Russia’s ‘Nasty’ Info War: Bots Target Occupied Ukraine, New Report Finds

WASHINGTON, DC – Russia is undertaking “ingenious and nasty efforts” to eradicate Ukraine’s identity, culture, and language in occupied territories, according to a new Atlantic Council (AC) report.

The report, which focuses on pro-Russian bot networks, was announced Wednesday by former US Ambassador to Ukraine, John Herbst, who currently runs the AC’s Eurasia Center.

Herbst strongly condemned Russia’s actions, highlighting the “ingenious and substantial means” through which Moscow is waging this informational warfare. The Atlantic Council’s findings reveal a sophisticated digital campaign designed to control information and suppress Ukrainian sentiment in the country’s occupied eastern and southern regions.

 “Moscow to justify its aggression... talked about the repression, the alleged repression, of the Russian language, Russian culture and Ukrainian territory... Now that didn’t happen. The Russian language was used freely, but it occupied Ukraine. The Russians have made it a dangerous practice to speak Ukrainian,” Herbst said, highlighting the stark hypocrisy.

The former ambassador further detailed the systematic destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage:

“The Russians have destroyed, burned Hitler style, thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Ukrainian history books written by Ukrainians, for Ukrainians. And of course, they’ve used the Russian social media Telegram channels... in order to remove vestiges of retaining Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian language in occupied Ukraine,” he said.

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The report, titled “Digital occupation: Pro-Russian bot networks target Ukraine’s occupied territories on Telegram,” is a collaborative effort by OpenMinds and the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council. It provides an in-depth look at Russia’s multifaceted attempts to exert informational and cultural control over these regions.

The extensive investigation, spanning from January 2024 to April 2025, identified 3,634 automated accounts that posted over 316,000 pro-Russian comments on Telegram channels specifically tailored for Ukrainian populations living under Russian occupation.

These automated posts are deemed a critical component of Russia’s broader strategy of “informational and cultural occupation,” designed to cultivate loyalty to Russia and erode support for Ukraine.

The study found that these accounts crafted highly specific messages for the occupied territories, differentiating their content from that aimed at other audiences across Russia and Ukraine.

A key finding highlighted in the report is the nuanced differentiation in messaging between bot networks targeting channels within Russia versus those in occupied Ukrainian territories.

While general themes overlapped, the comments directed at occupied Ukrainian channels showed a markedly stronger emphasis on integrating these populations into the “Russian world” informational sphere, attempting to manufacture the appearance of local consensus in favor of occupation and Russian administrative control.

Furthermore, individual narratives were often adjusted to respond to immediate local conditions, such as power outages, alongside proactive narratives initiated by the network. The report underscores the relentless digital battle for hearts and minds in the occupied regions, emphasizing the critical role of social media platforms like Telegram in Russia’s efforts to solidify its control beyond military occupation and, as Ambassador Herbst articulates, to actively suppress and eradicate Ukrainian identity.For more details, the full report is available on the Atlantic Council’s website.