Welcome to Investigative Stories from Ukraine, the Kyiv Independent's newsletter that walks you through the most prominent investigations of the past week. If you are fond of in-depth journalism that exposes war crimes, corruption, and abuse of power across state organizations in Ukraine and beyond, subscribe to our investigative newsletter.
Russian provocateurs Vovan and Lexus [Russian government-aligned provocateurs Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov] have been communicating with fighters from the International Legion on behalf of the fifth Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, to "recruit them into a private army" for a "revolution in Ukraine".
TOP FINDINGS: An apparent Russian state-aligned group is targeting Ukraine's International Legion in a disinformation campaign The Kyiv Independent obtained and analyzed exclusive video that shows the group used doctored footage to pose as the Ukrainian ex-president on a Zoom call that took place in January Legion members are being tricked into agreeing with incendiary statements against Zelensky Lack of cultural context, morale issues and low pay in some units have made the International Legion more susceptible to such attacks The attack appears linked to the Russian government-aligned provocateurs Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, known as Vovan and Lexus The effort highlights ongoi.