Another battlefield: Telegram as a digital front in Russia’s war against Ukraine
In this new report, the DFRLab investigates the role of Telegram in Russia since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
Another battlefield: Telegram as a digital front in Russia’s war against Ukraine
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Banner: Paper airplanes flying over Red Square in Moscow, generated by the DFRLab using Adobe Firefly.
In the more than two years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, no platform has expanded its role in helping the outside world to understand the Russian perspective on the war more than Telegram. Launched by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov in 2013, the messaging platform rapidly grew in popularity, eventually gaining primacy in Russian social media discourse. Its influence was solidified in the first months of the war, as the Kremlin cracked down on Western social media platforms while continuing to tolerate Telegram and utilize it for its own purposes. This has propelled Telegram into one of the last remaining windows for observing and understanding Russian thinking about the war, from the general public to the Kremlin itself.
To better understand Russian Telegram and how pro-war Russian influencers operate on the platform, the DFRLab analyzed the fifteen most influential Russian Telegram channels, conducted a deeper examination of three influential communities on Russian Telegram—including Russian military bloggers, private military companies (PMCs), and pro-Russian hackers—and examined the platform’s influence on Russian media outlets. Using a combination of qualitative open-source research and quantitative data analysis, we examined how these communities operate on Telegram, the key topics discussed, and how they are amplified by pro-Kremlin actors to the wider Telegram ecosystem. This analysis resulted in our report, Another battlefield: Telegram as a digital front in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Summary of findings
General themes:
- In the more than two years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, no platform has expanded its role in helping the outside world to understand the Russian perspective on the war more than Telegram.
- Its influence was solidified in the first months of the war, as the Kremlin cracked down on Western social media platforms while continuing to tolerate Telegram and utilize it for its own purposes.
- This propelled Telegram into one of the last remaining windows for observing and understanding Russian thinking about the war—from the general public to the Kremlin itself.
Trends among top Russian Telegram channels:
- Analysis of the fifteen largest Russian Telegram channels showed the greatest spike in activity at the very start of the February 2022 invasion, followed by a spike during Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed June 2023 mutiny against the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD).
- Additional spikes were consistent with local military developments ranging from the Ukrainian counteroffensive in northeast Ukraine in the spring and fall of 2022, as well as Russia’s military advances in the cities of Soledar and Bakhmut in March of 2023.
- Russia’s fifteen most influential channels routinely reposted content from other influential Telegram channels, effectively creating an echo chamber for reinforcing overall Kremlin narratives.
- Top channels experienced significant subscriber growth following the February 2022 invasion, but some of the most influential pro-war channels, such as Karaulny, Z SIL0VIKI, and WarGonzo, later experienced declines that have continued into the spring of 2024, perhaps due to war weariness.
- Top channels also experienced a vast jump in viewership, growing from nearly sixteen billion views in 2021 to 95.5 billion over the course of 2022. In 2023 viewership grew modestly to 109 billion views.
- Some of this growth can be accounted for by a handful of dominant channels. Between 2021 and 2023, state-owned news agency RIA Novosti nearly tripled its annual views, eventually garnering almost thirty billion views during 2023. Vladimir Solovyov’s audience on the Russia 1 channel increased twentyfold, achieving twenty billion views in 2023, while Readovka, a pro-Kremlin news site, achieved a ninety-onefold increase, reaching 17.85 billion views in 2023.
Military blogger channels:
- A Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) analysis of more than 500,000 Telegram posts published by thirty-eight leading military blogger channels surfaced recurring topical themes, including frontline updates, such as activities by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and its battlefield losses; narratives discussing the West’s dependence on Russian natural resources; Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities; and discussions denigrating Ukrainians as “Nazis.”
- During Ukraine’s successful September 2022 counteroffensive in Kharkiv, and pro-Ukraine forces infiltration of Russia’s Belgorod region in May 2023, military bloggers’ posts fell into three categories: on-the-ground frontline updates and analysis; mapping of losses/gains; and criticism of the Russian MoD and its management of the war. Posts related to these categories received more views and reposts than posts on other topics.
