Fakes on the line of fire: how the Kremlin and Iran tried to use the Middle East crisis against Ukraine and why it matters to Israel

Why the new wave of disinformation concerns not only Ukraine

Amid the escalation of events in the Middle East in February and March 2026, a coordinated information campaign was launched against Ukraine. Its purpose was not only to damage Kyiv’s reputation but also to sow distrust in the Ukrainian leadership, defense technologies, and the country’s international cooperation. According to the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, structures linked to the Kremlin and the Iranian regime were involved in this campaign.

For the Israeli audience, this topic is particularly sensitive. Any attempt to link Ukraine with arms supplies to the ‘black market,’ with Iran, or with strikes in the region automatically hits several nerve points: Israel’s security, trust in Western allies, and the perception of the war as part of a broader struggle of democracies against authoritarian regimes.

This is not about a chaotic set of rumors. It is about a quite understandable scheme: take a real crisis, embed emotionally charged fakes into it, replace facts with stylization under well-known media, and then spread it all through a network of controlled resources. This is exactly how modern propaganda works when it needs not to prove but to confuse.

What goals did this campaign pursue

According to the Ukrainian Center, this wave of disinformation had three main goals. The first was to undermine Ukraine’s international reputation through false accusations that the Western weapons transferred to it allegedly end up on the black market and then reach Middle Eastern countries, including Iran. The second was to impose the image of an ‘incompetent’ and ‘corrupt’ Ukrainian government. The third was to discredit Ukraine’s international defense cooperation through fakes about the losses of Ukrainian specialists in the Middle East.

This is important for Israel because in such plots, Ukraine is portrayed not as a partner but as a source of threat and instability. And when such a picture is fixed in the international information field, those forces win that benefit from destroying trust between Kyiv, Jerusalem, Washington, and European capitals.

Five key fakes that were spread against Ukraine

The myth that Western weapons from Ukraine end up in Iran

One of the most toxic narratives was built around the false claim that weapons transferred to Ukraine by Western partners end up on the black market and then reach Iran. The report provides an example of a fake video styled as a USA Today material. It claimed that among the debris of weapons used by Iran for attacks on Israel and American bases in the region, components of weapons previously transferred to Ukraine were allegedly found. For credibility, they even added a fictional ‘ISW analyst comment.’ The Center established that the material was fabricated: there was no such publication on USA Today’s official resources, and the attributed statements are not confirmed.

For the Israeli reader, everything is perfectly transparent here: the calculation was for a strong emotional reaction. When Iran, attacks on Israel, and an alleged Ukrainian trace are combined in one message, part of the audience may experience instant distrust, even if there is no evidence at all. This is exactly the effect the campaign authors were counting on.

Accusations that the Ukrainian government protects not the country but its own interests

The second narrative was aimed both inside Ukrainian society and outwardly at the international audience. Manipulative messages were spread in Telegram channels masquerading as Ukrainian, claiming that the Ukrainian government allegedly sends the best specialists in air defense and drone technologies to protect not their own cities but ‘Arab sheikhs.’ Simultaneously, baseless accusations were thrown in that such assignments are related to the protection of foreign property of Ukrainian politicians, officials, and security forces, as well as with some ‘kickbacks’ and personal enrichment. The report emphasizes that these accusations are not supported by anything.

Here the scheme is also familiar: if cooperation between Ukraine and partners cannot be refuted, it is tried to be presented as a betrayal of its own citizens. For Israel, which itself lives in the logic of constant security and allied obligations, this technique is well recognizable. Propaganda always tries to turn cooperation into suspicion and professional help to allies into ‘betrayal.’

The story about ‘economic collapse’ and fuel crisis

Another promoted plot concerned the rise in fuel prices. Against the backdrop of tensions in the Middle East and shipping restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz, some resources began to push the thesis that the rise in fuel prices in Ukraine was caused not by external market factors but by corruption and inaction of the Ukrainian government. Conspiracy theories were promoted that officials allegedly use the price increase as a source of personal income. The Center points out that such accusations are not supported by evidence and are built on emotional rhetoric and assumptions.

This is no longer just a fake, but an attempt to embed Ukraine in a global crisis as if it itself is the cause of its problems. In reality, propagandists took a real global factor — the oil market’s reaction to the situation in the region — and attached political manipulation to it. This method is especially dangerous because it looks ‘similar to the truth.’

