Photo edit by Channel 24
Another fake website of the Ukrainian news outlet RBC-Ukraine has appeared in the web. This was reported by the fact-checking project “On That Side of News“.
Russian propagandists used the fake website to post a misleading article entitled “Zaluzhnyi spells everything out.” In the article, which is purportedly written by the news feed editor, Dmytro Braslavskyi, they cite a similarly fake Facebook post by the UAF Commander-in-Chief, Valery Zaluzhnyi. With this report, the Russians are trying to promote the belief that “it’s all over,” the counteroffensive has failed, Zelenskyi has betrayed everyone, there will be no more weapons, and other such false and pessimistic narratives, reports “On That Side”.
The article is structured like an original column where “Braslavskyi” reflects on the counteroffensive prospects and comes to the conclusion that Ukraine needs more Zaluzhnyis, not a traitor president.
According to the domain verification service “whois”, the resource with the domain name “rbk media” (actually the name is somewhat different, but Facebook has already identified the fraud and is taking it down) was registered in February 2023. The real “RBC-Ukraine” domain name is rbc.ua.
The fake post by Valery Zaluzhnyi, which is bein promoted by an empty “For You” page, is being actively recommended by Facebook algorithms as well. Thanks to this, the post with the link to a fake website ended up in the feeds of many Ukrainians.
The fact that the post in question is fake is evidenced by its layout. The text itself is shown in a Facebook window, but the profile name id from Twitter (and has the signature verification checkmark).
Dmytro Braslavskyi, whom the “On That Side of News” contacted for comment, was surprised to learn that his name was being exploited by fraudsters again. The editors will deal with this problem.
The editors of RBC Ukraine filed a statement with the cyberpolice over website forgery and a fake article criticizing the UAF Commander-in-Chief, Valery Zaluzhnyi. The perpetrators signed the article criticizing Zaluzhny as Dmytro Braslavskyi.
RBC Ukraine reported in June 2022 that their social media accounts had been impersonated to promote a survey the media outlet had nothing to do with. Back then, the team contacted the National Police, the Secutiry Service of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Ditigal Transformation.