The staff of the dubious news resource Cxid.info, which claims to be a “prominent Ukrainian news portal,” has signs of being made-up: all individuals presented on the website as journalists, editors, and correspondents have no confirmed professional or public digital footprint beyond the website, found Valentyna Troyan, the Institute of Mass Information representative in Luhansk oblast, while analysing the “About Us” section on the Cxid.info website for her blog.
The page lists five staff members, including publisher Dmytro Zorin, correspondents in Germany and Italy, a culture columnist, and an editor. No information about their journalistic work was to be found in open sources such as Ukrainian and international media, professional communities, academic databases, and social media.
Cxid.info also claims that their team works abroad, namely in Bratislava (Slovakia), and that their audience has expanded to several European countries and the United States. However, the website offers no independent confirmation of the actual presence of the staff or correspondents abroad.
Earlier, the Institute of Mass Information reported on Cxid.info’s ties to the former Luhansk Oblast State Television and Radio Company CEO, Rodion Miroshnyk, who now serves as an “ambassador at large” at the Russian Foreign Ministry. Before the full-scale invasion, the website overlooked the topic of the Russian occupation and did not adhere to media transparency standards.
In addition to the lack of a verified editorial team, Cxid.info tends to use third party images without proper context, quoting Russian officials without indicating their status as representatives of the aggressor state, as well as reporting that normalises the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories.