sound byte out of context.


April–May 2014: Sloviansk

*April 12, 2014 - former Russian military officer
Igor Girkin Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin ( rus, И́горь Все́володович Ги́ркин, p=ˈiɡərʲ ˈfsʲevələdəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡʲirkʲɪn; born 17 December 1970), also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov ( rus, И́горь Ива́ ...
took
Sloviansk Sloviansk ( uk, Слов'янськ, Sloviansk ; russian: Славянск, Slavyansk or ; prior to 1784 – Tor) is a city in the Kramatorsk district of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the administrative center of the Slovyansk urban commun ...
in Donbas


May 2014 - Ukrainians attack

*Russia broadcaster Channel One falsely claimed Ukrainian soldiers tortured and
crucified Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...
a three-year-old child * On July 15, 2014, the English-language Russian broadcaster
Voice of Russia Voice of Russia ( rus, Голос России, r=Golos Rossii), commonly abbreviated VOR, was the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service from 1993 until 2014, when it was reorganised as Radio Sputnik. Its interval signal w ...
published an article in which pro-Russian militants attributed the killing of Pentecostals in Slovyansk to "Ukrainian nationalists," twisting the words of
Anton Gerashchenko Anton Yuriyovych Gerashchenko ( uk, Антон Юрійович Геращенко, Anton Yuriyovych Herashchenko, born 10 February 1979) is a current official advisor and a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. ...
, then a government spokesperson. The killings have since been attributed to Donetsk separatists.A Ukrainian murder mystery ensnares a church in former rebel stronghold: That pro-Russia separatists kidnapped and murdered four members of a Pentecostal church in Slaviansk seems sure. But very little else about the incident is
Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor. August 12, 2014 * In May 2014, a television commercial surfaced that was created in the autumn of 2013 for a Russian Defense Ministry recruitment campaign. The video was criticized for promoting war and the account that had posted it was removed from
Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...
. (It is now only posted on YouTube). *May 25 - Oligarch
Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko se ...
wins Ukrainian presidential election *Summer 2014, Azov helped retake Mariupol


July–August 2014

* In late July-early August 2014, a video of Bohdan Butkevich of Tyzhden was widely publicized, allegedly calling for the killing of 1.5 million Donbas residents. The video was a rough snippet which completely distorted the meaning of what he said. *August 2014 - Ukrainian government blocked 14 Russian TV channels to stop them from spreading war propaganda.Propaganda by Proxy: Ukrainian oligarchs, TV and Russia's influence
Jakob Hedenskog and Mattias Hjelm. Swedish Defense Research Agency, RUFS Briefing No. 48 Project No: A112001, October, 2020 FOI Memo: 7312 * August 2014 - captured Russian special forces from the 331st regiment of the 98th Svirsk airborne division say they crossed the border by accident. Ukrainian spokesman said: "This wasn't a mistake, but a special mission they were carrying out." * August 2014 - The Ukrainian government bans a number of Russian news outlets for broadcasting war propaganda.


October

*October 2014 - Pravda and Izvestia accused
Right Sector Right Sector ( uk, Пра́вий се́ктор, ''Pravyi sektor'') is a right-wing to far-right, Ukrainian nationalist organization. It originated in November 2013 as a right-wing, paramilitary confederation of several radical nationalist org ...
of terrorizing the Jewish community of Odessa and beating more than 20 people. Mikhail Maiman, quoted by Izvestia, was fictional, and there had not been a single incident of violence. * October 24 - CyberBerkut claims to hack electronic vote counting system, Ukraine's CEC website * October 28 - Russian intelligence and security services were behind a plot. to create a people's republic in Odessa, said the SBU, which also said it had found a munitions cache and arrested the alleged separatists.


December

*December 2014 - Ukrainian Ministry of Information created to counteract "Russian propaganda"; Reporters Without Borders say that "In a democratic society, the media should not be regulated by the government."


2015


January–February 2015

*28 January on the outskirts of Khartsyzk, east of Donetsk - the OSCE observed "five
T-72 The T-72 is a family of Soviet/Russian main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. The T-72 was a development of the T-64, which was troubled by high costs and its reliance on immature developmental technology. About 25,000 T-72 tanks ha ...
tanks facing east, and immediately after, another column of four T-72 tanks moving east on the same road which was accompanied by four unmarked URAL-type military trucks." as well as intensified movement of unmarked military trucks, covered with canvas. *January - After the shelling of residential areas in
Mariupol Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russian i ...
, NATO's
Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician who has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. A member of the Norwegian Labour Party, he previously served as the 34th prime minister of Norway from 2000 to ...
said: "Russian troops in eastern Ukraine are supporting these offensive operations with command and control systems, air defence systems with advanced surface-to-air missiles, unmanned aerial systems, advanced multiple rocket launcher systems, and electronic warfare systems." * February 9 - Artillery shell causes explosion at a chemical plant in
Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; uk, Донецьк, translit=Donets'k ; russian: Донецк ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin and Stalino (see also: Names of European cities in different languages (C–D), cities' alternat ...
. * February 12 -
Minsk II The Minsk agreements were a series of international agreements which sought to end the Donbas war fought between armed Russian separatist groups and Armed Forces of Ukraine, with Russian regular forces playing a central part. The first, know ...
accords signed * February 15 - Minsk II ceasefire took effect * February 16 -
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine ( uk, Міністерство закордонних справ України) is the ministry of the Ukrainian government that oversees the foreign relations of Ukraine. The head of the ministry is t ...
Pavlo Klimkin Pavlo Anatoliiovych Klimkin ( uk, Павло Анатолійович Клімкін; born 25 December 1967) is a Ukrainian diplomat who from 19 June 2014 until 29 August 2019 served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. A Moscow-educated p ...
said pro-Russian forces fired on Ukrainians over 100 times in the past day. Separatists accuse Ukrainians of violating the ceasefire. * February 17 - Rebels conquered most of
Debaltseve Debaltseve or Debaltsevo ( uk, Деба́льцеве ''Debálʼtseve'', ; russian: Деба́льцево ''Debálʼtsevo'') is a city of regional significance in the ''de facto'' Donetsk People's Republic; ''de jure'' Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. T ...
and encircled 10,000 Ukrainian troops in the area. Rebels claimed the town was not part of the recently established ceasefire.


