EUvsDisinfo: Seeking Rifts and Launching Missiles ( original title: Seeking Rifts and Launching Missiles)
The Kremlin knows that even the most sinister scare tactics – like the launch of the cruise missile against a children's hospital – they will not break Ukraine's resistance as long as EU and NATO support continues. For this reason, the main goal of Russian disinformation campaigns is to weaken the EU and NATO: for this, any real or imagined crack in the unity of their members is used.
„Bilateral“ visit
Propagandists saw the potential for such a crackdown in Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's visit to Moscow on July 5 and his meeting with Putin as part of his self-described “peace mission”. Putin congratulated Orban, saying that he “understood” that Orban came “not only as our long-term partner, but also as the President of the Council of the EU”.
It is true that Hungary has just started its six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. However member states and EU senior leadership, including High Representative Josep Borrell, were very categorical that the Presidency does not give Prime Minister Orbán a mandate to speak on behalf of the EU on foreign policy issues.
The Russian state-controlled publications and other pro-Kremlin media, however, exploited Orbán's visit and the reaction of other European leaders to the fullest. The visit naturally generated a lot of media interest, and Russian disinformation agents easily spread their messages of division among European leaders and even questioned the legitimacy of the EU and NATO.
Supposedly in the service of peace
The visit provided a platform for Putin's manipulative claims that Russia is interested in a negotiated end to hostilities. He outlined the terms for such talks ahead of the Ukraine peace conference in June. Putin's claims fuel the narrative that Ukraine and its Western allies are prolonging the conflict. The terms effectively mean the capitulation of Ukraine and are therefore not a serious basis for ending the war.
And children are killed again
Once again, Putin revealed his true intentions when his military launched one of the the most brutal attacks on civilian by the beginning of the invasion in 2022. The cruise missile hit the children's hospital “Ohmatdit“ in the center of Kyiv – the largest pediatric clinic in Ukraine for children with cancer and other serious diseases. The hospital was almost completely destroyed and several people were killed. In addition, attacks across the country claimed the lives of more than 37 people, including three children, and injured more than 170.
The Kremlin's disinformation network quickly picked up the usual cycle of denial and denial. Propaganda spokesmen commented that the hospital had been hit by a Western-supplied air defense missile. The Russian representative at the UN went even further – said it was a Norwegian NASAMS missile and called on the Norwegian authorities to take action against the crime, which was actually committed by his own country. The attack took place in broad daylight and high-resolution footage showed the missile falling intact into the hospital, deliberately aimed at its target – this allowed the experts to identify her as russia cruise missile X-101.
Faced with this evidence, Kremlin disinformers also forced themselves to publish footage of the Russian missile. While the images unequivocally confirmed the Kremlin's role in the attack, the media simply presented them as evidence that the missile was an air defense projectile. Disinformation does not necessarily rely on fakes. Facts and authentic images can be presented in a distorted context to support certain disinformation narratives.
The response of the Russian media network is strongly reminiscent of the reactions after the shelling of maternity ward #3 in besieged Mariupol, the attack on the station in Kramatorsk, Bucha Massacre and the downing of flight MH17. Propagandists flood the information space with lies and twisted claims to cover up Russian violence and war crimes.
„The Wicked West“ and “the greedy Ukraine“
Cynics would think the July 8 bombings had something to do with the NATO summit starting the next day – from July 9 to 11, i.e. that maybe they are sending some kind of unhealthy message. Personally, cynics like Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov and the Russian Defense Ministry made the connection – said that the Ukrainian “hysteria“ on civilian casualties is often raised just before NATO summits in order to secure funding for the war effort. The Russian disinformation network gave a platform to these reports and combined them with suggestions that Ukraine did not know how to handle air defense systems. So giving Ukraine more options for self-defense supposedly led to more civilian casualties.
These manipulative messages served two purposes simultaneously: deflecting Russian responsibility for the attack and causing division among NATO allies ahead of the summit. As usual, the Kremlin claims that more support for Ukraine will only lead to more suffering – an ongoing effort to discredit the alliance in the eyes of the world public and to foment divisions.
Stories of this kind are nothing new and are being given more publicity at this very moment to match the media coverage and make themselves heard better. They argue that the United States and other Western European countries want to use Poland, the Baltic states and Ukraine as cannon fodder to weaken Russia without risking personal harm while labeling NATO as the aggressor. Blaming NATO, the EU and Ukraine itself for Russia's attacks on innocent Ukrainian children fits into the context of Russia's disinformation efforts to weaken adversaries it cannot otherwise neutralize.
Be vigilant and don't be misled!
Other topics in this week's review from EUvsDisinfo:
- “Fair elections“ is a Western propaganda cliche
For several months, France has come under increased attacks from disinformation campaigns, possibly triggered by Russia's ban from the Paris Olympics and President Macron's proposal to send military instructors to Ukraine. Likewise, the “Anglo-Saxons” are one of the favorite scarecrows of Kremlin propagandists, who also love to interfere in elections. Naturally, the Russian network of foreign influence and meddling could not refrain from meddling in the recent French and UK elections. The defeat of the Conservative Party in Great Britain was explained by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the fact that this party had fulfilled all the tasks set by the globalist elite, including the instigation of war in Europe and the violation of peace agreements. On top of that, as RT explained, the very idea of a fair election contest is nothing more than a Western propaganda cliché.
- Olena Zelenska was the first to buy the new model “Bugatti“
As already mentioned, sometimes misinformers misuse original documents or images. And sometimes they just make it up on the spur of the moment – such is the case with the claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's wife, Olena Zelenska, ordered a luxury car worth €4.5 million during a visit to Paris. She had become the first buyer of this new model luxury car. The claim is as false as the bogus payment invoice circulated through disinformation channels. This message is part of a narrative to smear the Ukrainian leadership and portray the Ukrainian president as corrupt.
- Ukraine involves Belarus in the conflict
As part of an effort to portray Ukraine and the West as aggressive warmongers, allegations circulated this week that Kiev was preparing to draw Belarus into the ongoing conflict by deploying troops to the Belarusian border or attempting to stage a “provocation” . There is no evidence of this and Kiev has denied moving its troops to the border. The regime of Belarusian President Lukashenko is a close ally of Russia and allowed Russian troops to invade Ukraine and launch missiles from Belarusian territory.
EUvsDisinfo/ translation: Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria