UKRAINE'S COUNTERACTION TO RUSSIAN INFORMATION EXPANSION DURINNG THE WAR

Abstract

The purpose of the publication is to reveal the specifics of Ukraine's information resistance to Russian information expansion in the conditions of a hybrid war. The ideological basis of Russian aggression is the realization of Russia's mission, which is clearly revealed in the so-called «Russian doctrine», in which the alternative to «anti-globalism» is «supranational Russian culture». In Ukraine, there were TV channels that had long been relaying fakes and Russian narratives into the country's information space. This way, the spread of false information influences the minds of citizens. It has been noted that the Russian Federation is not only conducting an information war against Ukraine, but also uses information terrorism, which is gaining a global scale. There has been carried out analysis of various pro-Russian TV channels and mass media that spread Russian myths, legends and narratives. For some time, Ukraine could not adequately respond to the information war that the Russian Federation had unleashed long before 2014. This is due to a number of mistakes made by the authorities from the very first years of Ukraine's independence. First of all, we are talking about the imperfection of its legislative framework. In particular, no law was adopted to ban the broadcast of Russian channels containing anti-Ukrainian publications. Also, the Ukrainian authorities did not pursue a proper language policy in Crimea and the eastern regions of Ukraine, which would provide for the protection and dissemination of the Ukrainian language as the state one. Attention has been focused on the main actions of the Ukrainian parliament and government aimed at countering Russian propaganda. The policy of countering informational aggression on the part of the Russian Federation included a number of measures. In particular, there have been banned certain Russian channels and films, and there has been adopted the Law of Ukraine «On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding the Protection of Informational Television and Radio Space of Ukraine». There have been also banned a number of Russian social networks, in 2019 there was adopted the law «On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state one». Therefore, Ukraine is taking various steps to counter Russian propaganda: from closing TV channels and creating a center to combat disinformation, to adopting a law on collaborationism, etc.