Monthly Archives: February 2022

When Facebook removed dozens of groups dedicated to Canadas anti-government Freedom Convoy protests earlier this month, it didnt do so because of extremism or conspiracies rife within the protests. It was because the groups were being run by scam artists.

Networks of spammers and profiteers, some based as far afield as Vietnam or Romania, had set up the groups using fake or hacked Facebook accounts in an attempt to make money off of the political turmoil.

That foreign networks of social media scammers had seized on a divisive political issue may feel like somewhat of a throwback. Before investigations into Russian troll factories operations during the US presidential election and culture war conflicts over content moderation, one of the biggest challenges facing social media platforms was profiteers pushing fake news articles and spam for easy money. Hundreds of websites mimicking US news outlets pushed their content on social media, reaping ad revenue from the traffic they generated.

Platforms like Facebook have cracked down on such inauthentic activity since 2016, but the global misinformation industry remains. In recent years, these for-profit disinformation networks have seized on the popularity of conspiracy movements and far-right groups online, creating content aimed at anti-vaccine protesters and QAnon followers.

It can be an extremely lucrative industry for people in other parts of the world to very closely monitor US and Canadian political climates, then capitalize on moment-to-moment trends, Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, told the Guardian. If youre out for money, and measure success not by sowing discord in a country but by maximizing ad revenue, theres still a lot of benefit to these operations.

It is hard to know the exact scale of the for-profit misinformation industry, researchers say, since it functions as part of an underground economy and comes in various forms. In addition to content mills and ad revenue schemes, there are also private firms across the globe that are hired to create fake engagement or push political propaganda. In 2021 alone, Facebook said it removed 52 coordinated influence networks across 32 countries that attempted to direct or corrupt the public debate for strategic goals, according to a company report on inauthentic behavior.

In addition, small networks can have an outsized impact if they effectively use online groups to mass organize and fundraise. In the case of the Freedom Convoy accounts, many of the largest Facebook groups involved appeared to be run by fake accounts or content mills hailing from numerous countries. Facebook took down the groups this month, but not before supporters of the convoy raised over $7m in crowdfunding and generated mass mainstream attention. (GoFundMe later disabled the campaign).

A Bangladeshi digital marketing firm ran two of Facebooks largest anti-vaccine trucker groups, according to Grid News, which had over 170,000 members combined before the platform removed them. The hacked Facebook account of a Missouri woman set up a network of several other pro-demonstration groups, collectively gaining more than 340,000 members in weeks. Other groups promoting American spinoffs of the Canadian protests were from Facebook accounts and networks based in Vietnam, Romania and other nations, Facebook officials told NBC News.

But recent research has shed light on how some of these for-profit misinformation operations work. A series of case studies from the Institute For Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank, detailed what it takes to run a money-making online news scam. One example was a cobbled-together website called The U.S. Military News.

The headlines on The U.S. Military News look much like those you might find on any number of far-right media outlets, with titles like Trump Wrecks Pence In Awesome Statement and articles praising the Canadian trucker protests. A shop on the site markets Trump-related merchandise including free American flags and Trump 2024 Revenge Tour commemorative coins. There are repeated pleas for donations all over the front page and attached to every article.

But despite the name and wall-to-wall American branding, the site has no connection to the US military, or the United States for that matter. Its domain is registered in Vietnam, and its unclear if it employs any writers or if the products it advertises even exist. The articles themselves consist solely of stock footage videos, with an automated voice reading plagiarized content.

A number of the articles and headlines posted on sites linked to the network veer into outright QAnon conspiracy content, featuring falsehoods about military tribunals and Biden officials being sentenced to death. One sites front page prominently features a range of anti-vaccine and pro-Trump conspiracy content, while also promoting an Amazon affiliate link to Trumps Art Of The Deal book.

The Guardian contacted the email address that The U.S. Military News is registered under, but did not receive a reply. The U.S. Military News is just one of a number of sites that appear linked to the same Vietnam-based network, according to ISD.

