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Russia’s international disinformation campaign seemed to falter in the early days of the occupation. Ukrainian courage dominates the internet. In Russia, however, the country’s propaganda machine was busy spreading a flood of misinformation against its own citizens.

The narrative, which was disseminated online through state-run and unofficial channels, helped create an alternative reality in which the occupation was justified and Ukrainians were responsible for the violence. In Russia to control the narrative at home turn off access to several websites and threatened the media with long prison terms for criticizing the war. There is some evidence of effort. softened at least some Russians.

Based on reviews of government news articles, channels on the popular chat app Telegram, and input from several disinformation watchdogs monitoring Russia’s propaganda machine, here’s what the war looks like to Russians.

Some of the most disturbing images of the war came from Mariupol, a port city on the southeast coast. The bombardment battered the region, killed it a few civilians Those who tried to flee the area during what should have been a ceasefire.

But the Russians have a different explanation online: Ukrainians opened fire on Russian forces during the ceasefire, and neo-Nazis were “hiding behind civilians as human shields,” according to Russian state news site Tass.

Neo-Nazis have been a recurring character in Russian propaganda campaigns for years, and they have been used to falsely justify military action against Ukraine in what Russian officials call “minorization.” These allegations continued only during the conflict. The same article by Tass claimed that neo-Nazis “planted heavy weapons in apartment buildings, some residents were forcibly kept in their homes”, without providing any evidence to explain the attacks on other apartment buildings in Ukraine.

Russian social media accounts used a mix of fake and unverified photos showing Ukrainian soldiers holding Nazi flags or photos of Hitler. An analysis by the Center for Information Resistance, a nonprofit focused on detecting disinformation, showed that the number of tweets linking Ukrainians to the Nazis increased after the invasion began.

“Propaganda works when it fits with your current assumptions,” said Pierre Vaux, senior researcher at the Center for Information Resilience. “Things that evoke the Nazi incident are really effective.”

After Russia attacked an area near the nuclear complex in Zaporizhzhia, causing firePresident of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskynuclear terrorism”

But according to a Kremlin statement reported in Tass, the military seized the facility to prevent Ukrainians and neo-Nazis from “organizing provocations with disastrous consequences.” Even if the Ukrainians heavily fortified Russian officials claimed they were already against an attack on the area. had control of the compound Before the Ukrainians opened fire. They added that the Ukrainians set fire to an adjacent building before fleeing and showed no evidence. Western experts are trying to control the Zaporizhzhia complex. let russia to trigger power outages or shut down the entire power grid.

Russia’s image as a world protector has resurfaced after country officials claimed they had found proof that Ukraine belonged to Russia. Study on a nuclear bomb. According to Russian officials, bomb plans have been uncovered at the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

“It doesn’t even make sense, because if you’re going to develop a nuclear weapon, you’re not doing your covert development at a nuclear power plant,” Mr. Vaux said. But such things are broadcast on Russian state television,” he said.

After Russia bombed a residential area, the Russians claimed it was the Ukrainians.

The attack on the Ukrainian northeastern city of Kharkiv, on the Russian border, provided additional evidence that Russia indiscriminately bombarded settlements and killed civilians. Atlantic Council, an American research group. International Criminal Court opened Research Involved in war crimes after the attack.

In an attack involved heavy bombardmentAccording to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, 34 civilians were killed and 285 injured.

But Russians listening to state media or browsing channels on Telegram heard another story: These sources claimed that the missiles came from Ukrainian soil.

In a Telegram channel for Russian news site Readovka, a post described how “Ukrainian missiles” came “from the northwest – an area controlled by the Ukrainian military.”

According to an article in the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, Russia’s defense ministry said it never attacked cities, instead targeting “military infrastructure” with “high-precision weapons”.

After the attacks that bled civilians, the Russians named injured Ukrainians actors of the crisis.

A woman who survived the explosion in her apartment became the focus of disinformation efforts as her bloody and bandaged photo went viral in newspapers and Western media.

The woman was a resident of an apartment complex in Chuhuiv, near Kharkiv. Photojournalist Alex Lourie captured his portrait after the attack, and the image soon made the front pages of newspapers around the world.

But Russian social media channels incorrectly identified him as a member of Ukraine’s psychological operations unit. An analysis by Ukrainian verification website StopFake.

A post by “War on Fakes”, a pro-Russian website and Telegram channel, at the start of the invasion, suggested that the blood might have been grape juice and that the woman might have been “part of the territory’s defense”. As proof, the post featured a photo of another woman with some resemblance. That image came from somewhere The New York Times’s photoFilmed in Kiev – a seven-hour drive west of Chuhuiv.