2023年2月23日
“很明显，俄罗斯的任何导弹和火炮都无法打破我们的团结，使我们偏离我们的道路。同样明显的是，乌克兰的团结也绝不会被谎言或恐吓、虚假信息或阴谋论所打破。” 乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基2022年7月16日
2022年2月24日，乌克兰数百万人被80年来 未曾听闻的空袭警报 声惊醒，发现俄罗斯发动了一场全面入侵。在这个生死攸关的早晨之前，以及此后的一年里，俄罗斯的虚假信息和宣传生态系统编造了一系列虚假陈述，欺骗世界，掩盖克里姆林宫的新帝国主义意图，将其对乌克兰的选择性战争说成是对美国和北约所谓威胁的必要回应，试图为一场无理战争进行诡辩。克里姆林宫经常改变其虚假指控和主张，以转移人们的注意力，隐藏其在战场上的失败和面临的政治孤立。本报告将重点介绍俄罗斯虚假信息和宣传生态系统所采用的五种最主要的虚假言论：1）在2022年2月入侵之前，俄罗斯被北约 所包围 ；2）乌克兰在顿巴斯地区实施种族灭绝 ；3）乌克兰政府需要“去纳粹化和去军事化 ”；4）恢复传统价值观需要乌克兰“去撒旦化”；5）俄罗斯必须在乌克兰作战，以捍卫主权，对抗西方。
 
 
克里姆林宫最早捏造的战争理由之一是谎称北约和“西方”是侵略者, 威胁到俄罗斯安全。在2022年2月24日之前的几个月里，俄罗斯要求提供安全保障 ，包括限制各国加入北约，这一主张剥夺了乌克兰和其他国家选择自己外交政策的主权权利。当莫斯科在乌克兰边境集结了多达19万的军队 时，俄罗斯外交部散布虚假信息来掩盖克里姆林宫的意图，声称 俄罗斯军队未进入与乌克兰接壤的地区，同时指责美国和盟国煽动歇斯底里情绪 。普京总统编造谎言，指责北约导致了紧张局势升级，声称他没有计划入侵 乌克兰，同时指责美国利用乌克兰作为“围堵俄罗斯的工具 ”。为了转移责任，与俄罗斯联邦安全局（简称FSB）、军事情报总局（简称GRU）和外国情报局（简称SVR）有关的虚假信息渠道 大肆散布了这些虚假指控，称美国和北约对俄罗斯可能对乌克兰发动军事攻势的警告是“西方的歇斯底里 ”，目的是“将乌克兰拖入战争 ”。
在经历了一年的战争后，克里姆林宫将西方促成这场战争的虚假信息言论变为另一种说法，即美国和北约通过帮助乌克兰自卫，延长了战争或导致战争升级。在2022年11月的北约部长级会议之后，俄罗斯外长谢尔盖·拉夫罗夫声称 “全球大多数人”都清楚北约所构成的威胁，指责 北约联盟涉嫌推动乌克兰继续进行战争。执行FSB任务的《新闻战线 》和官媒俄罗斯卫星通讯社 等虚假信息机构引用所谓的“专家”言论称，通过承诺进一步援助乌克兰，北约正在“火上浇油”。SVR手下的战略文化基金会 和《东方评论 》警告说，乌克兰将试图“把北约卷入乌克兰边境内的战争”，并声称已经证明北约挑起了乌克兰冲突。
每当乌克兰的盟友宣布向其提供更多的军事援助时，克里姆林宫就会抛出这个虚假信息言论。在美国和德国同意向乌克兰提供现代化的M1艾布拉姆斯和豹式坦克之后，最新扭曲事实的说法是指责北约患有俄罗斯恐慌症。2023年1月，俄罗斯副外长柳德米拉·留哈科夫重复了这个说法 ，声称“北约疯狂执着地……偷偷推进到俄罗斯边境，同时利用俄罗斯恐慌症的恐怖故事使我们的邻国陷入恐慌”。
俄罗斯散布虚假信息，把北约说成是侵略者以混淆视听。是俄罗斯单方面发动了这场战争，而非乌克兰。俄罗斯才是侵略者，而不是北约。正如美国国务卿安东尼·布林肯在2022年9月22日在联合国安理会阐明 的：“如果俄罗斯停止战斗，战争就会结束。如果乌克兰停止战斗，乌克兰就会结束。”
 
 
在宣扬北约侵略的神话的同时，俄罗斯竭力捏造谎言，称乌克兰计划对乌克兰东部顿巴斯地区的俄罗斯人采取军事行动。2022年1月，俄罗斯联邦官员声称基辅将该国“一半的军事人员”派往俄罗斯占领区的顿巴斯地区，并且乌克兰加强了对所谓的顿涅茨克人民共和国和卢甘斯克人民共和国（DNR/LNR）发动攻击 。克里姆林宫声称 基辅即将进攻俄罗斯人控制的顿巴斯地区，而俄罗斯的代理当局声称 乌克兰打算在乌克兰防御部队和俄罗斯及其代理部队在乌克兰部署的部队之间的接触线上使用化学武器。在美国揭露 克里姆林宫计划在俄罗斯控制的顿巴斯进行假旗行动以制造进一步入侵借口之后，这种虚假指控传播的频率加大了。美国在2月3日对此虚假叙事进行了预先反驳，揭露 了克里姆林宫计划使用由俄罗斯情报机构制造的虚假视频，其中包含了编排好的爆炸场面、尸体、摧毁的建筑和军事装备的图片，以及假扮送葬者的演员。俄罗斯的虚假新闻和宣传生态系统还捏造谎言指控乌克兰实施恐怖主义，谎称乌克兰正在准备制造一场“化学灾难 ”，并臆测乌克兰将对扎波罗热核电站进行“毁灭性打击 ”。
普京总统将这一虚假信息言论变为战争借口。在2月15日的声明 中，他谎称“顿巴斯正在发生种族灭绝”。普京发表声明后，俄罗斯调查委员会就顿巴斯“大规模掩埋平民 ”的指控开展了 刑事立案调查。克里姆林宫的虚假信息和宣传机构继续宣传指责乌克兰“种族灭绝”的虚假言论，包括利用“顿巴斯的悲剧 ”网站散布虚假信息，而据《华盛顿邮报》 报道，该网站由俄罗斯军事情报机构运营。俄罗斯政府支持的施加影响的行为者利用一系列针对乌克兰、北约、欧盟和美国的网站 和博客 网络来扩散虚假信息，包括竭力传播这一虚假言论 。
普京2022年2月21日的电视讲话 加强了这个毫无根据的说法，将其作为发动战争的理由。俄罗斯宣称承认俄罗斯人控制的所谓顿涅茨克和卢甘斯克人民共和国为独立国家，俄罗斯下令 “维和”部队进入顿巴斯地区。为了在俄罗斯公众眼中妖魔化乌克兰，普京诬陷乌克兰自2014年以来实施“种族灭绝”并歧视顿巴斯地区讲俄语的人口。他因此捏造了一个必须 “保护我们自己人”的借口，牵强地用阻止根本不存在的“种族灭绝”的行动来掩饰他的侵略战争。
独立媒体、反虚假信息专家和多边国际人权组织都已经权威性地驳斥了这种说法。英国广播公司（BBC）的事实核查小组 指出，“没有种族灭绝的证据”。Polygraph.info 通过指出普京和其他俄罗斯联邦官员在2008年俄罗斯入侵格鲁吉亚期间“随便使用了种族灭绝一词”，驳斥这一说法。Polygraph.info进一步强调指出，“也许最接近[种族灭绝]的事件是2014年俄罗斯军队在斯洛维扬斯克的行动，因为夺回该市的乌克兰军队发现了一个埋有20具尸体的集体坟墓”。欧洲委员会 、联合国人权高专办 和由欧安组织 莫斯科机制设立的专家小组都独立认定，没有证据表明讲俄语的族群或俄罗斯人面临乌克兰政府的迫害。
当克里姆林宫的侵略战争遭遇战略挫败时，这种说法会死灰复燃。美国国务院全球接触中心（GEC）对“电报”（Telegram）上的社交媒体数据进行的话语分析显示，与“顿巴斯种族灭绝”相关的俄语对话在这些挫败时期激增。例如，在2022年6月，莫斯科遭遇了几次战略失败，克里姆林宫重新祭出这个虚假说法。当第一批高机动火箭炮系统 (HIMARS) 进入乌克兰 ，欧盟给予乌克兰候选国地位 时，以及当美国司法部宣布 要“帮助认定、逮捕和起诉涉嫌在乌克兰犯下战争罪和暴行的个人”时，俄罗斯驻华盛顿大使馆发起攻击，重复 克里姆林宫谎称的乌克兰对讲俄语的人口实施了所谓种族灭绝的虚假说法。

