Ukraine accused Russia of developing an artificial intelligence tool that allows Moscow to meddle in Western elections by spreading disinformation.
Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s national security adviser, told The Times that artificial intelligence tools have allowed Russia to take its disinformation campaigns to new heights and that the Kremlin has invested heavily in artificial intelligence.
He said: “Artificial intelligence is a huge step forward for Russia and makes the impact (of its meddling) exponentially greater.”
Danilov said only “two or three” agents had the ability to create “tens of thousands” of realistic, but fake, social media accounts on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
He added that Russia’s spy operations against Ukraine were spreading up to 166 million disinformation posts on social media platforms each week.
Of this huge number, 36 million aimed to discredit senior Ukrainian officials, 23.5 million attempted to sow political and military dysfunction, 51 million attempted to demoralize the army, and another 55 million attempted to demoralize the public.
Ukraine on Tuesday accused Russia of carrying out a large-scale ‘disinformation’ campaign to divide its Western allies.
Ukraine alleged that Russia was spreading false information online in an attempt to disrupt Ukraine’s mobilization campaign.
“The international goal of the Russians is to reduce support for our country by the pro-Ukrainian coalition in the world,” Ukraine’s intelligence service said.
He added that Russian spies were also trying to harm Ukraine’s ability to obtain crucial military aid from its Western partners.
kyiv has become increasingly frustrated by delays in Western aid in recent months, warning that it has lost ground to Russia due to ammunition shortages.
“The international goal of the Russians is to reduce support for our country by the pro-Ukrainian coalition in the world,” Ukraine’s intelligence service said.
He alleged that Russia was spreading false information online in an attempt to disrupt Ukraine’s mobilization campaign, question kyiv’s ability to win and promote the idea that the West was “fatigued.”
‘The Russian special services have extensive experience in conducting hybrid warfare. “They don’t spend less on information attacks against Ukraine than on conventional war,” he added.
He said Russia had budgeted $1.5bn (£1.2bn) for its disinformation campaign, including almost $250m spent on “anti-Ukrainian sentiment” on the messaging app Telegram.
He also accused the Kremlin of trying to sow distrust in Ukraine’s public officials and question President Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-year term, which is set to expire in May.
“According to the enemy’s plan, in the first half of June the situation in our country will be affected and then, taking advantage of the situation, Ukraine will be militarily defeated in the East, which is the key idea of its operation,” it said.
Faced with shortages of ammunition and manpower on the battlefield, the Ukrainian army has suffered increasing difficulties along the entire front line.
It has withdrawn from a number of towns on the eastern front in the past three months, including the main industrial center of Avdiivka in early February.
While EU leaders have overcome Hungary’s long-standing opposition to agreeing to more aid, support from Washington, kyiv’s biggest ally, has been slowed by infighting in Congress.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers questions from the media during his press conference in kyiv.
Ukrainian gunner Vasyl Zozulia removes a smoking casing after firing the weapon.
Ukrainian servicemen visit exhibition showing destroyed Russian military vehicles
It comes hours after the Kremlin warned that conflict between Russia and NATO would be inevitable if European members sent troops to fight in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that European nations have not ruled out sending troops to the field.
He said nothing should be excluded as the West seeks a strategy to counter Russia, which controls just under a fifth of the territory recognized as Ukraine.
“We will do everything necessary to ensure that Russia does not win,” Macron added.
“The very fact of discussing the possibility of sending certain contingents to Ukraine from NATO countries is a very important new element,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about Macron’s statements.
Asked about the risks if NATO members sent their troops to fight in Ukraine, Peskov said: “In that case, we would have to talk not about the probability, but about the inevitability (of a direct conflict).”
Peskov said the West should ask itself whether such a scenario would be in the interests of its countries and people.