IMI monitoring: Online media primarily cite war information from official sources, but the Kursk operation changed the situation

Ukrainian online media still source most of the news on the Russo–Ukrainian from official speakers and state institutions: those account for 47% of all war-related news, as evidenced by the monitoring conducted by the Institute of Mass Information in late August, covering 10 national media outlets.

Foreign media, which account for 15% of war news, rank second. These were mostly about to the UAF's Kursk operation, on which Ukraine's official sources disclosed little to no information.

The coverage of battlefield areas in online media. Diagram by the IMI

11% of the news stories cited experts and watchdogs such as the Institute for the Study of War or DeepState. These organizations primarily assess the general course of the war in Ukraine and shifts in the demarcation line, while other experts also focused on the Kursk region.

Only 7.5% of the news about the battles cited military personnel as their sources. However, only half of the news featuring information from soldiers were about Kursk, the rest being divided approximately equally between the Southern area and the Kharkiv area.

Social media were the primary source of information in 6% of war-related news. Mostly, these were fact-based news which had not yet been reported by official sources, and the social weight of such news was quite significant – shelling in Russia being an example.

"The information sources in war coverage primarily depended on the topic. Despite official speakers and structures, which account for about 47% of all war-related news, being the main source in war news, when it comes to covering the Kursk operation, the information was primarily coming from foreign media. And, quite predictably, 100% of the information in the news on the General Staff reports and statistics was sourced from official structures such as the General Staff or the Ukrainian Air Force," comments IMI research analyst Olena Holub.

The study covered 10 national media outlets: TSN.ua, NV, Ukrainian Pravda, Censor.Net, UNIAN, RBC-Ukraine, Obozrevatel, Channel 24, Babel, and Suspilne.