«Western Weapons in Wrong Hands». Russian Disinformation Monitoring 31 October – 6 November 2022

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Since February 24, Detector Media has been monitoring Ukrainian social media and documenting the chronicle of Russian disinformation surrounding its military offensive in Ukraine. Recently, we also started to make weekly reviews.

During the week from 31 October to 6 November 2022, Detector Media’s analysts recorded about fifty disinformation fakes spread by Russian propagandists to achieve Russia’s political goals. This week, the Russian propaganda machine claimed that Ukraine was losing the support of the West and would soon be left without weapons; stated that under the UN Charter, Russia had the right to “denazify” whomever it wanted; asserted that Russia was not waging war with full force and was about to launch a “large-scale offensive”. 

Read reviews of Russian disinformation for previous weeks: September 26 - October 2; October 3-9, October 10-17, October 17-24, October 24-31. 

“Ukraine does not value the assistance from Western countries, and will therefore lose it”

This week, propagandists have been trying to convince their audiences that Ukraine is misusing Western weapons. For example, the Finnish publication Yle wrote about this with reference to an interview with the Senior Commissioner of the National Bureau of Investigation (Keskusrikospoliisi) Christer Algren. It has been reported by a journalist that this official said the Finnish criminal police has data regarding the possibility of Ukrainian military weapons getting into the hands of Finnish criminal organizations. The article says that these small arms were already in Finland, allegedly they have been detected in other Scandinavian countries as well. However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine said that there was every reason to believe that the information contained in the article “has been somewhat embellished by the journalist and does not correspond to the words of the interviewed police officer.” As the Finnish commissioner noted in this interview, the investigation is ongoing, he didn’t mention any evidence but was only making assumptions. However, citing his words, the media outlet spread the Russian narrative that the weapons provided by international partners to the Ukrainian military end up with criminals in Europe. It is not the first time that Russian propaganda spreads information that weapons provided by Western partners to Ukraine are not used for their intended purpose, but are stolen, sold abroad, find their way into the hands of criminals, etc. However, there were even more manipulations about the weapons received by Ukraine. 

The propagandists also claimed that Ukraine would soon stop receiving weapons. They made this conclusion based on the article in the Italian media Il Messaggero. Allegedly, Western Europe is gradually abandoning support for Ukraine and halting weapons supplies. In fact, the article titled “Rome Suspends Order for New Weapons for Kyiv. But Support for Ukraine Remains” is not about Italy refusing to supply weapons to Ukraine. It only says that Italy is waiting for the visit of NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg to coordinate plans to supply Ukraine with weapons. Russia benefits from spreading the message that Ukraine will soon be left without weapons and that the blame for this is allegedly on the leadership of Ukraine, which does not control what happens with the weapons. However, the first messages about weapons falling into the wrong hands appeared in March in anonymous Telegram channels controlled by Russian military intelligence services.

“Civil war and loss of sovereignty”

Additionally, this week, there were propaganda messages claiming Ukraine lost its sovereignty back in 2014. Allegedly, Ukraine also lost the people's favor eight years ago in addition to its sovereignty. In fact, Ukraine has been and remains a sovereign state. The entire civilized world has not recognized the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia. And now, in the midst of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine, we remain allies with democratic countries and are actively supported by international partners with weapon deliveries, diplomatic partnerships, and, for example, giving Ukraine EU membership candidate status. The international community also does not recognize the results of illegal referendums held by Russia in the occupied territories. 

Propagandists tried to boost this message with the fake that some countries recognized the results of illegal referendums held by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Allegedly, a map of Russia with Kherson, Zaporizhia, and the occupied territory of the Donbas was included in Spanish textbooks. The propagandists claimed that the textbook was published in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, and called it a hint of Catalonia’s desire to secede from Spain by referendum. However, the Russians distributed a map from a sixth-grade geography textbook, which was published not in Spain, but by the Ministry of Public Education of Mexico in 2016. The original map depicts Ukraine within its official 1991 borders. The Russians had edited the correct map for propaganda purposes. This way, propagandists seek to suggest that Western countries are gradually beginning to recognize that the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine now allegedly belong to Russia. However, this is not the case. 

During the week, propagandists tried to reaffirm the greatness of Russia with the narrative that Russia has the power to punish Nazis wherever it wants. This message was spread in Telegram channels. Allegedly, Articles 106 and 107 of the UN Charter allowed Russia to attack Ukraine. They claim that these articles give the “winners” of the Second World War the right to take measures against “enemy countries”. To do this, they need to inform other “victorious countries” about their plans, but not necessarily obtain their consent. However, the Telegram channels distorted the content of the UN Charter. Articles 106 and 107 state that the parties to the Declaration should cooperate in the preservation of peace, as well as about the measures taken against “enemy states”. However, the “parties” are the countries that signed the founding document, not just the “victorious countries”.

Also, in 1995, the UN Committee proposed to exclude the so-called “enemy state” provisions from the Charter, as they are obsolete. By doing this, Russia once again attempts to justify its criminal acts in Ukraine. They claim they saw a “threat” in the alleged spread of Nazism and were forced to intervene. Also, this week, Russia once again tried to portray the war in Ukraine as a civil war. According to propagandists, Russia’s attack on Ukraine is not a foreign intervention, but a “civil battle between two parts of the Russian people”. The narrative about the so-called civil war is far from new. It has been circulated since 2014 when Russia seized Crimea and invaded the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. By spreading this narrative, Russian propaganda tries to justify Russia’s actions and downplay its aggressive policy towards Ukraine by introducing a misconception and calling the occupation of Ukrainian territories “reunification of lands and people”. 

“Revenge for aggression and the beginning of a large-scale offensive”

Russian propagandists are also once again trying to shift the responsibility for their aggression and crimes onto Ukraine and Ukrainians. This time, they framed Russia's massive missile strikes as revenge for Ukraine's counteroffensive. They claimed that massive strikes on the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine on the morning of October 31 were “partly” Russia’s response, but allegedly “there is more they can do”. The message that Russia attacks critical infrastructure “in retaliation” began to be circulated after the massive shelling on October 10. Back then, it was allegedly “in retaliation” for the strike on the Crimean bridge. However, Russia is launching missiles at Ukrainian cities not out of spite, but because it is the aggressor. Messages like these are only an attempt to put the blame on Ukraine. According to them, Ukraine is the aggressor, and Russia attacks only to protect itself and its citizens from a potential threat. 

In addition, a narrative has emerged that it is forbidden to publish photos of missile hits in Ukraine to hide deficiencies in air defense. Propagandists claim that the Security Service of Ukraine will track down anyone who published photos or videos of the aftermath of Russian strikes against infrastructure facilities. In their view, the ban allows the authorities to boast the high percentage of missiles downed, which wouldn’t be possible if the true scale of the destruction becomes widely known. The Russians are trying to intimidate Ukrainians, sow doubts about the quality of work of the government and the military, and provoke panic. They claim that, in reality, the Russians achieve all their goals, Ukrainian air defense is ineffective, and the authorities want to hide the truth by asking not to publish photos of strikes. 

Russia’s intimidation campaign continued with the narrative that a large-scale offensive is to begin in late November. There is nothing new about this claim either. Russian propaganda tries to justify every Russian defeat by saying that Russia is not fighting at full strength, but will definitely do so in the near future. According to one of the versions circulated by propagandists, the so-called large-scale offensive was to begin in early November. However, then the “real war” was postponed to late November, explaining that Russia will prepare its reserves and begin to “pull everything that has been prepared and developed for so long to the frontlines”.