A journalist who escaped from an occupied city, a media researcher and documents from the Russian security service tell how Russia is trying to change the truth in Ukraine for another.
Maxim Fedorov,
Vilma Romsi
Supplier Maryna Savchenko watched from the window of his home as Russian troops marched into the city of Kherson along the Antonovsky Bridge on March 1.
Savchenko decided to continue her work. He told the Ukrainian media about the events of the occupied city – until Russian forces kidnapped his colleague.
– That’s when I realized that it’s not safe to be on TV. I started passing on information to editors, which was then published without my name, Savchenko tells .
He is giving a phone interview from Vinnytsia in western Ukraine, where he fled from Kherson in June.
– The media cannot function in Hersonis. Journalists are threatened, they can be taken to the basement to “talk”.
Persecuting journalists is just one of the ways Russia tries to get its message across.
This story tells how Russia has tried to justify the war it calls a special operation in its occupied territories.
Teachers and taxi drivers are wanted to take the message
The Russian security service FSB instructs the occupying forces to attract Ukrainians who have a lot of contact with other locals due to their profession.
They are, for example, teachers, taxi drivers and salespeople.
The matter is clear from the internal instruction obtained by , which the Russian Security Service has distributed to its regional offices in April.
The instruction has been forwarded to by an anonymous source from the SBU of the Security Service of Ukraine. has not been able to independently confirm the authenticity of the document. Ukraine is also waging an information war against Russia, and the leaker of the document has his own motives.
However, the content of the document corresponds to the information conveyed by the international media about Russia’s methods of operation in the occupied territories. SBU has published other parts of the documents, among others in their information channels (you will switch to another service) in June.
The instruction criticizes the fact that the description of the post-war “positive future” has not been sufficiently disseminated in the “liberated areas”.
The instructions call for strengthening the justification for the occupation. It is done, according to the instructions, by preparing petitions of Ukrainian and Russian war veterans to “stop fascism” in Ukraine and fight it in Russia and around the world.
The news stream from Ukraine is cut off
The Russian occupiers are now acting as they did after the annexation of Crimea in 2014: the first thing they do is cut off Ukrainian television and radio broadcasts in the territories they have occupied. Internet traffic is transferred to Russian servers, which are monitored.
This also happened in the Kherson region, where journalist Maryna Savchenko fled in June.
– Ukrainian sites can now be accessed using VPN connections, and a satellite connection is required to watch Ukrainian television channels, says Savchenko.
At the beginning of July, access to the popular US social media platforms Instagram and YouTube was blocked in the Kherson region.
From Russia’s point of view, knowledge is the key to ideological control of people, says a Ukrainian media researcher Yevhen Fedchenko.
– Influential voices are silenced, whether they belong to a politician or a librarian, Fedchenko says to in a video interview.
A common tone is sought from Soviet history
In its propaganda of the occupied territories, Russia draws on the Soviet history it shares with Ukraine.
When the residents of Berdjansk turned on the radio in March, they could hear promises in Russian of a bright future and Ukrainians being addressed as “comrades” in the Soviet style. Among other things, the city’s mayor told about it Alexander Svidlo For Guardian (you switch to another service).
In any case, common history is sought for common ground, such as the heroic stories of the Second World War, says media researcher Fedčenko.
Propaganda trucks and fake newspapers
Russia’s message has been placed in the occupied territories, for example on the side of trucks.
At the end of May, on the streets of the ruined city of Mariupol trucks appeared (you switch to another service), where Russian news was broadcast from attached screens. According to the local authorities, the trucks were placed especially at aid points, where people got food and drinking water.
In Melitopol, located in the northeastern part of the Crimean peninsula, Russian forces began to spread their propaganda using an existing newspaper with a fake version (you switch to another service). Several Ukrainian news media have been forced to close their offices after refusing to spread propaganda.
Propaganda repeats the message that the occupied territories are well and safe. Good morning wishes and pictures of Russian soldiers handing out humanitarian aid are published on several channels of the Russian occupation administrations in the messaging service Telegram. Propaganda claims that Ukrainian forces are preventing residents of the regions from leaving.
Journalist Maryna Savchenko’s experience is the opposite. He says that it was the Russian troops who prevented him from leaving Kherson. Savchenko managed to escape from Kherson only on the third attempt, Russian soldiers turned him back twice before that.
Media researcher Fedchenko says that Russia is spreading the attack in order to justify the same propaganda in its occupied territories as it does to its domestic audience.
The purpose of the belting is to confuse
It is difficult to find people who agree to cooperate with the occupation regime or even an audience for the Kremlin’s trumpet in the territories occupied last spring, says Maryna Savchenko.
– They tried to organize Russian public events in Kherson, for example [venäläisenä] on Children’s Day on June 1 or Russia Day on June 12. The events did not gather a large number of participants, says Savchenko.
According to researcher Yevhen Fedchenko, Ukrainians’ media literacy has improved especially after the annexation of Crimea.
According to Fedchenko, Ukrainians use digital media more and more, and the news media field has diversified. Television is not as central a source of news in Ukraine as it is in Russia. Russia will not win Ukrainian sympathies to its side with the help of television, the researcher says.
When Russia restricts Ukrainian news media and the access of residents of the occupied territories to Ukrainian websites, for example the messaging service Telegram plays an increasingly important role.
– Ukrainians trust, for example, familiar journalists and mayors who spread information effectively on Telegram. It is also a very important messaging service for Russians, so it is not restricted.
So what is the point of Russia making badly executed forgeries of Ukrainian newspapers or spreading the message of liberating Ukraine from the Nazis?
According to the researcher, the aim of Russia’s information war is not to produce credible fake news, but to sow suspicion on an industrial scale.
– Before long, people’s interest in the news stream will decrease. This, in turn, would reduce political activity, Fedchenko says.
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