乌克兰9月开始的赫尔松反攻、哈尔科夫地区的迅速解放以及俄罗斯随后的动员公告，进一步促使克里姆林宫重新推出这一虚假言论。9月伊始，普京总统发表了充斥虚假信息的言论 ，谎称俄罗斯只是力图阻止基辅自2014年以来实施的“种族灭绝 ”。在9月30日的讲话 中，他宣布根据之前的虚假公投吞并顿涅茨克、卢甘斯克、赫尔松和扎波罗热地区。普京再次谎称“八年来，顿巴斯的人民遭受了种族灭绝、炮击和封锁，受到一项犯罪政策的迫害，这种政策旨在培养对俄罗斯以及俄罗斯的所有一切的仇恨”，并指责乌克兰“打算让其领土内讲俄语的人口遭受‘殖民主义’西方想要加诸于整个世界的相同命运”。
克里姆林宫谎称要保护乌克兰讲俄语的人口免遭根本不存在的“种族灭绝”。然而，八年来，俄罗斯的入侵部队及其代理人在乌克兰以俄语为主的地区造成死亡和破坏。数百万人逃离了被俄罗斯占领的乌克兰东部和南部地区。俄语区马里乌波尔 遭到的破坏是灾难性的。截至2022年3月，美国政府评估指出，俄罗斯军队成员通过执行过滤行动 和非法驱逐数千名乌克兰平民犯下了战争罪 。到2023年2月，根据从俄罗斯占领下解放出来的乌克兰讲俄语地区所获得的越来越多的证据，美国政府确定俄罗斯军队成员和俄罗斯官员在乌克兰犯下了反人类罪 ，包括通过殴打、电击和模拟处决对被拘留的平民实施酷刑；强奸；以及以行刑方式杀害乌克兰男女老少。
俄罗斯力图否认乌克兰的主权和独立，打压其历史和文化。在俄罗斯占领赫尔松期间，该市的傀儡当局清空了各图书馆内的乌克兰文学作品，掠夺了博物馆 文物。俄罗斯政府有计划地将至少6,000名乌克兰儿童非法驱逐 到俄罗斯占领的克里米亚和俄罗斯各地的一系列设施中，他们会被“再教育 ”或送往俄罗斯各地被收养 。这些孩子可能永远不会知道他们来自乌克兰 。克里姆林宫似乎决心否认乌克兰作为一个国家的存在，试图抹去其过去和未来 。
 
 
普京总统在2月24日凌晨发表的全面入侵讲话 中引用了克里姆林宫散布最久的虚假宣传说辞。他说：“这次行动的目的是保护那些长达八年遭受基辅政权屈辱和种族灭绝的人民。为此，我们将寻求乌克兰的去军事化和‘去纳粹化’”。他无端指控 乌克兰民主选举产生的政府，称他们是“一帮盘踞在基辅、将整个乌克兰人民作为人质的吸毒者和新纳粹分子”。
指控乌克兰的犹太裔总统泽连斯基是新纳粹主义者是荒谬绝伦的。但俄罗斯经过扭曲事实地精心策划而编造了这一指控。多年来，克里姆林宫一直在系统地将所谓的“恐俄症”和新纳粹主义等同起来。俄罗斯政府一再利用反犹太主义 ，散布有关莫斯科在乌克兰战争的虚假信息。克里姆林宫长期以来一直在利用二战历史来煽动国内民族主义情绪，同时推进其地缘政治野心。2023年1月，外交部长拉夫罗夫通过制造谎言，将西方帮助乌克兰抵御俄罗斯的行动与纳粹德国入侵苏联等同，扩展了“支持乌克兰=俄罗斯恐惧症=新纳粹主义”的公式 。拉夫罗夫引用希特勒对犹太人的大屠杀来解决所谓的犹太问题，指责西方策划阴谋以“最终解决俄罗斯问题 ”。
当俄罗斯在战争初期在战场上损失惨重时，这种虚假叙事就甚嚣尘上。普京5月9日在纪念盟军二战胜利的讲话中进一步扩散这一虚假言论，歪曲历史，为其对乌克兰的残酷战争诡辩。普京伪称其选择的战争是一种“神圣”和“爱国”行为，类似于苏联与纳粹德国的斗争——在俄罗斯被称为伟大的卫国战争——或者任何其他俄罗斯的“自卫”战争。普京重复其标准宣传煽动言论，指责西方“取消”传统价值观、篡改历史并助长恐俄症。克里姆林宫一再操纵和歪曲历史，以利用俄罗斯人民为战胜纳粹主义所做牺牲的自豪感。克里姆林宫也一直将乌克兰2013-2014年的“尊严革命”称为“法西斯政变 ”。这些对历史的歪曲的战略目的是，在俄罗斯国内激发爱国主义情绪并支持普京对乌克兰的战争。
虽然“去纳粹化 ”的说法是普京2022年2月24日入侵乌克兰讲话中提出的理由，但显然并未引起俄罗斯受众的长久共鸣。GEC对俄语在线对话的分析显示，在讲话结束后的2月下旬，涉及这种说法的在线对话量有所上升。到2022年3月，俄罗斯官员逐渐减少了使用这一说法 。整个3月，俄罗斯和乌克兰的代表团进行了几轮谈判 ，以建立人道主义走廊，帮助疏散平民并达成停火协议。减少使用“去纳粹化”说法可能因为在与乌克兰官员谈判的同时又试图对他们实施“去纳粹化”的认知矛盾，即便克里姆林宫也是难于兜售的。

然而，“去纳粹化”虚假言论的停息只是短暂的。在三月底和四月初，俄语“电报”发帖中此类言论激增到最高点，俄罗斯军队撤出布查 后，该地发现战争罪行和大规模集体坟墓的证据，面对这些被揭露出来的暴行引发的全球性强烈谴责，克里姆林宫的虚假信息和宣传生态系统采取了行动，它首先否认 其军队的参与，然后质疑报告的真实性，并重新扩散“去纳粹化”虚假言论。俄罗斯国防部制造谣言指控乌克兰使用俄罗斯自己所用的战术，谎称 “布查的照片和视频画面是另一个骗局，是基辅政权为西方媒体排演的，是挑衅”。俄罗斯外交部谎称 存在“伪造视频和其他资料的迹象”。俄罗斯驻世界各地的使馆和媒体进一步扩散这些很容易被证实 为阴谋论的虚假说法，包括虚假指控乌克兰使用了假尸体 ，这些尸体在摄像机停止运转后“复活”了。尽管《纽约时报》 、调查性新闻门户网站Bellingcat 和BBC 提供了大量证据证明俄罗斯的指控不实，并证明俄罗斯参与了这些暴行，但克里姆林宫的虚假信息机器仍在竭力 掩盖真相。俄罗斯的国家媒体机构俄新社（RIA Novosti）试图通过刊发一篇文章来转移注意力，这篇文章主张不仅在政治领域，而且必须也在文化和教育领域，通过“再教育、意识形态镇压和严格的审查制度”，实现“乌克兰大多数人的去纳粹化 ”。文章进一步主张通过“去乌克兰化”等方式抹去乌克兰作为一个国家的存在，并声称“一个被去纳粹化的国家不能成为主权国家”。
这个虚假言论的荒谬性并没有影响其在俄罗斯的虚假信息生态系统中的使用。与本报告中提到的克里姆林宫的其他四种虚假言论相比，按每日消息数计算，“去纳粹化”的使用频率最高，并且在反应和分享方面保持最高的参与度。每当莫斯科遭受战略挫败时，俄罗斯的虚假信息和宣传生态系统就会重新使用“去纳粹化”虚假言论，以转移责任。

