Lies About the Military and the Army: russia Continues Information Operations Against Ukraine

The  past few weeks have seen  a fresh wave of coordinated fakes promoted through russian and some international media. Their main message is “the Government is acting against the people” and “the war leads to destruction.”

The aim of these information attacks is to sow disbelief among Ukrainians, spark  internal conflicts, question the legitimacy of the Government, and discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Attacks on the Armed Forces of Ukraine

russia’s propaganda actively promotes the image of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as an allegedly incompetent and dehumanized force. Fake videos and publications with prisoners of war allegedly stating: “it’s better in russian captivity than in the Ukrainian Armed Forces”. One of those fakes is soldier E. Orlovskyi’s statement  that the russians “saved his life twice” while the Ukrainian Command abandoned him.

There are manipulative statements about the “Ukrainian Armed Forces’ barrier troops” allegedly shooting at their own. Such rhetoric has a clear task: to incite hatred towards the Command, demoralize the soldiers, and disrupt mobilization.

Fake About the “Personnel Collapse” in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

A separate line of attack is discrediting the process of mobilization. For example, fakes about “chaotic mobilization”, “forced transfer of aircraft technicians into the infantry”, “recruiting harmful people” are circulating in the information space – in particular, these are statements by pro-putin political scientist v. skachok and “expert” v. shurygin.

The aim of such fake news is to undermine the readiness of citizens to resist russia’s aggression.

Veterans – a “Threat to Peace”

rf promotes the fake that demobilized Ukrainian military servicemen will pose a threat to criminal security. Director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies of the rf Ruslan Pukhov has   said that Ukrainian veterans “will definitely join the ranks of criminal groups in Eastern Europe” or “offer services to terrorists”.  This is an attempt to discredit  our defenders and break the trust between the military and civilians.

“Ukraine Is a Colony” and “the Agreement with the USA Is an “Enslaving Agreement”

Another key fake is the manipulative interpretation of the agreement between Ukraine and the USA on the extraction of rare earth metals. russian and some international media (including L'Antidiplomatico) present it as a “colonial agreement” that was allegedly “written in Washington” and threatens Ukraine’s sovereignty.

There are widespread claims that the Ukrainian Government will either sign an “enslaving agreement” or lose the USA’s support, – a fake designed to create a sense of despair  and betrayal in the society.

Manipulations Around the Legitimacy of the Government

One of the key topics is the allegation of “usurpation of power” by the President of Ukraine. russian media (in particular, ria novosti, lenta.ru, gazeta.ru, ukraina.ru) replicate the thesis that the Head of State deliberately avoids elections because he is allegedly afraid of losing power. As an example,  member of the state duma  O. Chepa’s  statement that “the President of Ukraine may not make it to the elections because of an assassination attempt” is being promoted in an open  attempt to intimidate and demoralize Ukrainian society.

The statements of such figures as traitor viktor medvedchuk are being popularized. He has been instructed to promote the introduction of external governance of Ukraine under the auspices of the United Nations, calling it “the only chance for stability” – an open attempt to impose the idea of Ukraine’s loss of sovereignty.

Please, be reminded:

russia Is Scaling Up the Information Operation Against Ukraine

russia Has Intensified Its Information Operation Against Ukraine