Putin failed to capture Ukraine. Then Russian fakes seized the White House.

After losing the battle for Ukraine, Putin set to win the narrative war — hijacking US politicians and eroding Western support with fakes that cost less than a missile and strike faster than one.

“Ukraine has started the war.” “Russia lost 60 million soldiers in WWII.” “Zelensky has 4% of support.” These aren’t random internet conspiracies — they’re carefully crafted falsehoods recently echoed from the White House itself, the culmination of Moscow’s billion-dollar disinformation bet.

While tanks roll through Ukraine, Russia’s most devastating weapon — “reflexive control” — has penetrated America’s highest office. Crafting perceptions to steer decisions in Moscow’s favor, this strategic manipulation now haunts Western capitals, potentially determining whether democracies stand or fall.

Moscow’s psychological warfare costs a fraction of its military operations yet yields what missiles never could: American leaders parroting Putin’s talking points as their own and shifted the key battlefield from Donetsk to Washington, where it closes in on its decades-long objective: making Ukraine’s closest ally question whether defending democracy is worth the trouble.

Putin’s art of the deal: US foreign policy for less than a fighter jet

American authorities have previously sounded the alarm that Kremlin disinformation is no longer just foreign interference — it’s infiltrating the US itself.

“Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States,” noted Michael McCaul, former Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

It likely played a role in stalling US aid — a delay that let Russian forces regain the upper hand and ultimately pushed Ukraine to withdraw from Avdiivka in February 2024. When President Zelenskyy made a behind-closed-doors plea to US lawmakers in December, he was met with skepticism fueled by fakes, including claims that Ukrainians were buying yachts with American tax dollars.

The rumor originated from pro-Russian sources. A Kremlin-linked website, DC Weekly, falsely claimed Zelenskyy had purchased two luxury yachts for $75 million using US aid. The story, featuring photos of vessels named Lucky Me and My Legacy, was amplified online by Russian propaganda networks.

US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene later retweeted the allegation from the Strategic Culture Foundation, a sanctioned outlet tied to Russian intelligence. The Treasury Department has accused the group of spreading disinformation and interfering in US elections.

Russian influence operations have also zeroed in on US voters. In September 2024, Tenet Media, a Tennessee-based firm, was identified as part of a Kremlin-funded campaign aimed at the US election.

Prosecutors allege it received nearly $10 million from the Kremlin-run media to spread pro-Russian content via right-wing influencers, including Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Dave Rubin – who command millions of followers on YouTube alone. Tim Pool eventually landed a spot in the White House press pool — courtesy of the Trump administration.

How Russia hacked America’s highest office

Russia’s disinformation has become so effective that US President Donald Trump has at times echoed Kremlin talking points. Most recently, Trump falsely claimed that Ukrainian troops were surrounded in Kursk.

“How is it possible to witness our losses and our suffering…and to still believe that they are not the aggressors, that they did not start this war?” Zelenskyy told CBS 60 Minutes. “This speaks to the enormous influence of Russia’s information policy on America, on US politics and US politicians.”

According to University of Maryland expert Sarah Ann Oates, Russian propaganda has left a lasting mark on how Americans talk — and think — about Ukraine.

“It’s not in the way you might think that Russians are sneaking into our social media platforms or doing this with clever memes,” she says. “The most effective propaganda has come in pushing the false narrative that NATO is responsible for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Oates says the Kremlin-spun myth that NATO triggered Russia’s invasion has taken deeper root in the US than most Americans realize — a clear win for Moscow’s disinformation playbook.

“The claim that NATO caused Russia to invade a peaceful neighboring country often goes unrefuted, or is even amplified, in news stories,” she says. “I think Russia has been very effective at finding a lie that many Americans seem to believe. That’s very clever propaganda.”

Turning the West against itself

Treston Wheat, chief geopolitical officer at Insight Forward and a Georgetown adjunct, says Kremlin propaganda has weaponized America’s divisions — and the only way to fight it is to understand how it feeds the nation’s deeper ideological wars.

“Rather than say disinformation changed anyone’s minds,” Wheat explained, “ what it did was give justification (even if based on falsehoods) to certain anti-liberal and populist views who were already suspicious of Ukraine because of domestic political battles.”

According to Wheat, part of the blame lies with how the conflict has been framed.

“That’s partially the fault of the Biden administration that made this a battle between liberal democracy and right-wing autocracy,” he says.

While Russian disinformation may not shape battlefield tactics, Wheat argues, it’s steering Western politics — twisting ideological narratives in ways that directly affect how and whether governments fund Ukraine. He adds that fighting Russian disinformation means reaching those who see eye to eye with Putin’s anti-liberal, populist worldview.

“Pro-Ukrainian advocates need to learn to place the conflict in the context of what these groups support, such as protecting sovereignty,” Wheat says.

Ukrainian prayers, Russian propaganda

Russian propaganda hasn’t just targeted the White House and the broader American public — it’s also managed to sway the very group expected to stand firmly with Kyiv: the million-strong Ukrainian American community.