How exactly this propaganda machine works

Fakes about dead Ukrainians in the Middle East and photo forgery

One of the most cynical narratives concerned the alleged death of Ukrainian military specialists in the Middle East as a result of Iranian strikes. The report separately emphasizes that to give the fakes credibility, photos of real Ukrainian military personnel were used, whose personal data was changed, and fictional circumstances of death were added. In one case, propagandists used a real photo of the deceased defender Mykola Syshyk in 2024, then ‘rejuvenated’ him using AI and invented another name. In another episode, a real photo of Ukrainian servicemen was altered: the image was placed against a background with palm trees and skyscrapers to create the impression that the shooting took place in the Middle East.

This is no longer ordinary lies but digital looting on someone else’s memory and someone else’s death. And that is why such campaigns need to be analyzed in detail, not dismissed as just another propaganda. Today a fake photo may be aimed at Ukraine, tomorrow at Israel, its army, its reservists, its families.

This is the broader meaning of the topic for readers who follow the agenda through NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency. When authoritarian regimes synchronously use war, pain, oil, Iran, Ukraine, and fear for Israel’s security as a single material for an information attack, it is no longer about local lies but about a regional war for the perception of reality.

An attempt to prove the ‘ineffectiveness’ of Ukrainian defense technologies

A separate line of attack was directed against the Ukrainian military-industrial complex. The thesis was thrown into the information space that Ukrainian solutions in the field of countering drones are ineffective and unable to protect the strategic objects of partner countries. As a tool, falsified video materials styled as content from authoritative international media, including Al Jazeera, were used again. The logic of manipulation is simple: real international cooperation of Ukraine in the defense sphere is taken, and then an invented failure is embedded in it.

For Israel, where air defense, missile defense, and critical infrastructure protection technologies have literally existential significance, this plot sounds especially acute. Any doubt about the effectiveness of partner solutions can be used as a tool of pressure, distrust, and strategic disunity.

Who spread these narratives

The report lists a wide range of participants in the dissemination of such messages: official representatives of the Russian Federation and Iran, a network of propaganda resources Portal Kombat, segments Pravda and ZOV linked to Russian special services, Telegram channels like ‘Legitimate,’ ‘Resident,’ and ‘Gossip,’ the UkrLeaks network, the InfoDefense system, resources of Viktor Medvedchuk, Iranian state media, as well as X-accounts masquerading as independent analysts and commentators. It is separately noted that the ZOV network is primarily oriented towards the Ukrainian audience and adapts destructive content to regions and large cities, creating the illusion of local origin of messages.

In other words, we are not dealing with a spontaneous set of anonymous throws, but with an influence infrastructure. It has channels, languages, masks, ready-made templates, and experience in adapting the same myth to different crises.

What methods were used and why it works

The Center describes several key techniques: brand spoofing, when fakes are styled as well-known media; fake attribution of comments to real experts; coordinated dissemination through channel networks; mixing real facts with manipulative conclusions; recycling old narratives like the ‘black market weapons’ theme; and also the use of artificial intelligence to create and edit fake photos and videos.

Simply put, it’s a factory of plausibility. It does not always invent everything from scratch. Much more often it takes one real fact, two old scare stories, a familiar media logo, a bit of neural network processing — and gets a product that is convenient to forward in messengers without verification.

Why this is important for Ukraine, Israel, and the entire international coalition

The ultimate goal of such operations is not just to spoil Kyiv’s reputation. Their task is broader: to shake trust within Ukraine, demoralize society, undermine allies’ confidence, form doubts about the transparency of aid use, sow distrust in defense cooperation, and ultimately weaken support for Ukraine. The report explicitly states that at the internal level, such narratives are aimed at undermining trust in state institutions, and at the international level — at weakening Ukraine’s image as a reliable partner.

For Israel, there is an important practical conclusion here. When the same propaganda node simultaneously works against Ukraine, against trust in Western alliances, and through the Iranian track tries to influence the Middle Eastern audience, it is already a matter not only of media but also of security. Information warfare has long ceased to be an appendix to missile warfare. It has become its full-fledged front.

That is why the analysis of such campaigns is needed not only by Ukrainians. It is also needed by Israeli society, which knows too well how fakes, forgeries, out-of-context videos, and imaginary ‘expert leaks’ are used for pressure, intimidation, and political destabilization.

As long as Ukraine and Israel remain in the focus of hostile regimes, such information operations will be repeated. The decorations, reasons, and platforms will change. But the essence will remain the same: to quarrel allies, erase the boundaries between truth and throw-in, and then present controlled chaos as reality.