Russia conducts psychological operation in Kharkiv border region – CCD

Russian forces are carrying out a psychological operation in the border areas of Kharkiv region by dropping leaflets from drones encouraging collaboration.

According to Ukrinform, this was reported on Telegram by the Center for Countering Disinformation.

"The enemy is massively dropping leaflets that visually imitate Ukrainian hryvnia banknotes. These fakes contain calls for collaboration, offers to 'leak' the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and attempts to discredit the country's leadership," the statement said.

The leaflets are deliberately folded to resemble real cash, aiming to make people pick them up and become interested in their content. They often contain QR codes.

"Scanning such a code may lead to phishing resources or hostile channels, which can result in your smartphone being hacked and your personal data stolen. Do not follow suspicious links, do not pick up enemy propaganda materials, and immediately report such findings to the police or via the Security Service of Ukraine chatbot @stop_russian_war_bot," the CCD warned.

The Center also noted that similar tactics using fake banknotes had previously been employed in the Sumy region.

As previously reported, Sensity AI has recorded that Russia is scaling up the use of deepfakes and AI-generated videos into a full-fledged tool of cognitive warfare.