In another of ISDs reports, researcher Elise Thomas found a network of dozens of Facebook groups and pages which also appear to be linked to a small group of people in Vietnam that shared plagiarized pro-Trump content aimed at conservative social media users. Taking articles from far-right conspiracy sites like The Gateway Pundit, the network created Facebook groups with names like Conservative Voices and built up large numbers of followers sometimes in the tens of thousands of users.

Although for-profit misinformation networks often monetize their audiences through running ads on their websites, the network ISD found appeared to be building up their Facebook group members in order to potentially resell the groups themselves.

This was the original threat that platforms were worried about, Brooking said. It wasnt disinformation, you would characterize it as sort of ad fraud or ad farming.

In many cases, including ISDs case studies, there isnt vast amounts of money being made from inauthentic Facebook groups and conspiracy sites. But to many of the operators based in countries with low per capita income relative to the US, making a few hundred dollars a month from pushing conspiratorial content means significant gain. One of the more lucrative sites linked to Vietnam that ISD analyzed brought in around $1800 each month through advertising alone around 10 times the monthly per capita income in the country.

These scams have strong echoes of the surge in online commercial misinformation in 2016. Many of the people behind posts with false claims such as Pope Francis Endorses Donald Trump also came from outside the US, often from a single small town in North Macedonia called Veles which was responsible for over 140 imitation news websites.

These original fake news websites capitalized on salacious headlines and social media algorithms that promoted posts with high engagement regardless of their content, leading creators to choose contentious political issues involving race, religion and culture war flashpoints to drive the most attention to their sites and social media accounts. Although the strategies to evade content moderators have evolved, that playbook of monetizing conspiracies and misinformation appears to have stayed largely the same.

This is what the misinformation threat looked like before we were even talking about state actions, Brooking said. Its interesting that this sort of older threat is now back in center stage.

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Disinformation for profit: scammers cash in on conspiracy theories - The Guardian

Fake news, harmful misinformation and deliberate disinformation do the rounds of social media all year long, but its magnitude and frequency multiply 10 times during the elections. Amid the Assembly polls across five states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand, and Manipur, we have come across several old and doctored videos circulated in order to tarnish the reputation of rival candidates or political parties. To influence the voters, many even try to pass off developmental work they haven't done as theirs. Just to garner votes from a particular community or region, some even go to the extent of concocting lies. Meanwhile, there are many websites that are trying to help the voters make the right decision by busting fake news and misinformation, and one among those is Logically.

Logically is an AI-powered platform that helps users navigate the tricky terrain of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation online. Founded in 2017 by entrepreneur and engineer Lyric Jain, the UK-based company combines advanced AI with the fact-checking teams to help governments, businesses, and the public uncover and address misinformation and disinformation. In India, the company has previously worked during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the Maharashtra Assembly elections in the same year. Ahead of the elections in the five states mentioned above, the company announced that a team of 20 fact-checkers and six Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) analysts, all based in India, will address election-related misinformation. They also introduced a WhatsApp number+91 86400 70078for people to report misinformation or fake news to their fact-checking teams.

In an exclusive interview with the Free Press Journal, Sagar Kaul, Logicallys VP of India Operations, explained that they have taken various steps to deal with fake news during the elections. "The fact-checkers go through social media, online blogs, or any other publicly available data to find fake news and misinformation that is in circulation. Also, as WhatsApp is one of the main sources through which fake news campaigns are run, we have introduced a WhatsApp number for the general public so that they can send us the forwards to verify. After receiving the forward, we fact-check it and send it back to them," said Kaul.

When asked if the company will be focusing on only the major states, he said, "For us, the focus is on all the five states and since we are apolitical, we would not give focus on any particular political party. We are unbiased in our manner in which we detect misinformation, the main idea is to make the general public aware and make sure that no wrong information is being circulated."

Speaking about how to avoid fake news which is being recycled over and over again, Kaul said, "For the public, the best strategy is to do a basic Google search as most of such recycled fake content has already been fact-checked. I completely agree that it is unfortunate but there is little that can be done. Here at Logically, we urge people to send us such content and we send then back the previously done fact-checks after checking it. However, some times the recycled content can also have something different and new from its previous version, hence, we make sure that we have it in our fact-check."

