Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on Monday said it was actively counteracting the systematic escalation of panic and fake news distribution both on social networks and media outlets in an effort to calm anxiety.

SBU in a statement said the country was facing panic escalation and the spread of fake news.

“Taken as a whole, it is nothing but another powerful wave of hybrid war,” it said. “The SBU detects such manifestations of hybrid war on social networks, several media, in some politicians distributing the narratives of the aggressor country. The SBU not only detects but actively counteracts them.”

The statement also said the motives of the exacerbation were to raise alarms in Ukrainian society to undermine the unity and the citizens’ security confidence, adding that the SBU staff was working throughout Ukraine in an enhanced mode.

In the past few months, the West and Ukraine have accused Russia of a troop build-up near the Ukrainian border in alleged preparation for an “invasion.”

Moscow has denied these accusations repeatedly, stating that it was not threatening anyone and at the same time expressing strong concerns over NATO’s military activity near the Russian borders, which it deems a threat to its national security.

(Sputnik/NAN)