Senior Ukrainian official says Russia spreads 166 million disinformation posts about Ukraine every week

Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, has said Russia has significantly stepped up its disinformation campaigns to sow discord and influence public opinion, with special units assigned to each country where elections are taking place in Europe.

Source: Danilov in an interview with The Times

Details: Danilov said that Russian agents spread 166 million disinformation posts about Ukraine on platforms such as Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter every week.

Of these, for example, 36 million posts made last week were aimed at discrediting Ukrainian officials; 23.5 million at ending political and military unity; 51 million at demoralising the defenders; and 55 million at demoralising the public.

Danilov said that Russia had developed an artificial intelligence tool that it is using to interfere in the UK and US elections on a significantly larger scale than ever before.

Previously, Moscow relied on numerous hackers to spread disinformation from a "troll factory" in St. Petersburg on social media platforms such as Telegram, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Now, "two or three" agents can create "tens of thousands" of fake accounts, Danilov said, adding: "Artificial intelligence is a huge step forward for Russia."

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