March 2015

* On March 23, 2015, Russian outlets broadcast a news story about a 10-year-old girl allegedly killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk. BBC correspondent Natalia Antelava discovered in Donetsk that the story was Russian propaganda. She asked Russian media employees about the girl's death, and they replied that "she is not here anymore" and that no one was killed. When asked about the news stories they answered that they had been "forced".


June 2015

*June 22 - European sanctions against Russia because of its actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Kremlin calls them “unfounded and illegal.”


2016

* Oxford Dictionaries named the term "post-truth" the word of the year. * In April 2016 the Internet Research Agency released a video claiming that an advertising sign in New York's Times Square had been hacked to show an image of Vladimir Putin winking. The video was fake. * On December 12, 2016, the press centre of the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine reported that unauthorized information resources appeared with symbols and photo materials of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that might provide distorted or unverified information. * On December 13, 2016, Russian media preliminarily accused Ukraine of gas theft. * On December 22, 2016, American cybersecurity company
CrowdStrike CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. is an American cybersecurity technology company based in Austin, Texas. It provides cloud workload and endpoint security, threat intelligence, and cyberattack response services. The company has been involved in inves ...
released a report according to which Russian hackers from the Fancy Bear group monitored the location of APU D-30
howitzers A howitzer () is a long-ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like oth ...
through an Android application written by Ukrainian gunner Yaroslav.


2017

May 2017 - Poroshenko blocked access in Ukraine to Russian servers for
VKontakte VK (short for its original name ''VKontakte''; russian: ВКонтакте, meaning ''InContact'') is a Russian online social media and social networking service based in Saint Petersburg. VK is available in multiple languages but it is predomin ...
,
Odnoklassniki Odnoklassniki ( rus, Одноклассники, t=Classmates) is a social network service used mainly in Russia and former Soviet Republics. The site was developed by Albert Popkov and launched on March 4, 2006. The website currently has more ...
,
Yandex Yandex LLC (russian: link=no, Яндекс, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian multinational technology company providing Internet-related products and services, including an Internet search engine, information services, e-commerce, transportation, map ...
and
Mail.ru VK, known as Mail.ru Group until 12 October 2021, is a Russian technology company. It started in 1998 as an e-mail service and went on to become a major corporate figure in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. VK operates an e-mail s ...
, claiming they participated in an information war against Ukraine. *July 2017 -Putin signed a bill, which took effect 1 November 2017, banning software and websites to circumvent internet filtering in Russia, including
anonymizer An anonymizer or an anonymous proxy is a tool that attempts to make activity on the Internet untraceable. It is a proxy server computer that acts as an intermediary and privacy shield between a client computer and the rest of the Internet. It acce ...
s and
Virtual private network A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...
(VPN) services.


2018

*
Kerch Strait incident The Kerch Strait incident was an international incident that occurred on 25 November 2018 in the Kerch Strait, during which the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels after they ...
- EU Commissioner for Security Sir Julian King said that prior to the incident Russia had spread rumours: **that the Ukrainians were dredging the Azov Sea to prepare for a NATO fleetRussian info war preceded Ukrainian ship seizures: EU
Agence France-Presse, RFI, Oct 12, 2018 **that Ukraine planned to infect the Black Sea with cholera **that it planned to blow up the Crimean Bridge with a nuclear bomb


