“Why is Bakhmut Still Not Ours?” Russian Media Monitoring Report, 27 March-2 April 2023.
Just like the Ukrainians, Russian propagandists are looking forward to the Ukrainian offensive. Last week, Russian media stressed that the expected AFU counter-offensive is doomed: once the attack has fizzled out, the Russian army would secure a sweeping victory. However, the disinformation media could not avoid the subject of lackluster progress in Bakhmut. While trying to justify the endless tug-of-war, they claimed it was all part of the master plan of the higher military command to eradicate the Ukrainian defenders of the city. Russian media threatened left and right with consequences for Sweden and Finland for their intentions of joining NATO and Armenia for becoming a party to the Rome Statute. This monitoring report covers these and other topics of the disinformation spread by Russian state media and online parajournalists to manipulate public opinion.