普京总统在2023年1月27日 的国际大屠杀纪念日致辞中，再次无耻地大肆宣扬这个虚假言论。他说：“忘记历史教训会导致可怕的悲剧重演。这一点的证据就是乌克兰新纳粹组织针对平民所犯的罪行、以及采取的种族清洗和惩罚性行动。”在2月1日纪念二战斯大林格勒保卫战80周年的讲话中，他又编造了同样的故事，指控西方纳粹主义 ，他说：“不幸的是，现在纳粹主义的意识形态——这次以现代形态出现——再次对我们的国家安全构成直接威胁，我们不得不一次又一次地抵制西方集体侵略”。他的言论升级是在数天前德国和美国宣布将向乌克兰提供豹式坦克和M1艾布拉姆斯坦克 以协助其自卫来抵御俄罗斯残酷攻势之后出现的。
随着克里姆林宫的恶劣谎言不断增加，有关克里姆林宫在俄罗斯占领区对乌克兰平民犯下的罪行证据也在迅速积累。截至2023年1月下旬，乌克兰正就近67,000起涉嫌战争罪行和反人类罪行 进行调查，例如就地处决、强奸、酷刑、绑架和强制驱逐、狂轰滥炸以及针对平民和民用目标的攻击等。独立调查、媒体组织 、联合国独立调查委员会 、欧洲安全与合作组织 莫斯科机制下的专家调查团队等都将俄罗斯军队成员在乌克兰犯下战争罪和其他形式的暴行记录在案。这些反人类罪行 不是孤立发生的，而是克里姆林宫对乌克兰平民进行广泛和系统性攻击 的一部分。克里姆林宫的“去纳粹化”虚假信息言论以及采用将乌克兰人民非人化的做法 在这些丧尽天良的暴行中扮演了角色。俄罗斯占领下的布查的幸存者讲述了俄罗斯军队挨家挨户搜查住宅楼“追捕纳粹 ”的情景。当赫尔松市被乌克兰解放时，目击者回忆 起在俄罗斯占领下的生活：“如果俄罗斯人听到你讲乌克兰语，他们会认为你是纳粹分子。他们会检查社交网络、纹身，如果你身上有乌克兰标识，那你就会有麻烦。”
 
 
随着战争进入一周年，克里姆林宫力图为其无理行动进行诡辩，声称它正在对抗“西方撒旦主义”。虽然克里姆林宫宣传人员 自2022年4月起就将乌克兰人妖魔化 为撒旦门徒 ，但普京总统在2022年9月30日的讲话 中将所谓的西方价值观说成“彻头彻尾的撒旦教”，将这一指控推入官方话语中。
普京的克里姆林宫自封为“传统价值观”的守护者，声称它在对抗西方在乌克兰境内推进的邪恶外来价值观，试图把这些价值观强加于俄罗斯。这个说法在2022年4月发现了俄罗斯在布查犯下的暴行之后最先出现。作为“俄罗斯世界”（Russkiy mir）概念最为积极的推手之一，俄罗斯东正教会主教帕瓦尔·基里尔宣扬俄罗斯在乌克兰作战是为了“俄罗斯世界”的“真正独立”，而“真正独立”的“俄罗斯世界”是对抗道德沦丧、堕落的西方的最后堡垒。他说，从事这一斗争的一方拥有“上帝的真理 ”，正在抵御反对俄罗斯的“反基督者 ”和世界大国“妖魔鬼怪 ”。基里尔认为 乌克兰属于俄罗斯东正教会的“正统领土”，尽管乌克兰大多数正教信徒据信 属于独立的乌克兰东正教会 或者是“普通的”东正教信徒。基里尔把克里姆林宫的行动说成是一场“同室操戈”的圣战 ，俄罗斯必须打赢这场战争，反对那些试图把乌克兰人从“神圣统一的俄罗斯”的一部分变为“敌视俄罗斯”的国家的人。克里姆林宫的虚假信息和宣传生态系统通过其多个核心机构大肆扩散了帕瓦尔·基里尔的说法。国家宣传媒体 上的头面人物开始将俄罗斯说成是“善良力量的体现”，大谈“善恶力量的形而上学冲突”和“圣战”，称俄罗斯必须赢得这场战争。克里姆林宫的代理 虚假信息网站 ，例如，执行FSB任务的网站“新闻前线 ”和被美国指认的“沙皇之城 ”；沙皇之城”是被美国起诉 的俄罗斯寡头孔斯坦丁·马洛菲耶夫的恶意影响网络中的部分资产，他甚至将乌克兰人说成 是 “撒旦门徒”。因此，克里姆林宫将“圣战”加入了其诡辩理由之中，来对乌克兰人民发动残酷战争及实施暴行。
这些虚假言论在俄罗斯在夏季和秋季的战场上遭受挫败时重新浮出水面。2022年7月，俄罗斯政府提议扩大对“宣传”“非传统两性关系 ”所采取的禁止措施，普京在2022年12月将该提案签署为法律，而克里姆林宫显要人物 则将俄罗斯于2022年3月被排除在欧洲理事会之外说成为西方“试图将外国价值观和同性婚姻强加于”俄罗斯失败而引发的，尽管欧洲理事会的决定是基于俄罗斯对乌克兰的侵略。受到美国制裁的铁腕人物、掌管俄罗斯车臣共和国的军事指挥官拉姆赞·卡德罗夫多次宣称 ，俄罗斯正在乌克兰进行一场打击 “反基督者的军队”和“邪恶的LGBT价值观”的圣战 。在九月份的一次讲话 中，普京总统攻击西方及其“西方精英独裁统治”，指责其对“道德规范、宗教和家庭”的“激进否定”，称其为“彻头彻尾的撒旦教”。普京暗示西方国家对儿童进行“可怕的实验 ”。俄罗斯的法律 和克里姆林宫的言论将LGBTQI+人士与恋童癖联系在一起 进行诬陷。
普京并不是唯一散布极端言论的人。行为怪僻的演员、前牧师和狂热支持普京的伊万·奥赫洛比斯京按照克里姆林宫的信号行事，他在10月1日的红场集会上声嘶力竭叫嚣“圣战 ”，支持俄罗斯吞并乌克兰四个地区的企图。显然，奥赫洛比斯京的叫嚣 让部分观众震惊 ，他大声高呼 “哥伊达！”（Гойда），据称这是一种沙皇“恐怖的伊凡”号召其秘密警察 发出的古老俄罗斯战争吼叫。奥赫洛比斯京不断发出危言耸听的警告，“恐惧吧，旧世界！被剥夺了真正美丽的地方！真正的信仰！真正的智慧！由疯子、变态人、撒旦门徒掌管的地区！畏惧吧，我们来了！”10月底，更多的克里姆林宫官员加大扩散乌克兰“去撒旦化”的言论 ，认为西方通过推广撒旦邪教来“重新塑造”乌克兰人的思想，反对俄罗斯所体现的传统价值观。车臣铁腕人物卡德罗夫敦促 俄罗斯男子拿起武器，对乌克兰的撒旦门徒发起 “圣战 ”，呼吁在乌克兰“把城市从地球上抹掉 ”。可信的报道 表明，卡德罗夫手下的车臣士兵在乌克兰犯有暴行 。

