A study by the Center for Countering Disinformation analyzed 5,201 accounts flagged for inauthentic behavior across 26 Ukrainian-topic streams on Facebook and Telegram from October 6-12, 2026, using OSAVUL software. It links two complete shutdowns of Yandex data centers (Sasovo on Oct 8 and Vladimir on Oct 11) and a partial hit in Kaluga (Oct 9) to sharp drops in automated activity. Across both platforms 22,664 messages were recorded; on Oct 8 messages plunged from 4,032 to 660 (-83.6%) and active accounts fell from 1,526 to 258 (-83.1%), with Telegram activity falling more steeply than Facebook. Activity recovered by Oct 10-11 but fell again after the Vladimir shutdown: Oct 12 messages dropped to 2,704 (-42.6%) and active accounts to 1,166 (-41.0%). A focused subset of 98 accounts producing destructive content (1,349 messages) showed similar patterns: a 77.8% fall on Oct 8 and a 49.2% decline on Oct 12, with Telegram hit harder on the second drop.
The destructive messages included narratives that shifted blame for the war to Ukraine and its Western partners, alleged staged conflicts, promoted ethnic and religious conspiracies, sought to delegitimize state institutions, and at times called for violence; energy-related posts misattributed outages and denied infrastructure damage. Identical texts recurred across channels, indicating automation. The study concludes that strikes disabling major data-center infrastructure can substantially constrain automated disinformation networks, but their effect is pronounced yet temporary, while partial damage produces far smaller disruption.
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