Zvezda TV’s role in information support of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine
The Russian Zvezda TV channel and its related information resources are actively used to create and spread disinformation and propaganda, in particular, to justify aggression against Ukraine.
The employees of this TV channel visit the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and provide information supporting the aggressive war. All activities of the channel and other divisions of its media group are under the control of the Russian Defence Ministry.
Ownership structure and management bodies
The Zvezda TV channel is a part of the federal media holding “Television Company of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation ZVEZDA”. This media holding has established the TV channel and related resources. The form of ownership of the holding is an open joint-stock company (OJSC; PSRN 1097746338403, TIN 7717653542, RCR 771701001, date of registration 06.08.2009; address: 126, Mira Ave., Moscow, 129164).
The media holding was created through the transformation of the federal state unitary enterprise Unified Television and Radio Broadcasting System of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The sole shareholder of the holding is the Russian Federation.
According to the Charter, the holding’s management bodies are the following: the General Meeting of Shareholders, the Board of Directors, and the General Director. Since 2013, the position of General Director of the holding has been held by Aleksey Pimanov (born in 1962), who is also mentioned in the Russian media as the president of the Krasnaya Zvezda media holding.
The Board of Directors must appoint the General Director. The General Meeting of Shareholders must elect the Board of Directors.
Clause 13.5 of the OJSC Charter provides that all shares are owned by the Russian Federation, and the Russian Defense Ministry approves the powers of the General Meeting of Shareholders. In 2009, during the creation of the holding, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was appointed as the chairman of the Board of Directors. In 2014, Yury Polyakov, a member of the Public Council under the Russian Defence Ministry, was appointed the chairman of the Board of Directors. Officials of the Ministry formed the composition of the Board of Directors. It included Deputy Minister Nikolay Pankov, Head of the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense Anton Gubankov, Deputy Director of the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defense Oleg Mushegian and others.
Therefore, despite the formal procedures of independent corporate management of OJSC enshrined in the Charter, the Russian Defense Ministry carries out management, and high-ranking officials of the Defense Ministry hold important management positions in the Board of Directors, which is a corporate management body.
The holding is financed from the funds of the federal budget and funds of the Defense Ministry, and subsidies are allocated by the resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation based on the Government Resolution No. 1861 “On the Approval of the Rules for the Provision of Subsidies from the Federal Budget to the OJSC ‘Television Company of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation ZVEZDA’ and about Declaring Certain Acts of the Government of the Russian Federation Invalid,” dated December 26, 2019.
Thus, the holding is under the full direct control of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Zvezda media group resources
“Television Company of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation ZVEZDA” (in the Russian media there are informal names Zvezda Media Group, Zvezda Group, Zvezda Media Holding, and others) is a media holding that includes:
Zvezda federal TV channel;
Zvezda Plus TV channel;
Radio Zvezda radio station;
Zvezda weekly newspaper;
Zvezda publishing house;
Glavkino film studio.
A mass medium, according to Article 2 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On the Mass Media” No. 2124-1 of December 27, 1991, means a periodical printed publication, a network publication, a TV channel, a radio channel, a television program, a radio program, a video program, a newsreel program, or another form of periodic distribution of mass information, which has a permanent title (name).
A TV channel, according to Article 2 of the Law “On Mass Media”, means a set of TV and radio programs formed in accordance with the broadcast network (programs) and released to the world (broadcast) under a permanent title (name), with a set frequency, and (or) in accordance with other audiovisual, sound messages, and materials.
The holding and its structural divisions use many Internet resources to promote their content:
Internet website tvzvezda.ru (TV channel);
Internet website radiozvezda.ru (radio station);
Internet website zvezdaweekly.ru (newspaper);
Telegram channel ZvezdaNews;
Telegram channel Zvezda Live;
Telegram channel Radio ZVEZDA;
TV channels and radio stations pages on social networks Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, and X (Twitter).
