Russian propaganda spreads fake about Ukraine allegedly 'establishing ties' with terrorists in Syria

Russian state news agencies and pro-war Telegram channels are spreading reports that allegedly unnamed Ukrainian "representatives" had a meeting with members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham military formation in the Syrian city of Idlib in mid-June. The Russian media reported that "representatives of the Ukrainian authorities" had supposedly wanted to exchange "Chechens, Turkmens and Georgians" who participated in the war in Syria and who are held by "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" for 75 UAVs, given that these drones can be used against the Russians who stay in this Islamic republic. In particular, the exchange list included the ISIS "defense minister," Abu Omar al-Shishani.

This is a fake. First of all, Ukraine does not conduct any negotiations with terrorist organizations. In addition, exchanging Abu Omar al-Shishani for drones or any other material things is impossible, since he died in 2016 in Iraq during the fighting around the city of Mosul.

In addition, in their posts, the Russian media refer to the Turkish-language news outlet Aydinlik, which is openly pro-Russian and has repeatedly published fakes about Ukraine.

The outlet belongs to the Vatan political party, which promotes an anti-Western and pro-Russian agenda, and is the only political party in Turkey that has called for recognition of the Russian occupation of Crimea and Abkhazia.

The Aydinlik website has repeatedly posted fakes about Ukraine, echoing the narratives of Russian propaganda, for example, that Ukraine is allegedly involved in the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in Moscow and has ties to the terrorist organization ISIS. In fact, this is a news outlet being used by Russian propaganda to create fakes. In particular, the materials of dubious or false content published by the outlet are widely used in the Russian "media" with reference to "reports in the Turkish media," In this way, Aydinlik is used as an alleged "primary source" for spreading fake information in the Russian propaganda system.

Aydinlik cited "local sources" in the fake and indicated that details of the meeting were published on the website Lekolin.org, noting that it belongs to the communist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). PKK is a Kurdish separatist group, which was recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States and the EU and advocates the independence of Kurdistan and the separation of the lands inhabited by Kurds from Turkey. On the Lekolin.org website, this fake information about the supposed meeting of Ukrainian "representatives" with members of "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham" was posted on August 29.

In addition, in this story, as in all materials on Lekolin.org, the author of the material is not indicated. This site also does not indicate either the addresses or the composition of the journalists or founders of this "media outlet." Its account on X has 1,600 followers, and its Facebook page has only 131 followers.

It can be concluded that this "source" of information is hardly reliable or objective.

It should be noted that Ukraine does not have any diplomatic missions in Syria, as Ukraine severed all relations with this country on June 30, 2022.

Russian propaganda used unknown and pro-Russian Turkish-language media outlets to create fake material about Ukraine in order to pass it off as a "sensation" from "foreign journalists."

This is not the first time propagandists have done something like this. Ukrinform earlier wrote about a number of media outlets in Turkey that regularly create fakes about Ukraine and are part of a large network of Russian propaganda.

Russia promotes disinformation to once again groundlessly accuse Ukraine of allegedly supporting international terrorism and creating a so-called "Ukrainian trail" in terrorist attacks that take place in Russia. This is exactly what happened during the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall near Moscow and in Dagestan.

Russian propaganda earlier spread a fake that Ukraine was secretly buying "weapons-grade uranium" from Niger.

Andriy Olenin