Mick Clifford: Long before the bombs started falling, truth had perished in the war of words

The first casualty of war is truth. Behind the troops invading Ukraine are armies of online trolls as well as the big gun of Vladimir Putin’s rambling conspiracy theories, writes Mick Clifford

Some of the 'lucky' ones take shelter in a service basement while an unknown number of others are dying as Russia attacks Ukraine. The pretext for this war was established by relentless disinformation from official Russian channels and anonymous bots on social media. Picture: Emilio Morenatti/AP

Matthew Chance was on the roof of a hotel in central Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday when the war began. The CNN correspondent was talking to Don Lemon, who was back in the studio in the US.

They were discussing the surprise announcement by Vladimir Putin some minutes earlier about a military operation. Then Matthew said: “Oh, I tell you what. I’ve just heard a big bang behind me. There are big explosions taking place in Kyiv right now.” Don asked whether it was safe where he was. “Yeah, I’ve got a flak jacket right here. Let me get it on.”