Storm-1516 is flooding the information space with lies through deepfakes, fake social media accounts, and AI-driven websites. Today, operations like Storm— rather than official state media—form the backbone of Russian influence campaigns.
These are the key conclusions of a recent report by NewsGuard, an independent journalistic organisation whose mission is to combat disinformation. NewsGuard has already verified more than 400 false claims related to the Russian–Ukrainian war promoted by Russia. Analysis of its database shows that in 2025, Russian influence operations overtook official state media as the primary source of these narratives, emphasise Eva Maitland and Alice Lee, authors of “400 and Counting: A Russian Influence Operation Overtakes Official State Media in Spreading Russia Ukraine False Claims.”
The leading role in disinformation about Ukraine is played by the Russian influence operation known as Storm-1516. Its objective is to shape public opinion outside Russia, primarily through the large-scale dissemination of false narratives about the war, the West, and Ukraine. Storm-1516 is neither a media outlet nor an official institution; rather, it is a coordinated disinformation campaign that employs hundreds of websites impersonating legitimate media, AI-generated content, deepfake materials, and inauthentic social media accounts.
The operation’s creators deliberately avoid direct associations with Russia. Its activities are dispersed, making Storm-1516 one of the most dangerous tools of modern information warfare. False claims originating from this network often reach millions of views across social media platforms.
Another significant Russian influence operation highlighted in the report is Matryoshka. This campaign is known for the mass production of fake news reports that impersonate well-known media brands. Much of this content is amplified by the Pravda network, which consists of roughly 280 websites publishing propaganda in more than a dozen languages.
The authors of the report also stress the growing role of artificial intelligence in Russian disinformation efforts. “Artificial intelligence allows lies to be produced at tremendous speed. In November 2025 alone, Storm-1516 published five false claims that spread across 11,900 articles and posts, generating 43 million views,” write Maitland and Lee, authors of “400 and Counting: A Russian Influence Operation Overtakes Official State Media in Spreading Russia-Ukraine False Claims”.
Russia Manipulates Artificial Intelligence: A New Front in the Kremlin’s Information War
NewsGuard further warns that narratives generated by Storm-1516 are beginning to contaminate leading AI language models. In testing, some chatbots repeated Russian lies as facts, citing sources from the Pravda network.
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