Ukrainian activists denounce Russian propaganda as they walk into Lafayette Square to hold a counter-protest in response to pro-Russian “Immortal Regiment” march in Washington, DC on May 3, 2025. (Photo by Kyiv Post)
WASHINGTON DC – Key disinformation experts in the US are sounding the alarm after Russia has notably increased its attempts to beef up its false propaganda campaign inside and outside Ukraine following Washington’s recent decisions to “pull out from the information war,” as the experts put it.
US President Donald Trump’s administration recently cut billions of dollars from US foreign assistance, including over $268 million allocated to support independent media and the free flow of information.
The move also came amid the defunding of key US broadcast services, such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, as well as the dismantling of a State Department office aimed at countering foreign disinformation.
“Any nail in the coffin of the counter disinformation industry is a win for countries like Russia,” Nina Jankowicz, American disinformation expert and author of “How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict,” told Kyiv Post.
In a recent Atlantic Council research, Muhammad Tahir, a nonresident senior fellow at the think-tank’s Eurasia Center who regularly documents Russia’s disinformation campaign, highlighted mounting concerns over Moscow’s efforts to exploit emerging gaps in Ukraine’s information space created by recent US funding cuts.
“Russian disinformation [is] flooding Ukraine,” Tahir told Kyiv Post, warning that Moscow’s goal isn’t just to mislead – “it’s to erode trust entirely.”
Source: www.kyivpost.com