随着乌克兰军队在哈尔科夫和赫尔松的攻势加强，“去撒旦化”的言论重新出现，其散布力度被加大。在俄罗斯在战场和全球公众舆论场上节节失利的情况下，克里姆林宫正在寻找一种反败为胜的言论，实验新的叙事，一个比一个更荒谬。克里姆林宫试图将乌克兰人妖魔化为“撒旦门徒”，仅仅是试图向俄罗斯人民解释其失败的拙劣的掩盖手法，并为未来更多的失利进行诡辩。表面上看似乎不相关的“去撒旦化”的言论将乌克兰人民采取非人化处理，试图为克里姆林宫的邪恶和残酷暴行进行诡辩。
 
 
2022年9月，当普京的假公投及军事动员计划与乌克兰的反攻撞车时，克里姆林宫将宣传言论从其选择的战争变成了一场 “捍卫俄罗斯主权  “的必要战争。仅仅一年前，克里姆林宫号称为了避免冲突提出了所谓的“安全要求”，但现在又绕了一圈，回到了最初的虚假信息言论，谎称西方才是真正的侵略者，想要通过在乌克兰的代理战争来摧毁俄罗斯。败在乌克兰手下——一个被普京斥为 “不是真正的国家”的联合国成员国——是不可想象的。
随着乌克兰军队解放哈尔科夫地区，克里姆林宫的主要宣传言论变成了俄罗斯为捍卫主权对抗西方而战。2022年9月21日，普京谎称有必要进行部分动员 和假公投 ，以“保护俄罗斯的主权、安全和领土完整”。国防部长绍伊古 和俄罗斯国家杜马主席沃洛廷 都附和这个说法，声称动员是必要的，因为俄罗斯不仅在与乌克兰作战，还在与北约和“西方集体”作战。当乌克兰从俄罗斯残酷的占领下解放了赫尔松市、成千上万的男性逃离俄罗斯以避免被动员征召入伍 时，普京再次将战争归咎于乌克兰和西方。在11月15日的讲话中，普京坚持 其谎言，称战争是西方破坏乌克兰稳定的行动 造成的，指责西方旨在削弱 俄罗斯，将其战争说成是一项防止破坏的防御性措施。
在2022年元旦前夕对全国发表的讲话 中，普京总统将俄罗斯的“特别军事行动”说成为一场保卫俄罗斯“主权”和“真正独立”的生存之战。他身边两侧站着一些据称是俄罗斯武装部队的人员，其中一些可能是演员 ，这与他惯常使用的克里姆林宫背景有所不同，他重复了有关西方虚假信息的言论。普京声称“西方精英”假意帮助解决“顿巴斯冲突”，“鼓励新纳粹分子”继续对“和平平民”实施“恐怖行动”。然后，他指责西方“在谎称维护和平的同时准备进行侵略”，“阴险狡诈地利用乌克兰来削弱和分裂俄罗斯”。他进一步声称西方发动了“全面制裁战争”，但俄罗斯获得了胜利。最后，他声称这场“斗争”是其他国家在“追求公正多极世界秩序”过程中的一个实例。除这些老生常谈之外，普京还呼吁爱国主义，声称保卫祖国是一项“神圣的责任”，“道义和历史真相”在俄罗斯这一边。
2023年1月18日 ，俄罗斯外交部长谢尔盖·拉夫罗夫在评估俄罗斯2022年外交成果时，进一步强化了 这一宣传言论。他说：“就像拿破仑动员了几乎所有欧洲国家来反对俄罗斯帝国、希特勒占领欧洲大多数国家后将它们引向苏联一样，美国建立了一个由北约和欧盟的几乎所有欧洲成员国组成的联盟，利用乌克兰发动代理战争，以实现最终解决‘俄罗斯问题’的古老目标，犹如希特勒图谋对‘犹太问题’进行最终解决一样。”2023年1月下旬，在上述新闻发布会上回答媒体提问时，拉夫罗夫再次宣扬了 这一虚假言论 ，他说：“我们早就已经清楚地认识到，作为广袤欧亚大陆区域的基本支柱之一，俄罗斯存在的本身对我们的对手来说是一个问题。”
在这种宣传言论的另一个特别离谱的说法中，克里姆林宫把在乌克兰减少生物威胁的国际伙伴关系和合作 说成是对俄罗斯主权和俄罗斯民族的威胁。克里姆林宫的造谣机器对多边组织 的真实情况进行了全面攻击，试图将乌克兰的和平研究 说成生物武器实验，训练候鸟 和患病蝙蝠 来威胁俄罗斯。2022年7月，俄罗斯国家 媒体 和代理媒体 将“美国营运的生物实验室”虚假宣传搬进了科幻小说领域，它们大肆报道俄罗斯官员指控 乌克兰士兵被用于实验 ，“消除了他们人类意识的最后痕迹，并将其变成了最残酷、最致命的魔鬼”和 “美国控制的残忍机器”。在刊发这些言论之前，俄罗斯国防部于2022年3月指控美国正在乌克兰开发针对俄罗斯人等斯拉夫人的“种族生物武器 ”。这些荒诞不经的持续指控力图煽起阴谋论，把俄罗斯对乌克兰的战争说成是对抗西方、“为主权而战”的生存之战，同时转移人们对俄罗斯部队糟糕战绩的注意力。
这种虚假信息言论另一个荒谬的方面是声称乌克兰人被西方洗了脑。在2023年1月30日接受采访 时，俄罗斯副外长里亚布科夫指控北约故意用“恐俄症的可怕故事”对俄罗斯邻国进行“僵尸化”洗脑，并实施 “旨在摧毁我们的历史和文化传承”的行动。克里姆林宫的宣传人员玛格丽塔·西莫尼扬 大肆扩散 这种说法，声称虽然俄罗斯人很难接受与“兄弟般的”乌克兰人作战，但“他们[西方]让与乌克兰人甚或为乌克兰人而战不再那么痛苦。现在很明显，我们可能无法避免与西方作战”。
在竭力为俄罗斯2022年入侵辩解时，即便是莫斯科单方退出谈判 ，克里姆林宫仍谎称西方国家拒绝谈判。在为其继续进行战争诡辩时，克里姆林宫谎称西方谋图瓦解俄罗斯并摧毁俄罗斯文化。为了使俄罗斯人民接受莫斯科攻击其邻国（许多俄罗斯人认为这些邻国是“兄弟”民族）正当合理的谎言，克里姆林宫声称，西方已经将乌克兰人僵尸化。在这个歪曲现实的言论中，俄罗斯可辩称它不是在与“兄弟般的”乌克兰人作战，而是与“被僵尸化的”、“新纳粹”、“撒旦门徒”的乌克兰人作战。为了使人们接受俄罗斯战争失利，克里姆林宫假装它并未与乌克兰开战，而是在乌克兰进行高尚的斗争，以“捍卫其主权”，抵御西方入侵。
 