2019


April 2019

*
Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...
elected


2021

*May 11,
Viktor Medvedchuk Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk ( uk, Віктор Володимирович Медведчук, ; born 7 August 1954) is a Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who is since September 2022 living in exile after being handed over ...
and fellow
Opposition Platform — For Life The Opposition Platform – For Life ( uk, Опозиційна платформа – За життя; russian: Оппозиционная платформа – За жизнь, OPZZh) was a parliamentary and now banned pro-Russian and Euros ...
lawmaker
Taras Kozak Taras Romanovych Kozak ( uk, Тарас Романович Козак; born 6 April 1972, Sokilnyky, Pustomyty Raion, Lviv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Ukrainian politician, state servant, businessman and media proprietor, and a cl ...
named suspects for high treason and illegal exploitation of natural resources in Ukraine's Russian-annexed
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
. *13 May -
Viktor Medvedchuk Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk ( uk, Віктор Володимирович Медведчук, ; born 7 August 1954) is a Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who is since September 2022 living in exile after being handed over ...
put under
house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
and fitted with an electronic tracking device. *May 2021 - Russian authorities began liquidating the Russian company Novye Proekty allegedly used by Medvedchuk for his alleged illegal exploitations in Crimea. In 2021, Poroshenko was named as a co-suspect in the criminal case against Medvedchuk. *November 2021 - Zelenskyy accused
Rinat Akhmetov Rinat Leonidovych Akhmetov, ; russian: Ринат Леонидович Ахметов, ; tt-Cyrl, Ринат Леонид улы Әхмәтов, translit=Rinat Leonid uly Äkhmätov (born on 21 September 1966) is a Ukrainian billionaire and b ...
of helping to plan a coup by Russia in Ukraine.Ukraine has uncovered Russian-linked coup plot, says president Volodymyr Zelenskiy says there is evidence of ‘coup d’état’ being planned for early December
Patrick Wintour. The Guardian, 26 November 2021 Akhmetov called the allegations "an absolute lie." Zelenskyy later said the plot had tried to enlist Akhmetov but without success. * December 2021 - Mythos Labs found 697 accounts tweeting Russian disinformation about Ukraine, vs. 58 in November, 2021. The number of Ukraine-related tweets by these accounts soared 3,270% from September to December


2022


January

*6 January - Assets of former president Poroshenko frozen as part of Ukrainian proceedings for high treason. *22 January - United Kingdom announced it had intelligence of planned Russian coup in Ukraine


February

* "Russian-backed forces are already shelling targets in the east, as Moscow's propaganda organs blame the violence on the Ukrainian government." * 3 February - TV channel NewsOne banned by presidential decree. Since then, NASH has taken the place of the banned pro-Russian TV channels. * 18 February -
Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic ( rus, Донецкая Народная Республика, Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika, dɐˈnʲetskəjə nɐˈrodnəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə; abbreviated as DPR or DNR, rus, ДНР) is a Territorial ...
and
Luhansk People's Republic The Luhansk or Lugansk People's Republic (russian: Луга́нская Наро́дная Респу́блика, Luganskaya Narodnaya Respublika, ; abbreviated as LPR or LNR, rus, ЛНР) is a disputed entity created by Russian-backed ...
, the separatist areas of eastern Ukraine involved in the
War in Donbas War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
, broadcast an urgent appeal for citizens to evacuate to Russia. Investigation showed that the messages were pre-recorded. *February 21 - United States president Joe Biden warned of an impending invasion of Ukraine *February 28 - Google turns off live traffic updates for Ukraine out of safety concerns for users.


March

*March - Azov Battalion fighting Russian invaders in MariupolThe Azov Battalion: Extremists defending Mariupol
Roman Goncharenko. Deutsche Welle, March 16, 2022 (in English) *March 1 - Russians deploy vacuum bomb at a Ukrainian army base in the northeastern town of Okhtyrka, killing 70 soldiers. * March 4 - Russia blocks access to the BBC and Voice of America from within Russia, as well as Deutsche Welle and Radio Free Europe. * March 9 -
Mariupol hospital airstrike On 9 March 2022, the Russian Air Force bombed ''Maternity Hospital No 3'', a hospital complex functioning both as a children's hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol, Ukraine, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, killing at least four ...
Four died. Russian forces deny this event happened. Twitter removed a tweet by the Russian embassy in London to this effect, calling it disinformation. * March 9–22 bombs defused in
Chernihiv Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within ...
, according to Ukrainians, who released images of what appears to be 500lb
FAB-500 The FAB-500 is a Soviet-designed general purpose air-dropped bomb with a high-explosive warhead, primarily used by the Russian Air Force, former Soviet republics and customer countries. The original M-54 model was rolled out in 1954, shape ...
s. * March 13 - Russians shell Chernihiv. *
Mariupol theatre airstrike On 16 March 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces bombed the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre in Mariupol, Ukraine. It was used as an air raid shelter during the siege of Mariupol, sheltering a larg ...
* March 14 -
Marina Ovsyannikova Marina Vladimirovna Ovsyannikova (russian: Мари́на Влади́мировна Овся́нникова, ; (); born 19 June 1978) is a Russian journalist who was employed on the Channel One Russia TV channel. She worked for Russia's main ...
, an editor for
Channel One Russia Channel One ( rus, Первый канал, r=Pervyy kanal, p=ˈpʲervɨj kɐˈnal, t=First Channel) is a Russian state-controlled television channel. It is the first television channel to broadcast in the Russian Federation. Its headquarters ...
, interrupted the state television's live broadcast to protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, carrying a poster stating in a mix of Russian and English: "Stop the war, don't believe the propaganda, here you are being lied to." * March 16 - TASS says Mariupol theater was blown up by Azov Battalion * March 16 - Russian spokesman
Igor Konashenkov Lieutenant General Igor Yevgenyevich Konashenkov (russian: Игорь Евгеньевич Конашенков; born 15 May 1966) is a Russian military officer serving as the chief spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federa ...
denied that Russian forces had killed 10 civilians queuing for bread, calling footage of the event a “hoax launched by the Ukrainian Security Service”; ”No Russian soldiers are or have been in Chernihiv. All units are outside of the Chernihiv city limits, blocking roads, and are not conducting any offensive action,” he said. * March 16 - Two adults and three children were killed in Russian shelling in Chernihiv. *March 16 — Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said Moscow would “turn to international organizations” because, it said, Ukraine was holding Ukrainians hostage in Kyiv, Kharkov, Chernihiv and Sumy rather than allowing them to travel to the Russian Federation. *March 17 - Russia's ambassador to the United Nations denied bombing a theatre in Mariupol that had been serving as a bomb shelter. *March 17 - Russian media (Pravda) said that three members of the Tennessee National Guard, all relatives, had been killed while fighting as mercenaries in Ukraine. The guardsmen had been home for more than a year. *March 21 - Ukrainian media reported a missile strike on Kyiv's Retroville Shopping Mall. Russian media released drone footage allegedly showing an MLRS system stationed near the mall.


