From the Kremlin or through its online relays, the Russian steamroller misinformed on a large scale during the first twelve months of the conflict. kyiv also practiced intox, to a lesser degree however.
A year of war in Ukraine, a year of false information and manipulation. On February 24, 2022, as the Russian army invaded its Ukrainian neighbor, Moscow decided not to name the event. Neither “war”, nor “conflict”, nor “invasion”: “special operation”. Russian law endorses it, and punishes anyone who uses the wrong term with 10 years in prison. This denial of reality is the starting point of the intox related to the conflict.
>> A year of war in Ukraine through eight emblematic places
“It also creates a fictional frame for all events, which helps to neutralize them or bring in an understatement”believes Elsa Vidal, editor-in-chief of RFI’s Russian language service, and specialist in post-Soviet societies. “Initially, when the war starts, the term ‘special operation’ does two things: to minimize what is happening and to convey that from the Russian point of view it is not an operation that is happening outside the borders, but in a continuous space of a country that does not exist, which would be eternal Russia, and of which part of Ukraine would be an integral part.
Faced with the facts, Russia denounces a “staging”
On March 9, 2022, the Mariupol maternity hospital was bombed. Analyzes and testimonies attest to Russia’s responsibility, but the Kremlin counter-attacks on the information field. First by accusing the Ukrainian army itself of having fired, then by affirming that it is about a staging, where actors would play the victims. The Russian embassy in France and the Russian representative to the UN accuse a woman, filmed injured among the rubble, of being an actress. She is a model, it’s true, but was really pregnant, and very present at the maternity ward at the time of the bombardment. Another pregnant woman, filmed injured on a stretcher, is also accused by Moscow of acting. She and her child were however killed during the attack.
When Russia recognizes bombings, it explains that it is targeting Ukrainian soldiers… or Nazis. “For about 10 years, we have seen a return and an exaltation of the theme of Russia as the liberator of Europe, in the face of the Nazi threat.develops Elsa Vidal. In this sense, anyone who opposed Russia is likely to be a Nazi. It’s not used in a historical sense at all, it’s used in the sense of absolute enemy.”
Volodymyr Zelensky and the Missiles in Poland
Most of the time, the Russian discourse targets the ultra-nationalist Azov regiment, whose ideology of some members is neo-Nazi. But Vladimir Poutine and its relays benefit from it to include in these accusations all the army and the Ukrainian government. This argument even served as justification for the invasion.
Faced with this Russian narrative which does not bother with the facts, Ukraine is also spreading intox. On November 15, two missiles explode on the Polish border, killing two people. Volodymyr Zelensky immediately points to Russian responsibility. Nothing attests to this, however, and the first reports even seem to favor the accidental track, caused by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile. But Volodymyr Zelensky does not budge. “I have no doubt that it was not our missile”he blurted out on November 16, 2022.
Political speech, “an instrument of war”
A sign of the importance of communication as an instrument of war, kyiv never communicates about the dead among its soldiers. Ukrainian propaganda does exist, but remains very far from the systemic character of that of the Kremlin. This Russian disinformation machine peaked in April 2022, when the world discovered the Boutcha massacres.
When the city was liberated by the Ukrainians, corpses of civilians litter the ground. Some have their hands tied and bear the marks of torture. The first testimonies of residents denounce murders committed by the Russian army. But as always, the Kremlin denies it. “Another fake attack was staged in the city of Boutcha, in the Kyiv oblast”, dares the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov. The pro-Russians will even accuse the Ukrainian army of having killed the inhabitants.
But the analysis of satellite images, taken in Boutcha several days earlier, reveals that the corpses were already lying there during the Russian occupation. Faced with the evidence, Sergei Lavrov and Russia continue to talk about “provocation”. “In authoritarian regimes, particularly in Russia, political speech is staged and is the subject of negotiations before being expressed. Political speech is an instrument of war, it is neither the history, nor a means of describing the realexplains Elsa Vidal. And on that, we occupy irreconcilable positions in Europe and Russia.”
Trolls, relays of Kremlin propaganda
Moscow language is often relayed on the internet by pro-Russian disinformation networks. Among their conductors is Evgueni Prigojine, founder of the Wagner militia. He admitted to creating and funding the Internet Research Agency (IRA), nicknamed “troll factory”. These “trolls”, which are sometimes fake automated accounts and sometimes real paid people, massively spread Russian propaganda on social networks.
“It’s the poison drop technique. Once you have introduced a drop of doubt into a speech with someone who is indeterminate or ambivalent, you have succeeded in blocking, neutralizing the opposing party’s argument “, exposes Elsa Vidal. Lying has always been a weapon of war. But with the conflict in Ukraine, Russia has taken a new step. With systematic, often crude, but backed up by modern communication tools, the Kremlin is fabricating an ideological narrative in which facts and evidence no longer matter.