Most of russia’s disinformation messages about “smuggling Western weapons” target Czech Republic

According to the VoxChek report on six European countries, there were 255 disinformation messages about the alleged smuggling of Western weapons from Ukraine in the media space of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Poland and Hungary in the period from February 2022 to October 2023. The largest number of such messages targeted the Czech Republic.

Svitlana Slipchenko, VoxCheck Project Manager, made this statement during a discussion at BrainHub, country’s main discussion platform at Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform.

“It is noteworthy that despite the fact that, among all the narratives and all the disinformation, most of the russian disinformation messages about Ukraine were directed at Poland, while the most messages about “snuggling Western weapons” targeted the Czech Republic. Almost a third of the claims over the past year and a half fall within this narrative. In this case, Poland is in second place with a quarter of such claims. Then there is 15% in Germany and Slovakia each, and less than 10% in Italy and Hungary,” said Svitlana Slipchenko.

The expert emphasized that since the bursts of such disinformation campaigns of russian propaganda coincide with the elections in these countries, it is likely that the russian federation will double down on its efforts to discredit Ukraine ahead of the elections to the European Parliament.

“We see that russia will intensify its efforts to discredit Ukraine ahead of the upcoming European Parliament elections in June 2024. Therefore, we can expect that despite the fact that much fake (news – Ed.) has already been produced by using different methods and involving different sources, russia will not abandon this tool and will continue to use it,” the expert added.

BrainHub is the country’s main discussion platform created by Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. It brings together experts from the state and civil society sectors. BrainHub hosts intellectual discussions around the issues of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. It’s the birthplace of the best ideas that will become the foundation for the road map of Ukraine’s reconstruction in all sectors: economy, infrastructure, education, agriculture, security, digital, etc.

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