The Ukraine War Disinfo Working Group is glad to present the report on Kremlin propaganda around the Russia-Ukraine war in the region.

Trends of the week:

• “Energy crisis” and economic part of the agenda is losing the focus. Probably, the propaganda machine is too busy with sorting the developments of the war that are very intensive these days. Yet, we expect this topic to come back to spotlight again.
• Explosions on the Crimean bridge didn’t provoke a huge wave of disinfo. On the one hand, we can explain it with the clumsiness of the Russian propaganda machine these days: when something goes against Kremlin plans (and this happens increasingly frequently), it takes time for propagandists in Europe to update their guidelines. Yet, we observe an amount of news-like pieces dedicated to the explosions – with no specific disinformation.
• Ukrainians are preparing a nuclear / dirty bomb attack. Different voices tell different story: from attack on Kremlin being plotted to a false flag explosion on Ukrainian territory to justify the West striking back. In one way or another, the responsibility for potential nuclear escalation is already – in advance – put on the Ukrainian side.

Click here to download the report.

This report is a result of cooperation between 11 NGOs, think-tanks and researchers associated in the Ukraine War Disinfo Working Group. The group members monitor the narratives that appear on pro-Kremlin websites and in social media in eleven countries of Central and Eastern Europe on a daily basis. During monitoring, particular emphasis is placed on the narratives related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Group was founded in cooperation with Open Information Partnership. 

Partners: Civic Resilience Initiative (Lithuania), Analyses and Alternatives (Bulgaria), Prague Security Studies Initiative (Czechia), GRASS (Georgia), Atlatszo (Hungary), MOCT (North Macedonia), Fakenews.pl (Poland), Slovak Security Policy Institute (Slovakia), Detector Media (Ukraine), DebunkEu.org (Lithuania).