Russian Сentre for Information and Psychological Operations uses Facebook on a massive scale: Ukrainians are shown advertising posts about Zaluzhny and fake news

In the Ukrainian segment of Facebook, paid advertising posts with fake news which tell that 'allies are draining' Ukraine are being spread. Also, social media posts are spreading information that casts doubt on the health of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi.

Thus, Russian Сentre for Information and Psychological Operations actively use Facebook's advertising capabilities.

How Сentre for Information and Psychological Operations works on social media

After the Ukrainian Armed Forces began to actively liberate the occupied settlements and launched a counter-offensive, the Russian IPSO began to spread fakes on a massive scale. Over the past few days, Ukrainians have been exposed to Facebook adverts questioning Valeriy Zaluzhny's health. As a confirmation, they cite the refutation of the fake that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was allegedly wounded.

This message also ignores the video showing Valeriy Zaluzhny's visit to the frontline. The text of the advertising post is written in Ukrainian, but it contains a large number of errors. For example, the abbreviation ЗСУ (Armed Forces of Ukraine (uk: Збройні сили України)) was used instead of ВСУ (ru: Вооруженные силы Украины). Presumably, the text was translated from Russian using a translator program, which resulted in the preservation of calques and errors.

In addition, there have been false publications allegedly from popular Ukrainian online media, including OBOZREVATEL. Visually, the pages with fake news completely copy the website's look and authors' data, but the striking difference is the unclear information - typical Russian Сentre for Information and Psychological Operations , which is spread against the backdrop of news about the Ukrainian Armed Forces' counter-offensive.

Advertising posts are posted from empty Facebook accounts. The adverts are set up so that only Ukrainians can see them.

Earlier, OBOZREVATEL wrote that Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military and political observer of the Information Resistance group, better known as the Evil Odessite, told in a blog on OBOZREVATEL how the Russians were panicking and had launched a new Сentre for Information and Psychological Operations.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel and Viber. Don't fall for fakes!