The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has lists of people whom Moscow may involve in spreading Russian narratives and influencing the socio-political situation in Ukraine. This was stated by a representative of the GUR Andriy Yusov on February 29 on Radio Liberty, UNN reports.
According to him, such people are often contacted not directly, but through intermediaries, and among such people may be public and political figures, opinion leaders.
I cannot name specific names now. There are lists of people whom the enemy is working on, and there is a task to involve them in spreading their rhetoric and influencing the socio-political situation in the country. These are dozens of people, if we are talking about influential categories. Not directly, that is, it does not always mean that someone with a "red star" addresses a person. It can be access to intermediaries through neutral topics. The main thing is to inject the narratives that the enemy needs. This work, and attempts to do so, are taking place both in Ukraine and abroad
According to the representative of the GUR, in order to achieve the goals of promoting Russian narratives and undermining the situation in Ukraine, massive purchases and creation of telegram channels are being carried out. Bot farms are also being created to amplify Russian rhetoric on social media, he said.
"Right now, the active "purchase" of various tools is going on in real time, from telegram channels, pages in various social networks, to access to opinion leaders. Every time we hear such narratives that undermine our country from within, that delegitimize government decision-making, we will understand who these narratives are working for," Yusov explained.
The operation, which aims to undermine the socio-political situation in Ukraine, was called "Maidan-3" by Russia. According to Yusov, the practice of naming anti-Ukrainian events with Ukrainian words is widespread in Russia and dates back to the Soviet special services.
"This name was given in Russia. And this is not the first time. Even the Soviet secret services, and then the Russian secret services, used to call outright anti-Ukrainian and xenophobic events, both in Ukraine and abroad, with beautiful Ukrainian or foreign words. Yes, for them, the Maidan is a threat, so they use this terminology to turn everything upside down. If we think back, many of the NKVD's operations against the UPA, OUN, and the Ukrainian underground were called beautiful Ukrainian sounding words," Yusov said.