Russians launch another poorly-crafted psyop: this time, it’s Ukraine “preparing for war” with Hungary

Now Russia employed the Beregyni Group Telegram channel, which mimics the Ukrainian hacker community. There, an “analytical report” was published, allegedly obtained by hackers, with an analysis of Hungary’s hostile policy toward Ukraine and a description of the economic, social, and military potential of this state.

The conclusion promoted by the “Beregyni”: Ukraine, disappointed by the failure of the NATO Summit, decided to take revenge on Hungary. To this end, they are preparing to attack the neighboring country.

But the spin’s masterminds turned out to be apparently too lazy or incompetent to create a decent-quality hoax.

The exposing features of the so-called “classified analytical report” are illustrations that accompany it. These are two infographics pieces from the Slovo i Dilo analytical portal, published in October 2020 and December 2022. It is from the pieces that accompanied these bits that the “hackers” took unedited loads of text that they presented as a “classified report.”

Another source for the hoax compilation was an article by Dmytro Shulha for the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia newspaper entitled “The Hungarian Problem of Europe,” published in October 2022.

These pieces indeed analyze the problematic issues of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations. But at the same time, firstly, they are not classified but public; secondly, they in no way call on Ukraine to attack Hungary, and thirdly, they express private perspectives of their authors and in no way do they reflect the government position.

In order for the fake material to look like a solid analytical reference, its headings were numbered and named: “internal political situation,” “economic state of the country,” “foreign political activity of the state in the international arena,” “situation of the armed forces of Hungary,” “leaders of states and governments (depending on the constitutional structure of the state) on their official statements regarding neighboring states,” “supporting (not supporting) Ukraine in the international arena (current state).”

The author’s style and spelling are preserved so that everyone can make a conclusion regarding the professional level of the so-called “analysts.”

The “Beregyni” had to dilute the borrowed pieces of text, obviously, with their creativity on the topic of the economic, social, and military potential of Hungary. Instead of a detailed analysis, let’s focus on quoting only a few bits:

“As for the internal political situation in Hungary in my opinion it is not stable because the pro-Russian political views of the country’s leadership on the events taking place in Ukraine and hence it follows that the majority of the population supports these views”

“Hungary has taken a position ‘No one touches us, we do not touch either”

“…natural gas (on which Russia got Hungary hooked and from which the country is playing into the hands of the aggressor state)…”

“ Therefore we can conclude that the foreign policy activity of the state in the international arena is currently very bad”

“But despite this we can conclude this is a pro-Russian country and it can be expected to stab us in the back.”

Propagandists used a network of explicit Z-channels with names such as “PMC Media,” “War Donbass,” and “We Are for Riot Police” to spread the fake by the “Beregyni.”

The Center for Strategic Communication notes that Kyiv’s relations with Budapest are not perfect at the moment. The causes and consequences of this a topic for analysis by many experts, whose opinion pieces are publicly available.

It is beneficial for Russia to deepen contradictions between Ukraine and its neighbors. Hostile propaganda is working hard to this end, producing more fake stories, even those of the lowest quality.

In the entire history of modern independence, Ukraine has not attacked anyone and has no aggressive intentions toward any country in the world. The sole purpose of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is to protect its state within internationally recognized borders. The Kremlin’s attempts to ascribe its aggressive invasive nature to Ukrainians are ridiculous.

The Center for Strategic Communication