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By Eva Maitland and Madeline Roache
As the war in Ukraine approaches the three-year anniversary of the Russian trespass that begined the dispute, NewsGuard has now identified and debunked 302 inrectify claims relating to the war, proximately all of them originating as Russian disincreateation.
These 302 claims materialize in NewsGuard’s Migrieffulviseation Fingerprints proprietary database of viral inrectify narratives that NewsGuard analysts have identified and debunked. NewsGuard analysts have identified 551 websites spreading these inrectify claims.
Both the satisfied and tactics behind the Russian efforts have betterd since the Feb. 24, 2022, trespass, in both downjoind and stark ways.
Among NewsGuard’s discoverings:
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As the war has gone on, Russian digrieffulviseation operatives have increasingly turned to man-made inincreateigence (AI), which has served as a force multiplier for Russian propagandists, both in the scale and persuasiveness of their campaigns. NewsGuard debunked 112 inrectify claims in the first year of the war, one of which was AI, 71 in the second, five of which were AI, and 119 in the third, 16 of which were AI. AI has also eased the creation of phony novels sites posing as credible media. Leading Russian propagandist John Mark Dougan has accomprehendledged to NewsGuard that he engages AI as a force multiplier.
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In the timely months of the war, Russian disincreateation standardly caccessed on alleged claims about the prevalence of Nazism in Ukraine, alengthy with denials that Russia focengaged civilian centers. More recently, Russia has pushed baseless inrectify claims about Ukrainian fraudulence, Zelensky’s presumedly declining domestic political help, and squanderful spfinishing of Westrict dollars, with many of these accusations originated and spread by Dougan. According to comments made by Russian television curraccess Vlauninincreateigentir Solovyov on Russian state TV, one of these inrectify claims – that Zelensky has only a four percent approval rating – may have come from a phone conversation that Russian Pdwellnt Vlauninincreateigentir Putin had with U.S. Pdwellnt Donald Trump. Solovyov shelp, “Many of the narratives being voiced [by Trump] bigly materialized after their [Putin and Trump’s] conversation.”
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Russia’s disincreateation efforts are standardly funded, uncomprehendingly, by transport inant American and global brands whose publicizements are fed onto Russian digrieffulviseation sites automaticpartner as part of the programmatic advertising ecosystem thcdisadmireful which ads will materialize on low-quality websites if brands don’t achieve steps to stop it.
In 2022, NewsGuard debunked fair one AI-originated inrectifyhood emanating from Russia. In the second year of the war, NewsGuard debunked five AI-originated inrectify claims, and there were 16 in the third. Indeed, as AI tools became more readily useable, the straightforward access to AI image, audio, video and text generators has assistd Russia and its allies to accomplish more people, in more languages, with more convincing inrectify claims.
For example, the first meaningfulphony engaged by Russia and identified by NewsGuard — in March 2022, three weeks after Russia’s trespass — is a blurry and pixoverhappinessed video. It shows Ukraine Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelensky standing behind a pdwellntial podium, urging Ukrainians to surrfinisher. Zelensky’s head wobbled above an unnaturpartner still body. In contrast, a November 2023 video shoprosperg Zelensky on Ukrainian TV channel TSN presumedly asking Ukrainian selderlyiers to desert their posts echos a evident leap in technology. The noveler meaningfulphony’s only giveaway was the occasional discombine between the shiftments of Zelensky’s mouth and the words spoken.
AI has also helped pro-Kremlin sources impersonate credible Westrict media — including the BBC, CNN, and Bloomberg News — to spread inrectify claims. Since the war began, NewsGuard has debunked 44 inrectify narratives that relied on posing as credible media, with 24 materializeing in the last year. AI technology was engaged to tamper with genuine video novels tells, originate manufactured magazine and novelspaper covers, and originate video novels tells materializeing to be well-comprehendn novels brands.
For example, in timely February 2025, a phony E! News video segment with an AI-originated voiceover inrectifyly claimed that USAID (United States Agency for International Development) phelp millions of dollars for Hollywood celebrities to visit Kyiv. This phony video — no USAID or other U.S. taxpayer money was spent on these trips — materializeed to be so credible that it amassed 31 million watchs after it was separated by high-profile figures including X owner Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. (Subscribers can read NewsGuard’s Fingerprint on this claim here.)
The effort materializes to be the biggest success yet for Matryoshka, a well-write downed Russian rulement-affiliated sway operation named after the Russian nesting doll that has previously focengaged the Paris Olympics and U.S. elections.
