Russia Scales Up Disinformation Operations with AI, New Report Shows

Russia is increasing the scale of its disinformation operations with artificial intelligence, according to the Center for Countering Disinformation on March 20.

The agency, citing the European External Action Service’s (EEAS) latest threat assessment, reported that 540 cases of foreign information manipulation and interference were recorded in 2025.

Those operations involved roughly 10,500 social media channels and websites, while Ukraine remained the primary target of campaigns aimed at weakening international support and undermining trust in its leadership and resistance.

The report also points to a sharp technological shift in how such operations are carried out. According to the EEAS findings, 27% of the incidents analyzed involved AI-generated text, synthetic audio, or manipulated video, allowing hostile actors to produce more content faster and with fewer resources.

Among attributed cases, 29% were linked to Russia and 6% to China.

“Russian and Chinese actors have fully implemented AI tools to speed up content production and increase meddling activities with fewer resources,” the report stated, underscoring how generative technologies are lowering the cost of large-scale influence campaigns.

The EEAS noted that major political and news events are especially vulnerable moments, with nearly half of the recorded incidents tied to elections, protests, or international crises.

In 2025, election-related campaigns were tracked in countries including Germany, Poland, Romania, Moldova, and the Czech Republic.

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War in Ukraine

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That broader trend is also playing out through concrete disinformation narratives aimed at portraying Ukraine as a threat to civilians.

Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation has dismissed a new Russian narrative alleging that Ukrainian drones deliberately hunted civilians in the Belgorod region, pointing to a familiar propaganda template built around emotional claims and unverifiable reports.

The latest version leaned on stories of a drone striking a woman’s car and another supposedly chasing an elderly resident walking with a goat, yet offered no independently verified evidence.

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