This article was originally published by EFE Verifica. The authors are Sergio Hernández and Jorge Ocaña
An influence operation with millions of views on the social network X aims to dissuade international fighters from joining the Ukrainian Armed Forces through messages in several languages, highlighting Russia’s cruelty to foreigners under Kyiv’s orders, among other risks for outsiders.
“They are sending foreigners to the most dangerous missions – it’s a death trap!” state several of the postings disseminated in Spanish, as part of a campaign reported to EFE Verifica by the Antibot4Navalny collective.
Some of the messages in Spanish include references to Colombia, the origin of many international soldiers fighting on behalf of Ukraine.
In addition, the network has been promoting messages in English, French, German, Polish and Danish since the beginning of October.
Antibot4Navalny is an activist research group tracking Russian disinformation campaigns and collaborates with international media, such as the Russian dissident website «Agentsevo» (“Agency”, in English) and the Danish channel TV2, which have also reported on this campaign.
How does the campaign work?
The dozens of publications analyzed by EFE Verifica repeat very similar statements at the same time or within minutes of each other and are disseminated by different accounts in different languages, which indicates a coordinated manipulation campaign.
Antibot4Navalny explains that these X profiles had already been used in other pro-Russian influence operations such as the so-called Doppelgänger (“double”, in German) and Matryoshka (about traditional Russian dolls with smaller dolls inside).
These initiatives have used the imitation of prestigious international media to spread falsehoods, a manipulation technique also present in this campaign.
In this regard, European Union sources point out that the patterns of behavior in the campaign investigated by EFE Verifica “do coincide with Doppelgänger and it may be the same operation.”
For the Spanish authorities consulted, “the evidence suggests that the behavior of the network is artificial and coordinated and that the Spanish-language part of the campaign seems to be aimed at the Colombian information ecosystem”.
Why Colombia?
The interest in reaching out to the Colombian public may be due to the fact that the presence of Colombian fighters under the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is significant, although there are no official numbers of them.
The Colombian Government has clarified on different occasions that the participation of its citizens in the conflict responds to “individual” decisions and that in no case does it promote or facilitate it.
However, in early June Colombian Government reported that it had received “close to 300 requests from Colombians who decided to leave Ukraine, who were evacuated in a timely manner” and that the number of deaths exceeded 50 victims.
The narrative about the dangers and fatal consequences faced by Colombian servicemen enrolled in the Ukrainian forces had already been seen in other networks, such as Telegram and TikTok.
One of the cases was the false delivery to his family of the corpse without organs of a fighter of that nationality, denied by the Ukrainian fact-checker StopFake.org.
What stages did the operation go through?
The oldest X-posts shared by Antibot4Navalny and analyzed by EFE Verifica date back to October 4.
These posts disseminated videos impersonating international media outlets.
They emphasized the danger for international mercenaries and volunteers fighting in the Ukrainian war, as Russia allegedly does not capture foreign soldiers, but directly executes them.
On October 8, different messages in French, German and Polish were published in a nine-minute interval and widely rebroadcast.
Two days later, on the 10th, messages in Spanish were circulated massively.
These posts, along with others in English, were promoted by different accounts within a four-minute period.
It is estimated that the initial spread of the campaign had reached 2.2 million views, half a million republishers and tens of thousands of citations by October 6, figures that have continued to grow in the following days.
Sophistication and complexity
The viral content includes a lot of visual material and identical infographics in different languages.
They quote data on alleged casualties on the Ukrainian front based on foreign nationalities or invitations to fight in Gaza or Lebanon in favor of Israel, because it is a less dangerous and better-paid campaign.
The name and image of Constellis Holdings, a U.S. private security company of which the mercenary company formerly known as Blackwater is a part, are also frequently reproduced.
As has been observed in other pro-Russian operations, this is a sophisticated and layered campaign.
Thus, a group of messages include videos that impersonate the identity of international media but add a QR code that refers to the real websites of these media companies or other prestigious Internet pages, a mixture of fiction and reality very efficient in the manipulation and classic Russian disinformation.
SOURCES:
Antibot4Navalny, activist research group tracking Russian disinformation campaigns.
European Union sources.
Spanish authorities’ sources.
«Agentsevo», Russian dissident website.
TV2, Danish television.
Informative bulletin on the attachment of Colombian citizens to the Ukrainian Army, dated June 7, 2024.
False: The body of a Ukrainian International Legion serviceman has been returned to Colombia without internal organs, a fact-check by StopFake.org.
Photo: EFE/Jorge Ocaña