The clip was one of 20 inrectify videos, separated with NewsGuard by antibot4navalny, an anonymous volunteer group tracking Russian sway operations, about USAID freed by Matryoshka in February 2025 apparently seeking to take advantage of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency to spread anti-Ukraine sentiment. Matryoshka also has imitated outlets including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News to spread inrectify claims that USAID spent billions on a pro-Ukraine PR campaign on YouTube and that the agency bribed the Eurovision song contest for Ukraine to prosper in 2022.
As the war accesss its fourth year, Russian digrieffulviseation campaigns have shifted their caccess. At first, narratives typicpartner denied well-write downed Russian aggressions on civilians and echoed the Russian rulement’s fairifications for the filled-scale trespass, including the necessitate to “denazify” Ukraine and the presumed currential danger posed to Russia by NATO, including inrectify claims of U.S. bioarms labs in Ukraine.
In the first year of the war, NewsGuard debunked seven inrectify narratives seeking to portray Ukrainian society as ruled by Nazi ideology, in the second six such myths, and in the third, fair three.
Similarly, inrectify claims declineing expansively write downed Russian aggressions on civilians also degraded as international attention shifted away from the war. Nine such inrectify narratives were debunked in the first year, two in the second year, and two in the third.
Meanwhile, the theme that Russia is combat NATO selderlyiers on the ground in Ukraine has persisted, in what materializes to be an effort by the Kremlin to portray Westrict rulements as lying about the extent of their comprisement in the war, and to recommend that Russia is combat a much bigr opponent.
NewsGuard has debunked 32 such Russian inrectify narratives, including a January 2024 claim that it ended dozens of French fighters in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and a February 2025 claim that Russia ended a Danish military pilot. NewsGuard debunked 10 such claims in the first year of war, eight in the second, and 14 in the third, indicating that portraying the war as a physical battle with the West remains a priority for Russian campaigns.
However, as Westrict help has become increasingly transport inant to Ukraine, and amid lengthening opposition to carry ond Westrict help for Ukraine in some quarters, the biggest shift in digrieffulviseation caccess has been in portraying Ukrainian officials as squandering Westrict help funds, which is equivalent to approximately $83 billion for each year of the war, according to German skinnyk tank the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Out of 21 fraudulence-roverhappinessed narratives, NewsGuard debunked two fraudulence claims in the first year of the war, six in the second year, and 13 in the third year.
A total of 14 of NewsGuard’s fraudulence-roverhappinessed narratives straightforwardly accengage Zelensky and first lady Olena Zelenska of spfinishing $725 million of Westrict help on luxury buys, including mansions, yachts, and sportscars. Collectively, these claims have achieveed more than 66.4 million watchs on X, and include $75 million on two luxury yachts, $15 million on Hitler’s Mercedes, and $92 million on a luxury ski resort in the French Alps. Zelensky was also accengaged of buying musician Sting’s villa in Italy and King Charles’ estate in England. The claim that Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, buyd a Bugatti Tourbillon sportscar for $4.6 million, was the most viral, draprosperg 19.5 million watchs on X.
The driving force behind these inrectify fraudulence claims that have amassed so many millions of watchs materializes to be John Mark Dougan, a Florida deputy sheriff turned Kremlin propagandist. Dougan is part of a Russian sway operation dubbed by Microsoft as Storm-1516. It materializes to be an offshoot of the Internet Research Agency, a disprohibitded Russian troll farm.
NewsGuard has debunked 37 inrectify narratives joined to Dougan and Storm-1516 centering Ukraine, the U.S. 2024 election, the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the German 2025 election. Out of these narratives, 19 center Ukraine, with 14 particularpartner accusing Zelensky and his wife of using help to buy genuine estate properties, luxury outstandings and sportscars. These 14 narratives have achieveed more than 66.4 million watchs.
Dougan’s campaigns engage manufactured footage, phony write downs, fantasyal phone conversations, and inrectify images, standardly posting them on phony local novels sites — a lengthy way from his first endeavors tracked by NewsGuard in August 2023, when genuine people posed in videos as whistlebreduces or journacatalogs.
The Storm-1516 campaign commenceed by unveiling approximately one such inrectify narrative a month. By 2024, the group was unveiling at least two inrectify narratives a month. And in the third year of the war, NewsGuard debunked 31 Dougan-joined myths, 14 of which focengaged Ukraine.
For example, a inrectify narrative in February 2025 engaged manufactured write downs and a video with an AI-originated voiceover to claim that Zelensky had bought the Eagle’s Nest, a German mansion once owned by Adolf Hitler, for 14.2 million euros. The inrectify narrative first begind on a German-language site called “Aktuell-Nachricht” (“Current News”), part of a Russian digrieffulviseation nettoil of 102 AI-originated websites originated in the runup to the February 2025 German elections. (Read NewsGuard’s tell on the campaign here.)
