Russian propaganda has intensified a disinformation campaign aimed at portraying the Armed Forces of Ukraine as 'committing atrocities against civilians' in Donbas. This was stated by the Counter-Disinformation Center (CDC) at the Secretariat of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, according to RBC-Ukraine. According to the agency, Russian media outlets have launched a series of articles describing alleged crimes committed by Ukrainian military personnel against the civilian population, with none of these claims backed by independent evidence.
Typical Propaganda Templates
The CDC notes that the circulated texts are produced using well-worn, standard templates of Russian propaganda. Their structure is predictable: at the center of the story is the account of an 'eyewitness' — a resident of a temporarily occupied territory — whose emotional but unverifiable testimony is presented as proof of alleged systematic crimes by Ukrainian military personnel. This approach allows propagandists to rapidly replicate uniform narratives without resorting to a documentary basis.
'Eyewitnesses' Without Evidence
Among the specific examples cited by the CDC is the story of a resident of Konotop who claims that a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle allegedly deliberately attacked her family, including an infant, during an evacuation. Another article tells of a woman who, according to her account, was forced to leave a wounded man on the road due to an 'AFU attack.' The Center emphasizes: the authenticity of these stories cannot be verified, and Russian resources present the accounts of individual people as full-fledged evidence, even though they have no independent confirmation.
Goals of the Campaign
In the CDC's assessment, the main goal of such materials is to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to form in the minds of the Russian audience and residents of temporarily occupied territories an image of Ukraine as the 'enemy.' Additionally, the agency notes, the Kremlin is thus trying to shift attention away from the real destruction and deaths of civilians that are the result of Russian aggression. In other words, disinformation about 'AFU atrocities' serves to distract from the facts recorded in Ukrainian-controlled territories.
Contradictory Data
Here it is important to honestly point out the discrepancy between the versions. On the one hand, Russian propaganda resources claim that Ukrainian military personnel are carrying out deliberate attacks on civilians in Donbas, citing the accounts of individual 'eyewitnesses' as evidence. On the other hand, the CDC at the NSDC of Ukraine categorically states that these claims have no independent confirmation, their authenticity cannot be verified, and the materials themselves are a product of standard propaganda templates. Thus, there is a direct contradiction between the version of Russian media and the assessment of the Ukrainian agency: what one side presents as proven facts, the other classifies as unverifiable disinformation. At present, no independent arbitration that would definitively confirm or refute specific episodes has been recorded in open sources.
Context: Other Fakes and the Situation at the Front
The campaign about 'atrocities' is not isolated. Recently, Russia has also spread another fake — about the alleged capture of the village of Khrapovshchyna in the Sumy region, which also does not match confirmed data. Against this backdrop, Ukrainian military personnel, according to available information, continue to hold off the attacks of the occupiers on the eastern and northern frontiers, repelling the enemy's attempts to advance into Ukrainian territory. The combination of these factors shows that the information coverage of hostilities remains a key instrument, in which both sides actively use both real events and deliberately unreliable narratives.
