Ukraine :-тАЬWhen I started to look carefully at war, I saw that the first to die is the truth,тАЭ Mr. Caetano said, citing unfounded claims circulating online, such as that Ukraine has hired actors to pretend they were injured and that it maintains biological weapons laboratories funded by the United States.
In China, state media has done much to bolster false stories about what is unfolding in Ukraine.
Outlets have republished official Russian propaganda without verification, including false reports that Ukraine had been using civilians as human shields and that President Volodymyr Zelensky had left Kyiv.
Recommended Reads:- Russia bombed shelter despite heartbreaking signs; Jussie SmollettтАЩs legal prospects
While Chinese officials have not explicitly endorsed the KremlinтАЩs actions, they have framed the invasion as a rational decision by Russia to resist aggression from the West, and specifically from the United States.
Zhang Han, 37, has been an avid consumer of that messaging. Mr. Zhang, a programmer at a technology company in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, said he was initially shocked by Mr. PutinтАЩs actions. But he said he also empathized with the Russian leaderтАЩs desire to absorb Ukraine and pointed to ChinaтАЩs ambition to unify with Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing has long claimed as its own.
тАЬOf course, I pity the situation of Ukrainians and hope that the war can end soon,тАЭ he said. тАЬBut thatтАЩs the mind-set of a big country.тАЭ
In Vietnam, state authorities have also attempted to control the narrative about the war. Two editors for a Vietnamese online magazine and a state broadcaster said they were issued directives on reporting on the war that included reducing the extent and frequency of coverage, and banning the word тАЬinvasion.тАЭ Both asked to remain anonymous for fear of government reprisals.
Recommended Reads:- Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis are taking the Australian Open by storm
Vuong Quoc Hung, a 36-year-old stockbroker from Hanoi, said he grew up watching documentaries and films on national television about the Soviet Red Army heroes who battled Nazi Germany during World War II. That made him fall in love with Russia, he said.