 
乌克兰人民的勇气和坚韧，他们对捍卫国家独立和民主的绝对承诺，美国及其盟友和合作伙伴在支持乌克兰进行自卫方面的一致努力，以及全球对俄罗斯侵略的谴责，迫使克里姆林宫不断从一个虚假言论跳到另一个，试图向俄罗斯人民和国际社会辩解其战争的理由。
俄罗斯的谎言无法改变事实真相。克里姆林宫选择发动了这场战争，克里姆林宫可以选择结束这场战争。
乌克兰是一个独立的国家，也是联合国的成员国。它拥有国家主权权利来维护自己的领土和选择自己的外交政策。俄罗斯对乌克兰的战争始于2014年，当时俄罗斯军队夺取了乌克兰的克里米亚半岛，并主导、资助和训练代理人在乌克兰东部地区的顿巴斯地区挑起及不断制造冲突。民主乌克兰并没有被纳粹或撒旦门徒所控制——克里姆林宫编造这些神话是为了煽动自己国内民众的狂热情绪。乌克兰各民族公民通过民主选举，选出了一位犹太裔总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基，国际社会已经承认其政府的合法性。在俄罗斯发动全面入侵之前的几个月，美国和其他国家与乌克兰共同进行了善意的外交努力，探讨解决俄罗斯声称的安全问题的方式，同时不损害乌克兰的主权和领土完整。然而，俄罗斯却选择了战争。俄罗斯于2022年2月发动了全面入侵，公然违反了尊重国家主权和领土完整性、不使用武力的联合国宪章原则。俄罗斯残暴地攻占了卢甘斯克、顿涅茨克、扎波罗热和赫尔松省的部分地区，然后举行了假公投，并宣布吞并这些地区，正如它在克里米亚所做的一样，企图实现克里姆林宫的掠夺性领土野心。
俄罗斯所有的歪曲事实的言论都服务于一个目标：掩盖俄罗斯把拥有主权的、独立的乌克兰国家从地图上抹去并征服其人民 的赤裸裸的行动。隐藏在俄罗斯谎言中的明显迹象暴露了克里姆林宫真正的新帝国主义野心 。普京2021年7月宣布俄罗斯人和乌克兰人“同种同族 ”的文件和他2022年2月的叫嚣战争的讲话 充斥着历史修正主义和否认乌克兰的国家地位 和主权机构的虚假信息，让世界认清了他的目的。克里姆林宫的宣传部门的代表人物经常重复相同的言论，比如像玛格丽塔·西莫尼扬 这样的人，最近再次重复了这些虚假的说法，声称乌克兰是由俄罗斯建立的，其强大归功于俄罗斯的恩赐 。普京实现彼得一世帝国扩张野心 和“夺回失地 ”的企图，以及克里姆林宫官员毫不掩饰的评论 暴露了他们的真实意图。克里姆林宫官员 表示，莫斯科还可能会针对在除乌克兰以外、它视为是其历史领土的其他地方 的所谓“恐俄症”和不存在的“针对俄罗斯人的种族灭绝”进行报复。克里姆林宫的宣传人员已经开始猜测俄罗斯可能要对哈萨克斯坦 、摩尔多瓦 和任何其他据称有“恐俄症”滋生的国家“去纳粹化”。普京在2023年1月 的一次讲话中十分明确地表明了他未来的计划，他说：“正如我多次说过的那样，我们的目标主要是保护人民，保护俄罗斯本身免受他们竭力在有史以来就是我们领土的相邻地区制造的威胁。我们不能让这种事情发生”。
无论克里姆林宫在满盘皆输的虚假信息轮盘赌博游戏中在任何特定时间使用哪种宣传言论，乌克兰仍然是一个被国际社会承认的主权独立国家。其勇敢的人民将继续坚定地捍卫其国家和民主，而美国将与乌克兰站在一起 ，无论需要多长时间。

REPORT
GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT CENTER
FEBRUARY 23, 2023
 
This bulletin is also available in Chinese, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian
It is obvious that any missiles and artillery of Russia will not succeed in breaking our unity and knocking us off our path. And it should be equally obvious that Ukrainian unity cannot be broken by lies or intimidation, fake information or conspiracy theories. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY JULY 16, 2022
On February 24, 2022, millions in Ukraine awoke to a chorus of air raid sirens  that had not been heard for 80 years . Russia had launched a full-scale invasion. Leading up to that fateful morning, and in the year since, Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem deployed an array of false narratives to deceive the world about the Kremlin’s neo-imperial intentions, portray its war of choice against Ukraine to the people of Russia as a necessary response to purported threats from the United States and NATO, and attempt to justify an unjustifiable war. The Kremlin routinely changed its false claims to distract from its battlefield failures and political isolation. This report will highlight five of the most salient false narratives deployed by Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem: 1) Russia was encircled  by NATO  before the February 2022 invasion; 2) Ukraine is committing genocide  in the Donbas; 3) the Ukrainian government needs “denazification and demilitarization ;” 4) restoration of traditional values requires “desatanization” of Ukraine; and 5) Russia must fight in Ukraine to defend its sovereignty against the West.
 
 
One of the earliest Kremlin-fabricated justifications for war is the false claim that NATO and “the West” are aggressors threatening Russia’s security. For months leading up to February 24, 2022, Russia demanded security guarantees  including restrictions on countries’ joining NATO, a position which rejected Ukraine’s and other countries’ sovereign right to choose their own foreign policy. As Moscow amassed up to 190,000 troops  on Ukraine’s border, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spread disinformation to cloud the Kremlin’s intentions, claiming  Russia’s troops were not on the border with Ukraine while accusing the United States and allies of whipping up hysteria . President Putin falsely blamed NATO for the escalating tensions, claimed he was not planning an invasion , and accused the United States of using Ukraine as a “tool to contain Russia .” Aiming to deflect the blame, disinformation outlets  linked to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Military Intelligence Directorate (GRU), and Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) amplified the false claims, calling the warnings by the United States and NATO about the potential for a military offensive by Russia against Ukraine “western hysteria ” to “drag Ukraine into war .”
Over the year of war, the Kremlin shifted this disinformation narrative of Western efforts pushing for the war to one arguing that by helping Ukraine to defend itself, the United States and NATO are prolonging or escalating the war. Following a November 2022 NATO Ministerial Meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed  the “global majority” understands the threats posed by NATO, blaming  the Alliance for allegedly pushing Ukraine to continue the war. Disinformation outlets, such as the FSB-tasked News Front  and state-run Sputnik , both cited alleged “experts” who argued that by pledging further aid to Ukraine, NATO was “pouring oil on fire.” The SVR-directed Strategic Culture Foundation  and Oriental Review  warned that Ukraine will try to “drag NATO into a war within Ukraine’s borders” and claimed to have proved that NATO provoked the conflict in Ukraine.
The Kremlin resurrects this disinformation narrative whenever Ukraine’s partners announce more military assistance to Ukraine. The latest twist accuses NATO of Russophobia after the United States and Germany agreed to provide modern M1 Abrams and Leopard tanks to Ukraine. Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov parroted this narrative  in January 2023 claiming, “NATO with maniacal persistence … consistently crawled up to the Russian borders, at the same time zombifying our neighboring countries with Russophobic horror stories.”
Russia spreads disinformation portraying NATO as the aggressor to obfuscate the facts. Russia alone started this war, not Ukraine. Russia is the aggressor, not NATO. As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated  to the United Nations Security Council on September 22, 2022, “If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends .”
 
