As Russian missile terror attacks are gaining momentum in the attempt to decimate Ukraine's energy infrastructure, there has been a change in Russian media's tactic. The leading Russian media started covering every single air raid alert in Ukraine in painstaking detail — something that wasn't done until recently. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

It’s 8:30 on Monday morning. The sound of an air raid alarm pierces Kyiv, but since the city has not been hit by the missiles for a long time, people proceed with the start of the working week as usual. Someone makes breakfast, irons clothes and gets kids ready for school. Someone, despite the sirens, is already on the way to work. At the same time, dozens of Russian missiles are approaching the capital. The first explosion is heard — the rocket hit the city centre.

Last week, Russian media praised Donald Trump and gloated over the future of the helpless Europe which they claimed to be facing imminent cold death without Russian gas. The attention of Russian audiences was squarely focused on the mobilization campaign. The media explored every avenue to rationalize going to war and reproached those who were trying to escape from the draft. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

Since last February, a part of the Western companies whose electronics are used in production in Russian weaponry promised to stop their activities in the Russian market. However, even a formal withdrawal from the market does not always mean that their accessories disappear in the Russian territory immediately. Trap Aggressor analysts drew attention to the Russian distributors of electronics, websites and social networks of which still keep on announcing new supplies of imported goods.

Over the last few days, Ukraine’s armed forces have simultaneously intensified its offensive in two directions: Luhansk and Kherson. With Russia’s attempts to stabilise the front line not yielding any results, Russian troops are retreating from many settlements in the north and south of Ukraine.

After Russia has launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, various hackers started breaking into the mail servers of Russian organizations and releasing their contents to the public. Given mounds of data to sift through, how is it possible to find any meaningful information in there?For this purpose, we modified Aleph, a software environment for document indexing, and while running it in test mode we uploaded almost two dozen such "leaks" from Russian companies and governmental bodies to it. This text explains how to operate this system. You can find a link to the tool itself at the end of the article.Translated by Dmitry Lytov, Mike Lytov

Vadym lives in Saltivka, a residential area in northeast Kharkiv. The windows of his apartment on the sixth floor face north. "For a long time, I could not understand what is that light shining on the horizon," Vadym begins his story.“Sometimes I was seeing bright shots of light rising up and then disappearing. I was thinking that perhaps it was our air defense working. I did not immediately realise what it was and how far it was from where I lived. Belgorod in Russia is 60 kilometres (~40 miles) from my house”, Vadym says.

Last week, Russian media justified Putin’s decision on “partial mobilization” and continued explaining its necessity to the populace. According to their version, Russia was forced to do it by none other than NATO. They sung praises to Iranian weapons and claimed that AFU offensive was going awry. As usual, the USA was accused of nuclear warmongering while Ukraine was portrayed as a nuisance to Western nations. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

Last week, Russian media launched a dedicated motivation-boosting campaign ahead of the imminent military mobilization. The enemy propagandists fumed over Russia's retreat in Kharkiv oblast and once again justified obliteration of the Ukrainian state. There was also a spike in anti-Armenian propaganda: Armenia was being accused of back-stabbing and fueling a conflict — perhaps, due to Russia's inability to interfere. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.

Why are our guys not sent on rotation? Why are boys without combat experience sent to the front lines? And where are the Western weapons that can save them? People who are distant from the war keep asking these questions, inciting panic and the lamentations about the "naked, barefoot, and hungry in the trenches", which have been going on since 2014.Translated by Dmitry Lytov & Mike Lytov Read in Ukrainian here