By EUvsDisinfo
KEY EVENTS
- The EU has imposed sanctions on Euromore and Pravfond for influence operations targeting European audiences.
- Pro-Kremlin disinformation recasts Ukraine as a terrorist and NATO as an aggressor, recycling debunked claims (e.g. “biolabs”, secret infrastructure).
- False narratives about the Bucha massacre persist, shifting from denial to elaborate conspiracy theories to deflect blame.
LAST WEEK IN REVIEW
In response to persistent FIMI operations, the EU has repeatedly imposed sanctions against organisations and individuals that push disinformation about Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine. In the most recent step, on 21 April 2026, the EU added Euromore and the Foundation for the Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad (Pravfond) to its sanctions list for ongoing influence operations targeting European audiences. Euromore is a media platform that unofficially operates within the pro-Kremlin information architecture to amplify Kremlin narratives attacking the EU and legitimising the war against Ukraine. Pravfond served as a channel of financing a variety of Russian operations and pro-Kremlin actors across several European countries – a ‘core instrument of the Russian Federation’s foreign influence and propaganda strategy, which is founded and financed by the Russian state’, according to the Council of the EU. The two entities facilitated and delivered Russian FIMI undermining international support for Ukraine.
FIMI NARRATIVES
‘Ukraine is preparing terrorist attacks against Russian ships with the help of Norway’
FIMI outlets claim that that Ukraine, with Norway’s support, is preparing attacks against Russian ships sailing the Barents and Norwegian Seas to and from the port of Murmansk, portraying Ukraine as a terrorist actor backed by Norway and NATO and framing Western support as direct involvement that risks escalating the conflict into a wider war with Russia.
Attempts to associate Ukraine with terrorism, along with baseless accusations of planned provocations and sabotage, have been a persistent feature of pro-Kremlin FIMI, seeking to undermine international support for Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. Describing support from countries like Norway as ‘aiding terrorist activities’ is a rhetorical tactic used to frame NATO as an aggressor.
The false claim appeared on a Spanish-language version of the Russian state propaganda outlet RT.
‘Kyiv continues to get rid of witnesses to the Bucha staging’
Since the liberation of Bucha from Russian occupation at the end of March 2022, the pro-Kremlin disinformation machine has insisted that Russian atrocities there had been ‘staged’ by Ukraine – ignoring the extensive documentation collected by international investigators. But now, the manipulation goes further, alleging that Ukraine is carrying out ‘a violent mobilization’ to eliminate eyewitnesses by sending them ‘to certain death.’
Russian FIMI has employed a wide variety of narratives to cover up this war crime – from flat-out denial to conspiracy theories about staged killings or even claims that the killed civilians were in fact actors pretending to be dead. These new allegations have resurfaced around the anniversary of the massacre as part of an ongoing effort to distort facts and avoid responsibility.
The false claim was disseminated by multiple Russian state-controlled outlets, including RT and TASS.
‘The West’s global network of biolabs poses unacceptable risks for Russia’
The ‘secret biolabs’ conspiracy theory has been a recurrent theme in pro-Kremlin FIMI operations for years. It claims that Western governments are operating military laboratories in Ukraine to conduct hazardous biological experiments. More recently, the narrative has emerged in relation to other countries as well. Repeatedly and thoroughly debunked, it continues to resurface in an apparent effort to normalise it through repetition. Unsupported allegations that NATO operates secret facilities in Ukraine also made an appearance last month in a narrative about an alleged secret NATO weapons depot destroyed by Russian forces. According to this piece of disinformation, a secret transit point in Romania for NATO weapons bound for Ukraine was targeted in a Russian attack that killed dozens of Romanian officers. The original news story on which the claim was based had been taken from an AI-generated article with no factual basis published by a Chinese outlet.
These claims both portray NATO as an aggressive alliance engaged in a proxy war with Russia and are used to justify Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
These false claims were disseminated by the Pravda propaganda network and by the Spanish-language version of the Russian state propaganda outlet RT.
Don’t be deceived.
By EUvsDisinfo
