Exclusive interview with Halyna Petrenko, director of Detector Media, the Ukrainian watchdog “naming and shaming” Russian propagandists
Detector Media, a Ukrainian civil society organisation that specialises in media analysis, tracks and examines Kremlin propaganda designed to justify the invasion of Ukraine. As part of The Propaganda Monitor, a project launched in September 2024, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) filmed an interview with Halyna Petrenko, Director of Detector Media, who explains Russia’s strategies to spread disinformation on social media and identifies the people behind the scenes.
"Deciphering the inner workings of Russian propaganda and identifying the actors spreading it is vital to combating the Kremlin's false narratives aimed at justifying its war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian watchdog Detector Media is doing essential work by tracking these narratives and their reach in real-time. Through The Propaganda Monitor project, RSF highlights the valuable expertise of independent organisations like this one, which are committed to the fight against Russian disinformation and the defence of reliable information.
Over 2,600 false reports, nearly 800 cases of manipulated facts, and 755 propaganda narratives have been exposed between February 2022 and December 2024 by DisinfoChronicle, an online watchdog project by Detector Media, a Ukrainian organisation, led by Halyna Petrenko, specialising in media analysis and Russian propaganda monitoring. Launched on 17 February 2022, just a few days before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, DisinfoChronicle tracks Kremlin disinformation stories propagated on social media and in traditional media outlets in real-time.
Yet Detector Media doesn't just monitor Russian propaganda. It also “names and shames” the key individuals running the system, responsible for spreading this targeted disinformation in the occupied Ukrainian territories and abroad. In June 2024, one of its investigations revealed how Moscow has transformed the occupied Ukrainian regions — namely Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014, and Kherson and Zaporijjia since 2022 — into bastions of disinformation. The investigation also showed how heavily these operations relied on the propaganda networks of Russian businessman Alexander Malkevich and Yevgeny Prigozhin, former head of the Wagner militia who died in August 2023.
RSF’s Propaganda Monitor, an online portal launched in September 2024, analyses the processes and actors behind Russian propaganda and notably amplifies the voices of expert individuals and organisations in the field.
Ukraine and Russia rank 61st and 162nd respectively in RSF’s 2024 World Press Freedom Index.
