How Ukrainian officials' clumsy wording fuels Russian propaganda
A Ukrainian communications expert says that over the past year, at least twice, careless statements by Ukrainian officials gave Russian propaganda material to exploit — involving migrant workers in April and empty store shelves in August.
Artem Zakharchenko, head of CAT-UA (Communication Analysis Team – Ukraine), writes in a column for Ukrainska Pravda that Russian propaganda relies on crude, repetitive methods, hoping that eventually some message will land. He argues that over the past year, mistakes by Ukrainian officials have made this crude tactic effective at least twice.
The migrant workers case
Since February 2026, Russian propaganda has pushed the narrative that Ukraine's government wants to bring in foreign workers from Asian countries. Around the same time, Ukrainian officials were saying similar things about labor shortages — on April 15, Vasyl Voskoboinyk, head of the Migration Policy Office, estimated Ukraine would need to attract 300,000 migrants annually, a statement that drew no particular reaction. Things changed on April 17, when military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov announced Ukraine would update its list of risk countries to ease entry for labor migrants from some of them. Right-wing politicians and city mayors picked up the story, and Russian bots then amplified it, turning it into a month-long controversy.
The empty shelves case
The second case followed Russian strikes on Ukrainian supermarket chain warehouses in early August, which left shelves genuinely empty in many stores. Russian propaganda spent all of August predicting a hungry winter, largely without traction. That changed on August 28, when Agriculture Policy Minister Taras Vysotskyi stated that 90% of retail chain warehouses had been destroyed, while adding there would be no threat of famine or systemic food shortages. Zakharchenko notes that phrasing built around a negation tends to backfire with audiences, and the following day Russian bots seized on the quote, sparking panic.
The author warns that repeated missteps like these can erode public trust in the government's ability to keep the situation under control, and urges officials to monitor Russian propaganda themes and phrase statements more carefully.
