The spread of Ukraine misinformation on Indian Twitter has made its government's difficult position on Russia more bearable

• India, the world's largest democracy, has not explicitly condemned the invasion of Ukraine.
• It's distanced itself from Putin, but its social-media platforms are awash with misinformation.

Arun Pudur, the founder of an Indian software firm, has 78,000 followers on Twitter. On March 3, he tweeted that the Ukrainian army had captured Indian students and was "using them as Human shields" in its fight against Russia's invasion.

This misinformation racked up hundreds of likes and retweets.

The incendiary claim, which echoed untruths from Russian President Vladimir Putin, drew a swift rebuttal from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

The Indian government's willingness to dismiss pro-Russia misinformation about Ukraine belies how complicated its position is on the issue. It abstained on a UN Security Council resolution condemning Russia. While its language on the war has hardened since the invasion, it's still the lone member of the 10 largest economies, other than China, that has yet to openly criticize Russia or join economic sanctions against the country.

While India's position has been evolving, pro-Russia, pro-Modi false claims have had their uses. They can blunt criticism that New Delhi has faced domestically for its failure to evacuate the 18,000 students trapped in Ukraine sooner, at a time when Indians have gone to the polls in regional elections.

Pudur, who did not respond to a request for comments from Insider, runs one of several thousands of Indian social-media accounts propagating Kremlin talking points about a conflict taking place more than 2,500 miles away.

The failure to evacuate the students sooner sparked criticism of the Modi administration. In response, pro-government handles began promoting untruths that promoted New Delhi's efforts and supported Putin, according to fact-checkers.

By March 9, #OperationGanga — the name of the Modi government's mission to rescue citizens from Ukraine — was the top-trending topic on Twitter in India, while #IStandWithPutin had more tweets than #StopPutinNOW. All of this played out as five Indian states voted for their legislatures through February and early March.

As India has come under international pressure to publicly condemn its longtime friend, Russia, pro-Modi handles have amped up efforts to defend that position, often relying on Moscow's untruths.

"Misinformation becomes most useful when you have to shape a new narrative, or — in the view of those peddling lies — correct a narrative," said Pratik Sinha, the cofounder of Ahmedabad-based fact-checking platform Alt News, which has busted many of the false claims.

"The government doesn't mind if it has to issue a denial later. By then, their narrative has taken hold."

India's official position on the conflict has evolved. Before the invasion, its public statements emphasized a desire for a peaceful resolution and respect for "legitimate security concerns of all countries," a rhetorical concession to Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims.

Since February 25, though, its statements have instead underscored the need to respect the "sovereignty and territorial integrity" of all nations. Modi has spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy twice since the start of the war, and India is sending humanitarian aid to Kyiv.

Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, the director of the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think tank, told Insider that India's position was becoming "harsher and harsher toward Moscow" because "Russia has put India in a tough spot, and India isn't happy about that."

India's willingness to counter Kremlin misinformation seemingly reflects this growing distance, even if it embarrasses pro-government social-media handles.

Earlier this month, as the students trapped in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine pleaded for help from Modi, the Indian embassy there asked them to leave the besieged city within a specified window of time. Soon, a flood of tweets claimed Modi had managed to stop the war altogether for a few hours to enable the evacuation.

"India paused a war for 6-8 hours just to get Indians out - a war that nobody, not the US, not the EU, has been able to stop," the defense analyst and self-described "theologian of the Indian right" Abhijit Iyer-Mitra tweeted, garnering nearly 10,000 retweets.

Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of an online platform called Postcard News and an emphatic Modi supporter, tweeted: "That's the power of Modi."

Official handles of the BJP, Modi's ruling political party, further amplified the claim. Hours later, India's foreign ministry called it "absolutely inaccurate."

On March 14, Alt News busted another fake claim that Turkish and Pakistani students waved Indian flags to ensure safe passage. In February, it also busted a claim an Air India plane had braved Ukrainian airspace alone to rescue them.

Alt News identified more than 100 accounts that shared a fake image purporting to show this, including one called "Modi Once More" and another that said it showed "the power of new India."

At the time, Modi and his colleagues were facing accusations from the opposition of focusing on election campaigns and ignoring the trapped students.

Srijit Das, a fact-checker with another anti-misinformation platform, Boom Live, told Insider that political leaders were trying to help Modi by encouraging the spread of pro-India misinformation about Ukraine.

"When the government was facing severe pressure from all across the country, some political leaders and party workers were actively working on their gadgets to distract people," Das said.

The false claims aren't limited to India's evacuation effort. As India walks a diplomatic tightrope over the conflict, pro-Modi handles have continued to push pro-Russia misinformation justifying the invasion and underplaying the severity of the crisis. Footage from a climate-crisis protest was used to suggest that the war is a hoax.

Pudur has repeated unsubstantiated assertions that the United States provoked the invasion by funding dangerous biolabs in Ukraine.

The pro-Russian slant of misinformation doesn't surprise Somdeep Sen, an international-affairs analyst at Roskilde University, Denmark, who noted the majority of India's military equipment is sourced from Russia, forcing it into a tactical balancing act.

Sen said the Indian government was on "the wrong side of history" over its response to the invasion of Ukraine but added that Modi's muscular nationalism prevented it from allowing "any narrative that indicates the folly of India's position on Russia."

Alt News' Sinha said fact checks — and official denials from the foreign ministry — rarely reach as many people as the viral spread of misinformation.

"In reshaping the narrative, those spreading disinformation are winning," he said.