MAGAZINE citizens who are used to seeing war only in the news are now talking in Kyiv McDonalds or Lviv coffee shops about how tired they are of conflict . And in European capitals people are equally frustrated about the unresolved Russia / Ukraine conflict .
To combat complacency and reignite Ukraine ’ s passion to continue the push against Russian aggression , the Ukrainian military recently designed and implemented a public awareness campaign across the country . The campaign depicted soldiers on the frontlines of Eastern Ukraine conveying the message , “ I am not tired , what about you ?,” reminding Ukrainian society all that is at stake . The results proved to be promising and the effectiveness of Russia ’ s influence efforts has waned further . Then the coronavirus pandemic happened , which resulted in a major setback for the Kremlin ’ s information war strategists . At least for the time being .
A Telegram from Telegram No question , Ukraine is making progress . But Russia hasn ’ t quit . As discussed earlier , the range of information influence channels employed by the Russian Federation remained very wide until recently . Initially , when Ukraine banned Russian TV channels and the social networks Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki , it became quite difficult for Russia to reach Ukrainian consumers . Lately , however , through its agents of influence Russia acquired Ukrainian national TV channels and some popular Ukrainian websites . It has also created thematic groups on Facebook , and has recently weaponized a very popular messenger application called Telegram , which broke into the Ukrainian information space as a covert effort to subtly dictate the Ukrainian political agenda and influence the population . Since then , various insights , rumors , anonymous leaks of information , and blogs of some politicians on Telegram has created the illusion that ordinary citizens can peep through the backroom of government actions , become acquainted with government secrets , or see future political decisions . Whether some , most , or none of the information propagated by these Telegram channels is true is beside the point . The real question is the anonymity of it all . Who is actually managing these accounts ? From whose perspective is it that we are allowed this sneak a peek at these supposed government secrets ? The answer is , it ’ s nearly impossible to know for certain who is actually behind these efforts as Telegram does not require identity verification . But , we can make a reasonable assumption that Russia and its sympathizers are the ones pulling the strings .
Absent real accountability , Telegram is a fathomless digital world for the creation and promotion of information , some of which is corroborated through traditional media , but suffers no reputational or legal consequences when it is wrong . This leeway is how political infiltrators and top anonymous Telegram users evangelize about things like pending and speculative decisions of the Presidential Office , false threats to Ukraine from the United States and Europe , and so on . Needless to say , they rarely if ever attribute the information sources – these agents of influence from the Russian Federation – and continue to conduct openly anti-Ukrainian activities unabated .
But this doesn ’ t mean Ukraine hasn ’ t fought back . Movers and shakers within Ukraine ( people of influence who act in Ukraine ’ s best interest ) have employed information countermeasures to correct the record and diminish the effect of Russian propaganda proliferated through channels like Telegram . In addition , the communication efforts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have clearly reached a new level , which helps neutralize the hybrid influence of the Russian Federation . However , there is no time to relax , because the “ mutation ” of Russian forms and means of information influence is continuously evolving . The number of followers on these Russian sponsored Telegram channels , to include service members , is growing every day . And some channels publish Armed Forces news regularly , most of which casts Ukraine ’ s military operations in a bad light . Without a doubt , experienced Ukrainian defenders have already developed immunity to these pro-Russian / anti-Ukraine feeds , but Ukraine must continue the effort to counter Russian influence through Telegram and other channels .
Conclusion
FALL 2020
Kremlin authorities have been preparing for the war against Ukraine for decades . They developed a long-term strategy , which they tested and corrected during operations inside of Ukraine and in other countries . And , although many experts claim that Russia ’ s contemporary efforts are based on the legacy Soviet propaganda system adapted for present-day applications , no one can explain why nobody was able to predict , let alone counteract , these developments .
Fortunately , despite the large scale resources annually allocated by Russia to strengthen its information influence , Ukrainian society remains clearly focused on European and Euro-Atlantic integration and the Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to defend our land with confidence . Hence , going back to the question on the success of Russia ’ s information war : If the whole world unequivocally recognizes that it was Russia who illegally invaded the territory of sovereign Ukraine and has been waging war in Eastern Europe for more than five years , who is the winner ?
At the same time , it is important to understand that Russia and its leaders are very cunning , fanatically purposeful , and will not stop because any empire that stops growing dies . Therefore , to believe their recent talks about peace is folly . It is merely the latest tool to satisfy their imperial ambitions . The international community should unite and resist firmly on all fronts , especially on the information front . This way , in the future , the whole world does not fall prey to the Kremlin ’ s propaganda and disinformation . LC
Russia routinely uses its English language news sources like Sputnik and RT to propogate a false narrative in support its own aims .
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