Talking about the recent fact-checks done by them, he said, "There was one fact-check done regarding an attack on a politician who will be contesting the election. We have also fact-checked pieces of content claiming about what a particular state government has done and what it hasn't. We have also gone through statistics to check whether the unemployment rate in a particular state has really reduced or has the crime rate actually gone down as claimed. It all depends from state to state."

Kaul further said that the fact-checkers follow the guidelines prescribed by the IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) so that no bias seeps into the fact-check. "It's not just an individual working a particular fact-check. There are also multiple levels of supervision. Unless and until the supervisor is confident that the fact-check is factually correct and that it is neutral, it won't be published," he added.

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FPJ Interview: Sagar Kaul, Logicallys VP of India Operations, speaks about busting election-related - Free Press Journal

The Russian TV reporter stands in a flak jacket and helmet near some army barracks on a crisp and sunny afternoon.

"Are you ready," an off-camera voice asks him.

The journalist nods and a burst of gunfire erupts as he starts running and shouting a breathless report into his microphone about "a group of saboteurs" attacking a Russian-backed position in east Ukraine.

"This is what Russian propaganda at 'work' looks like," a Telegram account that follows Ukraine closely remarked next to a clip showing the makings of the evidently staged report.

The eight-year conflict in Ukraine's Russian-backed east has been accompanied by a ferocious disinformation battle between Moscow and Kyiv that tries to implicate the other side in grave crimes.

But the scale and breadth of this battle has reached epic proportions as Russian forces move en masse around Ukraine's borders and the West warns of an imminent invasion threat.

Its importance is being heightened by fears that the Kremlin may use a staged attack as a pretext to order its feared assault.

"I think most of this fake news is aimed mostly at the international Russian audience," said former Ukrainian education minister and Mohyla School of Journalism director Sergiy Kvit.

"It looks like they are preparing an invasion," he told AFP.

- 'Undoubtedly staged' -

The explosion of open-source intelligence in the past decade has helped to debunk many reports that might otherwise have been taken at face value.

It exposed that a seemingly urgent call last Friday by Ukraine's separatist leaders for locals to evacuate to Russia had actually been recorded two days in advance.

"The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, will soon issue an order for his forces to go on the attack," Donetsk rebel chief Denis Pushilin says in his video message.

"Therefore today, on February 18, we are organising a large-scale evacuation of the civilian population into Russia," he says.

Telegram metadata showed that both Pushilin's message and one recorded by another separatist leader were uploaded on February 16 -- one of the days Washington had originally suggested a Russian invasion might be launched.

"Everything that happens today is clearly and undoubtedly staged," investigative journalist Mark Krutov tweeted as worries spread that the rebels were moving people out so that Russian tanks could move in.

- 'Ukrainian spy' -

Analysts from the likes of Bellingcat -- an award-winning online investigations group that was designated a "foreign agent" by the Kremlin last year -- have been particularly busy in the past few weeks.

Bellingcat and other disinformation warriors found visual evidence showing that a car bomb allegedly targeting a separatist police chief had actually been planted on a completely different vehicle.

They showed photographs of the police chief's registered license plate on a shiny new model SUV.

That same plate then appears attached to the mangled remains of an older green army vehicle blown up in an empty parking last Friday.

No one was hurt but Russian state television soon aired what it claimed to be the confession of a "Ukrainian spy" involved in the purported bomb plot.

Other stories alleged the separatists had killed two Ukrainians who tried to blow up a chlorine storage tank, a story that echoed claims from Moscow that Kyiv was plotting a chemical weapons attack.

Ukrainian accounts do not emerge completely blameless in this information war.

Kyiv's independent Stopfake organisation pointed to some accounts posting about a supposed large anti-war protest in Moscow using images of a gathering that in fact took place in 2014.

- 'Panic' -

Child and family psychologist Kateryna Goltsberg said this endless media bombardment has seen Ukrainians' anxiety levels spike.

"In the last two months, the levels of panic have been particularly high. This is probably linked to even bigger information attacks," Goltsberg said.

"People really are very worried," she said. "They are worried for themselves, their children, their loved ones."

Ukrainian newspaper editor Kateryna Kiselyova offered a case in point. She said her family had "emergency backpacks ready" and a clear plan in place in case of war.

