Since February 24, Detector Media has been monitoring the Ukrainian segment of social media and documenting the chronicle of Russian disinformation around Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine on a daily basis. Recently, we have also started doing weekly reviews. During the week of February 1-8, 2023, Detector Media analysts recorded more than fifty fakes, messages, and manipulations of Russian propaganda. This week, propagandists attempted to convince their audiences that Western tanks would not help Ukraine, talked about the “hunt” for Ukrainian men, engaged in the “dehumanization” of Ukrainians, and resorted to cybercrime.
Read reviews of Russian disinformation from previous weeks: September 26-October 2; October 3-9, October 10-17, October 17-24, October 24-31, October 31-November 6, November 7-14, November 14-21, November 21-28, November 28-December 4, December 5-12, December 12-19, December 19-26, January 2-9, January 10-16, January 17-23, January 24-31, as well as the final text for the ten months of the great war.
Similar to last week, most of the Russian disinformation focused on the supply of tanks to Ukraine and mobilization. Propagandists claimed that the Russian army would burn all the tanks provided to Ukraine. According to Russian propaganda, Russian businesses encourage Russian soldiers to destroy Western equipment in return for rewards. This message reiterated that Western tanks would not benefit Ukraine.
The Russian propaganda machine also claimed that Berlin was allegedly calling against providing tanks to Ukraine through advertising. Allegedly, in the city center, an electronic billboard on a building wall broadcasts a video with tanks from 1943 and 2022 and the slogan “Maybe never again?” Social media users added that this is allegedly how the Germans are trying to remind their government of the events of World War II. In fact, the video is fake, and the ad was not broadcast on this screen or any other screen owned by the same owners. The propagandists also claimed that, according to a poll, 94% of German citizens do not support the supply of tanks to Ukraine. However, this statement is a manipulation. According to regularly conducted public opinion polls, 46% of Germans supported sending battle tanks to Ukraine, 43% were against it, and 11% refused to answer. Additionally, support for political parties was surveyed. Among the supporters of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, 84% opposed sending tanks to Ukraine. Propagandists presented the opinions of these Germans as the opinions of all Germans. However, in the 2021 elections, the party received the support of only 10.3% of voters, so such generalizations are misleading.
A photo of a pink tank with a caption stating that European feminists had allegedly raised money and bought it for Ukraine was circulated in the Georgian segment of social media. According to the reports, the tank was allegedly painted pink because green was too offensive to feminists. The tank also allegedly had its barrel cut off because it looked sexist. In fact, the photo of the pink tank was taken at Manchester Pride in 2007 and has nothing to do with Ukraine. By spreading such fakes, Russian propaganda attempts to ridicule and devalue volunteer assistance and Western arms supplies to Ukraine.
Russian media and anonymous Telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric circulated a photo allegedly taken in Brussels. A group of artists from Poland reportedly made a new drawing that continues their series of street art. It allegedly depicts Volodymyr Zelenskyy “absorbing” Western tanks. In fact, this graffiti does not exist, but was created using a photo editing program, just like the “photos” of Zelenskyy’s graffiti in Madrid, Warsaw, New York, and Paris. By doing so, the Russian propaganda machine is trying to make it appear that the Ukrainian president does not enjoy the support of the outside world, but is, in fact, being vilified and ridiculed.
Anonymous Telegram channels circulated reports that the President’s Office of Ukraine had “banned” female MPs and civil servants from traveling abroad. This allegedly means that in the near future, women could be mobilized into the army “in the same manner as men”. In reality, these reports are based on manipulations. First, the Presidential Decree and the Cabinet of Ministers’ resolution relate to professions, not gender. That is, the restrictions apply to officials in general, both men and women. Now they will be able to cross the border only in case of an official business trip or under certain personal circumstances (for instance, to visit minor children, to attend the funeral of a family member, etc.). Secondly, employees of government agencies can be exempted from mobilization. To do this, the institution where they work must submit pertinent details to territorial recruitment centers. Thirdly, the mobilization of women in Ukraine is voluntary (except for medical workers). That is, the amendments to the legislation ensure the continued presence of public employees in Ukraine for the period of martial law. They still follow the same mobilization rules.
