False Flags, Fake Flags: Propaganda Muddles the Trump-Putin Meeting
Russia's Defense Ministry warned this week, without evidence, that Ukraine was planning to stage a false attack on its own soil for the benefit of 'Western reporters' and blame it on the Russians in an effort to disrupt the talks.
The claim, posted in English by the Foreign Ministry on X, spread widely in Russian media and online, according to Alliance4Europe, an organization that tracks disinformation. (A Russian drone did strike Sumy, in northeastern Ukraine on Friday, according to Ukrainian reports, but the attack did not cause the 'large number of casualties' the Defense Ministry claimed would happen in a provocation.)
False claims by Russia about the war have become routine, but in the United States, a website with a history of spreading disinformation also echoed Russian efforts to disparage Ukraine ahead of Friday's meeting by fabricating the foiling of an assassination plot.
The website claimed on Tuesday that the United States Army's 10th Special Forces Group had killed a would-be Ukrainian assassin in Wasilla, a town north of Anchorage, according to NewsGuard, a company that tracks disinformation online.
No such killing took place, but the conspiratorial theme spread across social media platforms including X, Instagram, Substack and Rumble, NewsGuard said. One post on X from a user that previously promoted the QAnon conspiracy claimed there were two assassins who intended to kill 'both Trump and Putin.'
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