UKRAINE SUSPENDS AFU ARMY PR SHILL SARAH ASHTON-CIRILLO

Cirillo's Wikipedia page, surprisingly up to date, notes that s/he was apparently involved in an effort to frame Proud Boys and other far-right groups, working as an agent provocateur.

Sarah Ashton-Cirillo^[c] (born 9 July 1977), formerly Sarah Cirillo and Sarah Ashton, is an American former journalist, as of late September 2023suspended from her role as a spokesperson for Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, in which she is a junior sergeant. A self-described "recovering political operative"^[9] from Las Vegas, Nevada, she was active in Nevada politics from 2020 to 2021, including an abortive run for Las Vegas City Council. She arrived in Ukraine in March 2022, shortly after the full-scale Russian invasion, and has variously served as a war correspondent, a representative in aid negotiations, a civilian analyst with the Ministry of Defense, and a combat medic.

Ashton-Cirillo drew national media attention in 2021 when she released records of conversations from her time working with Republican candidates, documenting efforts to recruit members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, for a planned "Brooks Brothers Riot" (alluding to the 2000 demonstration)^[10]as part of efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 United States presidential election. In 2022, she leaked a text exchange with the Republican nominee for Nevada Attorney General, which became a key controversy in that election.

Her latest stunt, announcing that journalists who push back against Ukraine's lies are subject to retaliation and death provoked an uproar and this character was (momentarily?) suspended.

Ashton-Cirillo's YouTube shows "Ukraine in the Know" and "Russia Hates the Truth", produced from a studio in Kyiv, led to an hour-long special on Russian television calling her a "terrible disgrace to the Ukrainian people". She subsequently said she "embrace[s] the hate of the Russians". In August she called for a boycott of CNN for a story that called foreign fighters for Ukraine "mercenaries"; CNN corrected the term.^[62]

On 18 September 2023, U.S. Senator J. D. Vance wrote a letter to several Biden administration officials accusing Ashton-Cirillo of threatening violence against "anyone who circulates 'Russian propaganda'" and querying her background and connections to the United States.^[75] Ashton-Cirillo characterized the letter as being the result of "Russian lies" and as "disappointing".^[76]

The TDF suspended Ashton-Cirillo on 20 September pending investigation of unspecified unapproved statements.^[13]