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The Kremlin-linked bot network “Matryoshka” has launched a campaign on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) criticizing Western countries for the possible transfer of U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, according to findings that the watchdog Bot Blocker project (@antibot4navalny) shared with The Insider.
As part of the campaign, the bots are spreading short video clips presented as content from international media outlets or respected institutions. Two of the videos were posted with captions in Japanese. The Bot Blocker project told The Insider that Matryoshka uses accounts created in different countries and in different languages, and that the “origin” of an account does not always match the primary audience targeted by the fake content.
“The bots retain the language used by the account’s original owner,” the project’s analysts said. “Every day they take new accounts from a list, sometimes literally in alphabetical order. Whatever language comes up that day, that’s the one they use for the video caption.”
The account that posted the Matryoshka videos was indeed Japanese, but it had been abandoned since 2013. The videos themselves are narrated in English.
One of the clips, disguised as content from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), claims that Donald Trump is allegedly planning an act of deception: after Ukraine receives Tomahawk missiles and uses them against Russia, Trump will declare that the weapons were meant only for “deterrence” purposes and will then exploit the situation to accuse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of escalating the conflict.
A second video, using the logo of The Associated Press, claims that citizens of France and Germany are blaming their governments for “bringing closer a Third World War” by continuing to support Ukraine.
Another clip, posted on a separate Japanese-language account and also presented as if made by the Institute for the Study of War, describes the French army as “the most demotivated in Europe” and asserts that French President Emmanuel Macron’s approval rating dropped after he supported the idea of transferring Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
A frame from a fake video distributed by the Matryoshka disinformation network
In addition to the fake videos, the bots are spreading an AI-generated image depicting Zelenskyy dressed in a monkey suit and holding a missile — apparently in reference to the Russian expression “a monkey with a grenade.”
Rumors that Trump was considering sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine first appeared in The Washington Post in July. The White House denied the report at the time. Later, Trump said he was indeed considering supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine “if Russia does not stop the war.” With Zelensky set to visit Washington yet again on Oct. 17, no final decision on the issue has yet been made.