Although Russia is known for its state apparatus of disinformation, the war in Ukraine has seen the other side of the conflict also use false information to try to move public opinion.
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have spoken of the “Ghost of Kiev,” a Ukrainian fighter jet that allegedly shot down Russian aircraft but was actually a video game simulator; the risk of a fire at the Zaporijia plant being worse than the Chernobyl accident, denied by scientists; and the destruction of the Babi Yar monument, denied by the entity’s management.
In all cases, explains Mariana Kalil, a professor at the Escola Superior de Guerra, disinformation is used to try to disrupt the adversary and move the public — whether to increase national morale or sensitize the world in its favor.
As the maxim that in a conflict the first victim is the truth recalls, the tactic is not new. “It’s hard to approach these stories without sounding like we’re talking about conspiracy theories, but they’re actually intelligence issues,” he says.
It points to an evolution in the ways in which war lies are spread. First newspapers, then radio, then TV in the Gulf and Vietnam wars, and now, in Ukraine, social media. The disinformation oxygenated by the leaders involved in the war circulates with the help of thousands of groups and users on the internet. A contemporary novelty, however, are the checking agencies.
On the first day of the war, professionals from 69 countries that make up the International News Checking Network (IFCN) consolidated #UkraineFacts, a verification platform on the Russian invasion. As of Monday night (14), 1,543 checks had been made by the group. In other words: every day, 79 pieces of misinformation were located and denied.
As a comparison, at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, checkers from 110 countries set up a similar collaboration to monitor the health crisis. There were 547 checks in the first 19 days — a daily average of 29.
Cristina Tardáguila, founder of Agência Lupa and former deputy director of the IFCN, says that two features of the wave of disinformation from the war in Ukraine are already evident. First, what she describes as “image warfare”—out of 1,543 checks, 1,366 involved audiovisual materials. Second, the fact that much of the content is true, but taken out of context, thus becoming disinformation.
“This is a weapon of war, and all sides will use it,” says Tardáguila. “The difficult thing is to understand the intent in each case — when the real intention was to lie or when it was not possible to obtain accurate information. It is difficult to be sure of a fact in the midst of a bombing, and to assume that one side owns the truth would be naive.”
Completes Kalil: “It doesn’t matter [se há a intenção ou não de mentir], because a person is led to believe that a fact is important and feasible. If one person posted it and another believed it to be credible, the damage is done.” Remember below some statements from Ukrainians that have not been proven.
Train attacked in humanitarian corridor
On the 12th, Ukraine’s intelligence service said the Russian army had attacked a convoy leaving the conflict zone, killing seven civilians, including a child — and violating a ceasefire.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry corrected: people were actually “outside the ‘green corridors’ agreed between the two sides [da guerra]”The text posted by Ukraine Intelligence on Facebook has not been deleted and the social network has not added any disinformation notices.
attack the mosque
The Russians themselves agree that the situation in Mariupol is a humanitarian tragedy. However, despite the bombings in and around the city, it is not true that the mosque of Sultan Soliman was attacked.
The statement was made by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, which said on social media that “more than 80 adults and children” were inside the building. Zelensky echoed the accusation.
Later, temple leader Ismail Hacioglu denied that the site had been hit. One of those involved in the exit operations also denied the ministry’s statement. The agency’s post is still live.
Babi Yar’s Destruction
“What’s the point of saying ‘[nazismo] never again’ if the world is silent when a bomb falls in the same place as Babi Yar? It’s history repeating itself,” Zelensky said when he accused Russian bombing of having hit the Babi Yar monument.
The statement moved entities and the Israeli government, which condemned what would remember the times of the Holocaust – at the site, the regime of Adolf Hitler killed more than 30,000 Jews in two days, in 1941.
Later, Ruslan Kavatsiuk, one of the directors of the Babi Yar Memorial, said that the damage was actually done to a building that the institution intended to use as a museum, but that the memorial itself was not damaged.
Zelensky’s Twitter post has been liked by more than 300,000 people and shared more than 75,000 times — and goes without warning about misinformation.
Zaporijia greater than Chernobyl
One of the hottest points of the war so far was when Putin’s army invaded and took over Europe’s biggest power plant, Zaporijia. The exchange of fire, fire and explosions were broadcast live, and soon fears of a nuclear disaster took hold on social media.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Dmitro Kuleba pleaded with the Russians to stop the attack. According to him, if the plant exploded, the damage would be “ten times greater than that of Chernobyl”, the site of the worst nuclear accident in history. As soon as the chancellor’s post gained prominence, experts denied it.
The reactors at the facilities, for example, are different: the one at Zaporijia does not use graphite, the element that caused the explosion in Chernobyl. Mark Wenman, from Imprerial College London, told the BBC that Zaporijia’s structure can “withstand extreme external events such as a plane crash or explosions”.
It was later learned that the fire actually took place in the plant’s training building, and the UN-linked International Atomic Energy Agency said there had been no change in radiation levels at the site. Kuleba’s post is still live.
The Ghost of Kiev
The “Ghost of Kiev” began with a video that went viral and was shared by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the country’s Security Service Telegram group, with more than 700,000 people.
Even former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko shared what would be a photo of what had then been elevated to national hero status: a Ukrainian fighter jet that terrorized (and shot down) units of Putin’s mighty Air Force.
The problem is that the “first ace [ponto de saque, no tênis] since World War II” was, in fact, a myth. The American newspaper The New York Times traced the origin of the images to the video of a simulator, the DSC World, published on YouTube in a channel with 3,000 subscribers.
The Defense Ministry’s post gained the status of “out of context” on Twitter, but it has already surpassed 80,000 likes and has more than 1.6 million views.
Soldiers who didn’t die
One of the first conflicts of the war took place on Cobra Island, in the Black Sea, in which 137 civilians and soldiers were reportedly killed by Moscow troops.
Ukrainian newspaper Pravda published an audio that would reveal Ukrainian coastguards being given an ultimatum: if they didn’t surrender, they would be murdered. There were more than 3.5 million views of the material, which had its authenticity confirmed by the country’s authorities.
Zelensky remembered the guards who died “heroically but did not give up” and said he would award them the title of national heroes.
Two days later, Ukrainian authorities posted a post claiming that the men were actually “alive and well”, that they had been captured and that “Russian propaganda” was trying to promote a false narrative.
