Russia is preparing to launch an attack on Ukraine on all fronts, including the informational one. Russian propaganda goes hand-in-hand with escalations in Donbas and at the Ukrainian border.

To find out how it changes, penetrates western countries, and functions in today’s crisis read or watch the European Pravda editor Yuriy Panchenko’s interview in Ukrainian with Ihor Solovey, head of the Center for Strategic Communication. 

The takeaways include:

"The regular analysis that our Center carries out shows that news stories that could be viewed as a precursor to a military attack, which aim to show "the crimes" of Ukrainian soldiers against the civilians, appear once-twice a week, depending on the circumstances." 

"Since Ukraine is not planning to attack anyone, Russia has to fabricate a reason. This is why they come up with new scary stuff, preparing the ground for war."

"When the Western media started publishing about Russia’s build-up at the Ukrainian border, the Russians began to spew out propaganda. At first, they published old stories about mercenaries, gay battalions, Ukraine’s alleged fabrication of the video showing the first combat use of the Bayraktar drone. But soon enough they realized that these tricks are no longer working. And so they decided to come up with new ones and are now betting on the claim that the West invented the current crisis."

"At the moment, they are producing fakes and disinformation about the rogue republics in eastern Ukraine. However, they are also trying to sell some abroad, attempting to once again reach the western audience. Until recently, the occupied territory remained closed to the outsiders. Only independent journalists were allowed to visit. Now, the republics are showing unprecedented openness."

"They needed it to show their human face during this escalation and relay their messages to the Western audience."

Mr. Solovey says that Russian propaganda penetrates the West in different ways. In Italy, for instance, the media that belong to certain media groups, including those owned by Silvio Berlusconi, are more friendly to it than others.

"Hungary is an interesting case. There is heaps of anti-Ukrainian information there at the moment. Their state information agency, which is a partner of the Russian information agency,  is the main re-distributor of news and other types of information. They do not check the information that springs up there. It is a very effective and efficient way of popularizing propaganda."

"Putin will toy with this request [State Duma’s request to recognize the so-called republics], using it as sort of a "scarecrow" for the West, saying that if you do not strike an agreement with me on the subject of security in Europe, including the Ukrainian matter, and not force Ukraine to implement the Minsk Agreements the Russian way, this will be our next step."

Find out more in the article How Russian Propaganda Works, How It Penetrates the West, and Its Role in the Current Crisis. Or watch the video on our YouTube channel.