The Brief

Pro-Kremlin social media accounts and outlets have been spreading a baseless narrative that mansions belonging to Ukrainian military officers burned down in the Los Angeles wildfires. The claim has been viewed more than one million times on X, the social media platform once known as Twitter. Researchers who study Russian influence operations say it is part of the Kremlin's larger campaign to discredit the Ukrainian government and undermine U.S. support for Ukraine.

"It is the latest in a long string of assertions by Russian officials, media, and the pro-Kremlin online ecosystem that Ukrainian officials are corrupt and use foreign aid money to enrich themselves." Léa Ronzaud, a senior investigator at research firm Graphika, told NPR in an email.

"It's just so typical of what we see from Russia, [to] take advantage of an ongoing crisis for their own ends," said Darren Linvill, a communications professor and co-director of Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub.

The Ukrainian general story first emerged on a pro-Russian Telegram channel four days after the fires started in Los Angeles. Within hours, it was amplified by several other sources, including another Telegram channel which labeled it as satire, an X account, and a website that resembles a pro-Russian network that French authorities previously identified. Some of the posts amplifying the baseless claim falsely credited it to United24 Media, a website affiliated with the Ukrainian government.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's Center for Countering Disinformation issued a statement describing the claim as "Russian propaganda." It said it had verified with United24 Media that it did not create or share the story.

NPR has not obtained evidence that any Ukrainian generals owned homes in Los Angeles that were destroyed by the fires. The Ukrainian government denied to NPR that any general's homes were affected by the fire.

The next day, an influencer using the handle @OlgaBazova, who has previously echoed narratives pushed by known Russian influence networks, shared the story in English with its 700,000 followers on X. The account's bio describes itself as "specializing in humoristic geopolitical analytics, exposing hypocrisy and satire."

Later in the evening, Robert "Buzz" Patterson, an American conservative influencer with 400,000 followers on X, repeated the claim, seemingly without irony, in a post that has been viewed over a million times, according to X's data.

When contacted by NPR on X about the post, @OlgaBazova responded with a link to a Russian-language article that cited the original Telegram claim about the mansions.

Patterson did not respond to messages from NPR asking why he had posted the claim.

The foundation of a destroyed home is seen on Jan. 15, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. "It's just so typical of what we see from Russia, [to] take advantage of an ongoing crisis for their own ends," said Darren Linvill, a communications professor and co-director of Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub.

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The story that initially circulated was debunked by professional fact checkers from Greece and the United States. Both @OlgaBazova and Patterson's posts received user-generated community notes on X citing the Greek fact check.

The unverified claim about the alleged Ukrainian-owned mansions also appeared on other social media platforms including Tik Tok, TruthSocial and the Russian site VK, but did not gain much traction.

The story is the latest example of Russia's shift away from using fake social media profiles impersonating real people, as it did during the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections, and instead relying on influencers to launder and spread their narratives, Linvill said.

In some cases, influencers have said they were paid to post content later identified by researchers and U.S. intelligence officials as Russian propaganda. There is no evidence that the influencers that spread the LA fire claims have been paid.

When asked whether anyone asked or offered anything to @OlgaBazova to post the claim, the account responded in a public post on X: "I won't let anybody question my integrity, especially a malicious establishment ghoul masquerading as a 'journalist.'"

In September, the U.S. Justice Department indicted two employees of Russian state broadcaster RT in a scheme to funnel nearly $10 million to right-wing American influencers who posted videos opposing aid to Ukraine, praising now President-elect Donald Trump, and criticizing Democrats. The influencers have said they did not know the company paying them was linked to Russia.

Other Russian Telegram channels are also spreading false or unverified narratives about the southern California fires and the government's response, as well as amplifying critiques from Americans including the president-elect's son, Donald Trump, Jr., Andy Carvin of the Atlantic Council's DFRLab told NPR in an email. The Russian news site Pravda, which has been associated with prior Russian information operations, then translates and distributes the Telegram posts.

"Over the last week, Pravda has published at least 350 stories of this type [based on Telegram messages about the fires], based on our initial content analysis of the site," Carvin said.

When a fire devastated Maui in 2023, Russian state media also amplified domestic U.S. criticism of the federal response. Accounts tied to previous China influence operations spread false claims about the fire's origins.

While the story about Ukrainian officials got more traction than the other narratives about the fires originating from Russia-allied channels, Linvill said, it has not yet spread as widely as previous narratives linked to Russia.

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.