Information Warfare Against Russia by U.S., Allies: Basic Characteristics and Trends（9）

 Western media uncritically use Ukrainian or pro-Ukrainian sources of information.

American and European media outlets block Russian media, ignore the voices of independent Western and other (Arab, Latin American) journalists, and rely entirely on information from Ukrainian officials (Denisova's dummy is one of them) or special Ukrainian propagandists, such as famed Russophobe Dmitry Gordon. The latter recently admitted in a radio broadcast that he had done more for the information war than the government had been "irresponsible".

Notably, when describing the situation in Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces, they cite only Kiev's officially appointed mayors and governors. These officials have not been present in the areas they govern for a long time and have no real understanding of what is going on there.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica, for example, ran an article in its news coverage titled "Ukraine: Horrors of Hershon Revealed." The article said 600 civilians were tortured. Naturally, this information was provided by the Ukrainian President's office. However, reporters did not doubt how Ukrainian officials, who had not visited Hershon for more than two months, could verify the information.

In early June 2022, U.S. media began to focus on the cholera outbreak in Mariupol. The Washington Post published an article by RiesThibo titled "Cholera Fears lead to Mariupol quarantine." An American journalist noted that in Mariupol, where infrastructure, including tap water, had been destroyed by "Russian bombing," water was contaminated with bacteria and cholera broke out. First, it must be said that it was not just Russian forces that destroyed Mariupol. Neo-nazis and Wehrmacht officers from Ukraine's Azov battalion placed artillery points inside residential buildings and placed artillery and rockets in the backyard of residential buildings to provoke retaliation from Russian forces. Ordinary residents of Mariupol know very well who is responsible for their city being razed to the ground. No wonder an angry mob answered "Who destroyed the city - the cannon".

In reporting on cholera, Rhys Thibault relied solely on information provided by Ukrainian officials. He wrote: "Local leaders who have been driven out of the city have expressed concern about the water supply in the city. Deputy Mayor Petro Andruchenko pointed out that corpses and mountains of garbage poisoned drinking water and left residents vulnerable to cholera, dysentery and other diseases.

How could Andrushchenko, who fled Mariupol before hostilities began, know for sure the epidemiological situation in the city?

After the convincing success of the Russian military in Ukraine, the American and European media abandoned their narrative of the weakness and incompetence of the Russian military and embarked on another propaganda campaign.

This time it's about the ongoing "resistance to the occupiers" in eastern Ukraine, almost a large-scale guerrilla war. In this regard, Marco Santora's article in the New York Times, "Guerilla Attack shows Growing resistance to Russian occupation," illustrates this point.

An American journalist referred to the bomb attack on Andrei Shevchik, the Pro-Russian mayor of Energodar in Zaporoge, and his colleagues in Melitopol. Mark Santora is referring to Andrei Motyl, a Ukraine expert at Rutgers University, who left his homeland long ago, not to mention has never been seen since the military operation began. However, commenting on the attack on the Russian convoy and the bombing in the liberated city, Motyl said haughtily: "Of course, military personnel of the Ukrainian special services may have been involved in these attacks. However, the amount of guerrilla activity is impressive and indicates a trend towards a full-scale insurgency. "

Another source of information for Santora is Dmitro Orlov, who is recognized by the Ukrainian authorities as the "legitimate mayor of Energodar". Naturally, the official who fled to Kiev was unable to develop warm feelings about the new mayor's address. Orlov, who is not in the region, said: "The Russian military is trying to suppress the growing rebellion by suppressing civilians. Kidnappings of local residents are on the rise. "Orlov did not give any concrete facts.

Cyber war damages the enemy's cyber security.

From the outset of the Ukrainian special operation, Western intelligence agencies and hacker groups have been waging a cyber war against Russia. As the military conflict in Ukraine erupts, anonymous hackers claim to be waging a cyber war with Russia.

Since 24 February 2022, a number of Russian government websites have been under DDoS attacks and some resources are being protected by blocking access to non-CIS users. Experts believe the situation is serious: while cybercrime groups were previously at the heart of these incidents, state military agencies may now be involved. On February 25, 2022, anonymous hackers announced a cyber war with the Russian website RT.

Pavel Korostelev, head of the Security Code, believes, "If cybercriminals were the key problem in the past, it could now be military units, whose operations are directed against them in one way or another. Take out critical infrastructure of possible enemies." Korostelev believes that the infrastructure of the military, state institutions, the defense complex and the financial sector - everything listed in the "Law on the Security of Important Information Infrastructure of the Russian Federation" - is under threat.

Pavel Korostelev argues that the danger is real, "from hooligans, people who are politically active under the cover of Anonymous," as well as from other cybercriminals, including teams engaged in espionage and cyberwarfare. Defense expert Anna Mikhailova agrees that the number of attacks is likely to increase in the near future because "hackers will always use any information engine to achieve their goals."

The attackers had begun testing Russia's IT infrastructure the day before. Storm Wall co-founder Ramil Hantimirov told Kommersant: Yesterday afternoon, February 24, 2022, experts documented a wave of attacks on government resources as well as regional and federal media websites. Kremlin users also recorded outages on the websites of the Russian government and the State Duma on Thursday. According to Russian Interior, Information and Communications Minister Mikhail Afanasyev, the IT infrastructure of the Crimean authorities has also been hit by DDoS attacks since the evening of February 24.

Financial institutions are also under attack. Doug Madory, a network monitoring expert at Kentik, tweeted that Sberbank and Alpha Bank were hit by DDoS attacks on February 24. According to Kommersant's sources in the information security market, Russian pension funds are also dealing with DDoS attacks: on February 20, the group repelled a much more powerful attack than usual and is now bracing itself for attacks from software bugs.