Fighting Lies with Truth: Portraits of Ukraine and the War on Disinformation

Just 17 days before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin met with French President Emmanuel Macron. Tensions were escalating: Russia had positioned 30,000 troops in Belarus on Ukraine’s northern border, and the world had the jitters. Macron flew to Moscow as part of a last-ditch diplomatic effort to de-escalate the crisis.

Putin’s message to Macron was soothing and unequivocal. According to French officials, Putin told Macron: “There will be no new military initiatives. The troops stationed in Belarus are there for military exercises, and I’ll withdraw them as soon as the exercises are completed, which will be in less than a couple of weeks.”

Ambassador Gregory Slayton remembers this incident well. It plays a small but telling role in the genesis of his latest book, Portraits of Ukraine: A Nation at War, co-authored with Sergei Ivashenko. Reflecting on Putin’s false reassurances, Slayton offers a blunt assessment: “Putin will lie to any person at any time and under any circumstance.”

That quote captures the motivation behind Portraits of Ukraine. The book is, at its core, a defense of truth. It doesn’t engage in dry policy analysis or abstract political theory. Instead, it offers a deeply human narrative—a country seen through the eyes of its people: soldiers, teachers, clergy, artists, and farmers. Each story is a bulwark against the Kremlin’s ongoing campaign to distort and erase Ukrainian identity.

Slayton warns that the Kremlin’s propaganda machine is well-funded, global in scope, and aimed at undermining support for Ukraine. “Our CIA estimates that Russia spends $1.2 billion annually on propaganda,” Slayton says. “That buys you a lot of Tucker Carlsons and Laura Ingrahams.”

When friends question whether that kind of messaging actually reaches Americans, Slayton is ready with a reply: “If you live in a big city or read the major newspapers, you’re not their target. They’re going after Farmer Fred or Gas Station Gregory—and the propagandists are very effective at what they do.”

Slatyon give an example of a tactic the Kremlin excels at: imitation. Russia has created fake websites that closely mimic respected outlets such as Fox News, the Financial Times, Le Monde, or the BBC. “If you land on one of these imitation sites,” Slayton explains, “you may think you're reading from a trusted source. But instead, you’re consuming Russian state-sponsored lies.”

The deception is often subtle. Fake sites weave in real headlines and actual news stories to build credibility. Hidden among them are falsehoods designed to corrode trust: that President Zelensky is using drugs, that he’s embezzling foreign aid, or that Ukraine is staging attacks to gain sympathy. “Let’s not use the word ‘disinformation,’” Slayton says. “Russia uses flat-out lies.”

Against this backdrop of distortion and deceit, Portraits of Ukraine offers clarity. The book’s photographs are powerful and haunting, capturing both devastation and defiance. A soldier comforts a weeping child in a makeshift shelter. An elderly woman plants tomatoes beside a shattered apartment block. Children color drawings of sunflowers in a classroom with sandbags stacked by the door.

Each image is paired with personal testimony, much of it gathered by Ivashenko on the ground. His perspective gives the book its emotional center. In one story, a Kyiv woman refuses to flee as bombs fall around her. “If I run, what happens to my neighbor?” she says. “We protect each other.”

That spirit of mutual protection is what the authors seek to convey—and defend. “Truth matters,” Slayton says. “In an age when lies travel faster than facts, it’s more important than ever to tell stories grounded in reality.”

Portraits of Ukraine is more than a book; it’s a moral response to a war fought not only on the battlefield, but in the minds of people around the world. The book makes clear why this is not just Ukraine's fight, or the EU's fight, but the fight of all who are committed to freedom, democracy and the rule of law the world over.