Main image: A firefighter watches flames from the Palisades Fire burn homes on Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles on Wednesday.Apu Gomes / Getty Images
Russian propaganda is actively using the wildfires in Los Angeles to spread anti-American and anti-Ukrainian narratives. The Kremlin is not only promoting false accusations against the U.S. but is also attempting to discredit Ukraine's leadership by spreading fake news about alleged mansions of Ukrainian military officials being destroyed in the fire, as repoerted by the Voice of America.
One of the first elements of the disinformation campaign was the attempt to compare the practice of involving prisoners in firefighting efforts in California with the use of forced labor in China. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed that the U.S. is demonstrating "obscurantist hypocrisy" by condemning China for using forced labor in Xinjiang while employing hundreds of American prisoners in firefighting efforts.
In reality, participation in California's firefighting efforts is voluntary. Inmates who meet physical requirements and have no major disciplinary violations can join firefighting crews, receiving payment and the possibility of early release. In contrast, since 2017, Chinese authorities have subjected millions of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities to forced labor in Xinjiang, accompanied by torture, political indoctrination, and mass detentions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also used the topic of wildfires to promote a popular Russian propaganda narrative that U.S. aid to Ukraine is supposedly bankrupting the United States. He claimed that the damage from the California wildfires amounted to $250 billion—an amount "comparable" to U.S. aid to Kyiv.
While official damage data has yet to be released, experts predict it could reach $275 billion. However, Lavrov's assertion that aid to Ukraine is draining U.S. funds is inaccurate. A significant portion of the allocated funds is reinvested within the U.S., supporting the defense industry and creating jobs.
Russian state media and pro-Russian Telegram channels also spread lies that eight mansions belonging to Ukrainian military officials, worth $90 million, were allegedly destroyed in the fire. This claim appeared on January 11 in the Telegram channel Voennyj obozrevatel' (Military Observer) and was later circulated by "Komsomolskaya Pravda," "Tsargrad," "Russian Gazette," and other Russian media.
However, independent fact-checkers and even some Russian outlets disproved this fake, stating that there is no evidence of these mansions' existence. Despite this, the information about "burnt properties of Ukrainian generals" garnered millions of views on social media platform X and thousands of reposts.
Another topic for disinformation was the decision by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to send Ukrainian firefighters to California to help combat the wildfires. Russian propaganda agencies, including RIA Novosti and RT, attempted to portray this as a mass escape of Ukrainians from the country. They used a post by former journalist of Medvedchuk's TV channel, Diana Panchenko, who wrote: "I am glad that hundreds of men will have the opportunity to leave Ukraine these days."
Russian media interpreted this phrase as evidence that Ukrainian men supposedly desperately want to leave the country, and journalists in Ukraine are allegedly against supporting the army.
