What comes after the bombs: one day of information attack in Ukraine

A few weeks ago, I spent almost four hours sheltering in the metro station because of a missile strike in Kyiv. During the day, Russia sends nearly 80 rockets to Ukrainian cities, trying to reach energy infrastructure and civilians. You have probably seen the photos from the bombing in the media. But I want to discuss another type of attack — the information one. Sitting in the metro for those morning hours, I could read the news all time, precisely what Russia was spreading. Let’s look at how they support their strike with information bombs.

Bomb #1. You are alone, and even Zelenskyy runs from Kyiv. This message was spread from the Telegram channel of Ukrainian ex-parliamentary Kiva and pushed to the media. But this message was not circulated for long, as the Ukrainian President filmed a video from the center of Kyiv to calm people and update them on the current situation. The goal of this information bullet was to spread panic.

Bomb #2. Belarus is joining the war, and now they will start the attack from the northern border. This news was widely spread with a Belarus president’s statement on readiness to support Russia. It should make people think that victory became impossible. More armies, more tanks, more attacks while you are sheltering. In a few hours, Ukrainian government officials pointed out that no movements were on the border with Belarus. During the attack, such messages on scaling the war also should spread panic.

Bomb #3. All Ukrainian regions are under attack. I saw happy Russians dancing on the balcony because of killing people in Kyiv and propaganda messages that new missile strikes were coming. At the same time, it was a lot of fake news about the bombing and destroying different cities. You may feel that it is the end — you will return from the shelter to a destroyed country. Moreover, top Russian propagandists published photos from the Kyiv center saying that the Ukrainian Parliament was on fire, but in fact, they just mixed up buildings’ photos.

The Russian information attack after the real bomb was entirely predictable and focused on making Ukrainians fearful. What should we understand, sitting in the shelters? Parliament is in the fire, more bombs are coming, Belarus sends its army, and Zelenskyy runs from Kyiv. At this time, it was an attack on some government websites, and a considerable part of the country was without electricity.

The Ukrainian government repealed almost all information attacks. Zelenskyy is in Kyiv (look, here he is on Instagram), no movements on the Belarus border (Zelenskyy even proposed to invite an international monitoring mission to the border with Belarus to stop any provocations). Many (but not all) cities were targeted. At the same time, many missiles were shut down by the Ukrainian army.

Was it strange to read such news during 5,5 hours of air siren? Probably not, as we already know what to expect. But this dis- and misinformation campaign was definitely directed at Ukrainians reading the news while sheltering.