Ukraine war: The Google Maps 'guerilla war' spreading news of the invasion inside Russia

"The food is good, but the war in Ukraine is not," reads a recent Google Maps review of a McDonald's in a southeastern suburb of the Russian capital, Moscow.

This message - and many others like it - is a part of an online movement using Google reviews as a way to spread information about the war in Ukraine inside Russia, where media reporting of the invasion has been tightly controlled.

On Monday, a Twitter account claiming to belong to the hacker group Anonymous told its 7.6 million followers: "Go to Google Maps. Go to Russia. Find a restaurant or business and write a review. When you write the review, explain what is happening in Ukraine".

"Leave 5 star reviews (unless it's Russian State-owned, then feel free to leave 1 star ratings). The point is to push information to the Russian civilian population being lied to by Putin," the account said.

Euronews Next looked at a random selection of reviews in three cities: Moscow, Petrozavodsk in western Russia and Khabarovsk in the country's far east, and found extensive evidence of messages that were pro-Ukraine and anti-Russia's president, Vladimir Putin.

"Russians stop, you are being zombified! We do not need to be freed from anyone!!!! I and my family have been under fire for 4 days, we are scared," a Google Maps review of a Moscow food court read.

"Dear people of Russia, I am writing this message because we doubt that you know the truth about the current situation in Russia. On 24 February, Vladimir Putin launched an attack on your brothers and sisters in Ukraine," said a review of a cafe in Petrozavodsk.

While some were relatively restrained - one review for Moscow's Café Pushkin complimented the "beautiful café" before calling on Russians to carry out an "uprising" - others