Russia in 2026 intensified disinformation via AI, media, and proxy networks – experts
In 2026, Russia transitioned in its disinformation campaigns from spreading individual fakes to a systemic architecture of influence through official statements, state media, a network of proxy resources, and artificial intelligence tools, participants of the press conference "Russian disinformation in 2026: New themes and tools," held at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Wednesday, noted.
The event was attended by Ihor Popov, head of the United Ukraine analytical center and expert on political and security issues; Petro Oleshchuk, expert of the United Ukraine analytical center, political scientist, and Doctor of Political Sciences; Valentyn Hladkykh, expert of the United Ukraine analytical center, political analyst, and Candidate of Philosophical Sciences; and Ivan Us, expert of the United Ukraine analytical center and Candidate of Economic Sciences.
Ihor Popov, head of the United Ukraine analytical center and expert on political and security issues
The United Ukraine analytical report presented during the event states that Russia has launched a campaign to equate the Russia and the victim using human rights vocabulary, continues to use sports to form the image of a "great power" while promoting the thesis of the "depoliticization of sports," and is testing the limits of returning through culture and art.
Petro Oleshchuk, expert of the United Ukraine analytical center, political scientist, and Doctor of Political Sciences
Russia also conducted information campaigns in 2026 in Hungary and Bulgaria, and is currently conducting them in the Baltic states, spreading accusations against the Ukrainian leadership of allegedly disrupting peace negotiations and working to create a rift between the authorities and society in Ukraine. In addition, hybrid operations were carried out against Ukrainian energy, European integration, and sanctions policy against Russia. Russia also conducted an information campaign spreading the thesis of the alleged impossibility of its defeat.
Ivan Us, expert of the United Ukraine analytical center and Candidate of Economic Sciences
Separately, the press conference participants spoke about the use of AI by Russia to promote disinformation. It is reported that in 2026, Russia created a three-layer architecture of AI influence, which includes the Russian disinformation network Storm-1516, aimed at the end consumer; the Matryoshka bot farm, which masks its own fakes as stories from well-known media and authoritative institutions and targets fact-checkers; and the Pravda network, a system of disinformation and propaganda websites aimed at search algorithms.
Valentyn Hladkykh, expert of the United Ukraine analytical center, political analyst, and Candidate of Philosophical Sciences
To counter the updated Russian disinformation campaign, it is proposed to move from a strategy of refuting fakes to destroying narrative frameworks, ensuring a unified response protocol involving the NSDC Center for Countering Disinformation, fact-checkers, and foreign partners, and making state decisions with an analysis of the risks of playing into Russian information campaigns.
The importance of ensuring Ukraine's English-language expert presence on platforms read by real political audiences was also emphasized, as was working with the non-profit organization Common Crawl, which crawls web pages and provides its archives and datasets for free, to ensure its language models do not rely on Russian disinformation sources.
