Since 2014, Russia has been committing war crimes against Ukrainian children. These include abductions, forced displacement, attacks on schools, and murder. However, in order to shift the focus away from its own atrocities, Russian propaganda promotes the narrative that crimes against children are allegedly committed by Ukraine itself. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, this has become a long-term disinformation campaign. In order to analyse how Russian propaganda works on this topic, the Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security presented a study ‘Ukraine’s Crimes against Children: The Structure of the Russian Narrative and Information Operations’. The study was created in cooperation with the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine.
A sensitive topic
Accusing Ukraine of crimes against children is a key component of Russian propaganda. ‘It all started in 2014,’ says Ihor Solovey, head of the Centre for Strategic Communications. – ‘Do you remember the famous story about the “boy in panties”? This narrative resurfaced in March 2023, when the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for crimes against children in Ukraine. At that time, Russian propaganda stepped up its efforts to discredit Ukraine internationally while trying to undermine it from within. The narrative of Ukrainian crimes against children is an important part of this effort. This is a sensitive topic, the audience is very attentive to it. We can confidently say that topics about Ukrainian crimes against children are a characteristic marker of the work of the Russian special services.’
Russia’s main accusations
What does Russia accuse Ukraine of? That Ukrainian children are victims of black transplant surgeons or Western paedophiles, that children are militarised, kidnapped, taken away from their parents. It is interesting that by accusing Ukraine of abducting children, militarising them, and recruiting them for military service, Russia is actually mirroring its own crimes.
In 2024, Russia focused enormous efforts on discrediting Ukraine’s top leadership. It has also focused on discrediting Olena Zelenska’s foundation, which, among other things, works with children.
The propaganda is aimed not only at the domestic Russian audience, but also at the international and even Ukrainian audience to undermine trust in the state, the authorities and the Armed Forces. We think this is nonsense, but these narratives are quite effective on people who are facing the issue of evacuation from the frontline areas.
How is Russian propaganda spread?
Maksym Vikhrov, Senior Analyst at the Centre for Strategic Communications, explained how Russia spreads propaganda. ‘Fake news containing certain accusations, such as that Ukraine organises child sex trafficking to Europe, is thrown into the information space from foreign sources. For example, in French or English. Often, this is done through real media that broadcast, for example, in Senegal. Then this feed from the African site is spread in several languages on Twitter. From there, it goes to Russian websites and telegram channels in Russian. And then these fakes are broadcast by official officials.’
‘Some Russian Telegram channels mimic Ukrainian ones. This is how these fakes get into the Ukrainian information space. Telegram is the main entry point for Russian propaganda. Ukrainians will not watch Channel One, they will not believe in Lavrov’s words. But they can read a fictitious Telegram channel called Spletnitsa, which will spread the same propaganda narratives. And then this is picked up by bot farms on Twitter and Facebook.’
Russia is acting in a very simple way, says Maksym Vikhrov. All fakes are easy to refute. But thanks to their constant spread on various platforms, they create an atmosphere of distrust. They say that something dark is happening in Ukraine.
How to counteract this?
First, fake news must be promptly refuted. This is a tedious but important job. Secondly, we need to articulate what exactly Ukraine is doing. That is, to articulate its work. For example, what the Olena Zelenska Foundation actually does. Third, we need to build strategic communications so that people trust the state and have information. This needs to be done constantly, the Centre for Strategic Communications emphasises.
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