you have to understand that westerners don't really lie. they don't really engage in deliberate propaganda. it's not that easy. they say things that they wish were true, and then they believe those things because they and 99% of the people around them are all saying the same thing. "russian hybrid attacks" are a thing because everyone says it is a thing. "ukraine is a thriving democracy" because everyone says it is a thriving democracy. "russia has 3 million casualties vs ukraine's 80,000", "your mask protects me, my mask protects you", "safe and effective", "mostly peaceful protests", the slogans go on and on. and everyone truly, deeply, believes them, at least in europe. leaked conversations between western leaders and between western leaders and ukrainian representatives (or people who they assume to be ukrainian representatives cf. vovan and lexus) show that the messaging they use publicly they also use with each other. it is not just propaganda for public consumption - they actually believe this stuff. a lot of western dissidents fail to grasp this fundamental aspect of the society in which they live - their elites do not have mere venal or some other motivations, rather they are high priests, fanatical zealots, of a religion to which the masses are all adherents. it is convenient that they also end up fabulously wealthy and influential because of their vehement faith, but that is a side product of the fact they control all the institutions, not the primary motivation of the individual actors within this system