Pro-Kremlin accounts and social media have spread an unsubstantiated narrative that homes belonging to Ukrainian military officers were set on fire in the Los Angeles wildfires. The claim has been viewed more than a million times on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Investigators examining Russian influence operations say it’s part of a broader Kremlin campaign to discredit the Ukrainian government and undermine the U. S. for Ukraine.
“This is the latest in a long line of claims made by Russian officials, the media, and the pro-Kremlin online ecosystem that Ukrainian officials are corrupt and receive foreign aid money to enrich themselves. “Lea Ronzaud, a senior researcher at the research firm Graphika, told NPR in an email.
“It’s just so typical of what we see from Russia, [to] take advantage of an ongoing crisis for their own ends,” said Darren Linvill, a communications professor and co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub.
The widespread Ukraine story first appeared on a pro-Russian Telegram channel four days after the fires began in Los Angeles. Within hours, this data was amplified through several other sources, adding some other Telegram channel that described them as a satire, an of the French authorities. Some of the posts amplifying this baseless claim falsely attributed it to United24 Media, an online page affiliated with the Ukrainian government.
The Center for Combating Disinformation of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council issued a statement calling the claim “Russian propaganda. ” He said he verified with United24 Media that he did not create or share the story.
NPR has received some evidence that Ukrainian generals owned homes in Los Angeles destroyed by fires. The Ukrainian government denied to NPR that the generals’ homes were affected by the fire.
The next day, an influencer under the pseudonym @OlgaBazova, who in the past had echoed narratives pushed through well-known Russian influence networks, shared the story in English with her 700,000 fans on X. The account’s biography describes itself as “specializing in fun geopolitical analysis. ” , exposing hypocrisy and satire. “
Later that night, Robert “Buzz” Patterson, an American conservative influencer with 400,000 followers on
When contacted via NPR on X about this post, @OlgaBazova responded with a link to an article in Russian that mentioned Telegram’s claim about the mansions.
Patterson responded to NPR messages asking why he made the claim.
The story that first circulated was debunked by professional fact-checkers in Greece and the United States. Both @OlgaBazova and Patterson’s posts earned user-generated network ratings on X, which mentioned Greek fact-checking.
The unverified claim about the alleged Ukrainian mansions also gave the impression on other social media platforms, adding Tik Tok, TruthSocial and the Russian site VK, yet did not gain much traction.
The story is the latest example of Russia’s shift away from using fake social media profiles impersonating real people, as it did during the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections, and instead relying on influencers to launder and spread their narratives, Linvill said.
In some cases, influencers have said they were paid to post content that was later known as Russian propaganda by U. S. researchers and intelligence officials. There is no evidence that the influencers who posted the Los Angeles smokestack allegations received any money.
When asked if it had asked or advised @OlgaBazova to post this claim, the account responded in a public post about a malevolent demon of the status quo posing as a “journalist. “
In September, the U. S. Department of Justice charged two workers at Russian public broadcaster RT in connection with a scheme to funnel around $10 million to right-wing U. S. influencers who posted self-deprecating videos. opposing aid to Ukraine, praising President-elect Donald Trump and criticizing Democrats. The influencers said they did not know that the company paying them was related to Russia.
Other Russian Telegram channels are also spreading fake or unverified accounts about the Southern California fires and the government’s response, as well as complaints from Americans, President-elect Donald Trump, Jr. ‘s son Andy Carvin of the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab told NPR. . in an email. The Russian newspaper Pravda, which has been linked to past Russian news operations, then translates and distributes Telegram messages.
“Over the past week, Pravda has published at least 350 such articles [based on Telegram messages related to the fires], based on our initial investigation of the site’s content,” Carvin said.
When a fire devastated Maui in 2023, Russian state media also amplified domestic U.S. criticism of the federal response. Accounts tied to previous China influence operations spread false claims about the fire’s origins.
Although the Ukrainian officials’ story has been more successful than other narratives about the fires that originated from Russia-allied channels, Linvill said, it has still been spread as widely as previous narratives linked to Russia.
KUOW is Seattle’s NPR news channel. We are an independent, nonprofit news organization producing award-winning journalism, cutting-edge podcasts, engaging networking events and more.