Democracy Shield. European Commission. EU Ukraine. disinformation.

In November, the European Commission presented an initiative to protect the information space from russian fakes and hybrid attacks in Brussels. In addition, the EU is introducing a Strategy for Civil Society with additional funding up to EUR 9 billion by 2034 for media, initiatives and cultural projects.

“Our democracy is under pressure and under attack. Russia has been trying to undermine the EU for years due to manipulation and intervention,” said European Commission Vice President Henn Virkkunen: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_2660 
“Democracy Shield” will consist of three parts: ● EU information space protection; ● strengthening democratic institutions and supporting independent media;● development of media literacy and stability of society. 
The European Commission is preparing new steps to combat fakes and manipulation on the network. In particular: 
1. The European network of fact-checkers is created. It will work in all official languages of the EU and help identify fakes that threaten information security. 2. Advertising and copyright regulation is strengthened. The new rules will take into account the impact of influensers and generative AI, which is increasingly used to create manipulative content. 3. The EU is negotiating with platforms – signatories of the Disinformation Code of Practice – to stop receiving profits from advertising on pages that spread lies. 4. The European Commission will also expand the mandate of the Digital Media Observatory so that it can coordinate independent monitoring and analytics – the only European system for information integrity protection.
russia uses the names of real journalists to launch fakes. About it reports Euronews: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/11/04/false-claims-and-stolen-bylines-the-russian-propaganda-strategy-haunting-the-newsroom Here are some examples: - The name and photo of journalist Romen Fiasheti used in the fake “investigation” of “corruption” in the French company for the disposal of nuclear waste; - Also the russian used names Helen Brown (Britain) and the Dumitrescu Council (Romania) to promote disinformation in these countries. 
There is actually no protection against such attacks now – journalists remain vulnerable and their name can be used at any time. This not only harms specific people, but also blures trust in the media in general. Therefore, the initiative “Shield of democracy” although late, but very important.
We will add that in Japan also create a platform to combat disinformation. A consortium of leading companies, together with Fujitsu, develops an innovative system that will analyze information on the Internet, identify fakes, collect evidence and evaluate the reliability. The platform will use artificial intelligence, deep neural networks and a unique Japanese language model for quick and accurate fact checking. 
RSF: Dozens of fake sites are running in France that mimic media and distribute russian propaganda, Reporters Without Borders found 85 fake news sites that copy the design of French media and systematically promote kremlin narratives: https://www.eurointegration.com.ua/news/2025/11/12/7224718/
Since February 2025, more than 13,900 articles have been published on them – mostly attack on the President of France, statements about “west decline” and praise putin. Examples of manipulation: • fake cover for real editions (La France Souveraine); • real media sites (Sud-Ouest Direct); • mixing photos and passages of articles from different sources (Actu Directe). 
According to Recorded Future, the network is connected with the russian structure CopyCop, which creates fake media and uses generative AI. RSF warns: on the eve of local elections such campaigns undermine media trust. The Organization calls on Google, Meta and OpenAI to integrate the Journalism Trust Initiative standard to enhance the visibility of reliable sources.
Despite EU sanctions, russian state and “private” media (ria novosti, rt, lenta.ru, gazeta.ru, tass) continue to broadcast propaganda. Their messages are picked up by proxy resources in Europe and the world: Pogled.info (Bulgaria), Baltnews (Estonia), Frontnieuws.com (the Netherlands), Uusi MV-Lehti (Finland), Cutiapandorei (Romania), jednotneslovensko.info (Slovakia). 
Propagandists pay special attention to campaigns to dehumanize Ukrainian military, spreading through Substack, ZeroHedge (USA), ProNews (Greece), Informer (Serbia), Parlamentni Listy and CZ24.news (Czech Republic) theses about "the crash of Ukrainian defense" and "terrorist methods of the Ukrainian army". The messages about "corruption in Kyiv" (Magyar Nemzet, Hungary) are also being systematically replicated and the need for "taking into account the interests of moscow" (The American Conservative - USA, Reseau International - France).
The ECHR officially recognized the crimes of russia against Ukrainian media the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights established the legal responsibility of russia for the systematic cleaning of the Ukrainian media sphere. This decision was taken in the case “Ukraine and the Netherlands against russia”: https://webportal.nrada.gov.ua/yespl-ofitsijno-vyznav-zlochyny-rosiyi-proty-media-svidchennya-natsionalnoyi-rady-vzyato-do-uvagy/ 
The Court found that since 2014 russia: – stole and tortured journalists, – arranged extrajudicial executions, – captured Ukrainian media and frequencies – destroyed information infrastructure,
– jammed Ukrainian broadcasting and replaced it with propaganda. 
In the decision of the ECHR directly quoted the speech of the head of the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting Olga Gerasymiuk, which states: since 2014 Ukraine has lost 175 frequencies, and after 2022 – another 284. russian media began to speak in their place, and 164 Ukrainian broadcasters were forced to silence. This means that at future international tribunals Ukraine will no longer have to prove these facts “from scratch” – the evidence has already been collected and recorded by the court. Separately, the ECHR recognized russia’s responsibility for the downing of flight MH17, the export of children, mass torture, the murder of civilians and the suppression of Ukrainian identity in the occupied territories. 
The russian CopyCop network generates thousands of fakes. This network is coordinated by the main intelligence management of the kremlin. The project goal is to undermine support for Ukraine and democratic institutions in the West, reports the Center for countering disinformation in its report. The network includes more than 160 fake sites that look like famous media. The network distributes news generated by AI, through Telegram, X (Twitter) and bot networks. 
Technical infrastructure is fully on russian hosting, integrated with other russian operations such as Doppelgänger and Portal Kombat. The key figure is John Mark Dougan, a former American who heads the portal DCWeekly and is curating hundreds of fake sites aimed at the USA, EU and Ukraine. The network generates thousands of publications every month and collects tens of millions of views. The consequences of their activities are the growth of political polarization, destabilization of democracies, weakening of trust in state institutions in Europe, as well as the USA.
Read another fake: Such different russian fakes about the UN.
Based on materials from Spravdi.ua, EuVsDisInfo.