This is the largest investment in a disinformation company in Europe. The Ukrainian company Osavul received $3 million (€2.78 million).
In its latest press release, the company presents its three European investors: 42CAP, a German venture capital firm, u.ventures, a US government-backed fund that co-finances Ukrainian and Moldovan projects, and the SMRK Venture Capital Fund, which already contributed to the fundraising last year.
Osavul co-founder Dmytro Bilash never intended to work in security. He came from a business background. He analyzed corporate data to create advertising. In 2022, everything changed. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Dmytro Bilash’s apartment in Kyiv was destroyed by two Russian missiles. He felt compelled to act. A request for support from the Ukrainian government led to the launch of Osavul, a media intelligence organization that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to expose and combat disinformation.
What started as a small project in 2022, then funded by crowdfunding and donations, is now involved in EU and NATO funded projects and attracting millions of dollars in funding. Osavul is now headquartered in Delaware, USA, where 28 specialists from all over the world work. More than 500 analysts use Osavul data.
Dmytro Bilash talks to Euronews about Russian disinformation, why it has become so widespread in Germany and offers advice on how to combat fake news.
Euronews: Why did you create Osavul?
Dmytro Months : We wanted to help. The large-scale invasion changed the lives of all Ukrainians. We offered our expertise as analysts and were eventually approached by members of the government. The problem of disinformation is so big that no private company – neither in Europe nor in the United States – can cope with this mass of false information and disinformation. The scale was much smaller before the large-scale invasion. We tried to develop something that could cope with this new threat of disinformation.
I had previously worked in advertising, which didn’t make sense. I wanted to do something that made sense, something necessary.
Euronews: How did you move from advertising to disinformation analysis?
Dmytro Months : We knew how to analyze data, public data, and we used that knowledge to develop something. It’s a pretty sophisticated technology today.
Euronews: How do you work today? How does such an analysis work?
Dmytro Months : There are several steps to consider. We collect data from websites, open sources, for example more than 10 million messages per day. Our AI analyzes this data to identify key narratives, topics discussed and opinions expressed by media, companies, political organizations or opinion leaders.
For example, if Russia launches a campaign in a European country to interfere with elections or create discord across Europe using economic issues, we can detect this and highlight the specific narratives used in these attacks.
We use three types of tools to do this: open source tools, purchased commercial tools, and our own tools.
Once the AI model has filtered out the main ideas and the “fake news,” we need to understand: Who is spreading this false information? Is it a public institution, propaganda channels, or websites? What is the impact? Does the false information stay in one channel or does it spread further, creating a larger echo chamber?
We collect all this information and make it available to decision makers. We want to provide decision makers, legislators and security institutions with information that will enable them to take action. If laws are broken, they can take action.
Euronews: Can you give an example of the main narratives of Russian disinformation?
Dmytro Months: It is important to understand that disinformation models are very dependent on the culture and the places where they are disseminated. The models are adapted.
So they depend on the group they are addressing: young people, right-wing or left-wing people, Russian-speakers or German-speakers?
One of the main narratives of Russian disinformation is that the German economy is weakening.
An example: a furniture company goes bankrupt, it doesn’t matter whether it exists or not, it just has to seem real.
In Germany, real information is often placed in false contexts in order to show that the German economy or the state is weakening. Ultimately, Russia’s goal with its disinformation in Germany is to weaken support for Ukraine.
Euronews: Why is Germany a major target of Russian disinformation campaigns?
Dmytro Months : I see several reasons for this. First of all, Germany is an important country. It is the largest economy in Europe – this is an obvious reason. The large Russian-speaking community in Germany makes it easier for Russia, but it is not absolutely necessary.
Another reason is that Telegram, as a messaging service, is much more widespread in Germany than in other Western European countries. Much of the disinformation is spread via X, TikTok and Telegram – these media seem less heavily controlled than Meta platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp.
In addition, Russia can use structures established before the war because of the close ties between Russia and Germany. The more freedom of expression is valued in culture, the more fertile ground there is for disinformation.
Euronews: How can ‘normal’ people recognise disinformation?
Dmytro Months : When I see something on social media, I try to follow my instincts: if a post, a video triggers a very strong feeling in me, then I become vigilant and ask myself: Why? So the first red flag of fake news is the triggering of a strong feeling. The second is the sender, the source. Where does the information come from? From a friend I trust or from a random account X that usually posts videos of cats and dogs and suddenly shares a strong political opinion? Sometimes, it only takes something like that to understand that a piece of information is not entirely trustworthy.
And of course, misinformation increases the value of good journalism, by making it easier to debunk and verify misinformation.
Euronews: Are there Russian disinformation narratives that are more explicitly disseminated in Ukraine?
Dmytro Months : In Ukraine itself, the situation is somewhat different from that in Europe or the rest of the world. Ukrainians have generally become much more vigilant.
Strategies are often closely linked to military events. This means that Russia makes military “conquests” and victories much more important than they are, it hypes them.
For example, if a village near the front line has come under Russian control, no longer exists or has no inhabitants, Russian propaganda celebrates it as a great victory of the Russian army. The goal of these campaigns is to disrupt the sense of unity of Ukrainians, both inside and outside Ukraine. This is to weaken and destabilize mutual support among Ukrainians.
Euronews: Is there a common strategy that Russia uses for its disinformation campaigns?
Dmytro Months : When Russian propaganda speaks of a nuclear threat, it is a sign – either for the domestic population or for the international community. Remember the bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital. We used what we call “the alibi of information”.
Even before the attack, information was spread about the presence of a Ukrainian battalion in the hospital. When the attack took place, the disinformation campaign was easier to spread, because the false information about the presence of a battalion in the hospital was already known, the supposed reason for the attack had already been established.
Spreading the truth is easy: something happened, you report it. If you’re trying to spread a false narrative, you have to stick to it, you have to prepare it. It’s like a machine where resources are channeled into spreading these false narratives.
