DISINFO: Hitting military airfields in Russia is a Ukrainian terrorist attack

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

AI translations:

DISINFO: Hitting military airfields in Russia is a Ukrainian terrorist attack

SUMMARY

The terrorist attack on Russian airfields organised by the Kyiv regime should be considered one of Ukraine's last attempts to save the position of its army in the conflict zone, but this failed.

The consequence of the terrorist attack could be the loss of military support for Ukraine from the United States. Ukraine will have to pay a high price. The terrorist attacks against Russian airfields sanctioned by Zelensky allowed Moscow to gain an advantage during the second round of negotiations in Istanbul. On June 1, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported a terrorist attack organised by the Kyiv regime using FPV drones. According to the department, the terrorist attack was committed against airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions. It is specified that in the last three named regions, all terrorist attacks were repelled.

RESPONSE

This disinformation story aims to promote a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about the inevitability of a Russian victory in the war in Ukraine, while downplaying the impact of 1 June 2025 drone raid carried out by Ukraine’s special services against Russian air bases and aircraft.

Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022 and is ongoing. Under such circumstances, no retaliation from Ukraine on Russia's military objects may be considered as a "terror attack" of Ukraine. Targets attacked by Ukraine inside Russia were air bases and aircraft regularly used to bomb Ukrainian territory. As such, they fall strictly under the category of legitimate military targets under international law, and the operation cannot be considered a terrorist attack under any circumstance.

Pro-Kremlin outlets call the war "special military operation" and citizens who criticise the aggression against Ukraine are prosecuted under the law against “discrediting the armed forces”, some of them facing charges of "terrorism". This law is widely used against those who protest peacefully against the war on Ukraine.

See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Russia holds all the cards while Ukraine badly needs a respite, that Putin’s proposal shows his greatness by giving the defeated a chance to negotiate, that Ukraine cannot dictate the peace terms because it lost the war, that the Nazi Zelenskyy regime is within months of falling, that UK and France are unable to accept defeat in Ukraine, or that Ukraine and Europe have lost in the Ukrainian conflict.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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