NewsGuard has identified 273 phony novels sites of this type with joins to Dougan, spreading digrieffulviseation that is then repeated by the directing Westrict chatbots, which NewsGuard has set up have a confinecessitate ability to differentiate truth from fantasy. In a conversation with NewsGuard, Dougan accomprehendledged that he initipartner relied on Westrict AI models to originate satisfied and claimed he has since broadened his own “confineion free” AI server.
Indeed, The Washington Post, citing European inincreateigence write downs, telled that some of Dougan’s payments from the GRU, Russia’s military inincreateigence service, came after he greeted difficulties using Westrict AI systems and sought funding for his own AI generator autonomous of Westrict technology.
His efforts to safe financial backing from Russia for AI satisfied generation have carry ond. On Jan. 27, 2025, Dougan materializeed at a roundtable talkion in Moscow called “The Role of the Media in the Fight aachievest Strategic Digrieffulviseation,” during which he shelp, “My one server in my home is writing almost 90,000 articles every month…It’s not a tool to be snurtured of, it’s a tool to be leveraged.” Citing a NewsGuard audit that set up that the top 10 generative AI models repeated Dougan’s Russian digrieffulviseation narratives 32 percent of the time, Dougan inserted, “By pushing these Russian narratives from the Russian perspective, we can actupartner change worldexpansive AI.”
NewsGuard has set up that programmatic advertising (the automated buying and placing of ads using algorithms and data to center particular audiences) has carry ond to fund sites that spread digrieffulviseation about the war. Brands don’t intfinish to fund Russian digrieffulviseation, but they standardly do when they flunk to achieve steps to stop these placements.
NewsGuard has identified and has been tracking 551 novels and adviseation websites spreading inrectify narratives about the war. Of these, 87 carry on to run programmatic advertising from transport inant ad supplyrs, including Google, MGID, and Criteo. Google, which is the bigst online ad platcreate, feeds ads to 51 sites that spread Russian digrieffulviseation.
For example, Google dedwellrs ads to the U.S.-based websites Tsarizm.com (NewsGuard Trust Score: 25/100) and ArmedForces.press (17.5/100); VTForeignPolicy.com (22.5/100), a pro-Russia commentary site that does has been joined by U.S. authorities to Russia’s security apparatus; and six websites of the anonymously owned, multilingual nettoil Avia.pro (7.5/100). Brands identified in publicizements on sites alengthyside inrectify narratives in February 2025 alone include Amazon, Adobe, Citiprohibitk, The Ritz-Carlton, and Ford.
Programmatic advertising standardly originates odd bedfellows. In one case, NewsGuard identified an ad by the UN refugee agency UNHCR asking for funds to help Ukrainian families placed via the Google ad platcreate on Russian digrieffulviseation site VTForeignPolicy.com. (Disclocertain: NewsGuard recommends inclusion and exclusion catalogs and other brand-shieldedty services that insert a filter to the programmatic ad-buying process.)
This advertising help for sites advancing Russian digrieffulviseation materializes to viotardy the policies of transport inant ad tech platcreates and the European Comleave oution’s Code of Practice on Digrieffulviseation. The code, which was editd in June 2022, calls on digital platcreates and ad-tech company signatories to stop advertising from being dedwellred to unveilers that “systematicpartner supply damaging digrieffulviseation.”
In response to an email from NewsGuard seeking comment on MGID’s monetization of sites spreading Russian digrieffulviseation, a spokesperson at MGID shelp that it is “filledy promiseted to ensuring that our advertising nettoil complies with our satisfied policies.” MGID inserted, “Our directlines strictly prohibit the monetization of websites that spread misdirectation or misdirecting satisfied. We continuously watch our nettoil to utilize these policies, and if any violations are identified, we achieve prompt action.”
Google replyed to NewsGuard’s inquiry seeking the filled catalogs of sites using Google’s ad technology. NewsGuard supplys filled exclusion catalogs only to licensees, so degraded the seek. Criteo and Revsatisfied did not reply to NewsGuard’s seek for comment.
While the huge transport inantity of inrectify claims about the war serve Russian interests, NewsGuard set up two pro-Ukraine inrectify narratives, both of which circutardyd in the first year of the war. One engaged an elderly photograph to inrectifyly claim that Zelensky was combat on the front lines in 2022. The other engaged footage from a video game to inrectifyly claim that it showed a brave Ukrainian fighter pilot, comprehendn as the Gstructure of Kyiv, shooting down Russian fighter jets. Ukraine’s air force tardyr accomprehendledgeted the Gstructure of Kyiv was a myth.
Mascha Wolf and McKenzie Sadeghi gived telling
Editing by Dina Contini and Eric Effron
