The Kremlin knows that even its most vicious intimidation tactics, like launching a cruise missile against a children’s hospital, will not break Ukrainian resistance as long as EU and NATO support continues. For that reason, a core goal of disinformation campaigns is to exploit any real or imaginary crack in the unity of EU and NATO members to weaken these organisations.
A ‘bilateral’ visit
Such a crack seemingly showed when the Prime Minister of Hungary, Victor Orban, travelled to Moscow on 5 July to meet with Putin as part of a self-described ‘peace mission’. Putin greeted Orban with the words that he ‘understood’ Orban had come ‘not only as our long-time partner, but also as the chairman of the EU Council.’
It is true that Hungary has just started the rotating six-month Presidency of the Council of the EU. However, EU Member States as well as the EU top leadership, including HRVP Josep Borrell, were very explicit that this does not give Prime Minister Orban a mandate to speak on behalf of the EU in foreign policy matters.
For Russian state-controlled and other pro-Kremlin outlets, however, Orban’s visit and the reaction of other EU leaders was an opportunity rife for exploitation. Without much effort, the high visibility of the visit allowed Russian disinformation operators to present the EU leadership as divided among themselves and to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the EU and NATO.
Lip service to peace
It also gave a platform to Putin’s manipulative claims that Russia is interested in ending hostilities through negotiations. He outlined the conditions just before the conference on peace in Ukraine in June. This adds to the narrative that Ukraine and its Western allies are prolonging the conflict. The conditions amount to Ukrainian surrender and are therefore not a serious basis for ending the war. We have previously exposed the Kremlin’s attempts to use the narrative of peace in the service of Russia’s war against Ukraine here, here and here.
Killing children, again
Putin made his real intentions clear, again, when his military launched one of the most vicious attacks against civilians since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022. A cruise missile hit the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in central Kyiv, the largest paediatric hospital in Ukraine, treating children with cancer and other serious conditions. The hospital was severely damaged and several people killed. Attacks across the country killed more than 37 people, including three children, and wounded over 170.
The pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem quickly started the usual cycle of denial and deflection. Disinfo commentators claimed the hospital had been hit by a Western-supplied air-defence missile. The Russian representative to the UN went so far as to specify that it was a Norwegian NASAMS missile and to demand a reaction from the Norwegian authorities to his own country’s crime. The attack happened in broad daylight and high-definition footage showed the missile falling intact and deliberately into the hospital, allowing experts to identify it as a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile.
Faced with this evidence, Kremlin disinformers also published footage of the Russian missile. Despite this evidence showing the Kremlin’s hand in the attack, the outlets simply presented it as evidence that the missile was an air-defence projectile. Disinformation does not necessarily rely on fakes. Facts and authentic images can be presented in a distorted context to support disinformation narratives.
The response of the Kremlin disinformation ecosystem is highly reminiscent of reactions to the shelling of Maternity Ward No. 3 in besieged Mariupol, the shelling of a train station in Kramatorsk, the Bucha massacre, and the downing of flight MH17. Disinformation operators flood the information space with lies and distortions to cover up Russian violence and war crimes.
‘Evil West’ and ‘Greedy Ukraine’
A cynic might think the bombings on 8 July could have had something to do with the NATO summit on 9-11 July, perhaps to send some kind of sick message. A cynic like Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov or the Russian Defence Ministry. They themselves made the link by claiming Ukrainian ‘hysteria’ about civilian casualties frequently erupts just before NATO summits, in order to ensure financing of the war effort. The Russian disinformation ecosystem amplified these messages and combined them with claims Ukraine does not know how to handle air defence systems. So providing the country with more capability to defend itself supposedly leads to more civilian casualties.
This twisted story served two goals at the same time: deflecting Russian responsibility for the attack and attempting to divide NATO Allies ahead of the Summit. As always, the Kremlin claims that more support to Ukraine would only lead to more suffering. This is an ongoing effort to discredit the alliance in the eyes of global audiences and sow divisions.
Such stories are rarely new, but are amplified at this specific time to coincide with news coverage to create greater resonance. They claim the United States and other Western European countries want to use Poland, the Baltic states, and Ukraine as cannon fodder to weaken Russia while staying out of harm, and they present NATO as aggressive.
Blaming NATO, the EU, and Ukraine itself for Russia’s attacks on innocent Ukrainian children only makes sense in the context of the disinformation effort Russia is waging to weaken opponents it cannot otherwise reach.
Stay vigilant and don’t be deceived!
Article and pictures first time published on the EUvsDisinfo web page. Prepared for publication by volunteers from the Res Publica - The Center for Civil Resistance.
