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400 and Counting: A Russian Influence Operation Overtakes Official State Media in Spreading Russia-Ukraine False Claims

As Ukraine faces battlefield struggles, an ongoing corruption probe, and pressure from the U.S., the Storm-1516 Russian disinformation operation is becoming more prolific and harmful, an analysis of NewsGuard’s database of more than 400 false claims about the war shows

By Eva Maitland and Alice Lee | Published on Dec. 22, 2025

 

NewsGuard has now debunked 400 false claims about the Russia-Ukraine war pushed by Russia, and an analysis of our database shows that in 2025, Russian influence operations surpassed official state media as the biggest source of these narratives.

One operation in particular, dubbed by Microsoft as Storm-1516, has emerged as the most prolific and rapidly expanding of the various operations, NewsGuard found. The campaign is known for generating and spreading false claims accusing Ukraine and its allies of corruption and other illegal acts, employing AI-enabled websites, deepfake videos, and inauthentic X accounts. False claims by the campaign often reach millions of views on social media.

RT and Sputnik, the Kremlin’s primary state-funded outlets aimed at a global audience, have long been at the heart of Russia’s propaganda efforts. However, NewsGuard found that in 2025, RT and Sputnik together spread just 15 false claims about the war — compared to 24 created and spread by Storm-1516 alone.

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