Max Hunder
KHARKIV, Ukraine, July 31 (Reuters) - In early April, some residents of Kharkiv received a series of chilling text messages from government officials telling them to flee the city before Russian forces surrounded it.
"Due to the threat of enemy encirclement, we urge the civilian population of Kharkiv leave the city by April 22," said one alert, which bore the logo of the State Emergencies Service of Ukraine and mapped out safe escape routes on a slick infographic.
It was fake. Volodymyr Tymoshko knew immediately. He's the police chief of Kharkiv region and would have been one of the first to find out about any official evacuation plans.
"Residents started getting these notifications en masse," the 50-year-old told Reuters as he shared a screenshot of the alert, sent as Russian troops were massing at the border 30 km away.
"This is a psychological operation, it triggers panic. What would an average citizen think when they receive such a message?"
Disinformation and propaganda, long mainstays of war, have been digitally supercharged in the battle for Ukraine, the biggest conflict the world has seen since the advent of smartphones and social media.
Tymoshko said he received about 10 similar messages via SMS and Telegram messenger in April and early May, the weeks leading up to Russia's offensive in northeastern Ukraine that began on May 10 and opened up a new front in the war.
A Ukrainian security official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the Russians frequently sent large numbers of text messages from devices attached to an Orlan-10 long-range reconnaissance drone which can penetrate dozens of kilometres into Ukrainian airspace.
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