Staged videos

* On July 22, 2015, the head investigator of the Lugansk Prosecutor General's Office, Leonid Tkachenko, said that a warehouse of American weapons had been discovered during the excavation of debris near
Luhansk Luhansk (, ; uk, Луганськ, ), also known as Lugansk (, ; russian: Луганск, ), is a city in what is internationally recognised as Ukraine, although it is administered by Russia as capital of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). A ...
airport. The video allegedly showed army boxes and an American
Stinger A stinger (or sting) is a sharp organ found in various animals (typically insects and other arthropods) capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal. An insect sting is complicated by its introduction of v ...
MANPADS. Analysis of the video found that the "Stinger" was a poorly built prop made of welded plumbing pipes. The markings on it came from the video game
Battlefield 3 ''Battlefield 3'' is a 2011 first-person shooter video game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is a direct sequel to 2005's ''Battlefield 2''. In ''Battlefield 3''s campaign, ...
, including the identification number and the errors in the English. The fake was distributed by Russian media, in particular Komsomolskaya Pravda, RIA Novosti and TV- Zvezda. * On January 18, 2016, on the eve of the Dutch referendum on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, Russian sources circulated a video of
Azov Battalion The Special Operations Detachment "Azov" (), also known as the Azov Regiment ( uk, Полк «Азов», translit=Polk "Azov") and formerly the Azov Battalion ( uk, батальйон «Азов», translit=Batalion "Azov"), is a unit of the ...
fighters allegedly burning the flag of the Netherlands and threatening to commit terrorist acts there if the agreement was not approved.
Bellingcat Bellingcat (stylised as bellngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 20 ...
concluded that the video was a forgery and distributed if not created by the Kremlin-linked
Internet Research Agency The Internet Research Agency (IRA; russian: Агентство интернет-исследований, translit=Agentstvo internet-issledovaniy), also known as ''Glavset'' (russian: link=no, Главсеть) and known in Russian Internet sla ...
in St Petersburg. * Another video released by the
Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic ( rus, Донецкая Народная Республика, Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika, dɐˈnʲetskəjə nɐˈrodnəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə; abbreviated as DPR or DNR, rus, ДНР) is a Territorial ...
(DNR) and CyberBerkut had links to the IRA. The
Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the I ...
considers Cyberberkut a front for the Kremlin's internet activities, and the Kremlin maintained plausible deniability as to the activities of the IRA by bankrolling it through
Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (russian: link=no, Евгений Викторович Пригожин; born 1 June 1961) is a Russian oligarch and close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin was called "Putin's chef" because h ...
, known as "Putin's chef". It accused Ukraine's Azov Battalion of fighting alongside
ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
militants. Photos and videos made by the pro-Russian militants showed armed men wearing ISIS and Azov symbols firing on industrial buildings. The BBC identified the buildings as hangars at the Isolation
mineral wool Mineral wool is any fibrous material formed by spinning or drawing molten mineral or rock materials such as slag and ceramics. Applications of mineral wool include thermal insulation (as both structural insulation and pipe insulation), filt ...
plant in Donetsk, which in 2011 was converted into an art space, the Isolation art project, then seized in June 2014 by pro-Russian militants. * On July 23, 2018, a video spread through the Russian media alleged that a special unit of the
Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( uk, Служба безпеки України, translit=Sluzhba bezpeky Ukrainy}) or SBU ( uk, СБУ, link=no) is the law enforcement authority and main intelligence and security agency of the Ukrainian ...
(SBU) stormed the base of Ukrainian volunteers using
armoured personnel carriers An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. Acc ...
. The video then purported to show the SBU beating them. As early as July 25, the video was exposed as fake: the SBU uniform had outdated elements and insignia; the armoured personnel carrier had white identification lines in a form that had not been used for a long time, as well as anti-accumulation grilles, which the SBU does not put on its equipment. The actors who played SBU special forces spoke with a foreign accent, threw around emotional phrases about hatred for
Bandera Bandera - from a Spanish word meaning a ''flag'' - may refer to: Places * Bandera County, Texas ** Bandera, Texas, its county seat ** Bandera Creek, a river in Texas, with its source near Bandera Pass ** Bandera Pass, a mountain pass in Bandera C ...
members and unprofessionally pretended to kick the volunteers. On September 11, an armoured personnel carrier was filmed in Donetsk. On September 20, the location of the staged assault was identified — the grounds of the abandoned Reaktiv chemical plant in occupied Donetsk. * On August 16, 2018, a video of the alleged brutal detention of a person at a Ukrainian checkpoint was published on a YouTube channel with no subscribers or other videos. The video was distributed among the Russian occupation forces, in particular through the Lost Armor website. The Ukrainian mil.in portal published a debunking. The appearance of all Ukrainian checkpoints (Majorca, Marinka, Gnutovo, Stanitsa Luhanskaya, as well as Chengar and
Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Russian invasion in March, videos were discovered purporting to show Ukrainian-produced disinformation about strikes inside Ukraine which were then "debunked" as some other event outside Ukraine. However, this may be the first case of a
disinformation false-flag operation Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the ...
, as the original, supposedly "Ukraine-produced" disinformation was never disseminated by anyone, and was in fact preventive disinformation created specifically in order to be debunked and cause confusion and mitigate the impact on the Russian public of real footage of Russian strikes within Ukraine when it eventually got past Russian-controlled media. According to Patrick Warren, head of Clemson's Media Forensics Hub, "It's like Russians actually pretending to be Ukrainians spreading disinformation. ... The reason that it's so effective is because you don't actually have to convince someone that it's true. It's sufficient to make people uncertain as to what they should trust." * On March 14, 2022, a video was released purporting to show a helicopter attacking a Russian convoy, resulting in the destruction of military aircraft and tanks. Upon further analysis, the footage was revealed to have been produced using the Arma 3 video game. * On March 16, 2022, a one-minute
deepfake Deepfakes (a portmanteau of " deep learning" and "fake") are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. While the act of creating fake content is not new, deepfakes leverage powerfu ...
video aired on the website of the Ukraine 24 television channel. In it, Zelenskyy appeared to tell Ukrainian soldiers to surrender. Ukraine 24 said they had been hacked, but Russian social media boosted it. Zelenskyy immediately disavowed the video and responded with one of his own, and Facebook and YouTube began to remove it. Twitter allowed the video in tweets discussing the fake but said it would be taken down if posted deceptively. Hackers inserted the disinformation into the live scrolling-text news crawl. It was not immediately clear who created the deepfake.


