We have gathered on this Ukraine War Resource Hub page essential information and links to reliable research, analysis and fact-checks to help you navigate this war. You can also find tips and ways to combat mis and disinformation as well as responses brought to counter disinformation. Content on the narratives, trends, and strategies is available in our blog post by Maria Giovanna Sessa, EU DisinfoLab Senior Researcher, and in our bi-weekly Disinfo Update (latest one here). You can subscribe to our newsletter here.

This page will be updated regularly. Last update: June 16, 2022.

NARRATIVES AND HOAXES

Detector Media. The organization “collects all narratives, messages, and tactics, which Russia is using from February 17th, 2022 to spread disinformation about the Russian invasion.”

EDMO. The European Digital Media Observatory is updating a list of fact-checking articles that members of its fact-checking network publish during the war. EDMO has published an article analysing the false narratives spreading about the war in Ukraine. And it has set up a taskforce on disinformation about the war in Ukraine.

EUvsDisinfo. The European External Action Service’s East StratCom Task Force hosts a database of disinformation cases about Ukraine.    

Facta.news. Italian fact-checker and IFCN signatory, Facta, compiles a list of disinformation narratives around Ukraine (in Italian only).

Fake fact-checks. ProPublica reports on Russian-language videos spreading on social media claiming to debunk Ukrainian disinfo. They’re actually part of a campaign that spreads disinformation by disguising it as fact-checking (Twitter thread). 

ISD. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue covers the Russia-Ukraine war over all their areas of expertise. On this page, you will find ISD’s latest analysis, reports and resources ISD has previously produced on disinformation, information operations and state-linked online assets. 

NewsGuard Disinformation Tracking Center. NewsGuard has identified 114 Russian disinformation sites and is tracking the top false narratives that they are publishing about the invasion of Ukraine.

The Washington Post. An article appeared in the fact-checking section of The Washington Post verifying Russian President Putin’s February 21 speech on Ukraine. Some declarations are hard to debunk due to the lack of institutional transparency and independent organisation’s in the country. 

Twitter lists. Spanish journalist Carmela Ríos (@CarmelaRios) compiled a list of journalists to follow on Twitter to get trustworthy information about Ukraine. El Diario vice director, María Ramírez (@mariaramirezNY), also compiled a list of correspondents and special envoys in Russia and Ukraine, as well as experts in the region. Maldita editor Fermín Grodira has compiled another list with OSINT experts who are analysing Ukraine-related imagery.

UkraineFacts. Spanish fact-checker and IFCN signatory, Maldita, together with more than 50 worldwide fact-checkers have created #UkraineFacts, an interactive world map that shows the evolution of the war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian fact-checkers. VoxUkraine and StopFake.org are IFCN signatories from Ukraine.

Wikipedia. The online encyclopedia created a page for disinformation in the 2021-2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis.

RESPONSES TO DISINFORMATION

CJR. Columbia Journalism Review keeps a timeline of all the activities affecting newsrooms and platforms during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Global Disinformation Index. Every week, GDI tracks how ad tech continues to provide funding pipelines to disinformation in the Ukraine war. 

Online platforms. Social media platforms are regularly updating their policies to reduce the spread of misinformation.

  • Discord has announced that it will remove “false or misleading information.”
  • Douyin, Weibo, WeChat and Bilibili, four popular Chinese social media platforms, announced they had begun to delete content, accounts, and comments spreading alleged misinformation, calling for war, or making vulgar remarks.
  • DuckDuckGo has “started down-ranking sites based on whether they’re deemed to be associated with Russian disinformation.”
  • Google, the parent company of YouTube, policies on disinformation include blocking RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik in Europe and stops all advertising in Russia across their platforms.
  •  Meta is “restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU” and demotes content from “Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts from Russian state-controlled media outlets and making them harder to find across our platforms”. On March 10,  Facebook and Instagram users in some countries are allowed to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, in a temporary change to Meta’s hate speech policy.
  • Reddit “banned links to state-supported Russian media outlets across the site, and for all users worldwide. It has also banned all ads from Russia or targeting Russian users.” The platform also quarantined the subreddits r/Russia and r/Russianpolitics from the platform’s search results.
  • Under pressure from the EU, Telegram has banned Russia state media.
  • TikTok announced it blocked all non-Russian content, in addition to ban on livestreaming and adding new content from Russia.
  • Twitch will ban users who persistently spread harmful misinformation.
  • Twitter has taken multiple steps to prevent attempts at amplifying false and misleading information. Recently, they added “extra labels to Tweets that share links to Russian state-affiliated media websites.” As of March 11, Twitter also labels “accounts and Tweets sharing links of state-affiliated media outlets in Belarus.” Twitter announced this week it would stop amplifying state-run accounts and would limit accounts that post videos or images of war prisoners.

Worldwide companies’ responses. Some worldwide companies have severed ties with Russia and suspended services in the country. Amongst them, Airbnb; Amazon stopped shipments, Prime Video streaming and New World MMO purchases;  Apple paused all product sales after stopping all exports in the country, and Apple Pay services are limited; Cogent Communications cut off services to Russian clients;  Microsoft has halted all new sales of products and services in Russia and is halting “many aspects” of its business in the country; NetflixPaypal; Spotify shuttered its Russia office indefinitely, and took down content  all content from Russian state news agencies Sputnik and RT; Visa, Mastercard and American Express.  The Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute monitors the companies which have withdrawn from Russia, and which ones haven’t. 

Sanctions against Russia. Correctiv provides a live monitoring of all sanctions and embargoes against Russia. 

Sanctions against Russia Today & Sputnik. The Council of the EU suspended the broadcasting activities of Sputnik’ and Russia Today in the EU. More here.

Media Manipulation Casebook. The Shorenstein Center’s Media Manipulation Casebook has been updated with useful records of social media takedowns and content moderation during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

OPEN SOURCE MATERIAL

Bellingcat. The fact-checking and open-source intelligence group has put together a public spreadsheet collecting entries when incidents have been verified, debunked or if claims contained within videos or images are inconsistent with other open source evidence or contextual data.

Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map. The Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map is a crowdsourced effort by Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), BellingcatMnemonic and the Conflict Intelligence Team, and the wider open source community to map, documents and verifies significant incidents during the conflict in Ukraine. You can follow this CIR Twitter thread for more information about the geolocation of Russian firing positions causing destruction in Ukraine.  

TIPS and Threats

Access Now. The organization provides updates on the measures taken to protect people involved in the conflict from cyber threats.

BBC News. BBC Specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring shares tips on how to spot fake news and false posts about the war in Ukraine. 

Cyberpeace Institute. The organization has built a timeline of how cyberattacks and operations have been targeting critical infrastructure and civilian objects. On June 16, Cyberpeace Institute launched its ‘Cyber Attacks in Times of Conflict Platform #Ukraine’, which includes attacks against not only Ukraine but also the Russian Federation, and other countries impacted by attacks linked to this armed conflict. This Platform also provides a breakdown of attacks by the different sectors affected such as telecommunications, energy, transport, etc., and the harms and impact for people and society.  

Defend Democracy. The organization provides guidance on how to share information responsibly. You can also to Defend Democracy’s podcast on the do’s and dont’s of dealing with disinformation in this time of war.

GIJN. The Global Investigative Journalism Network has put together a regularly updated toolkit to help reporters around the world investigate about Russia.  

Mental Health. In this Reuters article, Headlines Network founder Hannah Storm offers tips to reporters and editors on how to protect themselves while monitoring the conflict.