Between 13–15 February, about 130 resources involved in Russian foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) published approximately 21.4 thousand materials mentioning Ukraine.
These were systematic campaigns of disinformation, propaganda, incitement, and psychological operations conducted by the aggressor state against Ukraine and its partners, Spravdi reports.
As recorded by the analysts, Russian resources coordinated the information environment ahead of the Geneva meeting on 17–18 February, seeking to discredit Ukraine’s diplomatic efforts and to impose the narrative of its alleged “inability to negotiate.”
Splitting the West as a narrative: ungrateful Ukraine
At the same time, narratives about an alleged “split” within the EU and NATO, Ukraine’s supposed “ingratitude,” and the erosion of the US–Europe alliance were widely disseminated.
To this end, exchanges between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán were manipulated, as were statements from the Munich Security Conference.
A separate line of effort focused on amplifying claims about the alleged “cancellation” of a meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and EU and Ukrainian leaders in Munich: at least 3,000 publications offered manipulative interpretations of participants’ statements, creating the impression of Kyiv’s diplomatic isolation.
The image of a "failed state": corruption, "external governance," and the terrorism label
The second block of the campaign portrayed Ukraine as a “failed state” under “external governance.” To this end, claims of a possible “external administration” were promoted, along with information campaigns about former corrupted Ukrainian energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, emphasizing “corruption” narratives.
Ukraine’s ex-energy minister charged with money laundering, caught fleeing at the border
The third direction was the imposition of the narrative of “Ukraine as a terrorist state,” including through information framing of blackouts in Russia’s border regions (Belgorod and Bryansk oblasts), with deliberate distortion of cause-and-effect relationships.
For the mass amplification of manipulations, networks of RT, Sputnik, Pravda, and other Russian FIMI tools were used.
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