Propaganda differs importantly from average fake news, which we discuss on our website all day. Propaganda content is frequently not based solely on false information, but alternatively on facts that are subsequently exaggerated, distorted or overly promoted on the web to make the impression that the problem is far more serious than in reality. specified narratives prey on emotions, primarily fear, fueling it to excessive size and causing it to disrupt a sober assessment of the situation. That is why Kremlin propaganda is peculiarly harmful.
Our weekly analyses (available Here.) are intended to present to readers current trends and changes in pro-Russian disinformation in Poland and Europe monitored primarily in the Telegram communicator and fewer websites and groups/pages on Facebook. Each analysis presents the most popular narratives of pro-Russian propaganda in the monitored period and discusses the most interesting aspects of it. It presents a full number of views of disinformation content and utilized by propaganda of the Russian Federation (for each country for the 3 most popular narratives).
Reports appear with any hold due to the request to process and compile data. They are open and are simplified versions of more detailed publications within the Open Information Partnership network. They can be utilized freely by readers, media and analytical centres with a clear indication of the source.
Analysis
More about our evaluation system:
The most popular narratives of pro-Russian propaganda in 12 countries of Central and east Europe (the highlighted narratives besides occurred in the erstwhile monitoring period):
- The West caused war in Ukraine;
- Ukrainians are Nazis;
- Ukrainian authorities wage war on Christianity;
- Military support for Ukraine unnecessarily prolongs the conflict;
- The West is rusophobic;
- The Ukrainians are ungrateful;
- The West does not want peace in Ukraine;
- Ukraine loses the war;
- Ukrainian leadership is corrupt/incompetent;
Narrations evolve, but Nazism is inactive popular
The accusations of Ukrainians for Nazism and related efforts to discredit Ukraine stay the most popular strategy of pro-Russian disinformation channels. The accusations against Ukrainian authorities relate mainly to unrestrained corruption, stealing funds from European support for the country and full disregard for the lives of soldiers on the front.
Despite the continued influx of Western military support, having a clear impact on events on the battlefield, the pro-Russian propaganda channels claim that by corruption of Ukrainian officials a crucial condition of this equipment (and even most) is sold on the black marketplace and disappears before it hits the front.
The dissemination of specified messages began to increase in early April and is inactive visible throughout the area monitored under the project. The accusations of Nazism remained consistent throughout the monitoring period, but wider efforts to discredit Ukraine proceed to evolve, adapting to current developments and developments in the geopolitical situation.
Source: CHP/TelegramFor example, the frequent operation of Russian propaganda was based on conflicting messages. While prokremlian disinformation channels have claimed for the past months that Bachmut is about to fall, the stubborn Ukrainian defence forced propaganda to push the communicative that president Zelenski did not number on the lives of his soldiers and Bachmut's weapons at all costs, ordering the military to defy fiercely. He was to defend Bachmut against the advice of the commanders of the Ukrainian army, primarily driven by vanity and the desire to have private political success.
It seems apparent that president Zelenski's ongoing run to gain key support in the form of F-16 aircraft had to be supported by fresh evidence of the effective opposition of the Ukrainian army, but it is highly doubtful that Bachmut's defence should lie in the President's private interest. Undoubtedly, it was for the Kremlin that the acquisition of Bachmut was the key goal of propaganda, although its strategical importance to the utilized forces and resources remains debatable.
Disinformation in the Caucasus
During this period of monitoring, Armenian pro-Russian sources claimed that the West would organize Azerbaijan's attack on Armenia to open a second front against Russia. This communicative continues to evolve, and local disinformation channels add depth to it, raising the issue of Armenians killed by Ukrainians during planet War II, as well as comparatively close relations between Azerbaijan and Ukraine after the collapse of the russian Union.
Georgian far-right sources besides returned to the concept of Ukraine as an “anti-Christian” country and spread accusations that the Ukrainian government persecuted the Orthodox Church. While specified accusations had previously focused on the crisis around the Kiev-Pecherska Lavra, they were now based mainly on claims that “Nazis” in Ukraine invade and burn Orthodox churches.
Poland
The misinformation related to the import of Ukrainian grain has quieted, but inactive echoes in the Polish information space, taking the form of attacks on Ukrainian government, which is to show gross ingratitude, protesting the ban on import of grain introduced by Poland. specified an attitude is to prove that supporting Ukraine will never meet her actual gratitude.
Pro-Russian and utmost right-wing sources in Poland from 24 to 30 April focused mainly on slandering Ukrainian refugees and presenting Ukrainians as a threat to Poland as the host country. Many press reports were utilized to spread hatred towards refugees by suggesting that the perpetrators were Ukrainian, while in fact in almost all cases they were Poles. Films showing Ukrainians in Poland, who behaved aggressively or violated traffic regulations, were besides widely available. Most of these materials did not give a broader context or explain what happened before the recording began.
Source: CHP/TelegramOther narratives
At the utmost right, pro-government and pro-Russian sources in Hungary widely disseminated false information focusing on the supply of military aid to Ukraine. Prokremlian propaganda channels promoted content highly powerfully to convince the audience that specified supplies were pointless, while in fact they were 1 of the foundations of effective Ukrainian resistance. Russian channels claimed that this kind of support would either be robbed or will only prolong the fight, but will not change the result of the war in which Ukraine will endure defeat anyway. specified narratives seem absurd in the light of 15 months after the start of the Russian three-day peculiar operation, but have any success among the unoriented audiences.
Source: FreeMedia.netEfforts to weaken social support for military aid can be linked to the envisaged Ukrainian counter-offensive. akin messages were recorded in the ecosystems of misinformation in the Baltic and Slovakia. In Ukraine, emphasis in specified narratives was placed on alleged corruption and incompetence of the government and military command, which allegedly has neither the skills nor the ability to carry out an effective counteroffensive.
Local sources in respective cases returned to a previously popular communicative announcing that the war would shortly grow beyond Ukraine's borders. specified content was besides visible in Poland as an answer to almost all act of assistance of Ukraine. utilized as a standard reaction of Russian propaganda to subsequent decisions of European governments to supply military support to Ukraine, peculiarly frequently appeared in the statements of those active in local "anti-war movements".
Source: Free_Polish/TelegramSummary
Throughout the project, prokremlian disinformation channels focused on respective key areas; attempts to discredit Ukraine, its authorities and Ukrainian refugees; an omnipresent run to represent the West as the initiator of the conflict; and consistent threats that the war would expand.
While specified claims proceed to find a wide scope of audiences throughout the monitored area, the widening gap between the reality and the Kremlin's communicative of events on the battlefield is now bordering absurdity. Pro-Russian propaganda channels regular claim that Ukraine does not have the will and ability to organize an effective army, and Russian triumph is inevitable. Given the highly long-term failures in obtaining a tiny Bachmut and the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, reality will be increasingly hard to effectively distort in the messages of procremlovian disinformation channels.
Poland – 193 1000 views
Ukraine – 9.8 million views
Armenia – 35 1000 views
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – 36,000 views
Belarus – 272,000 views
Bulgaria – 797 000 views
Georgia – 6 1000 views
Hungary – 14,000 views
Moldova – 71 1000 views
Slovakia – 127 1000 views
Source:
Ukraine War Disinfo Working Group, Monitoring study April 23-30, 2023
This study provides insights from the monitoring of narratives appearing on procremlovian websites and on social media in 12 countries of Central and east Europe, related to Russia's war in Ukraine. The data was collected and analysed by a number of NGOs, think tanks and researchers, and subsequently compiled by the Open Information Partnership (OIP) to advance the exchange of cognition across the OIP network and throughout the region.