 
While Russia promoted the myth of NATO aggression, it simultaneously attempted to falsely portray Ukraine as planning military action against ethnic Russians in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. In January 2022, Russian Federation officials alleged Kyiv sent “half of its military personnel” to the Russian-occupied areas of Donbas and that Ukraine increased attacks  on the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DNR/LNR). The Kremlin claimed  Kyiv’s incursion into Russian-controlled Donbas was imminent, while Russia’s proxy authorities alleged  Ukraine intended to use chemical weapons along the line of contact between Ukraine’s defending forces and the forces deployed in Ukraine by Russia and its proxies. The frequency of this false claim intensified following the U.S. revelation  of the Kremlin’s plans to conduct a false flag operation in Russian-controlled Donbas to create a pretext for a further invasion. The United States pre-bunked this narrative on February 3 by exposing  the Kremlin’s plot to use a video fabricated by Russian intelligence replete with staged graphic scenes of explosions, corpses, destroyed buildings and military equipment, and actors pretending to be mourners. Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem also falsely accused Ukraine of terrorism, alleging Ukraine was preparing a “chemical disaster ” and speculating Ukraine would conduct a “crushing strike ” on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
President Putin transformed this disinformation narrative into a pretext for war. In a February 15 statement , he falsely claimed “genocide is taking place in Donbas.” Following Putin’s statement, Russia’s Investigative Committee opened  a criminal case related to the allegations of “mass burials of civilians ” in Donbas. The Kremlin’s disinformation and propaganda apparatus continued promoting false narratives accusing Ukraine of “genocide,” including through the “Tragedy of Donbas ” website, which according to the Washington Post , is run by Russia’s military intelligence service. Russian government-backed influence actors have leveraged a network of websites  and blogs  targeting Ukraine, NATO, the European Union, and the United States to amplify disinformation including efforts to spread this narrative .
Putin’s February 21, 2022 televised address  cemented this unfounded narrative as a justification for war. Purporting to recognize the Russian-controlled so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics as independent states, Russia ordered  “peacekeeping” troops to deploy to Donbas. To demonize Ukraine in the eyes of the Russian public, Putin falsely accused Ukraine of committing “genocide” and discriminating against the Russian-speaking population in Donbas since 2014. He thus created a false pretext for the alleged necessity to “protect our own,” thinly masking his aggression as an operation to stop a non-existent “genocide.”
Independent media, counter-disinformation experts, and multilateral international human rights organizations have authoritatively debunked this narrative. The BBC’s fact-checking team  pointed out “there is no evidence of genocide.” Polygraph.info  discredited this claim by pointing out how Putin and other Russian Federation officials “had loosely used the term genocide” against Georgia during Russia’s 2008 invasion of the country. Polygraph.info further highlighted that “perhaps the closest incident [to genocide] was in 2014 by Russia’s forces in Slovyansk, where Ukraine’s forces who recaptured the city found a mass grave containing 20 bodies.” The Council of Europe , the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , and the Expert Mission established under the OSCE  Moscow Mechanism independently found there was no evidence that either ethnic Russians or Russian speakers are facing persecution at the hands of the Ukrainian authorities.
This narrative resurges whenever the Kremlin’s war of aggression runs into strategic setbacks. Narrative analysis of social media data on Telegram, conducted by the GEC, shows spikes in Russian-language conversation related to the “genocide in Donbas” around such setbacks. For example, the Kremlin dusted off this disinformation narrative in June 2022, a month marked by several strategic failures for Moscow. As the first High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) arrived in Ukraine  and the EU granted Ukraine candidate status , the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced  accountability efforts to “help identify, apprehend, and prosecute individuals involved in war crimes and atrocities” in Ukraine. The Russian Embassy in Washington fired back, repeating false Kremlin claims  of Ukrainians allegedly carrying out a genocide against the Russian-speaking population.

The September start of Ukraine’s Kherson counter-offensive, the swift liberation of the Kharkiv region, and Russia’s subsequent mobilization announcements provided additional impetus for the Kremlin to resume this narrative. President Putin kicked off September with the disinformation-ridden remarks  asserting that Russia was only trying to stop the “genocide ” allegedly perpetrated by Kyiv since 2014. In his September 30 speech  announcing the purported annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions after the earlier sham referenda, Putin again falsely claimed “for eight long years, people in Donbas were subjected to genocide, shelling and blockades, subjected to a criminal policy to cultivate hatred for Russia and everything Russian” and accused Ukraine of “intending for Russian speakers within its borders the same fate as the ‘colonial’ West wants to inflict upon the entire world.”
The Kremlin purports to defend the Russian-speaking people of Ukraine against nonexistent “genocide.” Yet, for eight years Russia’s invading forces and its proxies have caused death and destruction in predominantly Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine. Millions have fled Russia’s occupation of areas in Ukraine’s east and south. The destruction in Russian-speaking Mariupol  is catastrophic. By March 2022, the U.S. government assessed that members of Russia’s forces have committed war crimes  by carrying out filtration operations  and unlawfully deporting thousands of Ukraine’s civilians. By February 2023, leaning on the mounting evidence from Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine that have been liberated from Russia’s occupation, the U.S. government determined that members of Russia’s forces and Russian officials committed crimes against humanity  in Ukraine, including torture of civilians in detention through beatings, electrocution, and mock executions; rape; and execution-style killings of Ukrainian men, women, and children.
Russia seeks to deny Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence and to suppress its history and culture. While Russia occupied Kherson, the city’s puppet authorities emptied libraries of Ukrainian literature and looted museums  of cultural artifacts . Russia’s government has systematically and unlawfully deported at least 6,000 children  from Ukraine to a network of facilities in Russia-occupied Crimea and across Russia, where they are “re-educated ” or put up for adoption  across Russia. These children may never know they are from Ukraine . The Kremlin appears determined to deny Ukraine’s existence as a state, by attempting to erase its past — and its future .
 
 
President Putin invoked the Kremlin’s most persistent disinformation narrative in his pre-dawn February 24 speech launching the full-scale invasion . He said “the purpose of this operation is to protect people who for eight years now have been facing humiliation and genocide perpetrated by the Kyiv regime. To this end, we will seek to demilitarize and ‘denazify’ Ukraine.” He leveled nonsensical accusations  against the democratically elected government of Ukraine, calling them “a gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who settled in Kyiv and took the entire Ukrainian people hostage.”
Accusing Ukraine’s Jewish President Zelenskyy of neo-Nazism is absurd. But Russia’s claims are as calculated as they are twisted. For years, the Kremlin has methodically equated so-called “Russophobia” and neo-Nazism. The Russian government has repeatedly resorted to antisemitism  to spread disinformation about Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The Kremlin has long been in the business of instrumentalizing the history of the Second World War to marshal nationalist sentiment at home while furthering its geopolitical ambitions. In January 2023, Foreign Minister Lavrov extended the “Support for Ukraine = Russophobia = neo-Nazism” formula  by falsely equating the West’s helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia to Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. Lavrov invoked Hitler’s genocide of the Jews to solve the so-called Jewish question, accusing the West of conspiring “to finally solve the Russian question .”
This narrative emerged prominently as Russia took heavy losses on the battlefield early in the war. Putin’s May 9 speech marking the Allied victory in World War II amplified this narrative, distorting history  to justify his brutal war against Ukraine. Putin falsely claimed his war of choice was a “sacred” and “patriotic” act akin to the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany —referred to in Russia as The Great Patriotic War — or to any war in which Russia “defended itself.” Repeating his standard propaganda talking points, Putin accused the West of “canceling” traditional values, falsifying history, and promoting Russophobia. The Kremlin repeatedly manipulates and distorts history to exploit the people of Russia’s sense of pride for their sacrifices in the victory over Nazism. The Kremlin also consistently casts Ukraine’s 2013-2014 Revolution of Dignity as a “fascist coup .” These distortions of history serve a strategic purpose: to evoke patriotism and rally support within Russia for Putin’s war against Ukraine.
While the “denazification ” narrative was the justification of choice for Putin’s February 24, 2022 speech, apparently it did not resonate with audiences in Russia for long. GEC analysis of Russian-language online conversation shows an uptick in volume of online conversation involving this narrative in late February immediately following the speech. By March 2022, Russian officials gradually decreased  the use of this version of the narrative. Throughout March, Russia’s and Ukraine’s delegations engaged in several rounds of negotiations  to establish humanitarian corridors to help evacuate civilians and reach a cease-fire. The decrease in invocation of the “denazification” narrative possibly signifies that negotiating with Ukrainian officials while trying to “denazify” them was too much cognitive dissonance even for the Kremlin to sell.