"I talked to the children about what they would need to do," she said while attending a memorial for more than 100 people killed in Kyiv during Ukraine's 2014 pro-EU revolt.

"Now I want to make sure their school's basement is prepared for an emergency."

Others worried that this sense of impending peril might hang over Ukraine for some time.

"An existential threat -- this will be the hallmark of our lives for the coming months, if not years," the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper wrote.

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Fake news: Information war rages ahead of feared Russian invasion - RTL Today

Isla Fisher has a solution to the problem of dodgy landlords, though admittedly it may not be one available to everyone: rent a house from Jennifer Aniston instead. Back in the mid-2000s, the Australian star of Wedding Crashers, Now You See Me and Confessions of a Shopaholic was in need of an LA home to share with her then-boyfriend, now-husband Sacha Baron Cohen. A dinner with Courteney Cox led the pair to her Friends co-star, who happened to have a spare abode.

She was the nicest landlady, Fisher says. When we arrived, shed left a basket the size of a desk and in it were flowers, fruits and the sweetest handwritten note. There were magazines and I think she put a book in it? Id rented countless apartments and Id just never, ever had a landlady or landlord even say hi to me. I couldnt believe it if you can rent from Jennifer Aniston, you absolutely should.

That Fisher can make a line like that last one not only non-maddening but sweet and funny is a credit to her innate buoyancy. Then again, the 46-year-old is so quick to self-deprecation that you barely have time to notice if she says something starry. When she asks me not to publicise where she and her family are currently living, she acknowledges that its not the usual thing to do. Its for security, Im just a worrier, she sighs. Similarly, when she pops up for a few seconds on her Zoom camera before switching it off entirely, she admonishes herself with a joke. I have no make-up on and Im also 105 years old. Its not the greatest. I do typically try to look presentable when attempting to sell my TV show. Shes naturally disarming. I imagine everyone who meets her is convinced shell be their new best friend. Until that happens, though, we must make do with her work.

Fishers TV show is Wolf Like Me (soon to air in the UK on Prime Video); its a genre-bending dramedy about a boy, a girl and the werewolf she turns into every full moon. She plays Mary, a traumatised advice columnist in Adelaide, who mysteriously smashes into the car of widower Gary (Josh Gad). Gad and Fisher are somewhat cast against type: there are laughs here, but theyre deliberately subtle. I was taken aback by how moving the show is, and the sense of operatic urgency that writer/director Abe Forsythe grants it. There are emotive voiceovers, sweeping vistas and lots of running. Wolf Like Me is about the horrors of new love, and what happens when two broken people seem fated to be together.

Were so used to seeing romcoms where were only given the nice bits of people connecting, Fisher explains. It feels quite original. Love is scary! Once you give somebody your heart and they give theirs, obviously youre completely vulnerable. The show is more an exploration of love mixed with shame and fear. Fisher says she gravitates towards characters with secrets, but I also enjoyed playing Mary because shes so lonely. Im super gregarious, I love people, I socialise whenever I can. Marys the total opposite of me, and shes got all this baggage and doesnt feel safe being around people

Its at this point that Madame Tiny Paws has had enough. Fisher gasps. OK, so while Im talking to you, our cat has just got up on two legs and opened the door in front of me. Shes actually taken it upon herself to Houdini the s*** out of this room. She breaks into laughter. Even in our household, where everyone has such big personalities, somehow Madame Tiny Paws is the boss. Honestly, you should just chat to her. Im sure itd add some real dimension to this interview.

Josh Gad, Isla Fisher and a bag of bloody meat in Wolf Like Me

(Mark Rogers/Prime Video)

Few of Fishers characters would ever cede the spotlight like that. Her creations tend to have the energy of a drunk stranger in a nightclub bathroom, people as startlingly deranged as they are wise. Wedding Crashers, Shopaholic and the pitch-black comedy Bachelorette cast her, respectively, as a nymphomaniac, a credit card junkie and a cocaine fiend, all of whom rattle with manic desperation. Youd think theyd be more well-regarded, but like most kinds of character comedy, they typically fly under the radar. Particularly when it comes to major awards bodies.

