Despite what United States Senator Hiram Johnson declared in 1918, truth wasn’t the first casualty of the Russian war on Ukraine. Russia had been pumping out disinformation about Ukraine for years, at least since its 2014 invasion of the country.
Awareness of Russia’s propaganda tactics meant that Ukraine and many other countries were already warning the world about lies Russia was planting in the months leading up to its invasion last February. In the course of the war, fact checking organizations have worked to quickly debunk Kremlin disinformation.
Journalism monitor NewsGuard, which produces trust ratings for more than 7,500 news and information websites all over the world, revealed how pro-Russian disinformation flooded social media feeds in the United States in early 2022, despite platforms’ increased moderation efforts.
It has a dedicated Russia-Ukraine Disinformation Tracking Center, covering 329 websites that spread war disinformation and the top myths they publish.
Madeline Roache, managing editor of NewsGuard in London, is a journalist specializing in Russia and eastern Europe. “There’s been an onslaught of Russian propaganda over the last year, pushing various false claims, including that the Ukrainian authorities committed a genocide against Russian-speaking Ukrainians, and assertions that Nazi ideology is driving Ukraine’s political leadership,” she said. “The resources behind the Russian propaganda machine aimed at international media are enormous.”
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