Pro-Kremlin Accounts Exploit Epstein Files to Fuel False Claims About Ukraine Child Trafficking
LONDON – Pro-Russian social media accounts are aggressively leveraging the recently released Jeffrey Epstein files to propagate baseless allegations that Russia has been actively rescuing Ukrainian children from sex trafficking rings. The coordinated effort, identified by researchers at the Agence France-Presse (AFP) and the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), aims to deflect attention from documented evidence of Russia’s forced deportation of Ukrainian children since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.
The surge in disinformation followed the January 30th release by U.S. authorities of a vast trove of documents related to Epstein, the American financier who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. While the revelations have implicated numerous high-profile individuals globally, pro-Kremlin actors have seized on the opportunity to falsely portray Ukraine as a central hub for sex trafficking.
Posts circulating on platforms like Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok, viewed millions of times, claim the Epstein files “confirm” that Russian President Vladimir Putin was actively working to protect Ukrainian children from exploitation. One particularly widely shared post on X, garnering over 3 million views, asserted the files proved Putin “didn’t kidnap children from Ukraine, instead [he] evacuated them to protect them from being sold into child sex trafficking.”
These claims directly contradict evidence gathered by Ukrainian authorities and international organizations. Kyiv estimates that nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been unlawfully moved to Russia since the invasion. While Moscow acknowledges taking some children, it maintains these actions were taken for their safety – a justification widely dismissed by the international community.
The ISD report, released Thursday, detailed a significant spike in related activity on X, with over 15,000 posts within a two-day period. Researchers also identified a broader trend of similar claims circulating between September 2024 and August 2025, peaking around the third anniversary of the invasion.
“They are just trying to saturate the information space with all of this to see if it sticks,” explained Olga Tokariuk, co-author of the ISD report. Liana Sendetska, the report’s other author, added that while there’s no direct evidence of state sponsorship, the Epstein release “plays into their hands” as a tool to amplify pre-existing narratives.
The disinformation campaign isn’t confined to Russian-linked accounts. The ISD found amplification of these claims by British and European politicians, including acting Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The involvement of figures in the UK appears strategic, Tokariuk noted, as the United States remains “one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine.”
The spread of these narratives has been further fueled by controversial media platforms and individuals. Urban Scoop, a media platform founded by British anti-migrant activist Tommy Robinson, released a documentary featuring Andrew Bridgen, a former Conservative MP expelled from the party for making inflammatory comparisons between COVID-19 vaccines and the Holocaust. Bridgen, appearing alongside U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, made unproven allegations about Ukrainian child trafficking.
The exploitation of the Epstein files underscores the growing sophistication of disinformation tactics employed by pro-Kremlin actors. The deliberate conflation of unrelated events – the Epstein scandal and the war in Ukraine – highlights a strategy to sow confusion and undermine international support for Kyiv. The situation demands increased vigilance from social media platforms and a concerted effort to counter false narratives with accurate information.
