The Center for Countering Disinformation has recorded a large-scale coordinated Russian disinformation campaign surrounding the strike on temporarily occupied Starobilsk. The campaign is unfolding synchronously within the Russian domestic information space and in the pro-Russian segment of the European information space. This was reported by the CCD of the National Security and Defense Council, according to UNN.
The campaign reached a multi-million audience through the artificial involvement of nearly 2,000 sources showing signs of inauthentic behavior and about 1,000 resources previously noted for spreading manipulations,
Pro-Russian resources in Europe mirrored Russian narratives in local languages with linguistic adaptation.
The campaign bears all the hallmarks of being artificially generated and centrally managed. The absolute peak of the disinformation drop occurred on May 23—over 19,000 publications—after which a second artificial "reheating" of the topic was recorded in early June, proving manual control over the cycle of destructive narratives.
The campaign unfolded across three key narratives:
- accusing the Armed Forces of Ukraine of an alleged "strike on a student dormitory" to create an image of Ukraine as an aggressor that systematically attacks the civilian population;
- Russian "retaliation strikes" are presented as an "inevitable" and "rational" response in order to "legitimize" further terror against peaceful Ukrainians;
- discrediting the West as a "sponsor of terror" and an "accomplice" due to the supply of weapons to Ukraine and the "silencing of the tragedy" by Western media.
Addendum
The Defense Forces of Ukraine carried out strikes exclusively on military targets of the Russian Federation in temporarily occupied Starobilsk. According to a report by the General Staff of Ukraine, the strike was carried out against one of the headquarters of the "Rubikon" unmanned systems unit.
The goal of the disinformation campaign is to create a propaganda myth about a "Ukrainian crime," which would allow the Kremlin to justify the continuation of the war of aggression and the intensification of terror against the civilian population of Ukraine, as well as to attempt to undermine Western support for Ukraine through the thesis of Western "complicity."