Results

On November 23, 2016, the
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
passed a resolution opposing Russian propaganda. Putin responded by calling the work of the Russian news agencies RT and Sputnik effective.


2022

On March 1 YouTube blocked channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, then worldwide on March 11 due to its insistence that Russia was not waging war in Ukraine. Roku and DirectTV also dropped RT.


Countermeasures

No precise equivalent appears to exist to the systemic Russian disinformation campaign, although Ukraine and other interested parties have used speeches, television appearances, social media, cyber warfare and viral memes against Russia. Not all of these actions can be attributed with certainty, but the United States has deployed soft power on Ukraine's behalf, at least one self-identified Anonymous account has claimed to have damaged Russian infrastructure, and a number of official Ukraine social media accounts have successfully created a favorable narrative. The U.S. government, suspecting a buildup to a false flag attack, released its intelligence findings about Russian troop movements before the invasion began, undermining the posited plans to blame an attack on Ukraine; "the U.S. government was very forthcoming...there wasn't an information vacuum that the Russians could step in and fill" explained researcher Laura Edelson. Ukraine on the other hand has created a narrative of Ukrainian bravery and indomitability. On 5 April 2022, Russia's opposition politician
Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolievich Navalny ( rus, links=no, Алексей Анатольевич Навальный, , ɐlʲɪkˈsʲej ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ nɐˈvalʲnɨj; born 4 June 1976) is a Russian opposition leader, lawyer, and anti-corruption act ...
said the "monstrosity of lies" in the Russian state media "is unimaginable. And, unfortunately, so is its persuasiveness for those without access to alternative information." He tweeted that "warmongers" among Russian state media personalities "should be treated as war criminals. From the editors-in-chief to the talk show hosts to the news editors,
hey Hey or Hey! may refer to: Music * Hey (band), a Polish rock band Albums * ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014 * ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980 * ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
should be sanctioned now and tried someday."


Zelenskyy

Zelenskyy's speeches have repeatedly gone viral and galvanized the Ukrainian population. An underdog hero tackling evil forces attacking him is an ancient human narrative as fundamental and continuing as
Gilgamesh sux, , label=none , image = Hero lion Dur-Sharrukin Louvre AO19862.jpg , alt = , caption = Possible representation of Gilgamesh as Master of Animals, grasping a lion in his left arm and snake in his right hand, in an Assyr ...
and
Luke Skywalker Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the protagonist of the original film trilogy of the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. Portrayed by Mark Hamill, Luke first appeared in ''Star Wars'' (1977), and he returned in ''The ...
, and Zelenskyy has told it masterfully. Wearing a green military t-shirt, he passionately appealed for help for his people in fiery virtual speeches to the parliaments of Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union, as well as a joint session of the U.S. Congress, to a standing ovation each time. He has spoken to the Russian people directly, in Russian, his first language. Also in Russian, he positioned himself on March 3 as a "neighbor" and an "ordinary guy", needling Putin for recently receiving his visitors at an extraordinarily long table: Putin's previous shirtless photo-ops sought to
position Position often refers to: * Position (geometry), the spatial location (rather than orientation) of an entity * Position, a job or occupation Position may also refer to: Games and recreation * Position (poker), location relative to the dealer * ...
him as a strong and virile leader. Images of the younger Zelenskyy wearing
body armor Body armor, also known as body armour, personal armor or armour, or a suit or coat of armor, is protective clothing designed to absorb or deflect physical attacks. Historically used to protect military personnel, today it is also used by variou ...
and drinking tea with Ukrainian soldiers starkly contrasted with news broadcasts of Putin in rococo and very socially distanced The body armor photo was taken in 2021, and he actually drank tea with the soldiers a few days before the invasion began, but the images were real if out of context, and the pictures of Putin at an enormously long table, apparently for fear of
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, were also real. Official Ukrainian social media accounts have sought to bolster support for efforts against the invasion and spread information, with targeted posts and videos used to recruit soldiers and call for international aid. Some media analysts have highlighted the Ukrainian officials' methods as beneficial. Several academics, including Professors Rob Danish and
Timothy Naftali Timothy Naftali is a Canadian-American historian who is clinical associate professor of public service at New York University. He has written four books, two of them co-authored with Alexander Fursenko on the Cuban Missile Crisis and Nikita Khrus ...
, have highlighted Zelenskyy's speaking ability and use of social media to spread information and draw upon feelings of shame and concern while building kinship with viewers. Real-time information about the invasion has been spread by online activists, journalists, politicians, and members of the general population, both in and out of Ukraine.


