Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine: information attack and mechanisms of countering

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of Russian information war against Ukraine. The authors explain the primary sense of the information war, its interpretation in the framework of wide and narrow approaches. Basing on the use of historic, systemic and structural-functional methods, the main disadvantages of the information sphere of Ukraine and the centralme chanisms of its protection are identified. The tools of counteraction to the Russian information war against Ukraine are divided into two groups: legislative and institutional. To the first group there are referred the legislative acts of Ukraine, among which the Doctrine of Information Security of Ukraine that plays a leading role in counteracting Russian information aggression. Among the second group of mechanisms there are state and non-state institutions, whose activities are aimed at the formation and implementation of Ukraine's information security, as well as international structures whose actions are aimed at neutralizing the information influence from Russia. According to the authors, among the domestic institutional mechanisms of counteracting the Russian information war, the important place is taken by the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, the National Security, and Defense Council of Ukraine, the Cyber Police, and others. Considerable attention in the article is paid to such mechanisms of counteraction to Russian information war against Ukraine as the prohibition of Russian sites and social networks, as well as the introduction of quotas on the Ukrainian language in the mass media. The authors note that Ukraine's actions on the neutralization of information threats from Russia should be carried out at different levels: geopolitical, resource level, the level of the public.

In the course of the research, recommendations were made on the confrontation with the information warfare. The analysis of the factors of informational influence and counteraction of information weapons was conducted, as a result of which a number of possible actions were taken to counter the Russian information escalation in Ukraine in order to create a decent and adequate response to the information challenges of our time. It has now become clear that the information fight is becoming a factor affecting the very war itself, its beginning, course and outcome. This is confirmed by Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Therefore, a very urgent problem of Ukraine's security is the development of a concept for the protection of the information and analytical framework for information control tasks. In the course of the study, recommendations were drawn up on the confrontation in the information warfare.