This week, propagandists also claimed that territorial recruitment centers are illegal entities, so they cannot issue summonses. In fact, territorial recruitment and social support centers were created as successors to former military enlistment offices. Their responsibilities are to deal with conscription and mobilization for military service. The propagandists also claimed that a “hunt for men”, or “hidden” mobilization, was underway in Ukraine. They asserted that there the battle losses are “colossal”, so men are “caught” on the streets to be sent to the frontline. In fact, mobilization in Ukraine has been ongoing since February 24. The legislation has undergone multiple extensions.. According to the latest amendments, martial law, and general mobilization have been prolonged until May 20, 2023. However, propagandists systematically manipulate the topic of “hidden” mobilization using equivocation. The Russian propaganda machine also uses actual violations in the mobilization process to amplify its messages and make them more credible. Systematic exploitation of mobilization issues is aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian army and causing an emotional impact on Ukrainians.
This week, the Russian propaganda machine has also been spreading the message that Ukrainians want Russian children to die. To accomplish this, Telegram channels and propaganda media shared photos of a chocolate bar allegedly produced in Ukraine. The wrapper depicts a boy wearing a tank helmet with a mourning ribbon. The propaganda outlets claimed that the chocolate was called “Death of Alyosha” and that the prototype of the cover was a real boy named Alexey from the Belgorod region of Russia. The propagandists alleged that Ukrainians allegedly wished him to die because the boy had interacted with Russian soldiers traveling to Ukraine. However, the photo is fake. It was first published on a pro-Russian Twitter account that had previously spread propaganda. The story of the boy Alexei was indeed covered by Russian media in the spring of 2022, but it did not make the news in Ukraine.
Another Russian fake also involved children, this time Ukrainian ones. Reports were circulated on social media that the Lviv-based reproductive medicine clinic Alternativa was allegedly offering its clients “reproductive tissue from Azovstal defenders”. The posts referred to the clinic’s alleged advertisement with the slogan “Let’s revive the nation!” and the Azov emblem. As a matter of fact, this advertisement was created by using a photo editor. The clinic does not provide such services. By spreading false reports like this, propagandists tried to portray Ukrainians as “Nazis” and discredit Azov fighters. Read more about the fakes related to this regiment in the MediaSapiens report.
Russian propaganda also used various stories in an attempt to dehumanize Ukrainians by claiming that flocks of dark birds were circling the city because of Kyiv’s blasphemy. They claimed this was a consequence of the anti-religious policy of the “Kyiv regime”, state-sponsored blasphemy, the destruction of churches, and the persecution of priests. Part of the video was indeed filmed in Kyiv and another part in Houston, USA, back in 2017. In 2020, the Houston video was used as “evidence” of the effects of Typhoon Molawe in Vietnam. The migration of a large number of birds has nothing to do with conspiracy theories or “satanic rituals”. Scientists call this behavior of birds murmuration and it is a completely natural phenomenon.
Furthermore, this week, there were numerous reports of Russian propaganda cyber activity. For example, fake posts were circulated online claiming that the command of the Ukrainian Army Air Force had decided to create Telegram channels with “official information” about enemy aircraft activity and drone traffic. The Air Force Command refuted the reports and called on administrators who run the fake pages to refrain from using official Air Force symbols or photos of their representatives to promote their information platforms. The Russian invaders also hacked lesser-known websites and posted messages from Russians to Ukrainians there, which emphasized brotherhood, the desire to reunite, a common cultural heritage, etc.
In private Russian Telegram channels, there were messages spread claiming it was possible to “arrange” a few hours of intimacy with an “orphaned child from Ukraine”. The cost of this “service” was said to be 250 thousand rubles ($3,350). These messages were also posted in the Ukrainian Telegram sector. The Ukrainian cyber police found out that the child whose photo was used to create the fake was actually born and lives in Russia. The boy works as a model under his mother’s supervision and advertises clothes and shoes, which is why his photo was publicly available.
In Zaporizhia, the Security Service of Ukraine shut down a pro-Russian troll farm. Several thousand bots were spreading disinformation about the situation on the southern front, popularizing Russian occupation social media groups and soliciting donations to support them. In addition, they spread misinformation about the command of the Ukrainian Army and incited Ukrainian citizens to evade mobilization. The primary source of malicious content was the Telegram channel of collaborationist Volodymyr Rohov. At the beginning of its operation, the troll farm had almost two thousand fake accounts posing as local residents that were spreading pro-Russian messages and narratives.
