The share of mudslinging among potentially commissioned news stories by Ukrainian media websites has tripled over the past six months, going from 2.8% to 8.5%. This is the largest spike among the types of covert promotion covered in the monitoring study by the Institute of Mass Information. IMI experts identified a total of 203 news stories bearing signs of commissioning in August 2026: 151 of them showed signs of covert promotion, while 49 were mislabelled ads.
For the first time, the military-industrial complex has emerged as a separate, systemic category of clients paying for news, accounting for 4.5% of the identified material. Previously, military-industrial companies were included in the “other commercial businesses” category. Overall, business clients accounted for 82.5% of the pool of potentially commissioned news.
There was also an increase in the amount of material potentially promoting Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, which accounted for 2% of the identified pool. Six months ago, Terekhov had been included within the “other politicians” category. Meanwhile, the overall share of covert political promotion rose from 16.2% in the first quarter of 2026 to 17.5% in August.
*The study was carried out by the Institute of Mass Information on 17, 18, and 19 August 2026 and covered 28 popular news websites: Babel, Hromadske, Suspilne, Rubryka, Slovo i Dilo, Graty, Texty, Frontliner, Hromadske Radio, Novynarnia, ZN.ua, Ukrainska Pravda, Espreso, Ukrinform, LIGA.net, NV, LB.ua, Censor.NET, Gordon, Interfax Ukraine, Korrespondent.net, RBC Ukraine, Focus, UNIAN, 24 Kanal, TSN, OBOZ.UA, and Telegraf. The sample included all news items published on these websites consecutively over the course the listed dates, and was screened for signs of commissioned material and for appropriate labelling.
