Russia tries to be more sophisticated: Ukrainian intelligence on IPSO by Russian special services

He said this on Espreso TV.

"Information and psychological operations (IPSO) of the Russian special services were conducted long before 2014, and systematic work has been carried out after the attempts to annex Crimea, the invasion of Donbas and, of course, after the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022. And since approximately 1 November this year, we have seen an outbreak of IPSO in many areas at once, including direct action, which is always a combination of things against Ukraine," said the representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.

Andriy Yusov gave an example from the last few days, noting that yesterday, December 3, there was a rally of relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war, including Azovstal defenders. Ukrainian citizens whose relatives are in Russian captivity remind the whole world of the need to return the prisoners. This is a normal action for a democratic society. But at the same time, pro-Russian channels are beginning to distort the information, saying that a mass rally for demobilisation and the recall of soldiers from the frontline took place in Kyiv. Today, on December 4, relatives of the prisoners of war refuted this outright lie.

"Recently, the search for opinion leaders has intensified, and they are trying to find them to spread certain narratives, i.e. as experts, bloggers, commentators on social media. This time, the enemy is trying to be more sophisticated and clever, realising that pro-Russian public elements have already burned themselves out and will not be trusted by anyone, so they are trying to find former military personnel, including veterans who participated in the ATO or a full-scale war. They also look for pro-Ukrainian Ukrainian-speaking elements, activists and speakers. And this is not always done directly, so to speak, through the FSB, but rather through third or fourth parties. The intermediaries may not even know whose order they are fulfilling. Nevertheless, such attempts are recorded, and these attempts are also countered," Yusov concluded.

• On November 21, the Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security reported that panic posts were circulating on social media, claiming that 29 million Ukrainians must die to win the war.
• Fake news was also circulating that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, was proposing to create an army of robot soldiers.
• On November 28, a new Russian IPSO was posted online, alleging that fuel at petrol stations in Ukraine is issued with military tickets.