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On February 24, it will be three years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which was preceded by eight years of hybrid warfare. During this time, the informational aspect of aggression has played no less a role than military operations on the ground. In this sense, propaganda is just as much a weapon in the enemy’s hands as tanks, missiles, and drones. That is why resilience to enemy propaganda is a crucial element of national defence.
Military Strategy and Propaganda
It is well known that Moscow had imperial ambitions toward Ukraine long before 2014. Since the mid-2000s, the Kremlin hoped to subjugate Ukraine following the Belarusian scenario. The role of the dictator who would trade national sovereignty for a lifetime guarantee of power from Moscow was meant for Yanukovych. However, Ukrainian society thwarted this plan, choosing the path of European development over dissolving into the so-called “Russian world”.
Realising its defeat, Moscow decided to resort to force. It is no secret that in 2014, Russia’s invasion plans extended far beyond Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Using hybrid warfare tactics, Russia sought to capture nothing less than “Novorossiya from Kharkiv to Odesa” — eight regions of Ukraine in addition to Crimea.
During the critical period of 2014–2015, Russian propaganda promoted narratives claiming that a “junta” had seized power in Ukraine, that Nazis were persecuting residents of southeastern regions, and that only Putin could protect them. Internationally, Moscow sought to push the idea that there was no invasion, that Ukraine was experiencing a “civil war,” and that the “Kyiv junta” was terrorising its own people. These lies from over a decade ago are worth recalling to better understand Russia’s current propaganda tactics and strategies.
At the start of the full-scale invasion, Moscow initially attempted to sell Ukrainians the idea that Russia had come to “liberate” them from a government of “fascists and drug addicts”. It claimed that peace, harmony, and prosperity would come to Ukraine under the “Russian world” — if only Ukrainians laid down their arms and accepted a puppet regime in Kyiv. This attempt failed spectacularly: Ukraine met its self-proclaimed “liberators” with total resistance, shattering Putin’s dream of “Kyiv in three days”. Moscow’s hopes for a successful information blitzkrieg were buried along with it.
Information Warfare of Attrition
Realising its failure, Moscow shifted its war strategy, including information warfare. By 2023, Russian propaganda focused on manipulating Ukraine’s internal affairs. Today, the key narratives Russia tries to impose on Ukrainian society differ in form from the propaganda of 2014, but not in essence.
If in 2014, the dominant narrative was about a “junta” allegedly taking over Ukraine, today it has evolved into the idea of an “illegitimate usurper Zelenskyy”, who has supposedly arbitrarily banned elections and wants to “fight to the last Ukrainian” just to stay in power as long as possible.
If in 2014, the enemy fabricated scare stories about the “punishers of the Right Sector,” now Russian bot farms spread disinformation that the Territorial Recruitment Centers (TCCs) are “repressive organs of the Zelenskyy regime” that terrorise Ukrainians.
If in 2014, Russia insisted that Ukraine was a failed state ruled by armed “Nazi” groups, today it spreads the false claim that Zelenskyy has “turned the country into a concentration camp” — one that is not worth defending.
These and other parallels are no coincidence because the goal of any aggressor in war is to deprive its victim of the ability to resist. Russia has allocated a record $1.4 billion for propaganda in its 2025 budget — an unsurprising move, as the less hope Russian generals have of breaking Ukraine’s defence, the larger the budgets for information operations become.
Moscow’s maximum objective is to plunge Ukraine into internal chaos, paralyse state institutions, and disrupt military command structures. This is why Russian intelligence attempted to instigate “Maidan-3” in Ukraine in spring 2024. That is why Russian intelligence recruits agents to carry out sabotage and terrorist attacks. The enemy does not even try to hide its goals. After each military vehicle arson or attack on TCC personnel, Russian bot farms flood social media with messages about “national resistance to the regime” and “civil war”.
The minimum objective set by the Kremlin’s intelligence agencies is to disorient and demoralise Ukrainian society to the point where it accepts “peace at any cost” — in other words, capitulation on Putin’s terms. Russia combines information operations with kinetic actions: daily air terror, attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and deliberate strikes on hospitals and residential buildings. These are means to pressure Ukrainians into surrender.
Just as in 2014, Moscow seeks to mislead the world. Back then, Russia framed the war as a “civil conflict in Ukraine”. Since late 2023, it has rebranded its narrative, claiming that “the only obstacle to peace is Kyiv’s intransigence”. The rhetoric has changed, but the goal remains the same: to convince the international community that Kyiv is to blame for the war’s continuation and that Ukraine “rejects Putin’s peace offers”. At the same time, Moscow’s ongoing aggression and ultimatums are ignored. This is a classic propaganda tactic — portraying the victim as the aggressor and condemning resistance to violence under hypocritical peace slogans.
A Critical Moment
As the war enters its third year, Russia’s propaganda efforts have peaked. Discussions about a peaceful resolution are taking place both in Ukraine and among international partners—and Moscow is doing everything possible to mislead both. At this moment, Russian intelligence agencies are activating all resources to disorient Ukrainians about the current situation. The main propaganda messages they are pushing include:
- “Ukraine must hold elections immediately because its leadership has lost legitimacy, and the country is a dictatorship.”
- “Moscow wants peace, but Kyiv wants endless war to the last Ukrainian.”
- “Ukraine has a chance to end the war now and must take it.”
- “Peace negotiations are already happening, but Zelenskyy is trying to sabotage them.”
- “Ukraine is in a hopeless situation, so it must accept whatever terms are offered.”
The false and manipulative nature of these messages is obvious. Equally obvious is their military-political objective — to force Ukraine into accepting a temporary ceasefire without any real security guarantees. This would give Russia’s exhausted army and war-strained economy the time they desperately need to recover and rearm. Meanwhile, Ukraine would find itself in the same position as after the Minsk Agreements — which failed to ensure the liberation of occupied territories or lasting peace. However, this time, the Kremlin’s demands are far harsher, and accepting them would leave Ukraine defenceless against a future Russian invasion.
Described above is the strategic goal of the enemy. The tactical goal is to make Ukrainians think that their main enemy is not in Moscow, but in Kyiv; that what is happening is not the defence of the country, but “a war beneficial only to Zelenskyy”; and that Ukraine is not worth defending, and so on. This is how nations lose their will to resist aggression. But Ukrainians have been heroically resisting Russia for eleven years, three of which have been under full-scale war conditions. Therefore, Putin, his generals, and propagandists have no chance of success in Ukraine.
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