In a ‘battle for minds’, Ukrainians fight the daily disinformation storm

Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, dozens of projects have emerged in Ukraine to combat disinformation. This is a daily challenge for Ukrainians and, given the high level of media literacy in society, they have been able to resist. 

Even before Russian weapons appeared in Ukraine in 2014, fake news came first.

Stories about the “united Ukrainians and Russians”, about the “mean” West that wants to break the blood ties of those people filled the air of Russian TV channels, which could be watched on every Ukrainian TV, as well as newspapers funded by pro-Russian parties and social media.

Russia has long been building a space in Ukraine in which it is easier to manipulate the consciousness and thoughts of Ukrainians.

That is why during the Kyiv Stratcom Forum 2024, the deputy chief of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Vadym Skibitskyi, outlined the following external threats:

“Informational influence on the population of our country, powerful disinformation campaigns and the threat of complete information domination in the temporarily occupied territories”.  

To resist such a space filled with hostile narratives, citizens must have an appropriate level of critical thinking and be media literate and rational. Ukrainian activists and government initiatives are fighting to ensure that Ukrainians can counter these threats.

The first such projects in Ukraine were civil society initiatives.

One such example is StopFake, founded by teachers, students, and graduates of the Mohyla School of Journalism in 2014.

Deputy chief editor of StopFake Viktoria Romaniuk explained the project’s activities with “the MAD formula – monitoring, analysis, and debunking. That is, we not only debunk fakes, but we also analyse which narratives Russian propaganda uses depending on the purpose, news agenda, and time”.

At the same time, in 2014, other projects aimed at building resistance against Russian disinformation sprang up. In particular, the volunteer community InformNapalm, which has been collecting evidence of Russia’s involvement in the war against Ukraine since 2014, conducts OSINT (open source intelligence) investigations and data analytics.

The project has created a database of Russian aggression, which contains various evidence of the participation of Russian military units in the war against Ukraine, as well as their equipment and weapons. 

Over time, the number of such organisations in Ukraine has grown. There are currently a lot of fact-checking projects, such as VoxCheck, BezBrekhni, The Other Side of the News, and Gvara.

Because of training and awareness-raising campaigns focused on the danger of Russian disinformation, Ukrainian journalists have adopted the culture of fact-checking, aware of the alternative reality constructed by Russia.

According to Ihor Soloviy, head of the Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security in Ukraine, journalists and media professionals are seen as a key ally of the government in the fight against Russian influence in information space. 

“From the very first days of the full-scale invasion, journalists and media professionals began to fight Russian propaganda and have been doing so ever since. They are doing it successfully because, in fact, none of the goals of Russian propaganda have been achieved”, he said.

The actions of the state in this area are also important. One such step was the blocking of Russian TV channels and Kremlin-funded news websites.

In 2021, two bodies were established, the “Centre for Countering Disinformation” under the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, and the “Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security” under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, which perform a variety of functions. 

Some projects combine the efforts of the state, the public sector, and international organisations to improve media literacy, such as the Filter project of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.

One of the Filter’s many activities is launching several media literacy clubs in the regions to develop critical thinking among the adult population.

Valeria Kovtun, head of the Filter at the time of its launch, explained the goal: “These clubs are needed for people who are ready to influence the quality of the media field at the local level, to meet, spend time together, learn together, and discuss local news in their city”.

With Russia’s invasion, the importance of such projects has increased dramatically, as disinformation continues to be an important weapon of the Kremlin. Understanding the challenges, analysing and monitoring have become constant and refutations have become more prompt.

Consequently, opinion polls show that the level of media literacy among Ukrainians is very high, though the study “The Media Literacy Index of Ukrainians”, conducted by NGO Detector Media, showed that compared to 2023, the results have slightly decreased – from 81% of respondents with an above-average level of media literacy in 2022 to 76%.

However, these figures are still good, considering the third year of a full-scale war and the emotional fatigue of Ukrainians, showing that the country is still fighting for the minds of its citizens, with considerable success.

Therefore, its experience should be important for other communities and countries against which Russia or another totalitarian regime could use information as a weapon.

This article is part of the FREIHEIT media project on Europe’s Neighbourhood, funded by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF).

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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