Information is one of the battlefields in the war launched by Russia against Ukraine and, many believe, the entire democratic world. Every soldier on this informational front matters, especially for Ukraine, a nation with no time to lose, as it is beset by a Kremlin-led war and a shrinking economy.
These are some of the conclusions drawn by the speakers of the information war panel at the Kyiv Post’s Tiger Conference held in the Hilton Kyiv Hotel on Nov. 19.
“One of the most effective ways to combat misinformation is to protect the open system (of media) that allow independent groups to be innovative and to be effective and pushing back on this,” said Macon Philips, coordinator of the Bureau of International Information Programs at the U.S. Department of State, said.
Overall, however, Macon said “the most effective way to counter the information war here in Ukraine
is for Ukraine to succeed. We can spend all of our time trying to respond to this or that, but ultimate reality is going to drive that. If the Ukrainian government continues to implement reforms, continues to move forward, continues to sustain itself, eventually the reality will reach everyone.”
Phillips also said: “Where we can add a lot of value is by protecting freedom of media to do it, or as we said earlier, the protection of values that are shared around the world. So, it’s really important to look at how we actually respond to misinformation.”
Regarding Russia’s massive PR operation, which includes employing armies of trolls to comment on news sites around the world and the multibillion-dollar Russia Today TV network as well as paid commentators, Phillips said, “it’s perhaps one of the best-resourced trolling operations we’ve seen since ‘Lord of the Rings.’ The goal of that is to distract.”
“Russian strategy is based on the use of weapons of mass destruction,” said Dmytro Kuleba, ambassador-at-large for strategic communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, citing the Russia Today channel and the newly launched Sputnik global information agency. “We base our strategy on something completely different; we base it on opinion leaders. I call them precision weapons. What cannot be done by us, can be done by opinion leaders in their countries.”
But to win the trust of opinion leaders and the rest of the world, Ukraine has to tell the truth.
“The Russian information machine is built on fakes and manipulation, so if we want to win this game we have to focus on credibility, however painful it might be in some cases for our government,” Kuleba said. According to him, Ukrainian governmental bodies are working now to change its old-style communication culture in order to be more available for journalists.
Kuleba emphasized that Russian information aggression is a threat not only to Ukraine, but to all democracies.
Ariel Cohen, a visiting scholar at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., also said that Ukraine’s potential as a democratic country is the reason it has drawn the wrath of Putin.
“We believe that Ukraine can make it as a European, free, Western-minded country,” Cohen said. “So does Vladimir Putin. And he is scared of that because an alternative Slavic, Eastern Slavic, Orthodox, half-of-the-country Russian-speaking country next to Russia is something he cannot tolerate.”
Timothy Ash, the London-based head of emerging market research for Standard Bank, said that the infiltration of Russian interests in the West is a huge threat. Ukraine is now presented with a crisis that provides “a wonderful opportunity for radical change. Countries very rarely get this opportunity.”
The information and shooting wars are linked, said Paul Niland, co-owner of PAN publishing, in introductory remarks highlighting Russian propaganda in the last year.
“As long as Russia’s media campaign against Ukraine continues, we can expect the hot war to continue as well,” Niland said. “They go hand-in-hand to support the other.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Lyachynska can be reached at [email protected].
