Ukraine has always remained in the focus of attention of russian propaganda, which, by spreading distorted versions of events and facts, tries to find justification for its actions. Depending on the development of events, the forms and methods of the kremlin’s destructive influence were constantly changing.
Long before the Euromaidan, a constant trend of the russian propaganda was the positioning of Ukraine as a “failed state” – a country unable to maintain its independent existence and doomed to territorial disintegration.
After the events of 2014, the main goal of russian propagandists became attempts to mobilize the population of Ukraine against the new Ukrainian government and artificially provoking inter-ethnic enmity. Narratives about the so-called genocide of russian-speaking citizens, violent Ukrainization, violation of the rights of russian-speaking people in Ukraine remained a propaganda trend for 8 years. Against the background of criticism of radical organizations, propaganda media spread ideas about anti-Semitism in Ukraine, the lack of freedom of speech, as well as the persecution of dissent. In this way, the kremlin was preparing a “fifth column” of russian-speaking Ukrainians as the basis of support for the future invasion. But the attempt to present the russian occupiers as liberators did not work. The killings of the civilian population of Ukrainian cities due to barbaric shelling nullified these hopes.
After the events in the Donbass and the annexation of Crimea, the main narrative of the russian propaganda became the “crimes of Kyiv’s punishers” (this is how the soldiers of the National Guard, regular military units and volunteer battalions were called in the russian rederation). Since 2015, the propaganda media of the russian federation began to “spin” the message about US and NATO intervention in the events in Donbas, under the influence of which Ukraine is sabotaging the Minsk agreements. The thesis that the legitimization of unrecognized “republics” is justified, and the “civil war” in Ukraine should be seen as the West’s intentions to destroy russia, which forced putin to make a decision about the invasion, advanced into the minds of the audience.
The formal pretext for the start of the war was provocations organized by the russian federation – the shelling of abandoned buildings on the territory of the russian federation, the so-called “breakthrough of Ukrainian equipment”, the detonation of a car in CADR/CALR, the theatrical removal of people from Donetsk allegedly because of “Ukrainian shelling”. In order to justify the aggression with noble considerations, the ministry of defense of the russian federation reported on March 25 about the alleged interception of a cipher telegram of the National Guard of Ukraine with a secret order to prepare an offensive on Donbas by February 28. Today, children in russian schools are told the fake that Ukraine was preparing an attack on russia, and russia was simply ahead of it.
The aims of the war were declared to be “denazification” and “demilitarization”. The russians’ information processing of labeling Ukrainians with Nazism and militarism was accompanied by endless telecasts in which russians were intimidated by footage of runic tattoos and torchlight parades.
With the shelling of energy infrastructure and civilian casualties, russian propaganda has resorted to a “mirroring” trick, where similar but falsified charges are leveled at Ukrainians against russian accusations of war crimes. Stories about how “Nazis hide behind the backs of civilians and provoke their shelling and deaths” are “spinning” on russian airwaves around the clock.
After extensive international military support for Ukraine, the russians once again changed the tactics of the information war. In order to provoke distrust in the Ukrainian authorities and reduce the flow of Western weapons, Ukraine was accused of embezzling weapons. To distort reality, the kremlin involved “independent” experts and journalists from the pro-russian lobby in the EU and the USA, on the formation of which russia spared no effort and money. The russian mass media, in particular, quoted former adviser to the US Defense Minister D.McGregor (about the lack of potential in Western countries to confront the russian federation), American economist J.Sachs (about the fact that the war in Ukraine is, allegedly, between the United States and russia), a German blogger K.Dotcom (claimed that, despite the supply of weapons to NATO, russia is clearly defeating Ukraine). The USA and Ukraine’s allies managed to expose these manipulations in a timely manner and did not back down from military support for Ukraine.
The failure of the kremlin’s other key information levers – grain, energy and nuclear – has become obvious even to the most desperate supporters of putin, both in russia and Ukraine, and in the West.
Currently, the russian propaganda network has focused its efforts on spreading calls for peace on russia’s terms and promoting traditional narratives about “Western fatigue with Ukraine,” “aid theft from allies,” and “ineffectiveness of sanctions against russia.”
❗️ The failure of the “special operation” and its information support did not change the kremlin’s strategic course on the spread of disinformation in the world. However, the interaction of civil society and leaders of different countries created a reliable barrier to the promotion of russian narratives.
