Disinformation about Ukraine in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” has almost doubled over the last two years, with most of the favorites for fake news the same as in the Russian state-controlled media. Oksana Romanyuk, whose Institute for Mass Information (IMI) carried out the studies both two years ago and in April of this year, believes the Russian-controlled “republics” may be ladling on the fakes to compensate for their dwindling power to influence the local population.
IMI’s monitoring was, of necessity, only of the available Internet media, since there is no safe way of carrying out public surveys in the so-called republics. Even telephone surveys would be unlikely to give a true picture, since respondents would almost certainly be afraid to answer honestly. The Internet sites were monitored for fakes and disinformation, with this the main area where there had been an alarming increase. While 11 percent of content in 2017 constituted disinformation, in April of this year 21 percent of “news” about Ukraine was of dubious accuracy or outright fakes or disinformation.
In addition to information about the conflict which seriously clashed with those provided by Ukraine’s operational headquarters, there was also disinformation about the language bill signed into law by the outgoing President Petro Poroshenko, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and about the new president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As mentioned, the latter subjects have also been widely and, most often misleadingly, covered by the Russian media. Given the widely circulated claims that Mr. Poroshenko was hoping to sabotage Mr. Zelenskyy’s inauguration, it seems likely that the “republics”’ also followed Russia in pushing attempts to undermine the validity of the presidential elections.
Such a high level of disinformation is of major concern given that the vast majority of people in these areas have no access to Ukrainian media. One of the first things that happened as soon as the Russian and pro-Russian militants seized control of an area in 2014 was that Ukrainian television channels were taken off air, with Russian or militant channels using the frequencies. A large number of Ukrainian Internet sites, especially the ones like News of Donbas that report honestly on events in the “republics” are blocked. This means that the population in the occupied Donbas is receiving information from channels that are overtly propagandist and anti-Ukrainian.
Rather unexpectedly, given the above, the monitors found that the level of hate speech directed against Ukraine had decreased, from 11 percent in 2017 to 5 percent now. The main target was the Ukrainian Armed Forces who were referred to as “punishers, “Nazis” and “sadists.”
While the amount of fake material increased significantly, the general tonality of the media remained largely unchanged.
The media was most positive in covering the de facto local authorities, with 89 percent of the material positive and in complimentary mode (as compared to 82 percent in 2017); 11 percent of material was neutral. Not one instance of coverage was found that was critical of the local authorities.
There was a lot less material about Russia, but 85 percent of this was positive, with just 2 percent in negative colors. The latter were published before Russian President Vladimir Putin issued his decree simplifying the process by which residents of the Russian-controlled “republics” can get Russian passports. After that, all material was positive.
All of this is in marked contrast to coverage of the Ukrainian government, with 49 percent of this negative and 45 percent neutral. The remaining 6 percent that was positive all pertained to Mr. Zelenskyy’s election campaign, with Mr. Zelenskyy also getting the least coverage (19 percent, as opposed, for example, to Mr. Poroshenko’s 63 percent).
Russia’s hostile actions in offering Russian passports to Ukrainians in the Donbas were just the latest in ongoing measures aimed at drawing the occupied territory closer to Russia. This is occurring while Moscow claims it’s Ukraine that is failing to implement the Minsk agreements. The elections that Minsk envisages must be held in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. At present there are multiple obstacles to this, including the total lack of any free and objective media. Besides the information gleaned from the above monitoring, this is evidenced by the fact that at the very least two journalists, Stanislav Aseyev and Oleh Halaziuk, are imprisoned after both wrote honestly about what they observed around them in “Donetsk people’s republic.”