Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service says it has obtained Russian documents indicating preparations for a coordinated campaign to undermine Ukraine's external support. More than 15 Western "proxy media" outlets are planned for spreading propaganda narratives.
Among the named outlets are Italy's L'Antidiplomatico, Hungary's Magyar Nemzet, and the Czech publications První Zprávy and CZ24.news, but the list is incomplete and pending final approval.
The service identified three priorities: documents for the FSB, the Foreign Ministry, and Russian media that discredit Ukrainian mobilization and the military leadership responsible for it, which the service called critical for the Kremlin, given Russian frontline losses.
Campaign methods include developing fake documents
Another goal is discrediting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his team, and members of his family. The additional target is preventing the fading of "the media scandal around A. Yermak and the Yu. Mendel interview," which the agency said the Kremlin believes has been displaced from the European information space by the war in Iran.
The campaign methods include developing fake documents purporting to come from Ukrainian state authorities and seeding them publicly, the creation of "puppet-symbols" for the campaign, and the recruitment of former Ukrainian officials, politicians, and experts.
The drivers Foreign Intelligence cited were Russia's failure in its spring offensive and "critical problems in the economy." The agency said it already records the first attempts to act on the new scenario inside Ukraine and abroad.
What independent monitors have documented
The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), an EU body that monitors disinformation, has documented that Magyar Nemzet, a pro-government Hungarian daily, called Ukraine "a puppet state founded and run by the CIA" in coverage that predated Russia's full-scale war, EDMO reported.
The other outlets named today have appeared on multiple earlier agency's lists in 2025, alongside variants such as Magyar Hírlap, Réseau International, Ereport, and Jednotné Slovensko, with intelligence consistently attributing to them narratives around "Ukraine fatigue," "lack of democracy in Ukraine," and "peace only possible after a change in Ukraine's government."
