Russian disinformation against Ukraine heightens ahead of EU parliamentary elections
To sabotage European nations’ support for Ukraine, Russia has been using hybrid warfare tactics — a combination of covert operations and disinformation campaigns.
Germany, Poland, and Lithuania this week arrested at least five people they say had been acting on behalf of Russian intelligence and plotting violent attacks on their soil.
The plots included an assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the bombing of U.S.-operated military bases in Germany used to train Ukrainian troops, and an attack on a close ally of Alexey Navalny, the opposition figure who died last month in an arctic Russian prison.
Russia denies the accusations.
The arrests highlight the scope of Russia’s efforts to undermine the EU support for Ukraine and boost concerns about the Kremlin’s interference in upcoming elections for members in the European Parliament, scheduled for June 6-9.
Czech and Belgian intelligences recently revealed Russian influence over several European officials through the Russian propaganda outlet Voice of Europe. Funded by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s close ally, Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, Voice of Europe had been spreading Russian disinformation and propaganda, including copying headlines from the Russian state media outlets.
Belgian intelligence revealed that Voice of Europe paid officials from across EU countries to appear on its platform and spread pro-Russian propaganda.
Politico reported that at least 16 Members of the European Parliament shared anti-Ukraine opinions with Voice of Europe, echoing the Kremlin’s talking points — all representing far-right parties.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo remarked: “According to our intelligence services, Moscow’s objectives are clear: help elect more pro-Russian candidates to the European Parliament and reinforce the pro-Russian narrative in that institution.”
France and Germany have been prime targets for Russian disinformation and a testing ground for Russia’s many tactics.
The Russian network Doppelganger has launched fake ad campaigns on social media platforms in the French and German language. According to the European investigative network AI Forensics, Russia’s Facebook campaign in France and Germany “reached a staggering 38 million users between August 2023 and March 2024, with less than 20% of the ads being moderated by Meta as political.”
The German Foreign Ministry also found that “more than a million German-language posts were sent from an estimated 50,000 fake accounts” in a single Russian disinformation campaign on X. The messages promoted the false narrative that Chancellor Olaf Shultz was neglecting Germans due to his support of Ukrainian aid and Ukrainian refugees.
Russia’s disinformation narratives “strategically exploit genuine economic and security worries of EU citizens and link them to Ukraine,” Clara Broekaert, a research analyst at The Soufan Center, told Polygraph.info.
“By capitalizing on current issues, such as unrest over the impact of Ukrainian agricultural products on the EU market and the broader farmer protest movement, these ads aim to convince audiences that Ukraine’s integration into the EU would doom sectors like French agriculture,” Broekaert said.
France previously reported that Russia launched a campaign of fake websites impersonating reputable media outlets like Le Monde, Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24 that spread fake anti-Ukraine news.
Russia also produced fake videos mimicking RFI with sound and format nearly identical to regular RFI programming. These videos blamed France’s bed bug issue and increase in tuberculosis cases on Ukrainian refugees.
The Russian campaign also included a fake France 24 segment with a doctored image of French President Emmanuel Macron to assert French citizens did not support their “Napoleon.” It also recently launched a fake military website using official government logos and “fr” URL to encourage French citizens to enlist for fighting in Ukraine.
Slovakian pro-democracy candidates have also been targeted.
Two days before the fall 2023 parliamentary elections, Moscow dropped a fake AI-manipulated audio of Michal Šimečka, leader of the liberal Progressive Slovakia party, discussing how he rigged the election.
Russian disinformation also flooded the Slovak information landscape with the false claim that pro-democracy presidential candidate Ivan Korcoks was a “candidate for war” who would send Slovak soldiers to fight in Ukraine. These false accusations were parroted by some Slovak media outlets and even used by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who called Korcoks a “warmonger.”
The race was tight and the pro-NATO Progressive Slovakia lost to the populist SMER party, which later fulfilled campaign promises to withdraw military aid for Ukraine.
Far-right politicians beyond Slovakia, such as the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AFD), have also mirrored and elevated Russian propaganda for political gain. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently also slammed the AFD for top officials’ connections with the Voice of Europe scandal.
