Dear Editor:
I am writing in response to the full-page ad in support of Donald Trump’s re-election (September 20). The ad’s claims mirror those repeated by the late Stephen F. Cohen and other political “realists,” overstating the role that America had in instigating the war in the Donbas. They’re also often quoted by Russian propaganda, or hard-line ideological allies of Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad, Nicolas Maduro, and others.
Something about the ad was fishy, so I decided to investigate, starting with the image of the ruined church. It turns out that’s a Russian Orthodox monastery destroyed by Ukrainian “Cyborgs” in 2014.
Reverse image searches in Google and Yandex showed that the specific photo used by the Suburban Council of Ukrainian Voters has only appeared on the site of the Anti-Maidan and accompanying an article titled “I blame my own country for the war” on News Front. That site was recently banned by Facebook for its connections to Russian intelligence, and it’s one of the greatest sources of anti-Ukrainian misinformation, according to StopFake.
I also tried imagining myself as the ad’s creator. I looked for images of destroyed churches in the Donbas, but could not turn up this specific one.
My short investigation shows that, despite their best efforts to support Ukraine, Ukrainian Americans for Trump are nonetheless unwittingly consuming and recycling propaganda designed to defend the Russian invasion and Moscow Patriarchate.
To be clear, I am writing this not in support of Mr. Trump’s opponent, but for the sake of transparency.
Julian Hayda
Chicago