Eddie Priymak, a researcher on religion in Ukraine and its diaspora, points out that Kremlin disinformation has seeped into US Protestant circles, where many Ukrainian Americans get their news from YouTube, Facebook feeds, and closed group chats — the perfect echo chamber for falsehoods to thrive.

“A propaganda video can be shared across multiple church group chats, influencing people’s perceptions of the war, he said. “As a result, the community you are part of directly impacts the influence of this propaganda.”

Though many worshippers have ties to Ukraine, Priymak notes those bonds weaken with time — making Slavic churches, often more diverse and less rooted in Ukrainian language and identity, especially vulnerable to Moscow’s influence.

“In these churches, it’s uncommon to hear any mention of the war during services beyond a possible prayer for peace,” he says. “Likewise, divisive posts are heavily discouraged in group chats.”

Priymak traces the issue back to a core tension: many churches prioritize unity over confronting uncomfortable truths — avoiding divisive topics like disinformation, even when silence allows harmful narratives to fester.

“It’s unlikely that any of this will change unless a church leader encourages their congregation to adopt a different perspective.”

The 200,000 propaganda posts that define Europe

Yet, Russia’s disinformation war isn’t just an American problem — it’s a global strategy, and Canada is firmly in its crosshairs. Oleksandr Pankieiev, editor-in-chief of the Forum for Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, says Russian propaganda is targeting both Canadian and Ukrainian audiences.

In Canada, home to a large diaspora and nearly 300,000 recent Ukrainian arrivals, Kremlin narratives push the idea that newcomers don’t deserve support — a tactic to sow discord and weaken one of Ukraine’s closest allies

“While this disinformation campaign has likely not influenced the Canadian government’s commitment to supporting Ukraine, it has contributed to a rise in anti-Ukrainian sentiment within Canadian society,” he says.

However, Canada is far from the only target. According to The Financial Times, a senior German diplomat has warned of a dramatic escalation in Russian disinformation campaigns across Europe — now operating with unprecedented scale, stealth, and sophistication.

Within this campaign, a vast network of over 50,000 fake accounts has been churning out as many as 200,000 posts a day, pushing the narrative that Germany’s support for Ukraine is destroying its own economy and inching the country toward nuclear war.

Russia’s newest weapon: Ukraine’s draft anxiety

Similarly, in Ukraine, Russian propaganda is working to undermine morale among both soldiers and civilians. Pankieiev points out that one of Russia’s narratives is to accuse Ukrainian officials — especially the president — of deliberately extending the war to maintain their hold on power.

“Russian propaganda tries to create the illusion that a segment of the population that supports the end of the war under any conditions is very significant in Ukraine,” Pankieiev said. 

Serhii Kuzan, chair of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center and former defense adviser, highlights a critical tension: while Ukraine faces an urgent need to mobilize, it struggles to secure the necessary resources — a gap Russia exploits in its information war.

The Kremlin’s disinformation campaign, he notes, zeroes in on two fronts: discrediting mobilization at home and eroding support for Ukraine abroad. Kuzan pointed out that Russian web agents actively promote fake videos of forced enlistment across Ukrainian social media and beyond to undermine trust both at home and abroad.

“We will not see the thousands of videos or cases where individuals willingly go and sign up to join the army,” said Kuzan, “but we will see a few videos of people who are resisting mobilization and those go viral.”

The commander of an aerial reconnaissance unit for Ukraine’s 128th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade, also commented on the impact of Russia’s disinformation campaign against Ukraine’s mobilization.

As Russia opened a new front in Kharkiv, online debate fixated less on the invasion and more on fear of being drafted and anger at the government for “sending people to die.”

“Potential conscripts are more afraid of the military recruitment office with a folder and pen in hand than of the Russian army getting closer every day,” he says. “No one is even troubled by their successes on the front.”

The White House’s Russian accent

Countering core Russian disinformation narratives in the United States remains a challenge — especially when those very narratives are echoed and amplified by Donald Trump and his allies, giving Kremlin talking points a powerful boost from within the American political mainstream.

“It’s far more effective when your own politicians are saying something, as opposed to hearing it from foreign adversaries,” Oates says.

Trump, however, has been inconsistent in how he talks about Russia and Ukraine. Public opinion polls consistently show that Americans hold a negative view of Russia and a favorable one of Ukraine, though Republicans tend to be more sympathetic toward Russia than Democrats.

That divide, Oates noted, is partly rooted in Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election in support of Trump.

“It can be puzzling to Americans why their own president would amplify Russian talking points,” she said. “For example, when Trump falsely claimed that President Zelenskyy had only 4% support, that particular lie came directly from the Kremlin playbook.”

Still, Oates notes that even Moscow may find Trump’s unpredictability frustrating. While Russian disinformation has successfully planted narratives that resonate with many Americans, Trump doesn’t always stick to the script, making him an unreliable amplifier despite aligning with Kremlin messaging.

This inconsistency underscores a deeper problem: as Russian narratives gain traction in the White House, the urgency of public awareness and resistance becomes all the more critical.

“It’s helpful if American citizens continue to see that Russia is a fundamental enemy of the United States,” she says. “That message gets lost, especially when Americans are contending with threats to democracy coming from their own president.”