Pro-Kremlin accounts and social media have spread an unsubstantiated narrative that homes belonging to Ukrainian military officers were burned in the Los Angeles wildfires. This statement has been viewed more than a million times on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Researchers examining Russian influence operations say it is part of a broader Kremlin campaign to discredit the Ukrainian government and undermine the United States for Ukraine.
“This is the latest in a long line of claims across Russian officials, media and the pro-Kremlin online ecosystem that Ukrainian officials are corrupt and foreign aid is to enrich them,” said Léa Ronzaud, a researcher. principal of the research company Graphika, to NPR in an email.
“It’s typical of what we’re seeing in Russia, taking advantage of an ongoing crisis for their own purposes,” said Darren Linvill, a communications professor and co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University.
The general Ukrainian story first appeared on a pro-Russian Telegram channel 4 days after the fires began in Los Angeles. Within hours, this data was amplified through several other sources, adding some other Telegram channel that called it satire, an X account, and an online page resembling a once pro-Russian network known through of the French authorities. Some of the posts amplifying this baseless claim falsely attributed it to United24 Media, an online page affiliated with the Ukrainian government organization.
The Center for Combating Disinformation at Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council issued a statement calling the claim “Russian propaganda. “He said he verified with United24 Media that he did not create or share the story.
NPR has not obtained evidence that any Ukrainian generals owned homes in Los Angeles that were destroyed by the fires. The Ukrainian government denied to NPR that any general’s homes were affected by the fire.
The next day, an influencer using the handle @OlgaBazova, who has previously echoed narratives pushed by known Russian influence networks, shared the story in English with its 700,000 followers on X. The account’s bio describes itself as “specializing in humoristic geopolitical analytics, exposing hypocrisy and satire.”
Later that night, Robert “Buzz” Patterson, an American conservative influencer with 400,000 followers on X.
When contacted by NPR on X about the post, @OlgaBazova responded with a link to a Russian-language article that cited the original Telegram claim about the mansions.
Patterson responded to NPR’s messages asking why he made that statement.
The story that first circulated has been debunked by professional fact-checkers in Greece and the United States. Both @OlgaBazova and Patterson’s posts earned user-generated network ratings on X, which mentions Greek fact-checking.
The unverified claim about the alleged Ukrainian mansions also appeared to appear on other social media platforms, such as Tik Tok, TruthSocial and the Russian site VK, but did not gain much attention.
This story is the latest example of Russia abandoning the use of fake social media profiles posing as genuine people, as it did in the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections, and using of fake profiles on social media that pose as genuine people, as they did in the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections, and rely on influencers to whitewash and spread their narratives, he said Linvill.
In some cases, influencers have said they were paid to post content later identified by researchers and U.S. intelligence officials as Russian propaganda. There is no evidence that the influencers that spread the LA fire claims have been paid.
When asked if it had asked or advised @OlgaBazova to post this claim, the account responded in a public post about a malevolent demon of the status quo posing as a “journalist. “
In September, the U.S. Justice Department indicted two employees of Russian state broadcaster RT in a scheme to funnel nearly $10 million to right-wing American influencers who posted videos opposing aid to Ukraine, praising now President-elect Donald Trump, and criticizing Democrats. The influencers have said they did not know the company paying them was linked to Russia.
Other Russian Telegram channels are also spreading false or unverified narratives about the southern California fires and the government’s response, as well as amplifying critiques from Americans including the president-elect’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., Andy Carvin of the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab told NPR in an email. The Russian news site Pravda, which has been associated with prior Russian information operations, then translates and distributes the Telegram posts.
“Over the past week, Pravda has published at least 350 such articles [based on fire-related Telegram messages], based on our initial investigation of the site’s content,” Carvin said.
When a fire devastated Maui in 2023, Russian state media also amplified the U. S. complaint about the federal response. Stories related to past influence operations in China have false claims about the origins of the fire.
Although the Ukrainian officials’ story has been more successful than other narratives about the fires that originated from Russia-allied channels, Linvill said, it has still been spread as widely as previous narratives linked to Russia.
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