Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the United States of “obscurantist hypocrisy” for allowing inmates to fight Los Angeles wildfires. Russia’s state-owned news agency RIA Novosti cited Zakharova on January 12, saying that the use of prisoners as firefighters is no different from China’s use of forced labor, which the U.S. has been condemning for years.
“Hundreds of prisoners have been recruited to fight wildfires in southern California … In recent years, U.S. officials have repeatedly criticized China for using forced labor, especially in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region … [W]ill Congress impose sanctions on the California government, private companies, and ordinary Americans for using prison labor to fight fires.”
The claim is false.
In California, inmates voluntarily join firefighting crews if they meet the program’s qualifications, which consider physical fitness and behavioral records. Participation is entirely optional, ensuring only willing and eligible inmates take part in the program.
That is opposite of China’s use of forced labor. Since 2017, China has arbitrarily detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Detainees face torture, political indoctrination, and severe human rights abuses in extrajudicial mass internment camps and formal detention facilities. The use of forced labor in China violates international human rights agreements that the government has signed.
The U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, aims to prevent American entities from funding forced labor involving ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang region.
Following his press officer’s false claim, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used Los Angeles fires to repeat one of the Kremlin’s key disinformation narratives aimed at convincing Americans that by aiding Ukraine’s defense against Russia, the U.S. government is impoverishing its own citizens.
Speaking at a January 14 press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy in 2024, Lavrov said, that Americans “burned almost all of California,” and the damage is estimated $250 billion, which is “comparable” to what the U.S. “pumped into Ukraine” with “poverty at every step” in the U.S.
There U.S. has not yet announced preliminary damage estimates, but Lavrov accurately cited the unofficial numbers, like those by AccuWeather, a weather and impact analysis company, which predicted the economic cost of up to $275 billion.
The U.S. pledged to Ukraine about $66.2 billion in security assistance between 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, and February 2022 when Moscow launched a war, and about $66.5 billion since.
Lavrov’s claim that by aiding Ukraine the U.S. government is impoverishing its own citizens is a divisive topic in the U.S. society, in part due to the Russian propaganda influence.
Experts, however, argue that opposite to draining American economy, the large portion of the Ukraine aid is being reinvested domestically, boosting defense manufacturing industry and sustaining jobs.
Russian propaganda exploited the Ukrainian angle in the Los Angeles fires trying to spread false accusations against Ukraine’s military command of misappropriating the Western aid.
Russia’s newly emerged group of social media influencers nicknamed “milbloggers” as most members are either Russian combatants or pro-war reporters from the battle lines in Ukraine, played key role in creating and spreading such false claims.
Russian Telegram channel Voennyj obozrevatel’ (Military Observer) alleged on January 11, that eight mansions worth a total of $90 million owned by high-ranking Ukrainian military officials, were destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires.
“According to Ukrainian sources, 8 mansions owned by high-ranking Ukrainian military personnel were burned during large-scale wildfires in Los Angeles. The total value of these properties amounts to $90 million and was allegedly purchased with funds provided by the West as part of economic aid to Kyiv after the war began.”
Russian state-controlled news sites and media outlets, including Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru, EADaily, News.ru, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Tsargrad, and Rossiyskaya Gazeta used the post in their news coverage.
Multiple fact-checking outlets and even some Russian news media debunked the post as lacking merit and unsubstantiated.
Yet the claim about the luxury villas of Ukrainian generals allegedly burning down in Los Angeles spread on X the following days, receiving millions of views and thousands of reposts.
In another disinformation plot, on January 13-14, Russian state-owned news sites sought to undermine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to send Ukrainian firefighters to Los Angeles to help put out the wildfires.
State-owned RIA Novosti, RT, and others used an X post by “Ukrainian journalist” Diana Panchenko, who wrote responding to Zeleskyy’s announcement: “I am glad that hundreds of men will have the opportunity to leave Ukraine these days.”
Russian news outlets generalized the post, speculating it signaled that Ukrainian journalists oppose Ukraine’s fight for independence and the Ukrainian men are desperate to leave the country.
In fact, Reporters Without Borders exposed Diana Panchenko as Russian propagandist working for the Kremlin.
