MApN: Russian media disinform about Russia's attacks near Romania's borders with Ukraine 

Romania's Defence Ministry (MApN) says that the Russian press is disinforming about the recent attacks on January 16 - January 17, carried out with drones by the forces of the Russian Federation on civilian port infrastructure in Ukraine, near the border with Romania.According to a MApN press statement, the Russian disinformation campaign uses false or out-of-context information and invents non-existent situations to manipulate the truth and influence public opinion."As the Ministry of National Defence has already communicated, during the illegal drone attacks carried out by the Russian forces on the night of Thursday, January 16, to Friday, January 17, the monitoring and surveillance systems of the Ministry of National Defence have signalled violations of the Romanian airspace, which required, according to the procedures, the establishment of measures to alert the population of Tulcea County and the take-off, from the 86th Air Base in Borcea, of the two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force in the Air Police Combat Service. Subsequently, as we informed through a second press release, investigations carried out by the teams made up of specialists from the Ministry of National Defence, the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, two areas were identified where debris of Russian Geran1/2 drones fell, one between Ceatalchioi and Tudor Vladimirescu, and the other south of Chilia Veche. The impact of the drone debris, which was picked up for investigations, did not affect infrastructure elements and no material damage was reported."This situation, which unfortunately become a routine, was the starting point for a completely false scenario invented in the Kremlin's propaganda laboratories."The articles published by the Russian press place the illegal attack carried out by its own forces on the Ukrainian civilian ports one day later, namely Friday, January 17, to Saturday, January 18 and push forward, without any real basis, the idea that the military forces of the Romanian Army would have intervened in the unfolding of events by firing on Russian drones with striking means arranged on the national soil of Romania. In the fanciful scenario, it is stated, without any connection to reality, that the objective of the Russian attacks would have been, in fact, a transit operation by Romanian soldiers (according to a propaganda source) or by Romanian mercenaries (as stated by another), transported by boats from the Romanian shore to the Ukrainian one. The 'attack' described by the propaganda material, which would have been ordered from the top of the Russian army, would have caused numerous victims on the Romanian side, dead and wounded. In the Kremlin scenario, helicopters of the Romanian Air Force also appear, which would have intervened to evacuate the so-called wounded and support with live ammunition the intervention of the Ukrainian forces on the other bank," according to the statement.MApN points out that, although absurd and implausible, this "news" is part of the pattern of Russian influence and manipulation operations currently carried out in the Romanian and NATO public space."No matter how clumsy it is written and how many obvious errors it contains, fake news is amplified in the public space targeted by algorithms and affiliated human agents, on multiple propaganda channels. Subsequently, official reactions or analyses of so-called 'experts' are generated, which are, in turn, exploited by the amplification system in the online environment, especially on digital communication platforms," explains MApN.It says that these operations are primarily aimed at public opinion in Romania and, by extension, elsewhere in the NATO space, which is manipulated into believing that NATO is going to go to war with Russia and that Romania is being pushed into this conflict."This propaganda narrative is combined with others, such as the so-called intentions to use the military bases in Romania to prepare offensive operations, the preparations made in secret by the authorities in Bucharest to send Romanian soldiers to the front in Ukraine and others, which we have constantly signalled on this platform for combating disinformation."At the same time, this type of disinformation also targets the Russian domestic public, which is fed the myth of the besieged fortress, being manipulated into believing that Russia is in danger of being attacked by NATO and that in Ukraine the Russian military and the invasion forces are fighting, in the so-called "special military operation" against NATO."We reiterate that the reality that Russian propaganda and the vectors of propagation in the Romanian and Euro-Atlantic public space are trying to cover up through these actions of disinformation and manipulation is that the Russian Federation, in total disregard of international rules, militarised the Black Sea, invaded Ukraine and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, and since 2022 it has been engaged in an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign neighbour. The brutal war that Russia is waging against Ukraine is only one dimension of the assault that Russia is waging on the democratic and free world. In parallel, the Russian Federation is engaged in a persistent set of hybrid actions against NATO, the European Union and other nations in the Black Sea region," according to MApN.The ministry also draws attention to the fact that "it is expected that, moving forward, the fake news presented in this material will be taken over and amplified by the agents of Russian propaganda acting from within the Romanian public space and amplified, especially on digital platforms".