Russian information war against Ukraine: peculiarities and mechanisms of countering (Review Article)

2018;
: 55-62
https://doi.org/10.23939/shv2018.01.055
Received: December 18, 2017
Accepted: April 19, 2018
1
Lviv National Polytechnic University
2
Lviv Polytechnic National University

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 central mechanisms 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 three levels: the first one - geopolitical (that is influencing the aggressor's information and limiting the intensity and force of his attack); the second - a state one that includes the protection of the integrity, efficiency and capacity of the management system, information infrastructure, information resources; the third - the level of the public (aimed at protecting the stability and consistency of the development of social and political relations, the consciousness of citizens, the integrity of each person).

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