Disinformation demonizing fleeing Ukrainian refugees

GROSS STRÖMKENDORF, GERMANY >> The news clip showed a towering blaze in a residential neighborhood in Germany, followed by a weeping homeowner giving an interview from the rubble of her burned-down house. A chyron at the bottom of the screen explained that Ukrainian refugees had set the fire, accidentally ravaging the home of their German hosts.

The video, which bore the logo of the German tabloid Bild, spread from a small YouTube account through the messaging app Telegram to Russian state media, until it could be found on nearly every major social platform, a forensic analysis later showed.

But it was a fake, with footage from unrelated events stitched together to form a bogus news report that cast Ukrainian refugees as feckless instigators wreaking havoc on the generous Germans who had taken them in.

As Russian forces continue to shell Ukrainian cities, pro-Kremlin propagandists have homed in on a new target: turning Europeans against the 7.8 million Ukrainian refugees who make up the continent’s largest displacement since World War II. In doing so, Russia’s disinformation merchants are needling at deep-seated European fault lines over immigration, echoing how Russia-linked operatives famously exploited major U.S. social media platforms to sow division around topics such as race ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Experts say the propaganda campaign, which Facebook parent company Meta has called “the largest and most complex Russianorigin operation that we’ve disrupted since the beginning of the war in Ukraine,” aims to stoke fear and divisions among Ukraine’s critical European allies as they brace for a new influx of refugees this winter. And while Europeans remain overwhelmingly supportive of fleeing Ukrainians, there are fears that Russian efforts to weaponize the issue may be finding their mark.

In Germany, attempted arson attacks and threatening graffiti on refugee accommodations and schools in recent months suggest the messaging is already reaching a radicalized fringe.

WOJCIECH GRZEDZINSKI — THE WASHINGTON POST People collect humanitarian aid boxes in Freedom Square in Kherson, Ukraine, in November. As winter approaches, German officials have said they expect an uptick in arrivals from the front lines in Ukraine.