Sponsor of terrorism and 'New Jerusalem': Russia's exploitation of Israel's war against Ukraine

Espreso will explain Russia's disinformation campaign in detail.

The article covers the following topics:

• What fake news Russia creates to discredit Ukraine;
• What other methods does Russia use and what does anti-Semitism have to do with it?
• Who really supports Hamas terrorists?

Russia has invented 2 key fakes about Ukraine 

On the same day Hamas attacked Israel, the media was inundated with reports alleging Ukraine's involvement in training Islamic militants and supporting Hamas. These reports primarily originated from Russian Telegram channels, which, though lacking concrete evidence, relied on "There is such information..." narratives to convey their claims.

The statement suggests that training on operating drones for Islamic militants allegedly took place in Ukraine.

A few days later, Russian propagandists began to spin another narrative - that the weapons provided to Ukraine were being acquired by militants from the Gaza Strip through the black market. 

On October 9, the Russian Foreign Minister accused Ukraine of supplying weapons to Hamas, and propagandists like Solovyov disseminated fake news that purported to be from well-known international media outlets, aiming to support the claim that Ukraine was assisting Hamas. According to Spravdi, these false reports were primarily circulated on platforms like Telegram and Twitter, targeting Western audiences.

The BBC and Bellingcat promptly responded to the fake news on their behalf and refuted the information.

Russian media and propagandists have been actively disseminating information, including fake news, through various channels, even targeting Western audiences, with claims of the US and EU's waning interest in Ukraine. With the outbreak of a new phase of the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants, Russia appears to be banking on reduced assistance to Ukraine and a shift of Western attention toward the Middle East. Prior to this, propagandists consistently sought to provoke the West by emphasizing topics such as corruption in Ukraine and the priority position of Israel, etc.

The headline above the video states: Israel's war with Hamas: is aid to Ukraine at risk?

RT published an article with the following headline: Support for Ukraine is out of question

However, the method of discrediting Ukraine and stirring up panic about the termination of aid did not work. In particular, Ukrainians were very pleased to receive ATACMS missiles and have already seen the result of their work against the Russian occupiers. In addition, on October 20, President Biden gave a speech on the war in Ukraine and Israel. In doing so, he compared Russian leader Vladimir Putin to Hamas. A few hours later, the White House Administration submitted a request to Congress for emergency funding of over USD 100 billion to support Israel and Ukraine. The majority of the funds - USD 61 billion - are allocated for Ukraine.

With such disinformation, Russia tried to "kill two birds with one stone" - to quarrel Ukraine with Israel by labeling Ukraine a "sponsor of terrorism" and to shake the West's trust in Ukraine as a responsible steward of the weapons they send. 

In addition, using the principle of "divide and conquer," Russia wanted to strengthen the "either Ukraine or Israel" discourse in the West, deepening the split in American society and creating competition between Ukrainians and Israelis.

The split of the West and the "New Jerusalem"

The key word in Russian propaganda is “split.” The division of the world into 2 camps - pro-Western and "imperialist" and Eastern. For example, in this paradigm, Israel is an occupying power and a clear representative of imperialism because it allegedly oppresses Palestinians. Accordingly, if Ukraine expresses its support for Israel, it is playing along with its "Western masters." And this is already turning the Muslim world against Ukraine. Why is this being done? To neutralize all the efforts of Ukrainian diplomatic relations in the Middle East or Africa. 

In addition, the issue of Israel and Palestine polarizes Europe, where many refugees from Arab countries live, and is trying to divide Ukrainian society. This further helps Russia in its war against Ukraine.

The article’s headline reads: West considers NATO split over support of both Ukraine and

The headline says: RND: Palestinian-Israeli conflict has split West and global South

Recently, one of the Russian propagandists "busted" and accused the Russian authorities of anti-Semitism. The propagandist in question is Yevgeny Satanovsky, who did not neglect to use insulting words against Russian Foreign Ministry representative Maria Zakharova, who expressed her support for Hamas terrorists. According to Satanovsky, Zakharova does not believe that she should hide her anti-Semitism, which is manifested in Russia at the official level.

Russia is actively trying to introduce anti-Semitism among Ukrainian society and in the West in general. For example, the scaremongering about the "New Jerusalem" has been revived. It is based purely on conspiracy theories and is being brought to the masses through so-called Ukrainian bloggers who openly broadcast pro-Russian narratives. For example, Volodymyr Punchak-Sheremeta, who was mentioned earlier on Espreso. He believes that the war in Ukraine was created artificially to clear the territories for the "New Jerusalem.” In other words, Jewish conspirators have set Ukrainians and Russians at odds in order to take away territory, namely Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Kherson, and Odesa regions. And all this is happening with the support of the Ukrainian government, of course. A slightly different version of this "project" was voiced by the collaborator Ilya Kiva. He believes that “Jews” are interested in the western regions of Ukraine. 

Whatever options are voiced by pro-Russian henchmen, they have the same goal: to intimidate and incite anti-Semitism.

The article's header declares: New Jerusalem in Ukraine? Ukrainian Armed Forces resent Kyiv Regime's Support for Israel

As Spravdi writes, provoking anti-Semitic sentiment in Ukraine helps Russia to create a picture of "Ukrainian Nazis." In addition, it is a good attempt to absolve Russia of responsibility for the war in Ukraine, saying that external forces, the Jews, are to blame.

Who is helping Hamas terrorists?

According to media reports, Russia is training instructors to hit Israeli equipment with FPV drones. During official meetings, Hamas terrorists agreed with Russia on weapons supplies, including small arms. 

This information was confirmed by Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence: Russia was informed about Hamas' plans to attack Israel in advance, so it supplied weapons to the terrorist group and trained terrorists based on the experience of the war against Ukraine. In addition, the Russians transferred Western weapons captured in the war in Ukraine to the terrorists. 

"This is 100% accurate information. The whole world has seen the visits of Hamas representatives to Moscow. And these were official visits, they were not hidden. And the topics discussed during these visits were not the development of ballet and culture, climate protection, or some kind of Kremlin-Hamas friendship evenings. It is clear what both sides were interested in. There was interaction and weapons were transferred - some samples of small arms and infantry weapons," said Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.

The Washington Post also wrote about the support of Hamas by the Russian authorities. They write that although there is no clear evidence that the Russian leadership knew about the Hamas attack in advance, the Kremlin is working hard to take advantage of the situation. Russia has increased its support for Hamas diplomatically and in the propaganda war. It is also seizing the opportunity to escalate violence in Ukraine while the world looks the other way. On October 8, a senior Hamas official, Ali Baraka, praised Russia's assistance in an interview with the propaganda channel Russia Today.

"There are countries that support us politically. Even Russia sympathizes with us. Russia is happy that America is getting involved in the Palestinian war. This eases the pressure on Russians in Ukraine. One war eases the pressure in another war. So, we are not alone on the battlefield," he said.