Yet the reprieve from “denazification” was short-lived. The narrative surged to its highest point among Russian-language posts on Telegram in late March and early April. As evidence of war crimes and mass graves began to emerge in Bucha  following the withdrawal of Russia’s troops, the Kremlin’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem responded to the global outcry to the grim revelations by first denying  its forces’ involvement, then challenging the veracity of the reports and renewing the “denazification” narrative. Falsely accusing Ukraine of employing tactics that Russia itself uses, Russia’s Ministry of Defense falsely claimed  that “the photos and video footage from Bucha are another hoax, a staged production and provocation by the Kyiv regime for the Western media.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry falsely alleged  that there were “signs of video fakes and other forgeries.” Russia’s embassies and media outlets around the world amplified the easily debunked  conspiracies, including false claims Ukraine used fake corpses  which “reanimated” after the cameras stopped rolling. Despite ample evidence from the New York Times , Bellingcat , and the BBC  disproving Russia’s claims and demonstrating its involvement, the Kremlin’s disinformation machine continued to try  to hide the truth. Russia’s state media outlet RIA Novosti attempted to deflect attention by publishing an article that argued for the “denazification of the majority of Ukraine’s population, ” through “re-education, ideological repression… and strict censorship: not only in the political sphere, but necessarily also in the sphere of culture and education.” The article further advocated for the erasure of Ukraine as a state, including through “de-Ukrainization,” claiming “a denazified country cannot be sovereign.”
The farcical nature of this narrative does not limit its utility to Russia’s disinformation ecosystem. When compared with the Kremlin’s other four false narratives addressed in this report, “denazification” was most frequently used by daily volume of posts and continues to maintain the highest level of engagement as measured by reactions and shares. Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem returns to the “denazification” narrative to deflect responsibility whenever Moscow suffers strategic setbacks.President Putin shamelessly wielded this narrative again in his January 27, 2023  message on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. He said “forgetting the lessons of history leads to the repetition of terrible tragedies. Evidence of this is the crimes against civilians, ethnic cleansing, and punitive actions organized by neo-Nazis in Ukraine.” He followed the same storyline in his February 1 address marking the 80th anniversary of the battle for Stalingrad in World War II, when he accused the West of Nazism , saying “Now we are seeing that unfortunately, the ideology of Nazism — this time in its modern guise — is again creating direct threats to our national security, and we are, time and again, forced to resist the aggression of the collective West.” His rhetorical escalations followed an announcement a few days earlier that Germany and the United States will deliver Leopard and M1 Abrams tanks  to Ukraine to aid in its self-defense against Russia’s brutal onslaught.
Evidence of the Kremlin’s crimes against Ukrainian civilians in Russian-occupied areas is mounting as quickly as the Kremlin’s egregious lies. As of late January 2023, Ukraine is investigating nearly 67,000 suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity  — such as summary executions, rape, torture, kidnappings and forced deportations, indiscriminate bombings as well as targeted attacks on civilians and civilian objects. Independent inquiries, media organizations , the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine , and Experts Missions under the Moscow Mechanism of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe  have all documented a pattern of members of Russia’s forces committing war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. These crimes against humanity  did not occur in a vacuum. They are part of the Kremlin’s widespread and systematic attack  against Ukraine’s civilian population. The Kremlin’s “denazification” disinformation narrative and methodical rhetorical dehumanization  of the people of Ukraine have played a role in these unconscionable abuses. Survivors of Russia’s occupation of Bucha described Russia’s forces going door to door searching residential buildings as they “hunted for Nazis .” When Kherson city was liberated by Ukraine, witnesses recalled  life under Russian occupation, “If the Russians hear you speak Ukrainian, they think you are a Nazi. They check social networks, tattoos, if you have Ukrainian symbols on your body, you are in trouble.”
 
 
As the war reaches the one-year mark, the Kremlin’s attempts to justify its unjustifiable actions have extended to claims that it is fighting “Western Satanism.” Although Kremlin propagandists  demonized  Ukrainians as Satanists  at least since April 2022, President Putin’s characterization of so-called Western values as “outright Satanism” in his September 30, 2022 speech  propelled this accusation into an official narrative.
Putin’s Kremlin has appointed itself the guardian of “traditional values” against the depraved alien values it claims the West advances in Ukraine and supposedly tries to impose upon Russia. This narrative first emerged in April 2022, following the discovery of Russia’s atrocities in Bucha. As one of the most vocal proponents of the “Russkiy mir” (Russian world) concept, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill has preached that Russia is fighting in Ukraine for the “true independence” of the “Russian world” which he sees as the last bastion against the immoral, depraved West. This effort, he says, has “God’s truth ” on its side, and is holding back the “Antichrist ” against the “bogeyman” world power  which opposes Russia. Kirill believes  Ukraine belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church’s “canonical territory” despite the majority of Ukraine’s Orthodox believers reporting  to belong to the independent autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine  or being “simply Orthodox.” Kirill portrays the Kremlin’s actions as a “fratricidal” holy war  that Russia must fight against those who want to turn Ukrainians from being “part of the holy united Rus” into a state “hostile to Russia.” The Kremlin’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem has amplified Patriarch Kirill’s message through its many pillars. Public figures on state propaganda  outlets began portraying Russia as “the embodiment of forces of good,” speaking of a “metaphysical clash between forces of good and evil” and a “holy war” that Russia must win. Kremlin proxy  disinformation sites such as FSB-tasked News Front  and the U.S.-designated Tsargrad , an asset in the malign influence network of the U.S.-indicted  Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, went even further by describing  Ukrainians as “Satanists.” Thus, the Kremlin added “holy crusade” to its list of false justifications for waging a brutal war and committing atrocities against the people of Ukraine.
The narrative resurfaced as Russia faced grinding setbacks on the battlefield through the summer and autumn. In July 2022, as the Russian government proposed expanding prohibitions on “propaganda” about “nontraditional sexual relations ” — a proposal Putin signed into law in December 2022 — prominent Kremlin figures  portrayed Russia’s March 2022 exclusion  from the Council of Europe as the failure of “efforts to impose foreign values and same-sex marriage” on Russia, even though the Council of Europe’s decision was based on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Military commanders from Russia’s Republic of Chechnya, run by U.S.-sanctioned strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, repeatedly proclaimed  that Russia is fighting a holy war in Ukraine  against the “army of the Antichrist” and “Satanic LGBT values.” In a September speech , President Putin attacked the West and its “dictatorship of Western elites” for “radical denial of moral norms, religion, and family,” labeling it “outright Satanism.” Putin implied Western countries conduct “monstrous experiments ” on children. Russia’s laws  and the Kremlin’s rhetoric falsely associate  LGBTQI+ persons with pedophilia.
Putin is not alone in his extreme remarks. Taking signals from the Kremlin, eccentric actor, former priest, and ardent Putin supporter, Ivan Okhlobystin screamed  for “Holy War” during an October 1 rally at Red Square in support for Russia’s attempted annexation of four regions of Ukraine. Apparently stunning  some in the audience, Okhlobystin shouted  “Goyda!” (Гойда), an old Russian war cry purportedly used by Ivan the Terrible to call to his secret police . Okhlobystin continued his dramatic warning, “Fear, old world! Deprived of true beauty! True faith! True wisdom! Operated by madmen, perverts, Satanists! Be afraid, we are coming!” In late October, more Kremlin officials amplified  statements  calling for the “desatanization” of Ukraine, arguing the West was working through the promotion of Satanic cults to “reformat” Ukrainians’ minds against the traditional values embodied by Russia. Chechnya strongman Kadyrov urged  Russia’s men to take up arms and wage “jihad ” against Ukrainian satanists, calling to “wipe cities off the face of the Earth ” in Ukraine. Credible reports  indicate that Kadyrov’s Chechen fighters in Ukraine have committed atrocities .

As the momentum of Ukraine’s forces picked up with its Kharkiv and Kherson offensives, the “desatanization” narrative reemerged and intensified. As Russia continues to incur losses on the battlefield and in global public opinion, the Kremlin searches for a winning narrative, trying new ones, each one more absurd than the one before it. The Kremlin’s efforts to demonize Ukrainians as “Satanists” is simply a thinly veiled attempt to explain its losses to the people of Russia and justify more in advance. Seemingly irrelevant on the surface, the “desatanization” narrative dehumanizes the people of Ukraine and attempts to justify depravity and cruel atrocities against them.
 