Comedy is the most vulnerable sort of performance, she says. If you miss the mark, theres nothing to catch you. Its not like drama, yet comedy just isnt considered equal to it, particularly in the eyes of the Oscars. She reels off an embarrassingly long list of great comic performances that didnt crack the Academy Awards: Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada, Regina Hall in Scary Movie, Goldie Hawn in bloody everything. So many mainstream comedies have these fantastic performances, and yet they dont get the love they deserve.

Slapstick, mime, making a funny face: theres just something about that I enjoy more than anything

She expresses disappointment at interviews in the past that have ignored how she does what she does. Usually it tends to be [questions] about when I last saw an infinity pool, or details about my husband. Without sounding like a luvvie and getting all thespian, I did go to clown school. I studied with Jacques Lecoq, whos a phenomenal clown teacher. He taught me to think about how [my characters] walk and talk its like putting on a costume, and doing that then informs all the internal work. You prepare and you prepare, and you try to be as meticulous as you can.

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Is there an element of sexism to peoples lack of curiosity about female comedy acting? Its really complicated I sort of dont want to weigh in on it because then it becomes the quote. She remembers years ago telling a journalist that its unfair that women are so often cast in comedies as the straight-woman who rolls her eyes at the overconfident, dumb-dumb guy. But then it trailed her. It just proliferated the internet, and I was always having to give interviews about it. Things feel better today, she says, both in the industry and during interviews. I love being asked more meaningful questions about what I actually think about things. And hopefully, even though Im deeply proud of and completely in love with my beautiful husband and family, Ill be asked about more than that [too]. I surreptitiously scribble out the Borat questions from my notepad.

Fisher, Lizzy Caplan and Kirsten Dunst in 2012s pitch-black comedy Bachelorette'

(Gary Sanchez Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock)

As I keep accidentally reminding her throughout our conversation, Fisher has been around for a while. Long before she broke out as Shaggys hippie girlfriend in Scooby-Doo in 2002, shed become famous in 1994 playing the perpetually unlucky Shannon Reed on Home and Away. In 1997, she moved to the UK to find work here. I assume her late-Nineties London era where she made BBC One comedy dramas with Amanda Holden and dated Darren Day were her lost years. I wouldnt say they were my most focused years professionally, she says. It was that classic period of your life where youre just trying to work out your identity. I definitely didnt have my wings clipped in London. I remember doing a lot of West End theatre, and, honestly, just having a great time in pubs.

She was also learning, travelling back and forth between London and Paris to study at clown school. While shed always made people laugh moving schools and countries a lot thanks to a UN worker father meant humour became a defence mechanism she didnt train as a clown for that reason. Really, she just loved Geoffrey Rushs performance as the pianist David Helfgott in Shine (1996). I found out he studied with Jacques Lecoq, so I thought, Hey, I have to study with Jacques Lecoq, too! Im the new Geoffrey Rush, I thought. She quickly interrupts herself. Im kidding oh god, please dont print Isla Fisher: Im the new Geoffrey Rush! Because that is exactly not what I thought. I just wanted to one day be able to physicalise my comedy like that. Slapstick, mime, making a funny face: theres just something about that I enjoy more than anything.

All of that being said, she didnt realise she was a natural comedian until Cohen pointed it out to her. My husband said, Youre the funniest person I know you should be doing comedy, and before that it just never crossed my mind. This was shortly after they got together in 2001. They married in 2010, and have three children. Fisher makes a point not to talk about her family in interviews, but does mention Cohen occasionally in conversation, and often posts pictures of him to her Instagram. But in an echo of her husbands crusade against social media companies in 2019 he called Facebook the greatest propaganda machine in history she has problems with the platform as a whole.

Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher at the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar party

(Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

We all know what Instagram is, she sighs. Its toxic for children and [for] the proliferation of fake news. They dont have to meet publishing standards, it appeals to our base instincts. Actually, Im being gentle Instagram increases bullying and fear of missing out and leads to anxiety and depression. So, obviously, I am no fan of Instagram. I try to focus as much as possible on [posting] work-related stuff, and not posting anything personal. Sometimes Ill post, like its Valentines Day today, so I may post something later on

A few hours after we speak, I visit Fishers Instagram and see that she has indeed posted a Valentines message to her husband. Sacha, you are my rock, she writes, alongside a blurry photograph of a rock shaped like a massive erection. It is deeply silly, quirkily romantic, and maybe more revealing of the humour at the heart of their chemistry than anything she might have said out loud. Love is scary, but it can also be funny.