ZVEZDA Television Company of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is part of the Krasnaya Zvezda holding, which also includes:
Krasnaya Zvezda LLC (the managing organisation is Publishing House Zvezda LLC);
Zvezda Film Studio LLC;
VoenInform Information Agency LLC.
Complicity in aggression against Ukraine
The Zvezda TV channel and other resources listed above are used to distribute materials containing war propaganda and disinformation, which is part of the information support for the aggressive war against Ukraine. These resources are used to conduct information and psychological operations to ensure the achievement of Russian military goals. The authors of the materials use genocidal rhetoric against Ukrainians; the materials contain justifications for murders and other crimes, including war crimes.
Zvezda has been systematically promoting the greatness of the Russian Armed Forces for years and shares responsibility for shaping the image of the Russian army as “the second in the world”, distorting the perception of objective reality. The TV channel’s stories fuelled viewers’ expectations of an easy victory in the event of a direct military clash between Russia and Ukraine.
On the eve of the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security (CSCIS) had noted the presence of this media in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine as part of a “propaganda landing force” to create an information justification for the aggression.
In March 2022, CSCIS, together with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, prepared and distributed a list of 47 representatives of the Russian creative intelligentsia who publicly supported the aggression, including Oleksey Gudoshnikov, TV presenter of the Zvezda channel.
The TV channel constantly covers propaganda materials and measures of the state authorities of the Russian Federation. Among other things, CSCIS had recorded a report about the Russian Unity Day celebration in November 2022, when dictator Putin instructed Russian historians and opened the banner exhibition “Ukraine. At the turn of the eras.”
The Zvezda TV channel broadcasted the Easter service in the main temple of the Russian Armed Forces in 2024 (at the same time, all appeals for peace were removed from the comments under the video on the channel’s official resource). CSCIS had also noticed the impact of state censorship on the editorial staff of the Zvezda TV channel in August 2023, when the politically inconvenient greeting of Teplinsky, commander of the Russian Armed Forces, with Paratrooper’s Day was removed from the media’s official website and Telegram channel.
On a par with other Russian propaganda resources, Zvezda also produces outright fakes. For example, a TV channel story in May 2024 claimed that protesters in Georgia plastered the Parliament building with photos of Stepan Bandera, when in fact there were portraits of the Georgian writer Titsian Tabidze.
The Zvezda TV channel activity violates the legislation of Ukraine and is aimed at harming Ukrainian national interests. In August 2022, the channel covered the preparation of the philharmonic building in temporarily occupied Mariupol for the trial of prisoners of war of the Azov regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine. Zvezda provides air time for Russian agents in Ukraine. One of the criminals involved in the creation of staged videos and provocative materials was detained in Kyiv in February 2024.
The Zvezda TV channel operating was limited on Facebook and Instagram in European countries due to the manipulative and destructive content; it was also blocked on YouTube. Moldova also managed to block this media.
Cases of propaganda and disinformation in video stories produced by the Zvezda TV channel:
1 “Donbas self-defence forces detained three SBU special forces officers”
2014-04-27 11:10:00
Author: editorial staff
At the beginning of the war, the TV channel provided informational and propaganda support for the hybrid invasion. Misleading clichés are used to designate the parties: the saboteurs are designated as “Donbas self-defense forces” or “militia”; the historical-geographic designation “Donbas” (Donetsk basin) is contextually given the meaning of a state-like entity.
The legal activity of law enforcement agencies in Ukraine is characterized by the terminology used to describe offences. It is claimed that the SBU officers arrived for the abduction. On the contrary, the abduction and illegal maintenance of SBU officers were presented using a neutral word from the procedural vocabulary: “detention”.
2 Malaysian Boeing was shot down by a fighter jet—eyewitnesses”
2015-07-13 17:13:00
Author: Graham Phillips
The channel is actively involved in a disinformation campaign to cover up crimes committed by Russian forces. The above is an example of the spread of false information about the downing of a civilian passenger aircraft by fighter jets of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Later, a court verdict refuted similar versions.
