A Russian disinformation network called Storm-1516 has overtaken RT and Sputnik as the Kremlin's primary vehicle for spreading false claims about Ukraine, according to a NewsGuard analysis of 400 debunked narratives about the war.
The shift signals Moscow's growing reliance on covert operations rather than official state media—which face sanctions and bans across Europe and the US—to wage its information war.
NewsGuard, which tracks and debunks provably false claims, published its findings on 22 December 2025, documenting how Storm-1516 produced 24 false claims in 2025, compared to just 15 from RT and Sputnik combined.
The campaign's five false claims in November 2025 alone spread through 11,900 articles and posts on X and Telegram, reaching 43 million views.
How Russia's disinformation machine operates
The Kremlin deploys multiple interconnected operations to flood Western audiences with false narratives.
Storm-1516: The AI-powered fabrication factory
Storm-1516 has evolved from posting YouTube videos of real people posing as whistleblowers in late 2023 to deploying AI-generated personas and deepfake videos by early 2024. The operation plants false claims on a network of hundreds of AI-enabled news sites with names like BostonTimes.org, SanFranChron.com, and LondonCrier.com—complete with AI-generated logos and automated content republishing.
The operation's signature tactic involves accusing Ukrainian officials of corruption and lavish spending of Western aid. When Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau announced a $100 million embezzlement investigation in November 2025, Storm-1516 immediately fabricated a video mimicking the bureau's official style, falsely claiming investigators found $14 million in cash and foreign passports for Zelenskyy during a search of his former chief of staff's office.
That fabricated video gained 4 million views across 4,300 posts. A single X post by a pro-Kremlin account with a Wagner group profile picture reached 1.8 million views in one day.
Impersonating legitimate news outlets
Since April 2025, Storm-1516 has escalated to directly impersonating credible media organizations. NewsGuard identified nine outlets whose branding the campaign has stolen, including The Sun, the Kyiv Independent, Bellingcat, Al Arabiya, and France Télévisions.
In November 2025, the operation created PageSix.now—a website resembling the New York Post's gossip section—to plant a false story that Zelenskyy purchased Bill Cosby's former $29 million townhouse. The fabrication generated 19.8 million views across 5,087 posts.
The Pravda network: 280 sites amplifying propaganda
Storm-1516's false claims get amplified through what NewsGuard calls the Pravda network—280 identified websites that republish Russian propaganda in dozens of languages. This ecosystem ensures false narratives spread far beyond their original posts.
Matryoshka: Mass-producing fake news reports
This campaign mass-creates fabricated news reports that appropriate the branding of credible outlets. NewsGuard has debunked 25 false claims from Matryoshka since the war began.
Foundation to Battle Injustice: Fake human rights investigations
Posing as a human rights organization, this operation publishes fabricated "investigations" accusing Ukraine and its allies of human rights abuses. NewsGuard has tracked six false claims from this source.
RT and Sputnik: The declining state media arm
Russia's official foreign-facing outlets, RT and Sputnik, have been sanctioned and banned in Europe and the US. Moscow plans to spend $1.77 billion on state media in 2026, with $388 million reserved for RT—a record high, according to the Moscow Times. Yet their output of false claims has declined relative to covert operations.
The American fugitive behind the operation
John Mark Dougan, a former US Marine and Florida deputy sheriff who fled to Russia in 2016 after an FBI raid, plays a central role in Storm-1516. The Washington Post reported in October 2024 that Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, funded Dougan and directed him through Valery Korovin of the Center for Geopolitical Expertise. The GRU allegedly paid Dougan to create and manage an AI server in Russia.
In December 2025, the European Union sanctioned Dougan—making him the first American sanctioned for allegedly running influence operations aimed at manipulating public discourse in Western countries. Eleven other individuals received sanctions for similar activities.
Dougan has consistently denied government ties. When NewsGuard asked about his involvement with 139 French-language websites spreading false claims about President Macron, he responded on Signal: "I've never heard of those sites. Still, I have no doubt about the accuracy and quality of the news they report."
AI chatbots spreading the fakes
Storm-1516's fabrications have infected major AI models. In a March 2025 audit, NewsGuard found that four leading AI chatbots repeated as fact the false claim that Ukrainian fighters burned an effigy of Donald Trump—a narrative based on a staged Storm-1516 video. The chatbots cited articles from the Pravda network as sources.
Key takeaways from NewsGuard's database:
- Storm-1516 has produced 44 false claims since August 2023, with output accelerating each year
- The campaign jumped from 6 false claims in its first six months to 24 in the most recent ten months
- RT and Sputnik together spread only 15 false claims in 2025
- Operations like Storm-1516 avoid sanctions that restrict state media
- AI tools enable faster production and wider distribution of fabricated content