Propaganda in other countries

Chinese diplomats, government agencies, and state-controlled
media in China The mass media in China consists primarily of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since the start of the 21st century, the Internet has also emerged as an important form of communication by media, and is under the direct supervisi ...
have used the war as an opportunity to deploy anti-American propaganda, and they have amplified conspiracy theories created by Russia, such as the false claims that public health facilities in Ukraine are "secret US biolabs". Such conspiracy theories have also been promoted by Cuban state media. Russian propaganda has also been repeated by the state-controlled outlets of other countries such as Serbia and Iran. In Iran, the state media criticised the British embassy in Tehran after it raised the Ukrainian flag in support of Ukraine. Reports from Sputnik have been actively republished by Iran's pro-regime media. In Latin America, RT Actualidad is a popular channel that has spread disinformation about the war. Authorities in Vietnam have instructed reporters not to use the word "invasion" and to minimize coverage of the war. In South Africa, the governing
African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...
published an article in its weekly newsletter ''ANC Today'' endorsing the notion that Russia had invaded Ukraine to denazify it.


Memes

Also shot on February 25, a video of an elderly woman scolding a Russian soldier appears to record an actual event in
Henichesk Henichesk ( uk, Гені́чеськ, Heniches’k, ; rus, links=on, Гени́ческ, r=Genichesk, p=ɡʲɪˈnʲit͡ɕɪsk) is a port city along the Sea of Azov in the Kherson Oblast of southern Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre ...
. She gave him sunflower seeds so sunflowers would grow when he died. The wildly popular social media legend, Ghost of Kiev, "a Ukrainian fighter pilot who shot down six Russian planes cannot be confirmed", said Deutsche Welle on March 1.Fact check: Ukraine's 'Ghost of Kyiv' fighter pilot
Deutsche Welle. 01.03.2022 The story was tweeted by the official Ukraine account and authenticated by former Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko se ...
but the photo of the pilot posted by Poroshenko turned out to be three years old. The story's factuality has been questioned by both Russian and Western media. The Ukrainian military has not verified it, for one thing, and some of the images were definitely repurposed from elsewhere. But on February 25, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine suggested that "The Ghost of Kyiv" might be a returning reserve pilot, so they did not deny it either. The defiant response of a Ukrainian border guard stationed at Zmiinyi (Snake Island) began a Ukrainian framing of the war as David vs. Goliath, which the videos of Ukrainian farmers towing off abandoned Russian tanks have helped to continue.Ukraine has upper hand in information war, but Russia eyes a long game: Kyiv’s messaging and communications resonate in the West, experts say, while Russia focuses inward and on India, China, Africa
Ricky Ben-David and Ethan Freedman. Times of Israel, 3 April 2022 Some Ukrainians say that the many memes that have circulated since the war began have helped them to cope with their uncertain future by making them laugh. Citizen contributions can also serve the more serious purpose of combatting disinformation, says Daniel Johnson, a Roy H. Park Fellow at UNC Hussman's School of Journalism and former U.S. Army journalist. "It's hard to lie when I have 150 videos showing that you're not in Kyiv and you're not winning," he said.Memes become weapons in Ukraine-Russia conflict: History experts say social media posts are latest in long line of propaganda.
Ivan Pereira. ABC News, March 4, 2022


