The Kremlin has trotted out a 12-year-old singing star for a pigtailed propaganda video warning children that reports of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are a “Western disinformation campaign.”
“Today we are talking about how you can investigate what is happening — we are talking about events in Ukraine,” Sofia Khomenko says in the Ministry of Education clip, titled “A Lesson About World Peace,” the Telegraph reported.
The blue-eyed prodigy was joined by two presenters whose goal was to emphasize President Vladimir Putin’s declared “special operation” to achieve “demilitarization and denazification” in Ukraine.
Sofia, who sang live on TV about her love for the motherland in 2017, asked the two men innocent questions in the blatant spin effort.
Russia is using 12-year-old singer Sofia Khomenko in a misinformation campaign, according to a report. YouTube
Serhii, the father of teenager Iliya, cries over his son’s lifeless body lying on a stretcher at a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward in Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 2, 2022. AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
A Ukrainian serviceman walks as fire and smoke rise over a building following shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 3, 2022. AP Photo/Efrem LukatskyOne of the hosts, Denis Polunchukov, said: “There are many images about a war in Ukraine but actually these are from other war conflicts. Some images are even from computer games.”
He also told his impressionable audience that “the Ukraine crisis didn’t start yesterday and it is not just about Ukraine.”
Polunchukov warned about “misinformation” in social media, such as “a rocket has hit a kindergarten, a column of tanks has been broken, a plane has been shot down.
“Absolutely when you get this information from social media, it is very important to verify the source,” he said, telling children that they are “the heirs of our country.”
The Russian government has ramped up its propaganda campaign as its military faced greater-than-expected resistance from Ukrainian troops and citizens during its invasion.
Thousands of Russians have been arrested during anti-war protests.
Children look out the window of an unheated Lviv-bound train, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 3, 2022. AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a damaged logistic center after shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 3, 2022. AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to more than 1 million refugees.
