Hostile Propaganda Maps Claim Ukrainian Regions as Russian Territory

Hostile propagandists are distributing maps showing Ukrainian regions as part of the Russian Federation as part of an information campaign to annex Ukrainian territories. Publications with these maps are actively distributed through telegram channels, social networks and propaganda media. Three regions of the South are also included in the map.

This was reported by Natalia Vygovska, a representative of the Institute of Mass Information in Zaporizhzhia region.

The occupiers' propagandists published in the local media in the TOT of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv regions and Transnistria a material about new geographical maps of Russia, which indicate that Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Odesa regions within their administrative boundaries are part of the Russian Federation.

This publication first appeared on March 4 on the closed propaganda Telegram channel Pozdnyakov 3.0, which has more than 709 thousand subscribers. The post stated that "new maps of Russia have arrived in new offices" and that "Kharkiv, Odesa and Mykolaiv have already become part of Russia." It was also noted that "everything has already been decided at the top".

The publication was illustrated with a map of the Russian Federation, where seven Ukrainian regions are marked as part of the aggressor country. According to the Russian catalog of telegram channels tgstat.ru, the post received 382 thousand views and 20 thousand shares in 12 hours.

Screenshot: IMI

This post, with minor changes, without indicating the sources, was immediately published on the Telegram channel of various propaganda media. In addition, the post appeared on the social network X by a user with the nickname Mr. Pachkovsky and by the end of the day had more than 30 thousand views. The photo of the map used in the post was taken from the Rostov Main Telegram channel, which has almost 211 thousand subscribers.

The published map shows manual interference with the borders of the aggressor country. The map violates the standard division of Russia's federal districts, where Ukrainian territories are shown within the blurred boundaries of the central and southern federal districts, which differs from the usual boundaries visible on other parts of the map.

Cinema plays a significant role in shaping public opinion, and Russia is no exception. In the context of information wars, the aggressor country has begun to use cinema as a propaganda tool that actively influences public sentiment. Given the ease of distribution and accessibility of Russian content in Ukraine, it is important that society and citizens carefully analyze the information they consume, distinguishing between artistic image and mind manipulation.

During World War I, information work played a significant role in achieving military goals. From 1914 to 1918, the United States and its allies actively used a variety of methods to influence the minds of both their own citizens and the peoples of the enemy to change the course of the war in their favor. Most of this work was propaganda.

Анна Бальчінос