Russian disinformation about the ongoing war in Ukraine is getting weirder – or more desperate.
While the Kremlin has been pumping out false news right from the start of the conflict, this has generally been centered around fake claims about military successes.
However, according to NewsGuard, over the last week, pro-Kremlin websites and social media accounts have been sharing a video of a children’s Christmas-themed train ride in Kyiv that was in operation from December 5 to 7, around the celebration of St. Nicholas Day.
This, claim the sites, is evidence that Russian attacks on key infrastructure have forced Ukraine to revert to Soviet-era steam locomotives.
The claim has been spread in eight languages on X, Telegram, Facebook, Russian social network VKontakte, and Threads, as well as on three sites belonging to the pro-Kremlin Pravda network, which consists of around 280 news sites. It’s also been picked up by TheOtherUkraine.info, a site run by Putin ally and Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk.
“In Kiev, everything is as it was before communism: decommunization and coal-fired locomotives… The downward spiral continues – today, Kiev will be without power for 14 hours,” read one Telegram post that gained 475,000 views in three days.
Another, with a photograph, reads “Due to a lack of diesel engines and infrastructure, Soviet Steam trains are back working now in Kiev, Ukraine.”
Needless to say, as NewsGuard points out, there’s no evidence that Ukraine is using steam-powered trains to carry out routine rail services. While it does run some pre-1990 trains on local commuting routes, these are diesel or electric trains run via overhead lines.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper warned that information warfare around the Ukraine conflict was increasing across Europe.
“Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) operations are creating fake websites and using social media and bot accounts to undermine democratic elections and spread narratives in support of Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine,” she said.
“Russian organizations responsible for vast malign online networks like Doppelgänger specialize in flooding social media with counterfeit documents and deepfake material in English, German, and French, which advances Russia’s strategic aims.”
The U.K. is working with the EU, she said, on a pan-European response. Sanctions have now been imposed on seven more organizations and individuals responsible for misinformation and disinformation, including Russian government-linked media site Rybar, news outlets Euromore and Golos and the Centre for Geopolitical Expertise ‘think tank’.