3 “Phosphorus rain fell on Ilovaisk”
2014-08-25 07:30:00
Author: editorial staff
During the summer campaign of 2014, the channel spread false information about the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare by the defence forces of Ukraine. At the same time, the channel hushed up the participation of regular troops of the Russian Federation in hostilities in the eastern part of Ukraine. The party to the conflict is indicated as “militia”.
4 "Hell in Debaltseve: Ukrainian punishers brutally raped and killed women”
2015-03-17 18:19:00
Author: editorial staff
The channel spreads false information about mass crimes against the civilian population allegedly committed by the self-defense forces of Ukraine. At the same time, words and expressions with persistent negative connotations from the vocabulary of Soviet propaganda during the Second World War are systematically used to denote Ukrainian forces. For example, the word “punishers”.
5 “Rapira strike: how DNR fighters knock out the enemy from cover with the help of an MT-12 anti-tank gun”
05.10.2022
Author: Roman Zakurdaev
The author of the plot is Roman Zakurdaev. The material contains evidence of Zakurdaev’s illegal stay on the territory of Ukraine and demonstrates the correspondent’s direct participation in hostilities against the defense forces of Ukraine.
6; “Tankers told how they use the T-80BV as artillery near Kupiansk”
2023-09-08 05:44:01
Author: Anatoly Borodkin
The Zvezda channel correspondent, being in the occupied territory of Ukraine, gives a positive assessment of the criminal actions of the Russian troops aimed at killing Ukrainian servicemen. The voice-over text contains a characteristic propagandist technique when servicemen of the defence forces of Ukraine are designated as “gunmen”, which creates in the viewer an idea of the actions of Russian forces against illegal armed formations.
7 “An FPV drone paid a visit to the Ukrainian Armed Forces by flying into a doorway”
2024-07-08 13:38:20
Author: Igor Lapik
This material is typical for Igor Lapik, a Zvezda channel correspondent. The story shows footage of Russian military servicemen committing a serious crime, such as the killing of Ukrainian military servicemen on the territory of Ukraine. The commentary on the video is a laudable and encouraging message about the killing of Ukrainian military servicemen. Lapik’s other materials were prepared according to a similar model and, in general, are aimed at justifying the evil actions of the Russian military, the normalization of violence on the territory of Ukraine, and the glorification of the occupation forces.
8) “The Ministry of Defense reported on cases of the use of toxic substances by the Ukrainian Armed Forces”
2024-02-19 14:13:01
Author: Konstantin Isaev
The material contains false information that the United States violates the Chemical Weapons Convention by supplying Ukraine with ammunition containing poisonous substances. In this report, the author directly refers to the Russian Defense Ministry as a source of information.
9) The series of films “War Correspondent” by Valentin Gvozdev, “Through the eyes of a war correspondent. Valentin Gvozdev. Ukrainian ‘defenders’ of Donbass”
The film is a series of propaganda and agitation audiovisual works aimed at inciting hatred towards the Defence Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian state. The content of the film, as well as the set of techniques and lexical and syntactic constructions, are aimed at creating an idea of the existence of a special subject – “Donbas”, which defends some higher human values in the fight against the imaginary “Kyiv regime”. In its implicit form, the film contains Nazi connotations and offensive and disparaging assessments of Ukrainians as an ethnic group.
10 “Correspondent demonstrated Buk-M3 camouflage mastery in the SVO zone”
2024-07-25 17:43:18
Author: Vladislav Kustov
Correspondent Vladislav Kustov, illegally staying on the territory of Ukraine as part of the occupation forces, approvingly demonstrates to the viewer the calculation work of Russian air defense aimed at killing Ukrainian military pilots. Kustov is directly in the firing position, is dressed in military uniform and equipment, and has no identifying marks to identify him as a member of the media.
Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security