Recently, AI “FAKT” wrote about disinformation campaigns Doppelgänger, which was deployed by Russia, creating fake copies of authoritative mass media and spreading fabricated news – such as the funding of USAID actors or the arrest of Pavel Durov. These messages are disguised as “alternative opinion” through Telegram, bots, and sometimes famous influencers like Elon Musk. The goal is to legitimize fakes and embed them in Western discourse. Campaigns rely on realistic visuals, emotionality and the use of authoritative media brands to manipulate Western public opinion.
As reported Foreign Intelligence Service, Russia has recently taken its information operation against Ukraine to a new level. If earlier the Kremlin’s incubator of fakes tried to discredit the Ukrainian government through direct fakes and propaganda, now its strategy became more sophisticated and insidious. This is not just disinformation, but a planned special operation designed to undermine the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government, discredit democratic institutions and impose a scenario of surrender under the guise of peace.
Hybrid War 2.0: How the Kremlin is attacking faith through TikTok and Telegram
The Kremlin no longer disguises itself. He goes directly to TikTok feeds, to the main YouTube, to tg channels, where under the signs “insiders from the General Staff” or “analysts from Bankova” launches poisoned messages: “the government is illegitimate”, “the West is tired”, “Ukraine is being drained”. And all this is not convulsions of the fringes, but a purposeful, strategically built attack, which is overseen not by bloggers, but by Serhiy Kiriyenko, the first deputy head of Putin’s administration.
These are not isolated incidents, but a systematic campaign aimed at shaking faith in the Ukrainian leadership, sowing distrust in allies and breaking European unity. The Kremlin knows very well: it is increasingly difficult for it to change the course of the war on the battlefield. But undermining the rear – faith, solidarity, will – is still quite possible.
Therefore, “anonymous” telegram channels, styled after the military, enter the arena. There are showers of allegedly “secret information” about conflicts between the army and the president. And on TikTok and YouTube, there are short, emotional videos with the lines “we were deceived”, “why are we still fighting”, “where is the promised victory?”. They are filmed by real people or created with the help of AI. The main thing is to touch pain, cause doubt, shake faith.
These attacks are not random. Their goal is not only Ukraine, but also Europe. Kremlin is playing on voter fatigue, on anger about prices, on crises, which are enough even without war. The task is to push into power those who question Ukraine’s support, who talk about “negotiations at any price”, who want a “new EU course” – of course, without Kyiv.
This is not just a hybrid war. This is an attempt to reshape Europe through disinformation blackmail. And every fake like, every comment with “but suddenly it’s true” is another crack in Western unity. Another step towards the Kremlin once again feeling like the master of Europe.
The hydra of lies spoke in a European way: how the Kremlin disguises fakes under Western opinion
The Russian special services and their ideologues understood very well: a direct attack in the style of Solovyov or Kiselyov no longer works either in Europe or in Ukraine. It is too obvious, too toxic. The Kremlin is no longer trying to convince that “Ukraine will lose the war on the battlefield.” In return is imposed the opinion that “she will lose within herself” – due to a tired society, a seemingly destroyed horizon of expectations, a conflict between the army and the government, the loss of the legitimacy of the president due to the failed elections.
This is a strategy of creeping undermining. Delegitimization is not only a media attack, but also the creation of preconditions for a split within Ukrainian society and Western elites. After all, the thesis “there is a political crisis in Ukraine” gives The Kremlin has room for “alternative” scenarios: from the proposals of the “interim administration” under the auspices of the UN to negotiations with “other representatives” of Ukraine.
In the very heart of Europe, where freedom of speech is not just a slogan, but the foundation of democracy, the Kremlin has played its age-old game: lies, manipulation and provocation. Poland, according to the study VoxCheck, became the main target of this information attack. It is here, in the country that first extended a helping hand to Ukraine after the February 2022 invasion, that Russia is trying to destroy trust, sow discord and create political destabilization.
One of the main goals is the delegitimization of the Ukrainian government. A favorite mantra of Russian propaganda: they say, in Kyiv there is a “regime” controlled from the outside. What is this, if not an attempt to devalue the struggle of the Ukrainian people and to convince the world of the alleged fictitious nature of Ukrainian sovereignty? Such statements are not just rhetoric, but the preparation of a bridgehead for an “alternative truth” that should slip through the cracks of Western trust.
But the Kremlin does not stop at words. Russian special services offer from 3,000 to 4,000 euros in cash for posting fake content in the Polish media space. And this is not a fragment of a spy series, but a reality that should influence the course of the upcoming presidential elections in Poland.
Warsaw does not sleep. General Staff of Poland brings out the war for truth in social networks – where they try to drown it in the mud of fakes. Because the truth in the era of hybrid warfare is a matter of survival. And that’s why cooperation Poland and Ukraine’s fight against disinformation is not a diplomatic cliché, but a strategic necessity.
Text in Polish on the Salon24.pl platform, where an anonymous “expert” with a profile of a former diplomat tells about the “split between the Ukrainian political and military leadership”, looks like a serious analysis. Especially if there are several dozen supporting voices in the comments from accounts with Polish names, but registered on servers in Serbia or Turkey.
Analogous situation in France The publication Réseau International, which has long been suspected of having links with Russian special services, publishes materials where Ukraine is presented as a “state without control”, “military project of NATO“, a country that has allegedly lost its subjectivity. And all this in French, with references to “Western military experts”, among whom are often people who have long been either expelled from official structures or connected to Russian lobbying networks. In recent publications, the publication dispels the idea that the Ukrainian army is not capable of conducting combat operations on its own, and the General Staff is in conflict with the Office of the President.
The Kremlin’s Circus of Illusions is also on tour in Hungary. The publications Magyar Nemzet, Magyar Hirlap, and Pesti Srácok publish messages that fully resonate with Moscow’s position: they say that Ukraine does not have a stable government, does not deserve trust on the part of Europe, and needs a “new security architecture”, in which Ukraine itself must give up its ambitions. All this is in the Hungarian language, aimed at the country’s internal agenda, but with an ideological pro-Kremlin subtext. Hungarian proxies not only serve the interests of Russia, but also create the appearance of a “European discussion”, which in reality only relays external instructions.
So, we see a shift: from direct Russian-language fakes to sophisticated proxy operations in the national information ecosystems of Europe. Polish, French, and Hungarian languages turned into instruments of influence disguised as internal Western skepticism. And this is the main danger. Because when Peskov speaks Russian theses, they are not believed. And when the meat grinder of reality appears in the column of a French “analyst” or a Polish “diplomat”, they begin to appeal to them in the Brussels offices.
This is the new geography of the Russian many-headed hydra of lies: it ceases to be Russian in form to remain Russian in content. And it is even more dangerous precisely because it sounded in other languages.
… So what is this, if not a new war – not for territories, but for minds? When instead of tanks – headlines, instead of shelling – fakes, and instead of an army – networks of bots and manipulators. Russia no longer hides its intention: to break us not by force, but by doubt. Its goal is not just to demoralize Ukrainians, but to make the world believe that Ukraine is “fatigue”, “chaos”, “statehood on pause”.
It’s all an illusion. Carefully constructed, polished in Kremlin offices and launched into our tapes, screens, conversations. But the most dangerous thing is not the lie itself, but our readiness to admit it. Because the enemy does not strike at the body, but at the faith.
And that is why now, more than ever, it is important to keep the line of defense within yourself. In critical thinking. In trusting the facts, not the throw-ins. In the ability to say, “Stop. I’ll check.” Because in the information war, each of us is not just a reader. We are either a target or a shield. And what we choose will determine who wins.
Tetyana Viktorova
