The Russian Federation is actively spreading sensationalized fake news about Ukraine in order to discredit it on the world stage and undermine international support from the West. This was reported by Mykhailo Podolyak, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
I think you may have seen the viral news about how "a Ukrainian set fire to the #DNA center in the United States when the results showed that he was partly Russian and partly Polish." You've probably also heard about the "drunken rampage" allegedly carried out by a member of the…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) September 29, 2023
One example of such fake news was the story that a Ukrainian allegedly set fire to a DNA center in the United States after discovering that it was of partial Russian and Polish descent.
Podolyak emphasized that such news is absolutely false, but it is spread using methods that imitate well-known media and through Russian botnets. This method of propaganda will continue in the future.
According to an advisor to the head of the Presidential Office, one of Russia's main goals is:
- discrediting Ukraine in the international arena;
- stirring up ethnic tensions;r
- educing support for Ukraine among civil society in Western countries, as well as undermining support from their governments.
"The task is simple: to create a collective image of Ukrainians as ungrateful, rude, thieving, infantile and criminal individuals. The mechanism is as follows: scaling up (artificially inflating) any cases of misconduct (or crimes) of Ukrainian citizens around the world, and if there are no such cases, then deliberately falsifying the most shocking stories and spreading them through social networks," Podolyak added.
Podolyak urged people to ignore fake news and be better informed, not to fall for the provocations of terrorist propaganda.
