According to the Washington Post journalists, regarding relevant documents at their disposal, Russia has launched a large-scale information and psychological operation to discredit the top leadership of Ukraine.
What is known about the Kremlin's new large-scale PsyOps against Ukraine
Journalists of the publication emphasize that the new PsyOps, spread by Kremlin propagandists, is aimed at discrediting the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and creating a split in society.
According to the documents obtained by the journalists, in January 2023, the first deputy head of the Kremlin administration, Serhii Kirienko, ordered a group of officials and political technologists to create a field in the Ukrainian media space for the dissemination of disinformation.
It is noted that Kremlin propagandists' implementation of this plan took into account previous experience.
In particular, as noted in the article, during a meeting with subordinates on January 16, 2023, Kiriyenko outlined four key goals for this campaign:
discrediting the military and political leadership of Ukraine,
the split of the Ukrainian elite,
the demoralisation of Ukrainian troops,
disorientation of the Ukrainian population.
The success of this information campaign was to be measured by key indicators:
lowering the rating of key figures in the military and political leadership of Ukraine,
increasing belief among the Ukrainian population that elites care only about their interests,
an increase in the number of resignations in the government,
increase in the number of public conflicts in Ukraine.
The journalists, referring to the documents, note that the Kremlin's top leadership monitored the progress in achieving the relevant indicators during weekly meetings.
In particular, the most popular posts in social networks were analyzed and the overall distribution of the obtained results was calculated.
The Kremlin also conducted weekly polls on the level of trust in Zelenskyy and Ukraine's military leadership.
As noted in the documents obtained by the journalists, among the most successful publications that the Kremlin propagandists managed to throw into the Ukrainian information space was a fake report about the alleged family of a dead Ukrainian soldier who did not receive any help at all.
This post has over two million views. Another top post is a fake video on Telegram that the Ukrainian authorities intend to "fight to the last Ukrainian".
According to the documents, the Kremlin paid dozens of hired "trolls" who published more than 1,300 messages and 37,000 comments on Ukrainian social networks every week.
Every day, for writing and publishing 100 comments, Kremlin "trolls" received 60 thousand rubles or 660 dollars per month.
Most of the strategists' reports to their political leaders focused on the volume of content created and the total number of views, but during the first five months they did not provide any evidence that these efforts had any impact on Ukrainians, the publication said.
At the same time, Kremlin propagandists and strategists themselves recognized that they should avoid overt pro-Russian propaganda in order to gain trust from the Ukrainian audience.
In the material of the publication, it is noted that, based on the changed narratives, Kremlin propaganda during the past year dispersed fakes in the Ukrainian media space about Zaluzhnyi's intentions to run for president and the alleged desire of Western partners to get rid of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
What is known about the work of Kremlin propaganda in the West
The Kremlin conducted a separate information campaign in the media space of Western countries.
In particular, the Kremlin's critical propaganda efforts were aimed at discrediting Volodymyr Zelenskyy in front of Western partners.
Kremlin propaganda tried to spread fake narratives, which they hoped could destroy the image of the Ukrainian president as a hero of a small country desperately fighting against global evil.
. For this purpose, forged Ukrainian state documents with pseudo-evidence of corruption schemes in procurement for the Armed Forces were distributed.
The plans resulted in hundreds of articles and thousands of social media posts, translated into French, German and English, directed against Zelenskyy, the documents show.
However, an additional goal was to create a situation where such fake news would reach Ukraine itself through the reposts of Ukrainian bloggers and politicians chasing "hype".