See also

*
Economy of the Soviet Union The economy of the Soviet Union was based on state ownership of the means of production, collective farming, and industrial manufacturing. An administrative-command system managed a distinctive form of central planning. The Soviet economy was ...
* Firehose of falsehood *
Media portrayal of the Ukrainian crisis Media portrayals of the Russo-Ukrainian War, including skirmishes in eastern Donbas and the 2014 Ukrainian revolution after the Euromaidan protests, the subsequent 2014 annexation of Crimea, incursions into Donbas, and the full-scale invasio ...
*
Russian military deception Russian military deception, sometimes known as ''maskirovka'' (russian: маскировка, lit=disguise), is a military doctrine developed from the start of the 20th century. The doctrine covers a broad range of measures for military deceptio ...
* Russian disinformation since 2000 *
Russian web brigades Russian web brigades (also called Russian trolls, Russian bots, Kremlin Bots, Kremlins or Rustapar) are state-sponsored anonymous Internet political commentators and trolls linked to the Government of Russia. Participants report that they are o ...
*
Russians in Ukraine Russians are the largest ethnic minority in Ukraine. This community forms the largest single Russian community outside of Russia in the world. In the 2001 Ukrainian census, 8,334,100 identified as ethnic Russians (17.3% of the population of ...
*
Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion , image = Батальйон_імені_Джохара_Дудаєва.png , image_size = , caption = Battalion sleeve insignia. , start_date = , country ...
*
Russian–Ukrainian cyberwarfare Cyberwarfare is a component of the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. While the first attacks on information systems of private enterprises and state institutions of Ukraine were recorded duri ...
*
International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War International sanctions have been imposed against Russia and Crimea during the Russo-Ukrainian War by a large number of countries, including the United States, Canada, the European Union, and international organisations following the Russi ...
(2014) *
Russia–Ukraine relations There are no diplomatic or bilateral relations between Ukraine and Russia. The two countries have been in a Declaration of war, state of war since 24 February 2022. Following the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity in 2014, Ukraine's Crimea, Crimean ...
*
Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War; uk, російсько-українська війна, rosiisko-ukrainska viina. has been ongoing between Russia (alongside Russian separatist forces in Donbas, Russian separatists in Ukraine) and Ukraine since Feb ...
* Television in Ukraine *
Timeline of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine This is a timeline of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest that has erupted in Ukraine, in the aftermath of the Ukrainian revolution and the Euromaidan movement. March 1 March *On 1 March 2014, the council of Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine's easternmos ...
*
Ukraine–European Union relations Relations between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine are shaped through the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). Ukraine is a priority partner within the Eastern Partnership and ...
*
War crimes in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities and armed forces have committed multiple war crimes in the form of deliberate attacks against civilian targets, massacres of civilians, torture and rape of women and children, ...
* 2014 Russian sabotage activities in Ukraine *
Russian allegations of fascism against Ukraine Disinformation has been distributed by governmental agencies and web brigades of the Russian Federation, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) separatist areas of Ukraine in relation to the 2021–2022 Ru ...


Bibliography

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У нас погані новини
(We have bad news) // Texty.org.ua, November 28, 2018 (in Ukrainian) * ''Petro Bukovsky'' (''Петро Бурковський'')
Як «Страна.ua» зображає Україну агресором
// ''Детектор медіа'', (How Strana.ua portrays Ukraine as an aggressor) // Media Detector, July 4, 2018 (in Ukrainian) * ''Georgy Chizhov''
Pro-Kremlin influence in the Ukrainian media
(in English) // The Kremlin's influence quarterly - Free Russia Foundation, 2020 * ''Olena Churanova'' (''Олена Чуранова'')
Копіпаст російської пропаганди в українських новинах
// ''Детектор медіа'', (Copypaste of Russian propaganda in Ukrainian news) // Media Detector, October 17, 2018 (in Ukrainian) * ''Gai-Nyzhnyk PP''
Росія проти України (1990—2016): від політики шантажу і примусу до війни на поглинання та спроби знищення
(Russia v. Ukraine (1990-2016): from the policy of blackmail and coercion to the war of takeover and attempts at destruction). МП Леся (MP Lesya), 2017. 332pp. ISBN 978-617-7530-02-1 (in Ukrainian) * ''Roman Hardel'' (оман Хардель)
Википедия как инструмент влияния на историческое сознание в контексте русско-украинской информационной войны
// ''Sdirect24'', (Wikipedia as a tool for influencing historical consciousness in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian information war) (in Russian) // Sdirect24, March 2, 2019 * ''Volodymyr Ivakhnenko'' (''Володимир Івахненко'')

// ''Радіо свобода'', ("The task is to sow doubts": Why Ukraine accuses Russia of lying) // ''
Radio Liberty Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
'', 18 December 2018 (in Russian) * ''Konakh VK'' (''Конах В. К.'')
Сучасні тенденції в захисті національних медіапросторів від російської пропаганди
(Modern tendencies in protection of national media spaces from Russian propaganda) // Strategic priorities. (Стратегічні пріоритети). National Institute for Strategic Studies (Національний інститут стратегічних досліджень), 2016, v.38. ISSN 2306-5664 * ''Kurban OV'' (
Курбан О. В.
')
Інформаційне супроводження російської гібридної агресії в Донбасі (2014—2016)
(Information support of Russian hybrid aggression in Donbass (2014-2016)) // Nauk. Journal "Library Science. Documentation. Informology." 2017, No. 2. S. 66-73 * ''Lazorenko OA''
Інформаційний складник гібридної війни Російської Федерації проти України: тенденції розвитку
(Information component of the hybrid war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine: development trends). Strategic priorities (Стратегічні пріоритети). National Institute for Strategic Studies (Національний інститут стратегічних досліджень), 2015. Vol. 36. No.3, 2015. ISSN 2306-5664. (In Ukrainian)

// ''Крим.Реалії'', (Fakes about Ukraine: what Russian publications lied about in 2017) (in Russian) // Krym.Realii, January 2, 2018 * ''G. Pocheptsov''
Г. Почепцов «Сучасні інформаційні війни». Видавничий дім «Києво-Могилянська Академія». 2015
("Modern Information Wars"). Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Publishing House. 2015 (in Ukrainian)

