While the Ukrainian Facebook argues about the outfits of Zelensky and his team during the visit to the United States, the hashtag #ZelenskyWarCriminal was picked up by the trends of the US Twitter. This hashtag is not new, and every day, at least 1 or 2 tweets come up on the feed. Such dynamics is normal in a global context because marginal conspiracy theorists stay on the radar. However, it was after Zelensky's speech in Washington that the hashtag became super popular. 

According to the Civil Network OPORA, in just 11 hours on December, 23, users posted more than 2,500 tweets mentioning #ZelenskyWarCriminal in English. According to Socialbearing, the tweets gained almost 4 million views among almost 2.5 million users.

According to Socialbearing, most often these tweets are accompanied by these hashtags.

In the English-language Twitter, they promote pro-Russian disinformation. They say that the US government spends too much money to support Ukraine, wasting the money of US⁠ taxpayers. Also these tweets, accuse the Ukrainian military of crimes committed by Russia, and the Ukrainian government is accused of continuing the “suffering of Ukrainians” instead of laying down arms. Another popular narrative is that Ukraine does not deserve further support because the money and material and technical assistance provided earlier had not been spent transparently. These ideas are actively promoted even by politicians from the Republican Party, such as, for example, by a member of the House of Representatives, Lauren Bobert.

Particularly interesting is the conspiracy theory that the Democrats are using aid to Ukraine as a way of money-laundering. The ideas are shared under the hashtag #moneylaundering. Proponents of this theory argue that through cryptoexchange FTX, Ukraine transfers financial assistance from the United States to the accounts of the Democratic Party. This disinformation was actively stirred on their platforms by the American media FoxNews and the mouthpiece of the Russian disinfo, RussiaToday. 

Based on OPORA's observations, Twitter based Russia supporters are trying to discredit Ukraine and undermine the credibility of the foreign policy of the US government as a critical partner of Ukraine on the way to winning the war. 

Russian propaganda narratives show attempts to accuse Ukraine and the United States of corruption. They hint that the Russian-Ukrainian war is not a criminal violent act of Russian imperialism but a proxy war in the interests of the West. 

As of now, these ideas are still marginal but the information war continues. Ukraine needs Western support not only during the war but it will also be critical in the process of post-war reconstruction. 

Potentially, such information campaigns can pose a threat, especially after the elections in the United States. Remember that a significant part of the Republican Party members remain critical of the amount of assistance that Ukraine receives from the US budget.