Politico: Russia Uses AI-Driven Online Campaign to Target Pro‑Ukraine Candidates Before U.S. Midterms
Politico, citing a classified U.S. intelligence report and senior lawmakers, says Russia has launched a covert online influence operation that uses artificial intelligence to spread disinformation about Democrats and Republicans who support Ukraine ahead of U.S. midterm elections.
Russia has opened a fresh online front against American politicians who back Ukraine, according to U.S. officials cited by Politico. The effort doesn’t focus on breaking into voting machines, but on shaping how voters see candidates before they cast their ballots.
Politico reports that Moscow has begun a covert influence campaign ahead of the U.S. midterms directed at both Democrats and Republicans who support Ukraine. The outlet cites a classified U.S. intelligence assessment and public comments from Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Representative Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
Warner and Himes said Russia is using artificial intelligence to accelerate disinformation output. AI tools can generate texts and other content that look tailored and fluent, then adapt them based on what draws engagement. According to their description, Moscow’s aims include sowing distrust in U.S. institutions and feeding narratives that question the reliability of voting‑machine results.
They also said U.S. agencies have not seen evidence that Russian actors have gained access to voting technology or altered vote counts in connection with the midterms. The threat they described sits in the information space around the election rather than in the hardware that records it.
The choice of targets—candidates in both parties who favor continued U.S. assistance to Ukraine—matches Russia’s broader goal of weakening support for Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia controls about 18 to 19 percent of Ukraine’s territory and that civilians, including children, remain trapped without food or a way to evacuate in occupied Oleshky. He has also stressed how heavily Ukraine depends on foreign weapons and funding, much of which still requires U.S. congressional backing.
For campaigns, that means online attacks may come wrapped in local‑sounding complaints or plausible narratives that are, in reality, crafted or amplified from abroad with AI tools. For platforms, it raises the difficulty of spotting coordinated manipulation when the content looks like ordinary political chatter rather than clumsy propaganda.
Politico’s report fits into a pattern already flagged by other outlets. Ukrainian‑language reporting, citing Politico, says Russia’s government has started a secret online influence campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and undermining the positions of both Democrats and Republicans sympathetic to Ukraine ahead of the midterms. Senator Warner and Representative Himes said Moscow is using AI to spread disinformation faster, sow distrust in U.S. institutions and question voting‑machine results. They also noted they had seen no evidence of Russian access to U.S. election systems.
The next signs of how serious this becomes will likely come from public attributions: whether U.S. agencies or major platforms call out specific networks or content as Russian‑linked, and whether that in turn prompts new guidance to campaigns and state election officials on dealing with AI‑assisted foreign influence.
Sources
- OSINT