Ukrainian ‘anti-disinfo’ agency scrubs criticism of Trump’s intel chief pick
Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) has removed news bulletins in which it accused Donald Trump's pick to oversee the CIA and NSA, former US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, of spreading fake news on behalf of Russia.
Gabbard, a long time critic of open aid to Ukraine and a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve, has been selected by Trump as his pick for director of national intelligence.
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council set up the CCD in March 2021 with the stated goal of fighting disinformation in news reports and on social media. The agency focuses on flagging and “debunking” stories that are critical of Ukraine and has accused many Russian and Western officials of spreading “fake news.”
According to the news website Strana.ua, the CCD took down four of its bulletins mentioning Gabbard from social media, including one from April 2022 that described her as someone who “for several years, has been working for foreign audience for the Kremlin money.”
A June 2024 bulletin accused Gabbard of spreading disinformation about Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, and a February 2023 post claimed the politician was “espousing pro-Russian rhetoric.”
Both were removed as of Thursday morning, Strana.ua said. At the time of writing, the CCD’s 2022 post accusing Gabbard of taking “the Kremlin money” is still up on the National Security and Defense Council’s account on X. The link to the CCD bulletin is inactive, however.
Kiev has repeatedly lashed out at Western public figures critical of Ukraine, including journalist Tucker Carlson and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Gabbard, who has long opposed US military interventions in the Middle East and has accused Washington of warmongering, left the Democratic Party in 2022. Last month, she announced that she had joined the Republican Party and was backing Trump.
In 2022, Gabbard argued that the conflict in Ukraine could have been avoided if the US “had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns” regarding Kiev’s aspirations to join NATO. She has since insisted that the conflict should be resolved through negotiations and that Ukraine should become a neutral country.
Gabbard slammed Zelensky last year, accusing him of seizing “absolute control of Ukrainian media, outlawing opposition political parties.”
