Examples of Russian Information War Activity at the Beginning of Ukrainian Crisis

Abstract

Abstract On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation launched an invasion in Ukraine, which was the first military conflict in Europe from almost 80 years. Despite the diplomatic actions taken by the European Union and NATO countries, Russia’s military activity remains unchanged. In the face of the growing threat, many countries and international communities have decided to impose sanctions covering the economic, financial, as well as cultural and media spheres. In the article the authors analyzed content posted on Twitter after the invasion began, using Quaero, an advanced anti-disinformation tool. The article presents observations on information activities in social media undertaken during an armed conflict. As part of the research, pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian and anti-American accounts were listed, and attention was also paid to the techniques and tools of manipulation in the information sphere. During the research, particular attention was paid to the botnets which play significant role in disinformation process. The very word bot refers to the word robot and it is a program whose main task is to perform actions instead of humans. Many entities in cyberspace, such as Facebook, Messenger or Google, use such programs to improve their activities and protect IT channels against the possibility of their violation.