RUSSIA'S HYBRID WAR IN THE INFORMATION FIELD: TKACHENKO NAMED THREE RULES THAT EVERYONE MUST FOLLOW

March 5, 2021

Detector

Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko stated that one of the parts of the hybrid war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine is the informational influence, which seems to be fake, misinformation, and half-truths hidden in the texts. Tkachenko wrote about this in the Telegram.

“The goal is one – to cause Ukrainians fear, uncertainty in the future, aggression towards each other. The greater this impact, the more nutritious the soil for sowing propaganda. We must confront this information threat. But we need to start with the basics. To maintain both our own and Ukraine’s common media hygiene. In order to have a lasting effect that will be firmly established in society, it is necessary to fight the root of the problem. And this is ignoring or ignorance of the rules and principles of information verification , “Tkachenko wrote.

The Minister cited three rules of information hygiene, ” which everyone must follow.”

  1. I saw a fake – click “complain”;
  2. Check correctly – look for the original source of information;
  3. Read the content, not the headlines.

 

In February-March 2014, Russia occupied Crimea and inspired separatist demonstrations in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. In 2014 and 2015, there was a direct military invasion of the Russian army into the territory of Ukraine to provide military assistance to the militants of Donbas.

The Kremlin denies Russia’s involvement in the war in Donbas, calling it a “civil conflict.” Russia continues to fuel the war in Donbas with money and weapons, creating a full-fledged army of Russian military personnel, Russian citizens and local separatists in the occupied areas. Russian propaganda has been actively involved in the war against Ukraine since 2014.

Earlier, Alexander Tkachenko announced the creation of an online museum of Russian aggression in Ukraine . In particular, within the state enterprise subordinated to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, there will be a small group of people who will be engaged in monitoring, publishing information, informing the public.

On February 2, President  Volodymyr Zelenskyi put into effect a decision of the National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions on Taras Kozak, a People’s Deputy from the OPZZ faction and an ally of Viktor Medvedchuk . The sanctions, imposed for a period of five years, include blocking the TV channels 112 Ukraine, NewsOne and ZiK, which are owned by Kozak. On February 3, the channels of the Kozak pool began to be cut off from the air.

Experts have repeatedly accused Kozak pool channels of spreading disinformation and Kremlin narratives that undermine Ukraine’s national security.

On February 26, the new  First Independent channel , created by a team of Taras Kozak’s holding employees, began broadcasting. However, it stayed on the air  for just over an hour, suddenly stopping broadcasting on satellite.

There are no official comments from the authorities on the reasons for the shutdown. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Alexei Danilov, commented on the shutdown of the channel ironically: “either a technical error or God’s punishment.”

On March 3, People’s Deputy Nestor  Shufrych announced that employees of the sanctioned TV channels 112 Ukraine, NewsOne and ZIK, which are currently working on the also-blocked First Independent,  plan to create another TV channel.

After that,  Obozrevatel stated that it was being seized by raiders. It blamed businessman Pavel Fuchs. In particular, the publication has its own TV channel Obozrevatel, which began its work under the name Oboz TV as a section of the site.