Introduction & Background
It’s been over two and a half years since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the fighting doesn’t appear to be stopping any time soon. Claiming that Ukraine was killing Russian civilians, Russia launched an offensive to, as it put it, demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine (a claim that has condemned and debunked by the U.S. State Department and news sources alike). This invasion has led to large-scale fighting within both countries and to Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. Ukraine has matched Russia’s might, backed by billions in international aid (especially from the United States), and the war continues to rage on. As of (month) 2024, Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine, while Ukraine has recaptured 54% of originally occupied territory.
As with all wars, information is hard to get and even harder to verify; Ukrainian journalists have recently complained of press restrictions that go beyond wartime measures and near the limitation of opposition reporting. Meanwhile, media outlets in Russian-controlled territories have been silenced or overtaken to spread Russian propaganda. More generally, Ukrainian, Russian, and international journalists alike have been killed in the line of fire, and in the heat of the moment, gathering information or fact-checking presents a unique challenge.
Though this particular invasion only began two years ago, Russia is no stranger to limiting freedom of the press. The Soviet Union heavily controlled the press with a strict top-down structure, heavy censorship, and elimination of political and journalistic opposition. Though the policy of glasnost briefly opened up the country to a media culture that nearly resembled that of many Western countries, such freedoms were quickly shut down again less than 10 years later, and strict control of information (and disinformation) resumed. Journalists dying under mysterious circumstances, reports of self-censorship, anonymous threats, takeovers of critical media agencies, and the rapid spread of disinformation to counteract anti-Kremlin reporting have been all-too common in Russia in the past two decades—and it’s only worsened during the invasion of Ukraine.
Legal Action
The most obvious way in which Russia has further restricted journalistic freedoms during the invasion of Ukraine has been through legal action, as the government passes new laws that further restrict and criminalize fact-based reporting on the conflict. The effects of such laws can be divided into two focuses: censorship and detention.
The amount of censorship laws has increased in Russia since 2022. The government continues to pass legal restrictions on what people are allowed to publish in the country, citing various false threats to national security. A recent example of this is a February 2024 law passed banning advertising on digital platforms from those designated as “foreign agents.” Though Russian lawmakers claim that this will help stop cash flow to those who finance the “Nazi regime” in Ukraine, the result is the censorship of independent voices, especially those of Russian journalists (who represent nearly half of those designated foreign agents), are silenced. Even more directly related to the war, a bill passed in 2022 criminalized the spreading of “fake news” about Russian armed forces. This included banning the description of the conflict with Ukraine as a “war” or “invasion,” speaking out against the war, or indeed, simply reporting on the facts—whatever Russia considers fake news is fair game to the government.
Beyond mere censorship, Russia has detained many journalists for reporting on their invasion. The most famous is Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg and sentenced to 16 years in prison due to false charges of espionage, but were most likely caused by his reporting on the war in Ukraine. Though Gershkovich was released in a widely-covered prisoner exchange this August, at least 10 other journalists have been imprisoned by Russia since the invasion began on charges ranging from being part of terrorist organizations to creating false news. As such, it’s clear to see that these laws are being used not only to limit information relating to the war, but to punish those who dare to attempt to cover it anyway.
Online Spaces
Russia has also been taking significant steps to limit its citizens from obtaining information from one of the most prolific sources of knowledge: the Internet. Since early 2022, Russia has blocked Meta and Twitter, Instagram, and even the instant messaging platform Discord. Similar to the aforementioned laws, the Kremlin justifies the blocking of these platforms based on claims of extremism, but again, it’s evident that this is simply another attempt to limit information from the war. Beyond legal threats, media companies operating in Russia have faced anonymous threats and intimidation tactics, transnational repression of exiled reporters, and bankruptcy due to the high fines or legal costs of fighting in Russia’s courts, all of which have led many of these companies to leave the country. Ousted from physical spaces and intimidated from re-entering Russia, one of the only ways many independent news outlets can now reach Russian citizens is through their social media platforms. Without Internet access to these outlets, Russians are likewise banned from obtaining quality, factual information about the invasions.
Dissemination of Propaganda
Finally, along with silencing independent journalism about the war in Ukraine, Russia has replaced this void with their own propaganda. As troops entered Ukraine, Russian news painted the invasion as a liberatory army coming in to free a ravished area desperately in need of aid from Moscow. During the war, state-controlled media has claimed that Ukraine is run by Nazis, that NATO is a threat to Russia, that a Ukrainian missile hit a children’s hospital (it was actually a Russian one), and more. These false ideas aren’t just directed inward; Russia recently released a deepfake of an U.S. State Department official claiming that a Russian city is a legitimate and viable target for Ukrainian missiles, aiming to exacerbate resentment in the West about actions during the war. Beyond videos, a Russian network of accounts impersonating European news outlets accusing the Ukrainian government of corruption was recently unearthed. The lies that Russia spreads about the war and its enemies are diverse, common, and powerful.
Concluding Thoughts
The way in which Russia has attempted to censor, imprison, and twist information regarding the invasion of Ukraine is wide-ranging and depressingly effective—as of 2024, more than 60% of Russians support their government’s actions in Ukraine, viewing it as defense from NATO and other antagonistic Western powers. The question is: how to change their minds?
Fortunately, there have already been significant efforts made to counteract the restriction of press freedoms and disinformation spreading in Russia and beyond. There are countless fact-checking and independent media outlets still operating to counteract disinformation, and they continually find more creative ways of spreading such messages to the Russian people—for example, Reporters Without Borders published a mirror website of the independent news company Meduza after it was blocked by the Kremlin so as to make it accessible to all, regardless of what country they’re in. Such efforts, of course, must be redoubled. As of April 2024, the United States gave $175 billion in aid to Ukraine to fund wartime efforts, mostly military-related. More of this money—and indeed, more money in general—must be allocated not only to physical efforts to tackle Russia but also those that aim to change the collective consciousness of the country. Information is power, and given free-flowing and full access to information, the Russian people will feel more encouraged to halt this bloody and tragic invasion.
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