Possibility that Russia has been running an anti-Ukrainian campaign in the United States on news sites and social media, claiming that 'aid money to Ukraine should be used for the United States'

Internal Russian government documents have reportedly shown evidence of a Russian campaign to incite anti-Ukrainian sentiment by repeatedly posting on social media sites posing as Americans and criticizing the United States.

Russian trolls target US support for Ukraine, Kremlin documents show - The Washington Post

The issue was reported by The Washington Post, which claims to have reviewed more than 100 internal Russian government documents.

According to the Washington Post, organizations linked to the Russian government planned and carried out a disinformation campaign to influence the political views of American citizens and lawmakers.

In one example, a political consultant was found to have instructed others to write comments of up to 200 characters, pretending to be from the suburbs of a large American city, such as 'I do not support the military aid the U.S. is giving to Ukraine, and the funds should be used to protect the U.S. border, not Ukraine.'

The comments have been used in thousands of fabricated news articles and social media posts to stoke Americans' fears about border security and racial tensions.

The internal documents showed many traces of the comments being produced by a team led by Ilya Ganbashidze, head of the Moscow-based PR firm Social Design Agency. The US government was also aware of Ganbashidze and had imposed sanctions on him in March 2024 for allegedly engaging in 'malicious foreign campaigns.'

The call to stop aid to Ukraine has been particularly loud among Republican lawmakers in the United States, but opinions are divided within the Republican Party as well, with some pointing out that a 'Russian campaign is behind it.'

Regarding this matter, the analyst said, 'All Russia needs to do is put out content every day. Such a campaign will bear fruit over time and will be amplified by politicians and celebrities.'