Wolf Like Me can be streamed on Prime Video from 25 February

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Isla Fisher: Instagram is toxic for children and filled with fake news - The Independent

The City of Cape Town insists that tap water is safe to drink in the metro.

The City of Cape Town has rubbished WhatsApp messages linking its water supply to the reported cluster outbreak of typhoid fever in the metro.

The Citys mayco member for water and sanitation Zahid Badroodien has stressed that Cape Towns tap water is safe to drink.

In a statement, the City says it's aware of fake news messages circulating in community WhatsApp groups, asking the public not to drink municipal-supplied tap water.

According to Badroodien, the fake news messages are also inaccurately linking typhoid fever mentioned in a recent article to the Citys water supply.

He says that the municipality continually monitors drinking water to ensure it complies with the strict requirements of the South African National Drinking Water Standard (SANS241).

"All drinking water samples tested this week complied with the South African National Drinking Water Standard on Acute Health Determinands and pose no health risk to the public, Badroodien adds.

The City of Cape Town assures residents that our tap water is safe to drink.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has reported three cluster outbreaks in the Western Cape and one in the North West.

The Western Cape has reported a total of 64 cases across three districts the Cape Town Metro, the Cape Winelands, and the Garden Route.

RELATED: Officials tracing three cluster outbreaks of typhoid fever across Western Cape

Typhoid fever, also called enteric fever, is a bacterial infection that is spread by drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food.

Dr. Juno Thomas from the NICD says diagnosing typhoid fever can be challenging due to its common and often flu-like symptoms such as fever, fatigue, headache, nausea.

According to the City, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of children brought to health facilities with symptoms like diarrhoea, vomiting, and dehydration.

The City's Patricia van der Ross has attributed these cases to poor hygiene and very hot conditions in Cape Town, not typhoid fever.

Unclean hands can spread viruses that cause diarrhoea. During hot summer days, food can easily get spoilt. If eaten, this can also cause diarrhoea, which can lead to dehydration. It is important to prepare and store food safely and to practice good hand hygiene at all times.

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City of CT says 'fake news' WhatsApp messages linking tap water to typhoid fever - CapeTalk

Civilians attend a military exercise for territorial defense amid the tension on the border with Russia, in Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Ukraine 13 February 2022.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Russia has compiled lists of Ukrainians to target after an invasion, a U.S. official has said, as President Vladimir Putin is set to address his country's security council.

In a letter to the U.N.'s Human Rights chief, seen by NBC News, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Bathsheba Nell Crocker said the U.S. had "credible information" that Russia has compiled lists of Ukrainians "to be killed or sent to camps" following an invasion. The contents of the letter were first reported Sunday evening byThe Washington Post.

"We also have credible information that Russian forces will likely use lethal measures to disperse peaceful protests or otherwise counter peaceful exercises of perceived resistance from civilian populations," she said.

The Kremlin refuted Crocker's accusations on Monday, dubbing reports that Russia had drawn up such lists as "fiction" when asked about it by reporters.

"You do understand that this is an absolute fake, that it's a lie?" he said.

Crocker also said in her letter that other human rights violations and abuses in the aftermath of an invasion were being planned in Moscow. Those who oppose Russian actions including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine as well as journalists, religious and ethnic minorities and the LGBTQI+ community were at risk of being subjected to these abuses, Crocker warned.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov told Ukrainian broadcaster ICTV on Monday that an invasion was unlikely to occur "tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," as no Russian "strike groups" had congregated at the border.

He added, however, that these groups could be set up within weeks.

It came after the White House warned Moscow was planning to launch a full-scale attack on Ukraine "very soon," and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned there was evidence Russia is planning "the biggest war in Europe since 1945."