Private military company (PMC) channels:
- DFRLab analysis of channels affiliated with Russian private military companies (PMCs) identified three key areas of engagement: fundraising, recruiting, and information sharing.
- Channels collect money to buy tactical gear, medical supplies, firearms, and other equipment, relying on donations via Russian banks and cryptocurrencies.
- Russian PMC channels used the platform to recruit additional fighters to their battalions, often employing patriotic and emotional messaging.
- Wagner maintained at least thirty separate channels dedicated to regional recruitment offices. These, however, disappeared after Russian telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor cracked down on Wagner channels during the mutiny.
- Russian PMC channels engage in widespread information sharing on a variety of topics, such official Kremlin statements, current war footage, service awards, and disinformation narratives, including rumors about US biological weapons.
Russian hacktivist channels:
- The DFRLab identified four peaks in posting activity on Russian hacktivist channels, each of which preceded a notable hacking incident. Mentions of specific countries often spiked prior to these hacking incidents. Ukraine, the United States, and Poland received the most mentions.
Russian media use of Telegram:
- Telegram’s increasing popularity in Russia was reflected in how Kremlin-controlled, pro-Kremlin, and independent Russian media outlets increasingly cite Telegram content as sources in their news articles.
- An analysis of Telegram URLs showed a 481 percent increase in Telegram citations appearing in the articles of pro-Kremlin media outlets, jumping to 33,300 citations by 2023.
- Facebook and Instagram, both of which were banned by the Kremlin, experienced precipitous drops in news citations, while citations of X (formerly Twitter) dropped in 2022 and then increased in 2023, suggesting the impact of the Kremlin ban was only temporary. VKontakte (VK), a Russian social media app, experienced modest citation increases from 1,192 in 2021 to 1,848 in 2023, but its numbers were no match for the Telegram citations, suggesting that VK is not seen as an important information source.
Russian crackdown on anonymous channels:
- According to data from TGStat, a Telegram analytics platform, approximately half of the top one hundred Russian Telegram channels are anonymous.
- Some channels have embraced their anonymity as a branding tactic, presenting themselves as sources of insider information, adding to their appeal to readers.
- Anonymous channels targeted by the Kremlin are often accused of extortion by profiting off of “negative blocks,” in which a channel agrees to not mention a specific person or a company in a negative light in exchange for money.
- Crackdowns on anonymous Telegram channels have been successful due to the development of data-collection methods that allow investigators to deanonymize channels. In the words of Russian MP Alexander Khinshtein, “Anonymity on TG is a myth.”
Channels critical of the Kremlin:
- Despite efforts to identify channel administrators, Telegram maintains a robust community of actors exposing Kremlin wrongdoings and criticizing Russia’s political and military elite on the messaging app.
- One of the most popular Russian independent news outlets, Meduza, ranked seventeenth in subscribers among the top one hundred Russian news and media channels in Russia.
- Outside of Russia, reputable Western daily newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post have circumvented website bans by launching Telegram channels.
- Channels affiliated with the late Prigozhin and the Wagner Group became a significant threat to Kremlin messaging, climaxing with the June 2023 Wagner mutiny.
- Wagner channels garnered more than 107 million views and 1.3 million shares over the two-day period, while Prigozhin’s primary channel, Prigozhin Press Service, grew by more than 872,000 subscribers.
Additional case studies:
- Russian Telegram groups engage in fundraising to encourage civilians to donate money for equipment purchasing. Among the most successful fundraisers were campaigns promoted by propagandist and Telegram influencer Solovyov.
- Russian government ministries employ Telegram to recruit new soldiers, particularly in autonomous ethnic regions, while competing channels like Get Lost encourage Russian conscripts to avoid military service.
Research coordinated by Eto Buziashvili and Givi Gigitashvili
Written by Eto Buziashvili, Valentin Châtelet, Sopo Gelava, Givi Gigitashvili, Sayyara Mammadova, Ani Mejlumyan, Victoria Olari, and Roman Osadchuk
Additional research by Esteban Ponce de León and Jean Le Roux
Edited by Andy Carvin
Cite this report:
“Another battlefield: Telegram as a digital front in Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), June 10, 2024, https://dfrlab.org/2024/06/10/another-battlefield-russian-telegram/.
