"Dam explosion should wipe out Zelenskyy": Russia launches special clickbait operation
Russia, as the aggressor state, has come up with another information operation to discredit Ukraine and its military and political leadership, namely the tragedy at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.
Source: press service of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence
Quote: "The joint efforts of Ukraine's intelligence community have provided information that a Russian social engineering agency has launched a new stage of a campaign to discredit the Ukrainian military command and Ukrainian statesmen.
As part of this campaign, a number of provocative materials have been prepared which, according to the authors, should shift responsibility for the explosion at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station dam onto Ukraine and create the preconditions for a political crisis."
Details: According to Defence Intelligence, the prepared headlines are clickbait, containing direct accusations against the military and political leadership, particularly the President of Ukraine, such as:
- "If I can’t have you, no one can! Desperate to succeed in a possible offensive, Zelenskyy turned to scorched earth tactics, but directed them against his own people."
- "The dam explosion should 'wash away' Zelenskyy";
- "Zelenskyy is doing everything to stop being 'our bastard'";
- "Blowing up the dam will drown Zelenskyy and Ukraine."
Comments from fake accounts will be posted under each story, supposedly on behalf of Ukrainian and foreign readers. They are supposed to create the impression of a "live" discussion and engage real users of the network in the discussion.
According to Defence Intelligence, the project's current budget is about US$6 million, and it could increase further.
Background:
- On the morning of 6 June, Ukraine’s Operational Command Pivden (South) reported that Russian occupation forces had blown up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), completely destroying the dam and the power plant's turbine hall. The draining of the Kakhovka Reservoir threatens the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
- The destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant has caused an ecological catastrophe. Water from the reservoir has begun to flood towns and villages, and evacuations of local residents from dangerous areas have begun. At least 150 tonnes of machine oil has spilled into the Dnipro River due to the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), there are also problems with drinking water supply in the towns of Kryvyi Rih, Marhanets and Nikopol.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stressed that the disaster at the Kakhovka HPP caused by Russia would neither stop Ukraine from liberating its own territory nor increase the chances of the occupiers staying on this land.
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