Last week, the U.S. estimated there were now between 169,000 and 190,000 Russian troops in and near Ukraine, up from 100,000 at the end of January. The updated figures came despite Russian claims that it had begun to withdraw troops from the border, which were also contradicted by NATO and the EU.

Russia has repeatedly denied it plans to invade neighboring Ukraine. It has demanded guarantees that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO a request rejected by the military alliance and the U.S. and has said it wants the organization to scale back its presence in eastern Europe.

In a special meeting on Monday of Russia's security council, Putin claimed threats to Russia would increase substantially if Ukraine joins NATO, according to Reuters.

The meeting of the council, led by Putin, came as fighting between Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has been ongoing for eight years, continued to escalate.

Over the past week, Russian state media and Ukrainian authorities have pointed the finger at one another repeatedly for carrying out shelling attacks and other ceasefire violations.

Last week, the leader of one of the separatist-held areas in eastern Ukraine announced that residents would be evacuated to Russia with the assistance of the Russian government. It came after the country's lawmakers asked Putin last week to officially recognize two self-declared republics in Ukraine's east as independent.

Russian state media reported on Monday that Eduard Basurin, official representative of one of those breakaway areas, the Donetsk People's Republic, said in a YouTube video that self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine needed financial, military and moral assistance from Russia.

The leaders of two Ukrainian areas held by pro-Moscow separatists also urged Russia to officially recognize them as independent on Monday.

Putin told his security council that recognition of the breakaway regions needed to be considered, Reuters reported.

Dmitry Kozak, Putin's special representative on Ukraine, said on Monday that Russia had been forced to spend "astronomical sums" on humanitarian aid for the two breakaway regions.

On Monday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Russian occupation forces had carried out "yet another provocation with the aim offalsely accusing Ukrainian service members."

"[The] aggressor opened heavy armament fire from the settlement ofLobacheve targeting Luhansk," the ministry said in a statement.

Over the past day, Ukrainian authorities said they had recorded 80 ceasefire violations, 72 of which involved the use of weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements, treaties signed in 2014 and 2015 by Ukraine, Russia and separatist leaders.

"With Ukrainian defenders refraining from any aggressive acts that could possibly trigger aviolent response, the occupation forces continue todestroy civilian infrastructure onthe temporarily occupied territories and sporadically shell civilian settlements," Ukraine's Ministry of Defense added. "Itisobvious that the adversary continues touse the Russian propaganda machine towage information warfare, tofalsely accuse the Armed Forces ofUkraine and tofurther escalate the situation."

On Saturday, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe recorded more than 1,500 ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine, including 1,413 explosions.

The east of Ukraine, near the Russian border, has long been the scene of low-level fighting. The OSCE has regularly reports violations of the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine during the eight-year conflict, in which around 13,000 people have died, but the numbers have risen drastically in recent days.

Russian state media claimed on Monday that the Russian military and border guards had killed five people when a "group of saboteurs from the territory of Ukraine" attempted to cross the border into Russia.

The alleged incident was said to have occurred at around 6 a.m. local time near the village of Mityakinskaya in the Rostov region.

Ukraine's Kuleba denied Russia's allegations on Monday, saying on Twitter that Ukraine had not carried out any attacks and had no intention of doing so.

"Russia, stop your fake-producing factory now," he said.

Western officials have warned that Russia could make false claims about the conflict in Ukraine's east to justify military aggression and an invasion, in what has been dubbed a "false flag attack" by the U.S. and the U.K.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the U.N. Security Council last week that this could include a fabricated terrorist bombing, the invented discovery of a mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians or a fake chemical weapon attack.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesperson told reporters on Monday that "elements of the Russian playbook" were "starting to play out in real time."

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is meeting with EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

On Sunday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden has agreed "in principle" to a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, provided there is no invasion of Ukraine. However, the U.S. still warned that Moscow is preparing for "a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon."

The Kremlin said on Monday that there were currently no concrete plans for a meeting between Putin and Biden, according to Reuters.

Blinken is scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Europe later this week, again provided Moscow does not initiate any military action.

Biden on Sunday convened a meeting of the U.S. National Security Council to discuss the escalating tensions around Ukraine.

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U.S. warns that Moscow has compiled lists of Ukrainians to target after invasion - CNBC