Russia is systematically using information as a weapon during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This is how it wants to hide international crimes and avoid responsibility.
This is stated in a report by the international human rights company Global Rights Compliance and the war crimes documentation project The Reckoning Project.
A key component of Russia’s information strategy in the war against Ukraine is “information alibis”. These are fabricated narratives that are intended to conceal the truth and justify illegal actions. This strategy was used especially actively during Russia’s invasion of Syria, in particular to deny the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons against its own people and illegal attacks on the Syrian Civil Defense.
For example, the study on the shelling of Maternity Hospital No. 3 in Mariupol demonstrates how Russia used an information alibi to deflect responsibility for the shelling of the hospital, falsely claiming that Ukrainian forces were using it as a military base.
The photo shows 32-year-old Iryna Kalinina being carried out of maternity hospital No. 3, destroyed by the Russians. This moment was documented by photographer Yevgeny Maloletka — his photo went around the world. Iryna and her firstborn son Myron died.
Days before the hospital was attacked, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vasyl Nebenzya lied that the maternity hospital in Mariupol had been occupied by Ukrainian troops. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova repeated this narrative hours before the hospital was destroyed by Russian airstrikes.
That is, this is how Russia presented the bombing of the hospital as a "provocation" allegedly organized by Ukraine.
Russia has also used disinformation to accuse Ukraine of shelling the Olenivka prisoners of war camp. Russian sources have accused Ukraine of planning to shell the facility, ostensibly to silence witnesses to alleged war crimes that Russia claims Ukraine committed in Mariupol. Kremlin-linked bloggers have claimed that Ukraine worked with the British intelligence service MI6 to kill the prisoners of war camps.
The attack on the Kramatorsk train station on April 8, 2022, shows how Russian disinformation campaigns laid the groundwork for the strike — even though there was evidence that the stations were being used to evacuate civilians.
A bloodied childrenʼs toy at the Kramatorsk train station. In 2022, then-Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrskyi handed it over to the UN Crisis Coordinator in Ukraine, Amin Awad, to be forwarded to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
By falsely accusing Ukraine of using “human shields” and declaring an imminent conflict, Russia created an information alibi for itself. Thus, the Russians shied away from responsibility for the shelling.
The Russian Federation is spreading disinformation through more than 100 000 social media pages, as well as a large network of popular Telegram channels. Russian war bloggers play a key role in this effort. Their audience is estimated at around 10 million people.
The authors of the study emphasize: Russia regularly uses information alibis to justify its crimes and discredit Ukraine.
Thus, before the attack on the Kakhovka HPP on June 6, 2023, the Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vasyl Nebenzya sent a letter to the UN Secretary General and the Chairman of the UN Security Council in October 2022. It discussed the "plans of the Kyiv regime to destroy" the Kakhovka HPP by means of a mine attack or a massive missile strike.
Satellite image of the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station dam after it was blown up by the Russians on the night of June 6, 2023.
SkySat images
In addition, in May 2023, the pro-Russian Telegram channel “War on Fakes” wrote that “Ukrainian propaganda is deliberately distorting information [about Russia continuing to release water at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station], taking it out of context in order to present Russia in a negative light.” Another Telegram channel, ANNA-NEWS, which belongs to a network of Russian propaganda and disinformation media and has ties to Russian special services, published a video with the caption: “Who is trying to flood the banks of the Dnipro River? One of the techniques of Ukrainian propaganda is to blame the enemy for what you yourself are doing. How Ukrainian propaganda attributes its actions to the Russian side […].”
The report shows that Russian disinformation strategies emerged more than a year before the attack, meaning these operations were planned in advance.
How to hold Russians accountable
A key challenge in prosecuting people for spreading information alibis is the difficulty of establishing a direct connection between their actions and the commission of an international crime. This requires showing that the disinformation campaign significantly influenced the commission of the crime, facilitated it, or hindered the investigation and prosecution of those responsible.
However, the practice of international criminal tribunals provides some guidance on this issue. For example, in the proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Trial Chamber found that Radko Mladić, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army, made a significant contribution to the genocide in Srebrenica by spreading disinformation to cover up crimes and obstruct justice.
This case, along with other precedents, shows that people involved in an information alibi can be held criminally liable if their actions contribute to international crimes.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.