// ''Радіо свобода'' (Pro-Kremlin media about Ukraine and their interpretation of fascism (review of misinformation)) //
Radio Liberty Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
, July 24, 2017 (in Ukrainian) * ''Andriy Soshnikov'' (''Андрій Сошніков'')
За зламом пошти Бабченка стояли люди з «ДНР», які знімали фейки про бойовиків «ІД»
// ''
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
'', (Behind the hacking of Babchenko's mail were people from the DNR, who filmed fakes about IS militants) // October 4, 2018 (in Ukrainian) * ''Tkach VF'' (Ткач В. Ф.)
Спецпропаганда як інформаційний складник гібридної війни Росії проти України
(Special propaganda as an information component of Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine) // Strategic Priorities (Стратегічні пріоритети). National Institute for Strategic Studies (Національний інститут стратегічних досліджень), 2016. Vol. 38. ISSN 2306-5664 (in Ukrainian) * ''Zolotukhin D. Yu''
Біла книга спеціальних інформаційних операцій проти України 2014 – 2018
(White book of special information operations against Ukraine 2014–2018). 2018. 384pp. ISBN 978-966-97732-2-7 (in Ukrainian)


In English

* ''Jolanta Darczewska'', (May 19, 2015)
The devil is in the details. Information warfare in the light of Russia's military doctrine
Point of View. Ośrodek Studiów Oriental. ISBN 978-83-62936-57-1 * ''Jolanta Darczewska'', (May 22, 2014)
The anatomy of Russian information warfare. The Crimean operation, a case study
Point of View. Ośrodek Studiów Oriental. ISBN 978-83-62936-45-8 * ''David Frum''
The Great Russian Disinformation Campaign
// The Atlantic, July 1, 2018 * ''Keir Gilles''
Handbook of Russian Information Warfare
Fellowship Monograph 9. NATO Defense College. ISBN 978-88-96898-16-1 * ''Alexei Minakov'', Top 10 fakes of Russian propaganda for 2017 // InformNapalm, January 5, 2018 * ''Ellen Nakashima''

(in English
переклад
// Washington Post, December 25, 2017 * ''Christopher Paul, Miriam Matthews'', (2016)

''RAND Corporation''. P.16. doi: 10.7249/PE198. * ''Bret Perry''
Non-Linear Warfare in Ukraine: The Critical Role of Information Operations and Special Operations
(English) // Small Wars Journal, 14.08.2015 * ''Peter Pomerantsev, Michael Weiss'', (October 22, 2014)
The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information, Culture and Money
Institute of Modern Russia. p. 44. * ''Katri Pynnöniemi, András Rácz, ed.'' (May 10, 2015)
Fog of Falsehood. Russian Strategy of Deception and the Conflict in Ukraine
. FIIA Report 45. The Finnish Institute of International Affairs. ISBN 978-951-769-486-5. ISSN 2323-5454. Archive of the original on June 22, 2016. Cited December 6, 2016. * ''András Rácz'', (June 16, 2015)
Russia's Hybrid War in Ukraine: Breaking the Enemy's Ability to Resist
. FIIA Report 43. The Finnish Institute of International Affairs. ISBN 978-951-769-453-7. ISSN 2323-5454. Archive of the original on December 22, 2016. Cited December 6, 2016. * ''Maria Snegovaya'', (2015)
Putin's information warfare in Ukraine. Soviet origins of Russia's hybrid warfare
Russia Report 1. Institute for the Study of War. * ''Andriy Soshnikov''
Inside a pro-Russia propaganda machine in Ukraine
BBC, 13 November 2017 * ''Aric Toler''
Непостійні, взаємно-суперечливі історії Кремля щодо MH-17
// ''
Bellingcat Bellingcat (stylised as bellngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 20 ...
'', (The Kremlin's Volatile, Contradictory MH-17 Stories) // Bellingcat, January 5, 2018 (in English) * ''Tetyana Voropaeva'' (''Тетяна Воропаєва'')
Информационная безопасность как фактор укрепления обороноспособности украины
// (Information Security as a Factor of Strengthening Ukraine's Defense Capabilities) (in Russian) // gisap.eu * ''Mariia Zhdanova'', University of Glasgow and ''Dariya Orlova'', European Journalism Observatory
Computational Propaganda in Ukraine: Caught Between External Threats and Internal Challenges
Working Paper. 2017.9. Project on Computational Propaganda * ''Dmitry Zolotukhin'' (''Дмитро Золотухін'')
Біла книга спеціальних інформаційних операцій проти України 2014 – 2018Kremlin Fakes: Why Mr. Putin Links ISIS to Ukraine?
(in English)
Russian
// May 25, 2018 (in English) * ''Committee on Foreign Relations'', (2018)
Putin's asymmetric assault on democracy in Russia and Europe: Implications for US national security
US Government Publishing Office.

Research Reports. ''RAND Corporation''. 2018. pp. 148. ISBN 9780833099570. doi: 10.7249/RR2237. RR-2237-OSD.


References


Further reading

* Bowen, Andrew S
Russian Military Intelligence: Background and Issues for Congress
docket #R46616,
Congressional Research Service The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a c ...
, 15 November 2021 * Cunningham, Cono
A Russian Federation Information Warfare Primer
Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, 12 November 2020 * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Russian-Ukrainian information war Russian–Ukrainian cyberwarfare Information operations and warfare Ukraine articles needing expert attention Disinformation operations Propaganda by war