Propaganda in Russia

The Kremlin has slammed as "unacceptable" Meta's decision to ban Russian state media outlets from its apps, after the U.S. social media giant accused them of "foreign interference activity."

"With this action Meta discredits itself. Such actions against Russian media are unacceptable," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that Russian counterattacks in the Kursk region, which was partially reclaimed by Ukrainian forces following their major incursion last month, have not yet achieved significant success.

The advance of Russian forces in the northern Kharkiv region was successfully halted by Ukrainian forces, according to Michael Carpenter, a representative of the US National Security Council, in a televised interview. Carpenter highlighted the high number of Russian casualties and emphasized that their objectives were not met.

Brussels has called upon 15 prominent companies, including Lidl, Coca-Cola, and L'Oréal, to halt their advertising campaigns in pro-Kremlin media outlets across Bulgaria. This directive, outlined in a letter from European Parliament members, aims to curb the spread of harmful misinformation and propaganda.

As the European parliamentary elections in June move ever closer, experts warn that pro-Russian players are flooding social media with false claims about the war in Ukraine to boost support for far-right and nationalist parties.

"The US, not only launched a hybrid war against Russia, which is being waged, apparently, down to the last Ukrainian, they are still tasked with inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, they are demonstrating an increasing focus on changing the government here, organizing internal Russian unrest", Ryabkov said.

The Chairwoman of the Bulgarian Council for Electronic Media (CEM) Sonia Momchilova claims that the news about the massacres of Ukrainians in the city of Bucha near Kyiv is propaganda.

At a meeting dedicated to fake news organized by the Institute of Human Sciences and the Slovak Embassy in Vienna, Ker said that Russia and China have realized how with little investment they can cause huge damage.
"Russia in particular uses fake news as a weapon, with Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Slovakia most exposed to the threat of Russian disinformation," he explained.

Photos from the war in Ukraine were vandalized in Sofia, "Fotofabrika" director Emmy Barouh told Radio Free Europe Bulgaria. On some of the images of destroyed and injured people is painted with white spray the letter Z, which Russia uses as a symbol of its invasion.

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Victory parade: Putin did not declare war on Ukraine, but justified the military operation as inevitable