Pro-Kremlin accounts and social media have spread an unsubstantiated narrative that homes belonging to Ukrainian military officers were burned in the Los Angeles wildfires. This statement has been viewed more than a million times on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Researchers examining Russian influence operations say it is part of a broader Kremlin campaign to discredit the Ukrainian government and undermine the United States for Ukraine.

“This is the latest in a long line of claims through Russian officials, the media, and the pro-Kremlin online ecosystem that Ukrainian officials are corrupt and foreign aid is to enrich them,” Léa Ronzaud, a senior researcher at the research firm Graphika, told NPR in an email.

“It’s just so typical of what we see from Russia, [to] take advantage of an ongoing crisis for their own ends,” said Darren Linvill, a communications professor and co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub.

The widespread Ukraine story first appeared on a pro-Russian Telegram channel four days after the fires began in Los Angeles. Within hours, this data was amplified through several other sources, adding some other Telegram channel that described them as a satire, an of the French authorities. Some of the posts amplifying this baseless claim falsely attributed it to United24 Media, an online page affiliated with the Ukrainian government.

The Center for Countering Disinformation of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council issued a statement calling the claim “Russian propaganda. ” He said he verified with United24 Media that he did not even create the story.

NPR has not obtained evidence that any Ukrainian generals owned homes in Los Angeles that were destroyed by the fires. The Ukrainian government denied to NPR that any general’s homes were affected by the fire.

The next day, an influencer under the pseudonym @OlgaBazova, who in the past had echoed narratives pushed through well-known Russian influence networks, shared the story in English with her 700,000 fans on X. The account’s biography describes itself as “specializing in fun geopolitical analysis. ” , exposing hypocrisy and satire. “

Later that night, Robert “Buzz” Patterson, an American conservative influencer with 400,000 followers on X.

When contacted by NPR on X about the post, @OlgaBazova responded with a link to a Russian-language article that cited the original Telegram claim about the mansions.

Patterson did not respond to messages from NPR asking why he had posted the claim.

The story that initially circulated was debunked by professional fact checkers from Greece and the United States. Both @OlgaBazova and Patterson’s posts received user-generated community notes on X citing the Greek fact check.

The unverified claim about the alleged Ukrainian mansions has also made waves on other social media platforms, including Tik Tok, TruthSocial and the Russian site VK, but has not gained much traction.

The story is the latest example of Russia abandoning the use of fake social media profiles posing as genuine people, as it did in the 2016 and 2020 U. S. presidential elections, and influencers to cover up and spread their narratives, Linvill said.

In some cases, influencers said they were paid to post content that was later known as Russian propaganda by U. S. researchers and intelligence officials. There is no evidence that the influencers who made the Los Angeles fireplace claims were paid.

When asked if it had asked or advised @OlgaBazova to post this claim, the account responded in a public post about a malevolent demon of the status quo posing as a “journalist. “

In September, the U. S. Department of Justice charged two workers at Russian state broadcaster RT in a scheme to funnel around $10 million to right-wing U. S. influencers who posted videos opposing aid to Ukraine. , praising President-elect Donald Trump and criticizing Democrats. The influencers said they did not know that the company paying them was related to Russia.

Other Russian Telegram channels are also spreading fake or unverified accounts about the Southern California fires and the government’s response, as well as complaints from Americans, President-elect Donald Trump, Jr. ‘s son, Andy Carvin, added to NPR. of the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab. . in an email. The Russian newspaper Pravda, which has been linked to past Russian news operations, then translates and distributes the Telegram messages.

“Over the past week, Pravda has published at least 350 such articles [based on fire-related Telegram messages], based on our initial investigation of the site’s content,” Carvin said.

When a fire devastated Maui in 2023, Russian state media also amplified the United States’ complaint about the federal response. Stories related to past influence operations in China make false claims about the origins of the fire.

While the Ukrainian officials’ story has been more successful than other versions of the fires coming from Russia-allied channels, Linvill said, it has not yet been disseminated as widely as previous Russia-related versions.