Russian Disinformation Campaigns: Fake Reports of Ukraine Preparing Attacks on Europe
The Ukrainian information space has once again become a battleground for Russian disinformation efforts aimed at destabilizing Europe’s situation and sowing doubt about Ukraine’s military activities.
According to the Center for Strategic Communications, Russian special services are actively spreading false videos and information through Ukrainian sources, claiming that Ukraine is supposedly preparing strikes on oil refineries in European countries such as Hungary, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany.
The authorship of these videos is attempt to be attributed to the right-wing organization C14, whose leader, Yevhen Karas, confirmed the falsehood of the videos, emphasizing that they are propaganda fakes.
It is crucial to understand that such provocative actions are part of a broader Russian informational and psychological operation designed to foster mistrust among European nations and Ukraine, create an illusion of internal and external threats from Kyiv’s government, and strengthen pro-Russian sentiments ahead of upcoming elections.
The Center for Strategic Communications urged Ukrainian administrators and media outlets to avoid spreading such fakes and not to feed into Russian propaganda, as doing so could deepen destabilization and harm international support for Ukraine.