ru-propaganda continues attempts to disrupt evacuation in Donetsk region
russian propaganda has intensified an information operation aimed at disrupting the evacuation of civilians from frontline areas of Ukraine.
▫️ Pro-russian Telegram channels are spreading messages allegedly from “local residents” of frontline cities in the Donetsk region, who thank russian military personnel and describe how they supposedly hid their children from evacuation. Such messages contain false claims about “crimes during Ukrainian evacuation,” “missing children,” and even “black transplantation”. No evidence is provided to support these accusations.
The purpose of this information operation is to discredit Ukrainian evacuation efforts. Through such manipulations, russia seeks to intimidate civilians and force them to refuse evacuation. russia aims to keep Ukrainian civilians in combat zones for as long as possible in order to use them as a “human shield.”
▫️ It is also telling that these fakes attempt to distort reality: it is russia that systematically commits crimes related to the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories. For these actions, in 2023 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for dictator vladimir putin and the russian commissioner for children’s rights maria lvova-belova.
