Pryhozhyn and Russian Defense Ministry Locked in Bitter Flag-Raising Battle over Bakhmut. Russian Media Monitoring Report, 15-21 May 2023.
Last week, Russian media published excited reports on Russia's success in the war. The propagandists continued to argue that, unlike Western missiles, Kinzhal hypersonic missiles were absolutely impervious to being intercepted. Russian media scared their audiences with stories about a radioactive cloud drifting towards Western Europe from Ukraine. The fake was traced to the Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev who has a history of coming up with all sorts of conspiracy theories and nonsense. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.