Washington Post: Ukraine issues stamp commemorating sinking of Russian warship. “The previous set of six stamps featured a Ukrainian service member making a rude hand gesture at a Russian warship from the shore. The latest set includes three of those same stamps as well as three modified stamps showing the service member still standing, but not the ship.”
Associated Press: Pro-Russian Hackers Spread Hoaxes to Divide Ukraine, Allies. “As Ukrainians flooded into Poland earlier this year to flee Russian invaders, a hacking group aligned with the Kremlin sought to spread rumors that criminal gangs were waiting to harvest the organs of child refugees. The network, known to cybersecurity experts as Ghostwriter, seemingly aimed to sow distrust between Ukraine and Poland. It’s one of several tactics outlined in a new report that outlines how Russia has used disinformation, fear and propaganda alongside bullets, tanks and soldiers in an effort to demoralize Ukraine and divide its allies.”
New Eastern Europe: The war in Ukraine and historical revisionism. “The Kremlin has been eager to draw parallels between its ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the Second World War. Stressing the idea that it is fighting Nazism much like in its ‘glorious’ past, the country’s controversial ideology has been in development ever since Putin came to power.”
The Guardian: YouTube removes more than 9,000 channels relating to Ukraine war. “YouTube has taken down more than 70,000 videos and 9,000 channels related to the war in Ukraine for violating content guidelines, including removal of videos that referred to the invasion as a ‘liberation mission’.”
WIRED: Volodymyr Zelensky and the Art of the War Story. “A culture has no budget, no government, no army. It collects no taxes; it has no CEO, bible, or headquarters. If it can’t be precisely identified, how can a nation’s whole culture, which is made up of innumerable artifacts and practices, be loathed? And yet the constant warning of the far right in Russia—and France, and the US—is that someone, somewhere, hates your culture and thus deserves to die. No one but Zelensky has ever dissolved this hollow alarmism with such dispatch.”
Gizmodo: This Russian Botnet Is Capable of Manipulating Social Media Trends on a ‘Massive Scale,’ Report Claims. “A new report claims that a subcontractor working for Russia’s intelligence service has a botnet capable of manipulating trends on social media platforms on a ‘massive scale.’ The report, published Thursday by the cybersecurity firm Nisos, alleges that the Moscow-based firm 0day Technologies can spread disinformation at a frightening rate using a customizable suite that is tied to a malicious network. The company has previously worked with the Federal Security Service, one of Russia’s primary intelligence agencies.”
Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group: Russia uses abducted Ukrainians for propaganda video claiming Ukraine is bombing ‘liberated’ Melitopol. “Almost a month after Russian soldiers seized Ihor Artyomenko from his home in occupied Melitopol, he and five other abducted Ukrainians have appeared in a Russian propaganda video. It is near certain that the men gave their supposed ‘confessions’ under torture or other forms of duress, with the video yet another extraordinary attempt by Russia to try against all evidence, to blame the Ukrainian Armed Forces for its bombing and shelling of civilians.”
Associated Press: New Twitter policy aims to pierce fog of war misinformation. “Starting Thursday, the platform will no longer automatically recommend or emphasize posts that make misleading claims about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including material that mischaracterizes conditions in conflict zones or makes false allegations of war crimes or atrocities against civilians.”
Center for European Policy Analysis: Russian Propagandists Regain Footing on Ukraine. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stunned not only the world, but apparently the Kremlin’s own propaganda machine. For weeks after the invasion, state-run media outlets aimed at the outside world struggled to construct a coherent explanation of why the country had sent more than 100,000 troops to attack a smaller neighbor which had done it no visible harm. Now, however, the machine has recovered, becoming more coherent and persuasive, especially in the developing world. How can democratic forces confront these efforts, and maintain broad opposition to the Kremlin’s actions?”
CNN: Pro-Russia online operatives falsely claimed Zelensky committed suicide in an effort to sway public opinion, cybersecurity firm says. “Pro-Russia online operatives falsely claimed weeks into Moscow’s war against Ukraine that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had committed suicide, as part of an aggressive effort to dent public morale and undermine the Ukrainian government, US cybersecurity firm Mandiant said Thursday.”
Washington Post: Facebook quietly bankrolled small, grassroots groups to fight its battles in Washington. “Backed by millions from Facebook-parent company Meta, American Edge has launched a full-throated campaign to combat antitrust legislation in Washington, placing op-eds in regional papers throughout the country, commissioning studies, and collaborating with a surprising array of partners, including minority business associations, conservative think tanks, and former national security officials. It’s a political playbook more common to other industries, including pharmaceuticals, tobacco and telecommunications. But tech companies, under heightened scrutiny from federal regulators, are seizing on these methods. (Meta also paid a GOP consulting firm to malign TikTok, The Post reported in March.)”
Radio Free Europe: ‘The Future Of The Country’: Russian Activist Creates Database Of Schools That Use Children In Pro-War Demonstrations. “The Telegram channel, Oni Za Voinu! (They Are For The War!), is the brainchild of 36-year-old Dmitry Tsibiryov, a former coordinator for imprisoned opposition politician Aleksei Navalny from the Saratov region, on the Volga River. Tsibiryov left Russia in 2021, shortly after the organizations connected with Navalny were banned as ‘extremist’ and law enforcement began opening criminal cases against people who had worked for them.”
The Beacon: Irish extremist Telegram channels are sharing pro-Russia disinformation from sources directly linked to Kremlin security services. “No country has escaped Russia’s Information War, least of all the various shades of conspiracy theorists and far-right extremists. Having all but abandoned focusing on COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns, our own assortment of conspiracy theorists and extremists here in Ireland jumped on the war as their latest hobby horse. From the beginning of the war Russian disinformation was rife in their ecosphere. Nearly three months on, though, has that changed?”
The Conversation: Ukraine’s information war is winning hearts and minds in the West. “As a scholar of armed conflict and security, I also find a compelling explanation for why the West is so focused on Ukraine in the Ukrainian government’s ability to provide information about the war in a way that appeals to Western sensibilities.”
Ars Technica: How a French satellite operator helps keep Russia’s TV propaganda online. “More than a decade on, Russia once again finds itself trying to consolidate its information hegemony in the region. And, once again, Eutelsat is making it possible. But two experts on the satellite industry say it’s time that Ukraine’s allies step up and force Eutelsat to prioritize real reportage on the situation in Ukraine over Russia’s state-backed disinformation.”
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