The Kremlin continues its efforts to stop the transfer of Western long-range missiles and tanks to Ukraine. In particular, it is spreading the narrative that the new weapons will pose a threat to Russia's security, according to a report by the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Analysts recalled how Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of deliberately protracting the war following its authorization to provide Ukraine with Patriot missile systems last December.
“Putin absurdly implied that Ukraine would use Patriots (protective air-defence systems) to strike Russian territory, even as Ukraine begged for these systems to stop Russia’s ongoing air and missile campaign on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the fall of 2022. This information operation was intended to stall Western aid,” the report states.
Kremlin officials are continuing to foster the narrative that Western transfers of longer-range precision rocket systems and Leopard tanks pose some new threat to Russian security, even though they pose no greater threat than the provision of Soviet tanks or other precision systems.
“Ukrainians have not used Western-provided HIMARS systems to strike Russian territory... And the idea that Ukraine will mount an invasion of Russia with Germany’s Leopards is laughable. The purpose of this Russian information campaign is two-fold: first, to delay the arrival of Western tanks for as long as possible; second, to disrupt the formulation of a coherent Western approach to shifting Ukraine fully to Western weapons systems,” the analysts note.
Russia will continue to weaponize information operations to support military operations in Ukraine, especially in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin is resuming a narrative exaggerating Russian frontline victories with the ongoing offensives on Bakhmut and Lyman.
The Russian Ministry of Defence proudly demonstrates its victories over the captured settlements around Bakhmut, but the impact of such information operations is waning.