LANDPOWER MAGAZINE FALL 2020 | Page 19

MAGAZINE

Ukrainian defences . Confident of Ukraine ’ s inability to respond due to Russian efforts to demoralize and disorient Ukrainian society , Russia began building a damn from the Russian village of Taman in the Temryukskyi District of the Krasnodar Territory to the island of Tuzla as a way to connect it to the Russian coast . This prompted Ukrainian politicians to decry Russia ’ s aggressive actions and deliver a stark warning to Europe , appealing for the strengthening of the Armed Forces of Ukraine . Luckily , at that time Russia ’ s actions did not result in armed confrontation . The Ukrainian president at the time , Leonid Kuchma , reached an agreement with his Russian counterpart , Vladimir Putin , and Russia subsequently stopped openly aggressive actions against Ukraine – at least until 2014 .

Subtle Multi-Platform Media Influence During the period between 2003 and 2014 , while Ukrainians were enjoying relative peace , their minds were being subtly and meticulously shaped by a strong and deliberate Russian information presence all around them . Russian news , television shows , musicians , cartoons , books , education , social networks , memes and influencers saturated the media landscape and daily life to the point that Ukrainians were essentially living the life of Moscow . No one was immune , not even the Ukrainian military . The Cadets , a TV series about the lives of Russian teenagers in military schools , glorified Russian military officers who routinely espoused the virtues of a better paid and better equipped Russian military . Looking back , many in the military question whether these Russian influence operations targeting the Ukrainian military impacted their ability to act decisively at the beginning of the war in 2014 . Luckily , the Ukrainian Armed Forces were able to hold the line against Russia after some initial setbacks . But this still didn ’ t change the prevailing perceptions among the Ukrainian military of how Ukraine was faring in the information war .

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Winning or losing ?

these Ukrainian officers ( and by and large the Ukrainian people ) believe the information war was lost . However , they realize this perception right now doesn ’ t necessarily define the outcome of any one battle or the war . In fact , it only compels Ukrainians to apply counterpropaganda more actively , as well as promote media literacy and media hygiene , especially in the military .

Narrative attack

FALL 2020

Thousands of studies on the spread of Russian Federation narratives in the information space of Ukraine , across Europe , and in North America come to a nearly universal conclusion : The threat of malign narrative to national security is real . Each of the targeted states experiences a unique narrative attack by Russia with absurd precision which is only limited by the creativity of the Russian information forces . By monitoring media and social networks in Ukraine , we can separate out message topics that can be grouped into a number of anti-Ukrainian narratives . Since the beginning of war , target audiences across the spectrum were pushed to think that “ Ukraine is a failed state ”, or a “ loser state ”. Other unique narratives pushed by Russian-sponsored media against Ukraine and it ’ s Western supporters spread accusations of widespread “ Nazism ”, dubious claims of failing economies across U . S . and Europe , the training of Islamic fighters inside Ukraine , and Ukraine ’ s involvement with illegal arms trade since 2014 , to name a few . The sad truth is , millions of people around the world seize on these false narratives and propagate them , including members of the European Parliament and leaders of some states . However , despite the massive information campaign pushed by Russian government-controlled media such as RT , Sputnik , bots in social networks , and local propaganda outfits , Ukraine has learned from the threat and mobilized its society against this malign narrative .