Cyber attacks, war disrupted Russian propaganda in March – Lithuanian army analysts

VILNIUS - Analysts of the Lithuanian army recorded 374 cases of Russia's hostile information in March, the Lithuanian army said on Wednesday.

The flow of anti-Baltic propaganda weakened in early March, and articles on the situation in Ukraine were published only sporadically.

"This was mainly due to two main reasons. In the first half of March, the operation of Russian propaganda channels was disrupted by cyber attacks. On the other hand, propagandists were fully focused on conducting information operations against Ukraine," the army said.

In March, disinformation and lies to justify Russia's military and other action against Ukraine dominated the Kremlin regime-controlled media. It stated that the Alliance was responsible for what was happening in Ukraine, claiming that "the US and NATO have long been planning to wage war against Russia and are preparing to use nuclear and chemical weapons against it".

It was also stressed that just as NATO and the US will not defend Ukraine, neither will they defend the Baltic states.

Military analysts point out that propagandists continue to undermine the importance of Lithuania's NATO membership and to intimidate the Lithuanian people. Moreover, disinformation was also spread that Lithuania would be the main target of an open confrontation between the Alliance and Russia, and that "the latter's missiles would flatten Lithuania's cities".

The Lithuanian government's decisions to beef up its defense were described as Lithuania's militarization under the pretext of the situation in Ukraine.