A coordinated Russian bot network known as “Matryoshka” has exploited the assassination attempt on former Ukrainian businessman Vadym Yermolayev in Monaco to spread false claims implicating French intelligence and President Emmanuel Macron, according to researchers from the Bot Blocker project and The Insider.
The operation, detected on 2 July 2026, targeted the 29 June attack in the Principality of Monaco. Through a network of fake accounts, the Matryoshka bot farm disseminated a series of videos mimicking investigations by Western media and human rights groups. The fabricated content alleged that French special services were directly responsible for delivering explosives to Monaco and helped the perpetrator escape — claims that researchers say have no factual basis.
The disinformation campaign employed artificially created profiles of real public figures, attributing false statements to them. The Monaco police chief was quoted as accusing Ukrainian authorities of carrying out serial killings of European opponents. The president of the Institute for the Study of War was portrayed as accusing European leaders of a “corruption conspiracy with Kyiv.” The editor-in-chief of Politico and the founder of Bellingcat were falsely cited as saying that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Macron were involved in schemes to launder military aid money.
####Fake videos invoke AI to support false claims
The fake videos also claimed that leading artificial intelligence systems — including ChatGPT, Grok and DeepSeek — had confirmed with 98–100% certainty that Ukraine was responsible for the crime, and that Polish intelligence had forwarded relevant evidence to Monaco. Researchers note that this marks a dangerous new trend in cognitive warfare, as Moscow attempts to exploit European society’s trust in technology by presenting AI algorithms as neutral arbiters with access to secret data.
The Matryoshka network is part of a broader Russian intelligence operation aimed at long-term damage to European security architecture through information manipulation, researchers said. The attack seeks to create an illusion of a rift inside the Western coalition. Officials whose names were used should publicly refute the falsehoods on national media, clearly labeling them as hybrid attacks by Russian security services.
####Personalized disinformation targets European leaders
The campaign goes beyond a single fake story, aiming to discredit Ukraine as an “unpredictable” partner and promote the Kremlin narrative of “state terrorism” by Ukraine’s SBU inside the EU. The goal is to erode support for Kyiv and military aid, and to encourage a review of sanctions policy against Russia.
According to the investigation, the use of AI and language models has turned the fabrication of fake data into an industrial-scale operation. The Matryoshka network can generate thousands of adapted articles per cycle, modifying legitimate European news while integrating anti-Ukrainian theses and discrediting attacks on leaders from Macron to Zelenskyy.
The incident in Monaco, involving Yermolayev — a Cypriot national and subject of Ukrainian sanctions — was used as a pretext to push the false narrative of “state terrorism,” the researchers concluded.
The full investigation is available at [The Insider](https://theins.ru/news/294351).