 
As Putin’s plans for sham referenda and a military mobilization collided with Ukraine’s counter-offensive in September 2022, the Kremlin rhetorically turned its war of choice into a war of necessity “to defend Russia’s sovereignty .” Only a year since the Kremlin presented its “security demands” to allegedly avoid conflict, it has come full circle, returning to the original disinformation narrative that the West is the real aggressor and wants to destroy Russia through a proxy war in Ukraine. Losing ground to Ukraine itself — a UN member state Putin dismissed  as “not a real country” — is inconceivable.
As Ukraine’s forces liberated the Kharkiv region, the Kremlin’s central narrative became Russia fighting to defend its sovereignty against the West. On September 21, 2022 Putin falsely claimed the partial mobilization  and the sham referenda  were necessary to “protect the sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Russia.” Minister of Defense Shoigu  and Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Volodin  echoed the narrative that the mobilization was necessary because Russia is fighting Ukraine as well as NATO and the “collective West.” As Ukraine liberated the city of Kherson from Russia’s brutal occupation and as thousands of men fled Russia to avoid mobilization , Putin again blamed Ukraine and the West for the war. In his November 15 speech, Putin falsely insisted  the war resulted from Western efforts  to destabilize Ukraine, accusing the West of aiming to weaken  Russia and painting the war as a defensive measure against sabotage.
In his 2022 New Year’s Eve address  to the nation, President Putin painted Russia’s “special military operation” as an existential struggle to secure Russia’s “sovereignty” and “true independence.” Flanked by allegedly Russian Armed Forces personnel, some of whom may have been actors , in a departure from his traditional Kremlin backdrop, he recycled disinformation narratives about the hypocrisy of the West. Putin claimed “Western elites” pretended to help resolve “the conflict in Donbas” and “encouraged neo-Nazis” to continue “terrorist action against peaceful civilians.” He then accused the West of “lying about peace while preparing for aggression” and “cynically using Ukraine as a means to weaken and divide Russia.” He further alleged the West unleashed “a full-blown sanctions war,” but Russia prevailed. Finally, he claimed this “struggle” serves as an example for other countries in their “quest for a just multipolar world order.” Beyond the familiar motifs, Putin appealed to patriotism, stating that defending the Motherland is a “sacred duty” and that “moral and historical truth” is on Russia’s side.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reinforced  this narrative on January 18, 2023  as he assessed the results of Russia’s diplomacy in 2022. He said, “like Napoleon, who mobilized nearly all of Europe against the Russian Empire, and Hitler, who occupied the majority of European countries and hurled them at the Soviet Union, the United States has created a coalition of nearly all European member states of NATO and the EU and is using Ukraine to wage a proxy war against Russia with the old aim of finally solving the ‘Russian question,’ like Hitler, who sought a final solution to the ‘Jewish question.’” In late January 2023, following up on media inquiries after the aforementioned press conference, Lavrov reiterated  this narrative , saying “it has long been clear to us that the very existence of Russia as one of the basic, backbone elements in the vast Eurasian space is a problem for our opponents.”
In a particularly far-fetched version of this narrative, the Kremlin cast international partnership and cooperation  on biological threat reduction in Ukraine as a threat to Russia’s sovereignty and Russians as an ethnicity. The Kremlin’s disinformation machine has mounted a full-scale assault on truth in multilateral organizations  attempting to portray peaceful research  in Ukraine as biological weapons experiments that train migratory birds  and diseased bats  to threaten Russia. In July 2022, Russia’s state  media  and proxy outlets  took the “U.S.-run biolabs” disinformation to the realm of science fiction when they featured Russian officials claiming  Ukraine’s soldiers were subjected to experiments  that “neutralized the last traces of human consciousness and turned them into the cruelest and deadliest monsters” and “U.S.-controlled cruel machines.” These statements followed accusations in March 2022 by Russia’s Ministry of Defense that the United States was developing in Ukraine “ethnic bioweapons ” to target ethnic Slavs, such as Russians. These outlandish ongoing claims seek to stoke conspiracy theories and portray Russia’s war against Ukraine as an existential “fight for sovereignty” against the West, while distracting attention from the poor performance of Russia’s forces.
Another preposterous strand of this disinformation narrative claims Ukrainians are brainwashed by the West. In a January 30, 2023 interview , Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov accused NATO of deliberately “zombifying” Russia’s neighboring countries “with Russophobic horror stories” and mounting actions “aimed at destroying our historical and cultural code.” Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan  amplified  this narrative, saying that while it is hard for Russians to swallow fighting “brotherly” Ukrainians, “They [the West] took away the bitterness of fighting with Ukrainians or even for Ukrainians. It is now clear that perhaps it was inevitable that we are fighting with the West.”
In attempting to justify Russia’s 2022 invasion, the Kremlin falsely claimed the West refused to negotiate even as Moscow walked away from negotiations . Attempting to justify continuing the war, the Kremlin falsely claims the West seeks to dismember Russia and destroy Russian culture. To help the people of Russia accept the lie that Moscow rightfully attacked its neighbors, whom many Russians consider a “brotherly” people, the Kremlin says the West has zombified Ukrainians. In this distorted version of reality, Russia can argue it is not fighting “brotherly” Ukrainians, it is fighting “zombified,” “neo-Nazi,” “Satanist” Ukrainians. To make Russia’s losses palatable, the Kremlin pretends it is not at war with Ukraine but nobly fights in Ukraine to “defend its sovereignty” against the incursion of the West.
 
 
The courage and resilience of the people of Ukraine, their absolute commitment to defending their country’s independence and democracy, the unity of effort among the United States and our allies and partners in supporting Ukraine’s self-defense, and the global condemnation of Russia’s aggression, have pushed the Kremlin to continuously dance from one disinformation narrative to another in an attempt to justify its war to the people of Russia and the international community.
Russia’s lies do not change the truth. The Kremlin chose to start this war, and the Kremlin can choose to end it.
Ukraine is an independent state and member of the United Nations. It has the sovereign right to defend its territory and choose its foreign policy. Russia’s war against Ukraine began in 2014 when Russia’s forces seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and led, funded, and trained proxies to instigate and sustain conflict in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Democratic Ukraine is not overrun by Nazis or Satanists — the Kremlin created these myths to stoke fervor among its own population. Ukrainian citizens of all ethnicities democratically elected a Jewish President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the international community has recognized the legitimacy of his government. In the months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion, the United States and others joined Ukraine in good faith diplomacy to explore ways to address Russia’s claimed security concerns without compromising Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Russia chose war instead. Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, in blatant violation of UN Charter principles respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states and refraining from the use of force. Russia brutally seized and occupied portions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson provinces, then held sham referenda and purported to annex them just as it claimed to have done Crimea in an attempt to realize the Kremlin’s predatory territorial ambitions.
All of Russia’s rhetorical contortions serve one goal — to mask Russia’s apparent effort to  erase the sovereign, independent state of Ukraine from the map and subjugate its people . Buried in the lies are tell-tale signs pointing to the Kremlin’s true neo-imperial ambitions . Putin’s July 2021 missive declaring Russians and Ukrainians “one people ” and his February 2022 call-to-war speeches , filled with historical revisionism and disinformation denying Ukraine’s statehood  and sovereign agency, gave the world a glimpse of his goals. The same lines are frequently repeated by the faces of Kremlin’s propaganda, such as Margarita Simonyan , who recently reiterated the fictitious claim that Ukraine was built by Russia and owes its might to Russia’s gifts . Putin’s vision to fulfill the imperial expansionist ambitions  of Peter I and “return lost territories ,” and Kremlin officials’ unvarnished  commentary  reveal their actual intent. Kremlin officials  indicated Moscow may also retaliate against so-called “Russophobia” and non-existent “genocide against Russians” in places  other than Ukraine it considers its historic lands. Kremlin pundits have already speculated that Russia may need to “denazify” Kazakhstan , Moldova , and any other country allegedly harboring “Russophobia.” Leaving little doubt about his vision of the future, in a January 2023 speech  Putin stated: “The goal, as I have said many times, is primarily to protect people and protect Russia itself from the threats that they are trying to create in our own historical lands adjacent to us. We cannot let this happen.”
No matter which narrative the Kremlin deploys at any given time in its losing game of disinformation roulette, Ukraine remains a sovereign, independent state recognized by the international community. Its brave people will remain steadfast in defense of their country and their democracy, and the United States will stand with Ukraine  for as long as it takes.